Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Sociology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Housley, W.
Right arrow Articles by Wahl-Jorgensen, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Theorizing the Democratic Gaze: Visitors' Experiences of the New Welsh Assembly

William Housley

Cardiff University, housleyw{at}cardiff.ac.uk

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

Cardiff University, wahl-jorgensenk{at}cardiff.ac.uk

This article, based on an interview study of public engagement with the new Welsh Assembly building — the Senedd — theorizes the limits and opportunities of `political tourism', or visits to sites of political importance. To understand visitors' engagement with the assembly building, we explore how they account for their reasons to visit, and their perceptions and expectations of the new building and institution. We identify two principal types of vocabulary displayed by members of the public in making sense of the building, those of political engagement and tourist consumption. Both are informed by what we refer to as practices of the `democratic gaze'. Both vocabularies reveal, to varying degrees, the social mechanics of the gaze, and the inscription and interpretation of agency around the building's design. We conclude by exploring how this study can inform discussions of political engagement and tourism practices.

Key Words: accounts • architecture • citizenship • democracy • devolution • identity • participation • Senedd • space • tourism • Wales

Sociology, Vol. 42, No. 4, 726-744 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038508091625
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Discourse SocietyHome page
W. Housley and R. Fitzgerald
Membership categorization, culture and norms in action
Discourse Society, May 1, 2009; 20(3): 345 - 362.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Cultural SociologyHome page
W. Housley
Visions of Wales: Visual Artists and Cultural Futures
Cultural Sociology, March 1, 2009; 3(1): 147 - 164.
[Abstract] [PDF]