Humanising contact zones : the stories and faces of cross-cultural dialogue

We live in a radically ‘cosmopolitanised’ world, facing a plethora of mostly unwanted or unforeseen cross-cultural encounters as side effects of global trade and global threats (Beck, 2006). The potentially positive role of both cultural tourism and museums in this context has been widely recognised and theorised. But what does cross-cultural dialogue mean for the person experiencing it, and how is it negotiated within time and space? Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), I explore cross-cultural meanings empirically through a hermeneutic interpretation embedded in Beck’s ‘cosmopolitan critical theory’. The evidence presented in this research suggests that the individual is the point of departure from which cross-cultural dialogue is humanised by giving it ‘faces’ and stories. I argue that the impact of any travel experience is best understood via the meanings tourists make and negotiate in the long-term.