Maximiliano Korstanje

Maximiliano E Korstanje is a cultural analyst dedicated to the study of mobilities and terrorism born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 29 October 1976. He serves as Senior Lecturer at Department Economics, University of Palermo, Argentina.^[1] He was Visiting Fellow at CERS University of Leeds, United Kingdom and Visiting Lecturer at University of la Habana Cuba. Formally he is part of Tourism Crisis Management Institute (University of Florida US),^[2] Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (University of Leeds),^[3] Hospitality Social Network,^[4] Critical Tourism Studies Asia-Pacific,^[5] and The International Society for Philosopher, hosted in Sheffield, England. Korstanje has published more than 800 pieces regarding to mobilities, tourism, risk perception, globalization and terrorism.

Editorial positions

From 2013 he works as editor in chief of Int. Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism. Hershey IGI Globalhttp://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-cyber-warfare-terrorism/1167 and International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism - Hospitality.

Korstanje serves as advisory board in the following important journals.

• International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality and Management. Emerald Publishing^[6]
• Tourism Review International. Cognizant Communication.^[7]
• International Journal of Risk and Contigency Management. IGI Global.^[8]
• International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies.^[9]
• Revista Turismo y Sociedad.^[10]
• International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment.^[11]

Awards

• Awards for Excellence. Outstanding Reviewer. Given by International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment. University of Salford, UK & Emerald Group Publishing.^[12]
• Most Prolific author of Tourism Scholar in Argentina and Chile per Paper. P Picazo Peral y S. Moreno-Gil. Gestión Turística. Julio-Diciembre. 2012, Número 18, pp. 9–45.^[13]
• Most Prolific author for Iberoamerica in Tourism research. Per the study of Difusión de la investigación Científica Iberoamericana en Turismo entre 2006-2011. P. Picazo-Peral y S. Moreno Gil. Estudios y Perspectivas en Turismo. 2013, Volumen 22, pp. 828–853.^[14]
• In 2015 he is awarded as "founding member of Academic and Research Council" UDET. Universidad de Especialidades Turisticas. Quito Ecuador.^[15]

Theory and work

Originally he studied widely the connection of terrorism and mobilities. His thesis is that far from being economically affected by terrorism, modern tourism is inevitably entwined to terrorism. Tourism is terrorism by other means.^[16][17][18] Korstanje starts a discussion with Marc Auge respecting to the theory of non places. At a second stage, Korstanje says "airports" far from being non places represent spaces of disciplines craved by terrorists to cause political instability.^[19][20] Third, he coins the term Thana Capitalism to refer to a new stage of capitalism where risk sets the pace to death. Since terrorism has become in the commodity of media, it created an spectacle which is oriented to maximize profits. In Thana-capitalism consumers maximize their pleasure by consuming the Others` death which ranges movies, tours, and others cultural consumptions.^[21][22] This is a disciplinary mechanism for audience to reafirm the proper status creating a new class dubbed as death-seekers. Thana Capitalism results from an old dormant climate of social darwinism enrooted in American society where few rules the destinity of the rest.^[23][24][25]

Tourism

Korstanje has developed a system to understand tourism as a rite of passage, which consists in three facets, breaking with ordinary rules, renovation, and re-introduction to routine. In tourism, citizens not only renovate their trust with nation-state but also plays to be "another different person" than daily lives. As dream-like nature, tourism corresponds with a mechanism of escapement which helps society to keep united. In so doing physical movement is of paramount importance in order for the subject to emulate a new role in the liminoid space tourism offers. The needs of recoinciling the metaphor of lost-paradise (prosperity) with suffering seems to be the alma matter of tourism.^{[26][27][28][29]} Since tourism is very important for society, it is not surprisingly that terrorism select these spaces as main target to cause political instability.^[30] Cantallops & Cardona continued this discussion arguing that the allegory of lost-paradise not only is fundational for modern tourism but also was developed by modern marketing to produce an collective imaginary proper of Western Capitalism.^[31]

Mobilities and Capitalism

In the fields of mobilities, Korstanje brings the figure of Max Weber to the forefront. He cites Weber`s contribution on the role played by predestination in the formation of capitalism, but observing that both capitalism and mobilities come from Norse Mythology instead of Protestantism. At a first glance, Odin-Wodan-Voden was a travelling God who traversed across the World to know further about cultures and customs. This belief not only paved the ways for the rise of Grand Tour but forged a mobile culture as Anglo-Saxons which centuries later colonized the World. Secondly, since Valkyrias know beforehand who were the warriors who will die in the battlefront, unlike other mythologies where the destiny remains open, predestination is essential for English speaking countries and for Capitalist societies. Those critical voices, who pointed Weber was in the incorrect side because Holland kept a majority of Catholics in the population, should reconsider that Weber did a correct diagnosis but he left behind that it was not Protestant Reform the key main reason behind capitalism. Instead, Korstanje argues that it is necessary to see the influence of an iliterate society as Norse culture as the symbolic and cultural background of capitalism.^[32][33]

The theory of Non-Places

The theory of non-places was originally coined by French ethnographer Marc Augé who argues that modernity is producing spaces of anonymity where tradition declines. Per his viewpoint, examples of non places are everywhere, as airports, Train Station and Malls. Korstanje has exerted a radical criticism on this theory for the following reasons. First and foremost, airports, far from being non-places, represent spaces of discipline where travellers are socialized into the cultural values of society, which means trade (customs), mobilities (migration) and security (police). Once travellers are tested and validated, they are channeled to a hedonic bubble of consumption. Secondly, airports are real meetings charged with high emotional arousal. This is the example of expatriates meeting with their relatives, celebrations to welcome the favourite teams or celebrities, or even zones of dispute between workers of air-companies and air-carriers. Therefore, the idea of considering airports as signs of non-places cannot be validated from the empirical fieldwork. The sense of place is individually determined by the meaning conferred on the soil.^[34][35][36]

