The Political Economy of Tourism: Children's Neglected Role

Abstract

Addressing the theme of tourism as a social force, this article approaches a subject upon which limited research has been undertaken: children's role as economic actors in tourism. As the concept of children as economic actors comes into antithesis with UN models of childhood as a care-free time, family business literature illustrates how children often do take on economic roles. Based on empirical research conducted in Crete, Greece in 2012, the ways in which the political economy of tourism shapes and is shaped by children's roles as economic actors is explored. A feminist economics angle is adopted, viewing productive and social reproductive elements as of equal importance for representations of the economic reality. Participant observation over a 3-month period and 14 ethnographic interviews with tourism microentrepreneurs who make handicrafts primarily for sale as souvenirs inform this article. Thematic analysis highlights how tourism's intense and seasonal nature accentuates cultural expectations and economic pressures, bringing about a metamorphosis in children's roles. Although when they are very young, children themselves constitute a major social reproduction task, when they are older, they have a significant input into the political economy of tourism as they transform into replacement entrepreneurs and domestic helpers during the busy peak season. Investigating how children's economic roles are seasonally formed and the effect children's economic activities have on their parents' gendered entrepreneurial roles, this article provides an exciting insight into children's roles within tourism labor.