Dark Tourism and Human Rights

Abstract

Over the recent years, scholars have focused their attention on dark tourism as a newly emerging and global trend. Without any doubt, dark tourism remains a more-than-interesting object of study for social scientists and academia. At first glimpse, dark tourism exhibits a new morbid taste generated in post-disaster contexts, as well as environments of mass death and suffering. Paradoxically, dark consumption opens a much deeper question revolving around human rights. This chapter interrogates the intersection of dark consumption (as a type of commoditizing process) and human rights. As Zygmunt Bauman puts it, one of the paradoxes of memorizing the tragedy is that its roots are ultimately forgotten. In consonance with this, the authors hold the thesis that dark tourism enhances resiliency and local community, but at the same time, it generates a biased story of what should be memorized.