Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies.  
Maximiliano E. Korstanje  
RICIT. Nro. 11- 2017 (pp. 102-105) ISSN-e: 2588-0861  
Reseña  
Social Memory and Heritage Tourism  
Methodologies. Stephen Hanna, Amy  
Potter, Arnold Modlin, Perry Carter &  
David Butler. 2015. Abingdon, Routledge.  
ISBN 978-131579791-5  
Memoria social y metodologías de turismo de  
patrimonio. Stephen Hanna, Amy Potter, Arnold  
Modlin, Perry Carter & David Butler. 2015.  
Abingdon, Routledge. ISBN 978-131579791-5  
102  
Reviewed by Maximiliano E. Korstanje  
University of Palermo Argentina  
Doubtless, tourism epistemology failed to forge a shared object of study despite the  
number of publications and interests by academicians in the recent years. Somehow,  
tourism, which experienced a dispersion of what has been produced to date, showed some  
caveats at the time of dialoguing with other maturate disciplines (Tribe 1997; 2010;  
Thirkettle & Korstanje 2013). In the middle of this mayhem, the present book starts from  
the urgent need to discuss new methodologies -qualitative and quantitative- in the  
configuration of social memory and heritage tourism as an emerging field of study.  
Though the scrutiny of social memory seems not to be new, editors present a high quality  
work, which is formed by three parts and 11 chapters, where the invited authors debate  
hotly on the innovation of new methodologies that help in the understanding of heritage  
tourism. While heritage tourism practices activate some representations, further  
Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies.  
Maximiliano E. Korstanje  
RICIT. Nro. 11- 2017 (pp. 102-105) ISSN-e: 2588-0861  
Reseña  
investigation, revolving around how these techniques affects the social imaginary and  
individual behaviour, is needed. With a clear prose and rigorist, chapters integrated in this  
edition discuss the existing methods to articulate new experiences and forms at the time  
the information is collated and deciphered.  
Authors provide with specific case studies, which centers on the formation of  
representational landscapes, synthetizing emotions, experiences and narratives towards  
the formation of social memory.  
“
While this book´s case studies interrogate memory and heritage tourism in a variety of  
ways, the editors and authors agree that all memory is social. Even the memories that we view as  
personal are framed through our interactions with others. Within research on social memory, there  
is a strong focus on the development, maintenance, and contestation of memories that are shared  
by social/cultural collectives” (p. 9)  
For some reason, there is a strong connection between identity and memory which  
deserves to be discussed. The expanse of globalization paved the pathways for the rise of  
new lifestyles, which made from heritage consumption the touchstone of entertainment  
industries. Tourists not only look for strange customs and cultures -like in other ages- but  
commoditizes social memories through their own experiences. Groups are connected  
through how events are memorized as well as through the analysis of the different  
reactions to these events one might obtain an all-encompassing view of the problem.  
103  
Although we socialize with others, there is conflictive discourses which often struggle to  
impose as the truth that explains others the past. Each person may very well engage with  
some discourses overlooking others, but at the time one story situates as hegemonic, other  
peripherals are shared in the periphery. Investigating how these memories and stories are  
drawn and integrated within a cultural matrix seems to be one of the goals of this  
interesting book.  
Chapters in this edition, though works from different angles, center on social memory as  
both -unifying and cutting social groups. In so doing, authors and editors toy with  
different definitions and conceptual limitations, which are successfully addressed. They  
attempt to escape to unilateral explanations and developments, which oversimplifies  
“heritage” as a alienatory text that legitimates a further commoditization of culture. In the  
opposite direction, heritage should be understood as a social institution that facilitates  
some identifications respecting to how unexpected problems of present should be solved.  
Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies.  
Maximiliano E. Korstanje  
RICIT. Nro. 11- 2017 (pp. 102-105) ISSN-e: 2588-0861  
Reseña  
By emulating the example of founding parents or simply listening the lesson of the past  
society reinforces its capacity to adaptation and resiliency. To validate their argument,  
editors cite the example of traumatic events such as the Holocaust and WWII. The cruelty  
of Nazis not only is remembered by Jews but also by mankind as “instructional devices”  
that explain how this violence was orchestrated. Besides, the position of marketing is  
placed under the critical lens of scrutiny. Some advocates of heritage tourism misjudge  
the unicity and outstanding role of heritage as the touchstone of collective identity.  
Generally marketing methods aim to promote a site focusing on its distinctive assets, with  
caution the site should be protected for the in-group loyalty persists, but what these  
experts ignore is that heritage can protect or jeopardize culture in the same way past is  
memorized and rememorized in different manners in the threshold of time. Equally  
important, social memory has investigated from diverse disciplines, which led towards a  
fragmentation of produced knowledge as well as the meanings and definitions around the  
term.  
The first part of the book concentrates efforts to dilucidated the role of digital  
technologies in the configuration of social memories. The advance of internet and travel  
blogs not only changes the field-working but also offers a fertile ground to understand the  
tourists` experiences. Even some ethnographers followed recently the “virtual  
ethnography” to enter in the traumatic spaces of mass death or mourning. Unlike other  
times, the high tech breakthrough and media have contributed to a more fluid digital  
methods that defy the traditional methodologies. The second part signals to the methods  
employed in the field while scholars involved in research may create a reflexibility with  
the informants and their cosmologies. In fact, it provides interesting evidence that would  
help tourism-researchers to improve their techniques of research. While tourism-related  
researchers adopted intrusive methods to understand the tourist`s mind, this section  
reminds “the tourist experience” is a complex object almost impossible to grasp with open  
or closed-ended interviewees or questionnaires. Ranging from actor-network theories  
towards mental mappings or volunteer photography, contributors dissect non-obtrusive  
methods in the study of social memory. Likewise, the last part debates the limitations of  
traditional methods in heritage tourism. With the benefits of hindsight, it gives further  
insights to adapt the method to the social environment. Not only because of the profundity  
of the discussions but also by the clarity of chapters, this seminal work situates as must-  
read collection that expands methodologically towards new horizons in days tourism-  
104  
Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies.  
Maximiliano E. Korstanje  
RICIT. Nro. 11- 2017 (pp. 102-105) ISSN-e: 2588-0861  
Reseña  
research faces one of its worst crises. At least for this reviewer, this represents one of the  
best studies in methodology I have ever read. Among the weaknesses one might ask for  
the homogenization of viewpoints, which articulates into a one-sided argument.  
Originally thought as a result of the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Association of American  
Geographers, this book incorporated a whole portion of proceedings from such an event.  
Particularly, since the diverse chapters are written by geographers, its main argumentation  
pays too much attention to the production and negotiations of landscapes. The argument  
would be enriched if authors would come from other disciplines than geography. It  
exhibits only a part of the problem, while social memory contemplates much broader  
aspects than the consumption of landscapes.  
References  
Thirkettle, A., & Korstanje, M. E. (2013). Creating a new epistemiology for tourism and  
hospitality disciplines. International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services, 1(1),  
1
3-34.  
Tribe, J. (1997). The indiscipline of tourism. Annals of tourism research, 24(3), 638-657.  
105  
Tribe, J. (2010). Tribes, territories and networks in the tourism academy. Annals of  
tourism research, 37(1), 7-33.