Fuori Luogo. Rivista di Sociologia del Territorio, Turismo, Tecnologia

Rebuilding Hometowns: Religious Worship as an Identity and Tourist Strategies of Place-making

2023-01-31T09:14:41+00:00

In a globalized world in which the paths of life project the subjects even in places distant from the birth one and in which the feeling of identity is pluralized and becomes more and more complex, new and stronger mechanisms of resistance and preservation of ties and sense of belonging are generated. The roots tourism represents an answer realized by the emigrants of first, second or even successive generations, able to preserve the link with the territory of origin and, through this, their own identity. This specific form of tourism is therefore, more than any other, a journey into its own history, characterized by the desire to (re)find places connected to its own past or family history. It seems that the identity sought a spatial, physical roots and, in experiencing those places, a sort of confirmation of the fullness of identity.

In some cases, however, the return, even when periodic, to the country of origin or to which people feels to belong, is not felt as sufficient to bridge a distance experienced as a lack of identity.

This complex dynamic sometimes takes the form of the choice to reproduce in the territory of arrival and in which subjects have consolidated their presence, especially religious traditions that reproduce, in form and manner, those of the city of origin. The aim, more or less consciously pursued, is to build and strengthen an individual and, at the same time, shared imaginary and an identity continuity that prescinds from the material distance that separates the places to which subjects feel to belong.

A significant example is represented by the celebration of Mary SS. of Buterrito, also venerated as Madonna del Campo and whose feast falls on August 15, the day of the Assumption of Mary. This is an important celebration for the identity of the inhabitants of Ceglie del Campo, not only an historical place of the city of Bari but its original nucleus, is represented in an identical way also by the community of Ceglie emigrants who now lives in the city of Chicago in Illinois.

The contribution aims to analyze these practices in their identity value.

This first object will be flanked by a second one that will show, once again but in different forms, how much the re-proposal and especially the reproduction of religious rites is functional to build and maintain an identity bond with the place of origin.

The proposed analysis will be enriched by a photographic apparatus that will not only make clearer the overlap and the coincidence of the forms of the religious ritual, but will be an integral part of the analysis itself.

Multiple Identities: the Perception of the Root Tourist in the Host Communities

2023-01-31T09:17:18+00:00

With the expression “Root Tourism”, one commonly intends the social phenomenon that leads emigrants and/or their descendents to return, frequently or occasionally, to their place of origin, on the basis of motivation linked, in a rather predominant way, to strengthen and/or to deepen one’s family identity (Perri, 2020). In this form of tourism, the decisive and absolutely dominating factor that drives the decision to make the journey is, therefore, connected to the knowledge and reconstruction of the person’s family history.

The recomposition of identity which is targeted through the roots journey, in the case of the traveler who is an emigranted first generation, see satisfaction in visit the physical, social and cultural spaces that are already known and experienced. When, however, a descendant of emigrants takes on this journey, such as a relative (children, grandchildren, etc.), that is a person ahead in the generational line, will find satisfaction, by visiting in places where one’s ancestors were from, where theese worked and lived, and where they’re buried, adding up the information acquired by consulting records useful in the reconstruction of their family tree, through experiential interviews with the local population (relatives, friends, etc.).

We define this type of travel experiences as “touristic”, as it is based on a temporary and non-instrumental stay, and on travelers who take on daily behaviors and visitation methods that essentially make them indistinguishable from other ranges of tourists (Romita and Perri, 2009), and where the absence of a daily relationship and physical presence renders the subjects as “other”, just as by definition all tourists are (Romita, 2021; Cohen, 1979), placing them in an alienating condition from the eyes of the local host community, which increases over time (Simmel, 1998; Schutz, 2013).

However, the very aims of the trip make the root tourist, as it is perhaps easily understandable, a rather particular type of tourist, almost unique. The load of expectations and the emotional intensity that accompany the departure, transit and arrival are experienced with anxiety, as the experience that will be created could also lead to not only the “simple” desired identity reconstruction, but also to perhaps a partial redefinition of one’s own family’s identity situation.

Whatever the case may be, the condition of alienation that we mentioned earlier belongs to all tourists, in the case of the root tourist, this alienation brings with it an identity that is the fruit of a flexible subjectivity. Identities develop and shape through everyday life and through the narration of family history linked to cultural origins. Therefore, identities, more or less hybrid or multiple, sometimes manifest in crises, as they are torn between the prevalent belonging to the original culture or to that of the places where one lives, or through languages resulting from a semantic compromise (between the original language and the acquired language), and which, from time to time, are defined through social relationships, the contingencies in which they find themselves and the consequent contaminations. People for whom the concept of “place” brings a constant redefinition to the notions of belonging, citizenship, frontier.

The specific condition of the root tourist’s alienation has significant repercussions in the perception that the local host communities have of this social figure. The results of over ten years of research dedicated to the study of tourism and the root tourist, which we will use to develop this work, brings to conclusion that what we call "root tourism" for the local host communities is only partly so, and that this perception depends on the process of breaking down the multiple identities of these travelers.

Life at the Margins: Chronicles from Inner Areas of Calabria

2023-02-23T12:24:37+00:00

The logics that govern contemporary societies and economies produce increasing forms of marginalisation and new types of peripheral territories (Harvey 2003). The phenomena of polarisation of economic activities generate social changes of enormous magnitude that are reflected in complex and differentiated forms on local territories.
Inner areas, as they have been identified within the innovative public policy dealing with development and territorial cohesion, are peripheral areas, distant from the offer of essential services of mobility, health and education, often characterised by strong depopulation, but at the same time they are custodians of an enormous environmental and cultural heritage (Partnership Agreement, 2013).
Through the territorialist prism, inner areas will be read in order to describe the opportunity to define settlement models that can ensure the lasting sustainability of contemporary places, taking communities and their relationships with their environments as reference points.
For the sustainable planning of inner areas, this paper will explore the present narratives to strengthen a systemic vision worthy of a possible future.