The souks: Tunis, Tunisia

Abstract

A lot of tourism is tied to contemporary dominant forms of capitalist consumption. Finding a bargain and shopping so frequently feature as motivations underpinning travel, the desire to find a bargain and indulge in forms of retail therapy. Consumerism is now integral to our global political economy yet few have offered critical accounts of the vital functional and ideological roles consumerism has played throughout the history of capitalism (Winlow and Hall, 2017). While conspicuous consumption is stratified, as is the ecological footprint that arises from such practices, the places and sites of the consumption of ‘luxury commodities’ in criminology and social science more broadly remain little recognised, as does the everyday way that such forms involve advantage and privilege that are often not seen as such. While we can draw attention to the heightened ecological footprints of super yachts, super homes, luxury vehicles, and private jets, so too, the ability to travel globally and find meaning in markets of all sorts, is often under considered. Yet the place of markets in generating harm are worth consideration. It was the wet markets of Wuhan first blamed for Covid-19 pandemic, whilst the counterfeit markets travellers visit rarely gain attention. Be it buying ‘genuine fakes’ cheaper than Asda price in Tunisia or Turkey; the go-go bars, scorpion eating and snake blood drinking of Thailand or smoking vulture brains in Johannesburg, markets and visiting them tells us much more than just what is being sold and consumed.