Renewing a historical legacy: Tourism, leisure shopping and urban branding in Paris

This article discusses a form of urban tourism branding based on the archetypical form of consumerism: leisure shopping. Commodity fetishism is instrumental not only to increasing mainstream fashion sales but also to rejuvenating and multiplying city images on the global competitive market. Drawing from fieldwork performed in Paris, the article analyses and discusses the strategies developed by key players to promote leisure shopping for urban tourists. It specifically focuses on the actions of public-led tourism marketing organisations. Paris is historically renowned as a capital of style and a commercial metropolis, which can easily be used as a basis to develop urban branding strategies for promoting tourism. However, urban branding based on leisure shopping per se was rarely fostered until recently. Previous theoretic reflections on urban development and consumption - leading to debates on the "fantasy city", the "cultural-creative city" and "local shopping streets" - provide the analytical basis for understanding the promotion of leisure shopping as an urban tourism branding strategy in Paris and the changing relations between urban political economy and consumer capitalism

Are we allowed to use fictional vignettes in cultural geographies?

Fictional vignettes are narrative texts that academic researchers may invent in order to illustrate arguments or to present their research outcomes; they are stories or situations that do not strictly report factual realities observed by the author, but that, in any case, implement the heuristics for the arguments that the author wants to raise. Although there are several works in social sciences taking advantage of fictional narratives, geographers have started mobilising invented stories in their writings mostly recently, provided that a variety of creative methodologies had been introduced. The aim of this article is to present fictional vignettes as an integrative research method and writing technique, while discussing potential opportunities and limits relating to their use in geographical research, particularly within the recent rise of various ‘creative methodologies’ in cultural geographies

Turismo e prodotti tipici: un approccio performativo alla patrimonializzazione. Note da Verucchio

Le politiche volte a promuovere lo sviluppo territoriale attraverso il turismo associano sempre pi\uf9 spesso luoghi e prodotti tipici, merci e immaginari, idee di autenticit\ue0 e geografie del consumo. La promozione turistica pu\uf2 essere allora intesa come un insieme di \u201cmesse in scena\u201d del territorio attraverso le performance di una serie di attori, umani e non umani. L\u2019articolo discute l\u2019approccio performativo di recente proposta nella geografia internazionale per riflettere sul tema della territorializzazione e della patrimonializzazione a partire da una ricerca sul campo di tipo etnografico condotta a Verucchio, nell\u2019entroterra romagnolo. Qui una recente riqualificazione a scopo turistico ha portato all\u2019apertura di nuovi spazi di consumo dedicati ai prodotti tipici. L\u2019allestimento delle vetrine, la valorizzazione degli elementi costruiti, lo storytelling dei venditori selezionano e veicolano alcuni lasciti del passato contribuendo alla loro patrimonializzazione attraverso la performance.Tourism and regional products: a performative approach to heritage-making. Notes from Verucchio. \u2013 Regional products have become a core feature of tourism-led local development strategies. Regional products bring together commodities and imaginaries, ideas about authenticity, and geographies of consumption. Tourism promotion can be intended as a complex unfolding of human and non-human performances. This article discusses the performative approach, by drawing on international debates in the domain of geography. It suggests that this approach could prove useful as a tool to integrate Italian debates on territorializzazione and heritage-making. The foundation of this article results from an ethnographic research carried out in Verucchio, in the Rimini hinterland. Verucchio has recently been rebranded for cultural tourism, with the opening of new consumption spaces devoted to regional food and wine. The elements selected, from the shops\u2019 visual merchandise, through to the emphasis on traditional architecture, the retailers\u2019 storytelling actively contributes to heritage-making via a set of performances.Tourisme et produits du terroir: une approche performative \ue0 la patrimonialisation. Quelques notes de Verucchio. \u2013 Les politiques qui cherchent \ue0 promouvoir le d\ue9veloppement du territoire \ue0 travers le tourisme associent de plus en plus souvent des lieux \ue0 des produits typiques, des marchandises \ue0 des imaginaires, des id\ue9es d\u2019authenticit\ue9 \ue0 des aires de consommation. La promotion touristique peut ainsi \ueatre comprise comme un ensemble de \u201cmises en sc\ue8ne\u201d du territoire \ue0 travers les performances d\u2019une s\ue9rie d\u2019acteurs, humains et non humains. Cet article applique l\u2019approche performative r\ue9cemment introduite dans le domaine de la g\ue9ographie internationale \ue0 la r\ue9flexion sur les th\ue8mes de la territorialisation et de la patrimonialisation. Une \ue9tude de terrain de type ethnographique a \ue9t\ue9 conduite en Italie, dans l\u2019arri\ue8re-pays romagnol, \ue0 Verucchio. Une requalification r\ue9cente \ue0 vis\ue9e touristique a amen\ue9 ici \ue0 l\u2019ouverture de nouveaux espaces de consommation d\ue9di\ue9s aux produits typiques. La mise en place dans les vitrines, la valorisation des b\ue2timents, le r\ue9cit des vendeurs s\ue9lectionnent et v\ue9hiculent certains legs du pass\ue9 contribuant ainsi \ue0 leur patrimonialisation par la performance

