ABSTRACT

This article develops the diversity tourist as an analytical figure to explore how middle-class whiteness emerges through encounters with racialized diversity in gentrifying urban space. Drawing on interviews with white middle-class Danish residents in Copenhagen’s Nordvest district, I examine how whiteness takes shape through affective ambivalence and negotiations of proximity and distance. My informants live in Nordvest, but see themselves as privileged tourists. They perceive diverse Others as true locals whose presence not only stimulates and entertains them, but also facilitates self-development, increased awareness and inclusive pedagogy. Moreover, the local spaces and people of Nordvest represent a different or superior reality and promise an escape from white, gentrified Copenhagen. I collect these practices in the figure of the diversity tourist to show how a particular brand of Danish middle-class whiteness emerges through embracing diversity and reminiscing over one’s own privileges vis-à-vis racialized, less advantaged people and spaces. I examine how, despite attempts at transcendence, this whiteness feels claustrophobic, finding itself in a limbo, trapped by its own gaze. The figure of diversity tourist contributes to studies of whiteness and gentrification, capturing how whiteness and intersectional privilege are enlaced in space and fueled by affective ambivalence.

摘要

本文将多元化游客发展为一个分析人物，以探索中产阶级白人如何通过与城市空间中的种族化多样性相遇而出现。通过对哥本哈根 Nordvest 区丹麦中产阶级白人居民的采访，我研究了白人是如何通过情感的矛盾心理以及接近和距离的协商而形成的。我的线人住在 Nordvest，但将自己视为特权游客。他们将多元化的“他人”视为真正的当地人，他们的存在不仅能激发和娱乐他们，还能促进自我发展、提高认识和包容性的教学法。此外，Nordvest 的当地空间和人民代表了不同或优越的现实，并承诺逃离白人、绅士化的哥本哈根。我以多样性游客的形象收集这些实践，以展示丹麦中产阶级白人的特定品牌是如何通过拥抱多样性和回忆自己相对于种族化、弱势群体和空间的特权而出现的。我研究了，尽管尝试超越，但这种白色如何让人感到幽闭恐惧，发现自己陷入了困境，被自己的目光所困。多元化旅游者的形象有助于研究白人和绅士化，捕捉白人和交叉特权如何在空间中受到束缚，并受到情感矛盾的推动。这种白色让人感到幽闭恐惧，发现自己陷入了困境，被自己的目光所困。多元化旅游者的形象有助于研究白人和绅士化，捕捉白人和交叉特权如何在空间中受到束缚，并受到情感矛盾的推动。这种白色让人感到幽闭恐惧，发现自己陷入了困境，被自己的目光所困。多元化旅游者的形象有助于研究白人和高档化，捕捉白人和交叉特权如何在空间中受到束缚，并受到情感矛盾的推动。