The Nomos of Tourism

Abstract

The paper discusses tourism as a world order. It takes its theoretical cues from the works of Carl Schmitt and Deleuze/Gauttari. Tourism is conceptiualized as a Nomos involving three interrelated aspects/processes. Namely, nehmen – the conquest of territory/space under the sign of tourism; teilen - establishing a touristifed spatial, juridical and embodied order in the service of tourism; and weiden – exploiting (utilizing) bodies, spaces and territories to enhance touristic worth/value. As such, tourism is a de- and reterritorialization force and process. The paper conceptualiazes tourism as one aspect of the global capitalist mobility apparatus (machine). The global mobility apparatus (machine) is central to the production and consumtion of desires and spaces of tourism. It channels and orders touristic mobilities, the circulation of images and imaginations at various spatial scales.