Developing participatory tourism in Milan, Italy

This article explores the social and spatial implications of new itineraries, sites and services whose success rests on opportunities for residents and tourists to meet, and possibly hybridize. This encounter is considered in reference to the changing relationship between cities, culture and tourism. Two initiatives based in Milan serve as comparative case studies. Piacere, Milano (Milano, nice to meet you) was launched in 2015, while the city was hosting the Universal Exhibition position, and consists of coordinating Milanese residents willing to invite a tourist for dinner or to take them on a walk for free. MygranTour is part of a European network supporting intercultural dialogue by involving migrants in the development of tourist itineraries. This programme has been active in Milan since 2011. Both these initiatives contribute to fostering new sets of images of Milan, and to legitimising new urban geographies from the bottom up. They also stimulate a reversal of the traditional hierarchy between tourists and residents. Major critical aspects are expressed in reference to different levels of analysis, such as in relation to the capacity building scope of initiatives, or how they might reproduce cultural stereotypes. The paper concludes by calling for more extensive integration of tourism into urban policies, by considering implications of tourism beyond the economic

The condition of 'Cosmo-housewives': leisure shopping, the mainstream and its ambiguities

Leisure shopping' is a particular kind of shopping activity that is devoted mainly to fashion clothes and accessories. Women are commonly represented as the main leisure shoppers, and consequently, they tend to be at the centre of shopping centres' mainstream discourses. This article argues that interpretations of representations of leisure shopping' and the corresponding practice have too often ignored the daily and seemingly banal' experiences of the social actors involved. The primary purpose of this article is to show how gender roles are performed and reified in high-end factory outlet villages in Italy. It adopts a cross-sectional approach to leisure shopping' that includes an analysis of the languages' of two Italian high-end factory outlet villages, the social space' represented by the same sites and the stories' about a few ideal-typical female shopping experiences. These aspects are situated in the Italian cultural and political context at the time the research was conducted. Very different demands - such as sensuality, efficiency and motherly care - are put on women in Italy, as well as in the majority of Western societies. The analysis reveals that through their practice of browsing in a high-end factory outlet village, women often reproduce stereotypes while simultaneously trying - though ambiguously - to challenge them. La condicion de Cosmo-amas de casa': ir de compras por placer, la corriente dominante y sus ambiguedadesLa compras por placer' es un tipo particular de ir de compras que se dedica principalmente a la ropa y accesorios de moda. Las mujeres son comunmente representadas como las principales compradoras por placer, y en consecuencia, suelen estar en el centro de los discursos dominantes de los centros comerciales. Este articulo propone que las interpretaciones de las representaciones del comprar por placer' y la correspondiente practica han ignorado con demasiada frecuencia las experiencias cotidianas y aparentemente banales' de los actores sociales involucrados. El objetivo principal de este articulo es mostrar como los roles de genero son performados y materializados en villages de compras outlet de las marcas de moda en Italia. Adopta un enfoque transversal al comprar por placer', que incluye un analisis de los idiomas' de dos villages de compras outlet italianos, el espacio social' representado por los mismos lugares y las historias' sobre algunas experiencias tipicas de compras de las mujeres. Estos aspectos estan situados en el contexto cultural y politico italiano en el momento en el que la investigacion se llevo a cabo. Se ponen muchas demandas diferentes - sensualidad, eficiencia y cuidado materno - sobre las mujeres italianas, asi como en la mayoria de las sociedades occidentales. El analisis revela que a traves de su practica de recorrer en un village de compras outlet, las mujeres a menudo reproducen los estereotipos al tiempo que simultaneamente tratan - aunque en forma ambigua - de desafiarlos