Insecure positions, heteronomous autonomy and tourism-cultural capital: a Bourdieusian reading of tour guides on BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who Experience Walking Tour

Garner, Ross 2017. Insecure positions, heteronomous autonomy and tourism-cultural capital: a Bourdieusian reading of tour guides on BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who Experience Walking Tour. Tourist Studies 17 (4) , pp. 426-442. 10.1177/1468797616680851

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Abstract

This article contributes towards debates concerning media tourism and tour guiding by using Pierre Bourdieu’s (1993) arguments regarding field and capital to analyse performed tour guide identities on BBC Worldwide’s Doctor Who Experience Walking Tour in Cardiff Bay. The article pursues three core arguments: firstly, that a Bourdieusian framework provides an enhanced understanding of the insecure positions that tour guides occupy in what is referred to throughout as the tourism field. Secondly, that the divergent pulls between heteronomous and autonomous poles which position tour guides are magnified in officially-located media tours because of the presence of branding and theming discourses. Thirdly, drawing upon empirical data from the Doctor Who tour, that the symbolic capital of official guides involves demonstrations of what is named tourism-cultural capital but such displays do not result in an increase in individualised status as any accrued capital transfers to the institutional level.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Additional Information:	Media tourism; Doctor Who; tour guides; Bourdieu; field theory; capital; cult geography
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1468-7976
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 January 2017
Date of Acceptance:	4 November 2016
Last Modified:	03 Dec 2024 09:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/97581

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