This morning, a BBC article highlights the rise in popularity of genocide memorials around the world. This short film by Philip Stone aims to answer the question why people are compelled to visit disaster sites. He has also written a new article entitled 'Dark tourism and significant other death: towards a model of mortality mediation'. It's published in the Annals of Tourism Research (2012, Vol 39, No 3, pp.1565-1587); here's the abstract
'Dark tourism and the commodification of death has become a pervasive feature within the contemporary visitor economy. Drawing upon the thanatological condition of society and a structural analysis of modern-day mortality, this paper establishes theoretical foundations for exploring dark tourism experiences. The study argues that in Western secular society where ordinary death is sequestered behind medical and professional façades, yet extraordinary death is recreated for popular consumption, dark tourism mediates a potential social filter between life and death. Ultimately, the research suggests that dark tourism is a modern mediating institution, which not only provides a physical place to link the living with the dead, but also allows a cognitive space for the Self to construct contemporary ontological meanings of mortality.'
