Abstract
Political, war-themed and controversial murals aim to show the history of a community, making the intangible tangible, and, because these events are still recent, they stir people’s emotions. Visitors to this type of heritage have a mixture of artistic and dark interests that lead to what we call ‘dark mural attractions’. These political murals need a public strategy to be preserved, become better known and attract local economic development funds to make them sustainable. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how communities could build a co-narrative around murals to generate a sustainable local development. To achieve this goal, an in depth study needs to be performed to establish what kind of narrative will enable political murals to attract dark visitors and examine how communities can build a sustainable co-narrative around a dark mural. As a case study, we analyse the Battle of Cable Street mural in London, located in the non-touristic borough of Tower Hamlets, by means of an ethnographic qualitative approach based on stakeholders’ opinions, among other sources. In this case, results show that dark murals have the potential to attract visitors, but they require a public strategy for the sustainability of heritage, based on a narrative of community solidarity for educational and discovery purposes.
Highlights
What makes an attraction successful? Why do we decide to visit it? According to Kotler et al, different factors are required to attract visitors to a location, such as its urban design, infrastructure and environment, services offered and even neighbours’ hospitality [1]
Can we appeal to dark mural visitors who are interested in dark attractions? What kind of narrative enables places to attract this kind of visitors? How can communities build a sustainable co-narrative to involve different stakeholders?
The flow of our study will be as follows: First, we will provide a description of the theoretical framework around dark attractions; second, we will present a literature review about co-narratives and dark tourism: Third, we will explain the ethnography methodology applied to this case study; fourth, we aim to describe the history and present and future opportunities for dark murals extracted from the data content analysis; and we will discuss and put forward the conclusions of our analysis
Summary
What makes an attraction successful? Why do we decide to visit it? According to Kotler et al, different factors are required to attract visitors to a location, such as its urban design, infrastructure and environment, services offered and even neighbours’ hospitality [1]. According to Kotler et al, different factors are required to attract visitors to a location, such as its urban design, infrastructure and environment, services offered and even neighbours’ hospitality [1]. The participation of different actors is important for creating a narrative around the attraction [2], and encouraging local development in the community. Motivations can differ depending on the target audience to be attracted [3]. We can observe the presence of different murals that have been a resounding success, such as the works by Banksy. There are other murals with a rich history behind them that can add an educational element to the visitor experience. For the UNESCO “culture is both an enabler and a driver of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development” [4]
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