Touristic mobilities in India’s slum spaces

This paper engages with contemporary debates about tourism mobilities by examining a central tension in contemporary social science research, namely a concern, on the one hand, with theories that help us to analyse various representations of social life, and, on the other hand, more recent non-representational theories that have emphasised how places are experienced and embodied. Drawing upon this insight, this paper examines the multi-faceted tourism mobilities of slum spaces in India through an examination of the coupling of western representations of mobilities in films of the slums in India with the practices of walking tour experiences of western tourists. Finally, the paper concludes by developing the wider theoretical insights that “more than respresentational” theory can give to tourism studies.

► Theoretical development of tourism mobilities. ► Analysis of slum films about India. ► Analysis of slum tours in India. ► Analysis of the connections between these and the wider theoretical significance.