Tourism is terrorism by other means: Thinking in the fear society

Abstract

To the lens of social imaginary terrorism is considered as one of the worst evils the contemporary world faces today. Indeed, media and its discursivity rest on the demonization of terrorism. The war on terror, originally declared by Bush ́s administration exhibits the needs in puritan culture to struggle against external hazards. Over the recent years, the terrorist attacks happened in leisure hot- spots and tourist destinations, which worried notably to policy makers and officials of those countries which developed an economic dependency from tourism. Far from singling out this conception, in this current essay-review we resume the discussions given by Michel Foucault and James Joll, not only to understands the nature of terrorism and tourism but also laying the foundations towards a new alternative explanations that frame the issue as a rational answer to capitalist exploitation.