2006 IMAGINE THERE'S NO COUNTRIES:
Inequality and Growth in the Age of Tourism

22-23 June 2006

Before joining the WTO-OMT Secretariat in 1984 Henryk holds a number of industry and government positions in Poland, his country of origin.

On the matters of trade, competition, enterprise, facilitation, safety and security, health and standards he represents the WTO/OMT Secretary-General before other international bodies, including UNCTAD, WTO/OMC (World Trade Organization), ICPO-Interpol, WHO and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Henryk completed his Master of Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics.

Over the last 12 years Pieter Stoer has been working for SNV Netherlands Development Organization. From June 2000 until June 2005 he stayed in Laos as the Programme Coordinator Pro-Poor Sustainable Tourism. During that period he was responsible for developing, managing and coordinating the SNV advisory services and technical assistance in the sustainable tourism sector.

As a development expert Pieter worked in the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Laos on integrated rural development programmes. For more then eight years he has been involved in sustainable tourism and poverty alleviation activities in development countries, responsible for programme management and development, knowledge management and technical advisory support. He also took the lead in the Regional Sustainable Tourism Knowledge Network in Asia. This is a SNV-Partner initiative to share experiences, increase knowledge and improve advisory services and practices. SNV provides technical assistance in order to strengthen the capacity of local organizations in the pro-poor sustainable tourism sector.

Born in1956, currently is professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Trier, Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1987 in Cologne on the subject of models of long-term social change. In 1991/1992 he did a one-year fieldwork in Makassar, a “provincial metropolis” in Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia, resulting in a book on cultural dimensions of decision-making in intra-urban residential mobility (Urbane Rationalität, Berlin, Reimer 2000).

His main research interest is Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, and South Asia. He did research on cognition, cities, interethnic issues, domestic tourism, local knowledge and practising anthropology. Among his recent books is an annotated bibliography of cultural anthropology, Ethnologie lesen. Ein Führer durch den Bücherdschungel (Reading Anthropology. A Guide Through the Book Jungle, Münster: Lit Verlag, 12001, 22002, 32003). Recently he edited (together with Franz Wuketits) the Handbook of Evolution, Vol. 1: The Evolution of Cultures and Societies (Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2004). Currently he is working on a book-length study on cultural universals.

In Nahá, a village located in the forest of Chiapas in Mexico, development of tourism is promoted among the 200 Maya-Lacandóns. A representative of the government invites the women of the community to a workshop demonstrating the importance of their culture and traditions for developing ethnic tourism. But as the government’s vision is explained, we realize that the young women find themselves in an ambiguous situation, caught between tradition and modernity. The future of tourism in the community ostensibly rests on the choices they will make. The presence of the three directors – also tourists – offers a counterpart to the institutional discourse by drawing attention to their relationship with their hostesses. This juxtaposition of views invites us to re-examine tourists’ motivations and leads us toward the main issue dealt in “When are you coming back?” that is, the way in which culture becomes an object of consumption.