In the context of global capitalism the so-called developing countries are considered ‘commodities’ in offer in the global economy as emerging markets or for foreign investment. Countries need to show they are potentially highly competitive with low risk. The value of country characteristics is set by globalised managerial discourses, based on postcolonial ideologies that rate cultures and societies in terms of linear notions of progress and civilisation. Cultures and behaviours are judged positively or negatively according to the position countries supposedly have in the evolution of world society. In this framework one element that countries need to eradicate or reduce in order to be seen as ‘attractive’ is corruption. Towards this aim international and national government and non-government organisations have put in place anti-corruption campaigns. In communications with the general public, these schemes represent actors and acts of corruption through discursive strategies that characterize world cultures and their links with corruption in terms of postcolonial ideologies. In this paper I focus on the implications of the metaphor ‘culture of corruption’ for rating countries, questioning its effectiveness in anti-corruption campaigns. I argue that anti-corruption instruments based on postcolonial ideologies corrupt representations of national cultures and peoples behaviours, instead of targeting local and global sectors that gain from institutionalised corruption. Through the analysis of anti-corruption cultural texts publicly available in Mexico I illustrate how the ideological misrepresentation of corruption fails its stated aim, to transform a ‘culture of corruption’ into a ‘culture of legality’.
Resumen: El artículo analiza las interrelaciones entre turismo y política considerando el impacto de la rebelión indígena zapatista en el turismo en Chiapas, México. Mediante el análisis de productos turísticos y observaciones de campo la transformación de la industria turística se explica como efecto de las presiones de un nuevo tipo de visitante, el "turista politizado'. Atraído por el movimiento indígena y su relevancia como movimiento social global su posición política e ideológica creó demandas que impactaron sobre las redes organizacionales interétnicas y el valor social de la actividad turística. Como respuesta agentes turísticos indígenas y no indígenas generaron nuevas estrategias para la recuperación de su economía, incluyendo cambios en las redes organizacionales y comercializando símbolos e ideologías como "productos" turísticos.
Indigenous cultures are significant for tourism but their owners have been systematically excluded from its benefits and control. To counteract this tendency, some indigenous organisations are becoming tourist agents offering alternative eco-cultural tourism. Their niche market has social and ecological consciousness but influenced by postcolonialist ideologies it still expects culture to be "authentic". To succeed, indigenous organisations need to manage tensions between their own culture and identities and what the market demands. Applying the notion of cultural control, in this article I evaluate how alternative projects in Mexico and Peru deal with the challenge of commoditising culture and nature on their own terms. To understand the paradoxes they face, I analyse their cultural representations, organisational identities and alliances through an ethnographic reading of their Web-stories.
Purpose -Within the context of a broader project that analysed CSR practices, this paper seeks to explain a methodological approach to web-based research that the authors call ''hypertext ethnography''. This approach aims to enable the paper to focus on the relations between three publicly listed corporations in Australia and the recipients of a selection of their CSR programs.Design/methodology/approach -Informed by ethnographic principles, hypertext ethnography provided the research protocols and analytical frame that were used to deconstruct the meanings in web texts that represented the connections between the corporations and their CSR stakeholders.Findings -The corporations and the stakeholders articulated their perspectives on CSR in affirmative ways, apparently to maintain their positive benefactor-recipient relations. While these discourses held the potential to mask more complex tensions in their relationships, the web was found to provide a rich hypertextual story that had a vastly broader scope than the self-contained corporate and stakeholder agendas.Research limitations/implications -The research approach presented here provides a useful first approximation to the study of CSR, through self representations, and offers a rigorous critical understanding of the practice of CSR. The approach can achieve much with only limited resources, but it could be developed through on-site ethnographic research.Practical implications -Because image-conscious corporations are often reluctant to participate in CSR research, the unobtrusive approach of hypertext ethnography can provide access to important data for the researcher. This is especially significant in the case of critical research, and when the characteristics of the CSR contributions or stakeholder relations are to be investigated.Originality/value -This paper offers a new way for approaching the study of CSR, by taking advantage of rich sources of data that are publicly available. Treating the web texts as primary data and critically analysing them following rigorous research protocols, enable new opportunities for understanding the public representations of CSR.
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