Populism and Terrorism

In the field of populism, Korstanje conducted extensive research in how populism evolved and consolidated in Argentina. With basis on Kirchnerism and Kirchnerites, his outcomes reveal that at some extent populism allows a fairer wealth distribution but it runs higher costs for economies. Populist governments fail to gain the necessary trust in international market while wealth is repatriated abroad by local elite. Populists are forced to intervene in all democratic institutions to prevent disinversion. As a result of this, populism paves the ways for the rise of totalitarian governments. Depending on the ideological radicalism of the movement, as in the case of Kirchnerites, some elements in the militancy impede a permeation with reality. Unless regulated, populism and kirchnersim may very well lead to terrorism. Under some conditions, kirchnerism advanced while rechanneling frustrated personalities into a coherent paranoid message where militants believed they were part of something important, a historic revolution that would change the World. It suggests that psychological frustration and populism are inevitably entwined.^[37][38]

Thana-Capitalism

Sociologists such as Ulrich Beck envisioned the society of risk as a new cultural value which saw risk as a commodity to be exchanged in globalized economies. This theory suggested that disasters and capitalist economy were inevitably entwined. Disasters allow the introduction of economic programs which otherwise would be rejected, as well as decentralizing the class structure in production.^[39] However, Korstanje coined the term Thana-Capitalism to refer to a climate of social Darwinism aimed at fostering the Survival of the Strongest. In this climate of struggle, only a few win while the rest lose. Social Darwinism is seen as a metaphor explaining our obsession with consumer news and with images related to terrorism attacks, trauma-scapes, and disasters. Korstanje writes that the society of risk has gradually set the pace to a new society of Thana-Capitalism, where the main commodity is death. Not only do we consume death everywhere in the entertainment industry, newspapers, and media but in so doing we reinforce our superiority by witnessing the suffering of others. Korstanje sees the story of Noah's Ark as an allegory for what he dubbed the first genocide. In this mythical event, God divided the world in two parts, the victims and the witnesses. This logic of the supremacy of those who live over those who die is reinforced by Christ´s crucifixion. Today, new emergent segments in the tourist industry are oriented to travel to places where mass deaths or traumatic event have occurred. Korstanje suggests that in secularized societies death is a sign of weakness, and consuming the deaths of others revitalizes the hopes of visitors to enter "the hall of chosen peoples"

Hospitality

Well-famous philosopher Jacques Derrida offers a model to understand hospitality that divides unconditional hospitality from conditional hospitality. Over the centuries, philosophers have devoted considerable attention to the problem of hospitality.^[40] However, it creates a paradoxical situation because strangers often are rejected by nation-states.^[41] Korstanje received the influence of Anthony Pagden who described how hospitality was politically manipulated to legitimate the conquest of Americas.^[42] Korstanje argues that hospitality is a inter-tribal pact in which groups agree on self-defence in times of war and an exchange of goods and merchandise in peacetime. Since the inception of the nation-state, the western concept of hospitality has been proposed as the main criteria for the free circulation and mobility of people and the main cultural value of modern capitalism. Hospitality depends on the giving-while-receiving process which is the touchstone of social bonds. Hospitality and religion are also inextricably entwined. In the same way that the soul is protected by gods of the hereafter, strangers should be assisted while travelling. Failure to care for strangers is punished by the gods, who send calamities, earthquakes and other types of disaster. A lack of hospitality may be seen to predict the triumph of evil. In legends, myths and horror-movies, rogues often violate their guests, concealing their real intentions and then seizing them when sleeping. The guest-host meeting necessarily engenders high levels of vulnerability and risk, which are mitigated by the sacred law of hospitality where both agree not to attack the other while under the same roof. In view of the advance of secularization, the practice of unconditional hospitality has given way to a new sort of hospitality only for those who can pay for it.^[43][44][45] The action of terrorism is undermining the Western ratioality where hospitality lies. This happens because hospitality is the symbolic touchstone of Western civilization. As a result of this, terrorism aims to decline the social trust that makes hospitality possible.^[46][47]

Most important books and publications

• Korstanje, Maximiliano (2015). A Difficult World: Examining the Roots of Capitalism. Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-163483331-8. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 
• Nedelea, Alexandru; Korstanje, Maximiliano; George, Babu, eds. (2016). Strategic Tools and Methods for Promoting Hospitality and Tourism Services. IGI Global. ISBN 978-1466697614. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 
• Korstanje, Maximiliano E. The Rise of Thana-Capitalism and Tourism (Hardback). Routledge. ISBN 9781138209268. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 
• Korstanje, M. (2016). Terrorism in a Global Village: How Terrorism Affects Our Daily Lives. New York: Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-153610240-6. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 
• Korstanje, M. (2017). Threat Mitigation and Detection of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism Activities. IGI Global. ISBN 9781522519386. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 
• Korstanje, M.; Handayani, B. Gazing (2017). Gazing at Death: Dark Tourism as an Emergent Horizon of Research. New York: Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-153610666-4. Retrieved 2016-11-26. 

References