Scale-Making Narratives and Musical Tourism in Recife, Brazil

Abstract

Anthropological studies of tourism have theorized scale and scale-making in primarily spatialized forms. This article, however, applies linguistic anthropological theories to show that scale is a discursive framework that includes spatial as well as qualitative and quantitative dimensions, which people use to assess socioeconomic problems associated with tourism. By bridging tourism studies, “music touristics,” and the semiotics of scale-making, the article analyzes how individuals’ positionalities vis-à-vis tourism are embedded in local and global power relations. The narratives of an influential musical promoter in Recife, Brazil, show that he employs—and combines—spatial, quantitative, and qualitative scales to compare Recife with more successful musical tourism destinations, to make ideological claims, and to envision how to transform the city into a musical tourism destination. In examining these discourses, the article suggests that individuals narratively create and invoke scales to strategically situate themselves and others within the global tourism industry.