In Encounters across Difference, Natalia Bloch examines tourism encounters in India and their potential to empower subaltern communities. Drawing from ethnographic evidence in Hampi and Dharamshala, Bloch explores the potential of tourism to promote political engagement, volunteering, sponsorship, local entrepreneurship, and women’s empowerment. Contrary to frequent criticism of tourism to the Global South as a colonial practice, Bloch argues that workers and small entrepreneurs in displaced communities see tourists as allies in their political struggles and, on a more individual level, as an opportunity to build better lives.

Translated by: Katarzyna Bylów