Globalisation, Tourism and Simulacra: A Baudrillardian Study of Tourist Space in Thailand

This book draws on the thought of Baudrillard to explore the effects of globalisation and tourism in a Thai context. Arguing that tourism does not necessarily erode local culture but that local culture can in fact be recreated through globalisation and tourism, the author employs studies of the Damnoen Saduk and Pattaya floating markets, showing them to be simulations of Thai culture that undergo changes of form, cultural content and activity, through various stages of representation. With a focus on the themes of the circulation of value and signs, the play of differences and orders of simulacra, this volume examines the extent to which Baudrillard’s theory can apply in a non-western context and in relation to tourism. A study of consumption, tourism and the relations between the global and the local, Globalisation, Tourism and Simulacra will appeal to scholars of sociology and geography with interests tourism, globalisation and social theory.

Kunphatu Sakwit is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. She obtained a PhD in Sociology from University of Kent, and a Master’s degree in Social and Cultural Theory from University of Bristol. I completed my first degree in Political Science, majoring sociology from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. My research interests are in Baudrillard studies, postmodernism, sociology of tourism, socioloy of globalisation, critical and social theory, and also risk society.