Degree
MES (Master of Environmental Studies), Tourism Policy and Planning
Thesis title
Representations of Polar Bears in Tourism: Exploring Power Relations through Discourse Analysis
Year of defence
2014
Abstract
The polar bear viewing industry relies on the (re)creation, dissemination, and maintenance of particular meanings and natures of polar bears and human-polar bear relationships for economic benefit, raising concerns about how power is circulated and negotiated through representations of polar bears in tourism promotional materials. This thesis explored how the polar bear viewing industry constructs or portrays polar bears, and the social effects of these portrayals, through an investigation of tourism promotional materials associated with Churchill, Manitoba, the “polar bear capital of the world.” Informed by ecofeminist theory, the study examined how tourism supports and/or resists the gendered exploitation of polar bears—a social issue that intersects gender and species studies. It shows how various representations of polar bears and the depictions of human-polar bear interactions are not impartial, but embedded contextually and within an intricate web of power relations. The thesis illustrates these representations express species and gender inequalities, power abuse, and domination (through the objectification of polar bears, the marginalization of their lived and experienced realities, hegemonic gender construction, and so on), and argues for the importance of addressing these issues when envisioning sustainable and ethical interactions between human and other-than-human animals in wildlife tourism contexts.
Biography
