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Slum tourism has been criticized for potentially exploiting the communities it visits. While the daily life of residents is the primary attraction of slum tourism, they do not receive any remuneration. Given the heated debate surrounding this topic, it is surprising that the perspective of residents remains largely unknown. This article aims to address this lacuna, by providing insights into the perceptions that residents have on slum tourism in Dharavi slum, India. It is unique in that it explicitly addresses host perceptions towards slum tourism enterprises as well as charitable activities funded through slum tourism. Insights were gained through 74 semistructured interviews, conducted in the most visited areas of the slum. Four different resident perspectives are recognized: apprehensive, positive, indifferent, and skeptical. Over time, residents in Dharavi become less excited by the presence of tourists, but they do not develop a negative attitude to them. Although residents are...

This thesis discusses conceptual reforms of UN peacekeeping missions, in which private military & security companies (PMSCs) would get more possibilities to act in peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping missions have a voluntary character, as such initiatives were never enforced in the UN Charter. Consequently, peacekeeping missions face multiple challenges. The UN has insufficient financial means to maintain a standby force, makes frequent use of lower quality troops from developing countries, receives insufficient support in terms of military equipment & personnel from industrialized states, and collecting and deploying UN troops often takes long. This research suggests that private initiatives could be a duly considered alternative to circumventing self-interest of states to a certain degree, while at the same time increasing quality and deployment readiness for such missions. However, governments ought to make a greater effort to realize regulation, instead of obfuscating transpare...

Slum tourism has been criticized for potentially exploiting the communities it visits. While the daily life of residents is the primary attraction of slum tourism, they do not receive any remuneration. Given the heated debate surrounding this topic, it is surprising that the perspective of residents remains largely unknown. This article aims to address this lacuna, by providing insights into the perceptions that residents have on slum tourism in Dharavi slum, India. It is unique in that it explicitly addresses host perceptions towards slum tourism enterprises as well as charitable activities funded through slum tourism. Insights were gained through 74 semistructured interviews, conducted in the most visited areas of the slum. Four different resident perspectives are recognized: apprehensive, positive, indifferent, and skeptical. Over time, residents in Dharavi become less excited by the presence of tourists, but they do not develop a negative attitude to them. Although residents are not without criticism of tourism, and there is a lack of knowledge on tourism's contribution to community development projects, they do not view tourism as exploitative. The struggle for Dharavi will be to ensure tour operators will continue to operate in a way sensitive to the local community, as tourist numbers and competition increases.

""Although slum tourism has been around for more than 20 years, it is still considered a new trend. In Dharavi, Mumbai, this trend is younger and less developed compared to slum tourism in Brazil or South Africa. Critics regularly question its social responsibility. As it is a new trend, these debates are fought with information from a small collection of sources or from sources based on less homogeneous situations. Ironically, the smallest collection of sources is that which voices the thoughts of the host community within the slum. This means that one of the most important stakeholders has had very little opportunity to join in on this debate.
This thesis aims to give more insight into the perceptions that community members have on the issues that critics propose. The results from this case study, gathered from 74 interviews conducted in the most visited areas, show that the issues which are presented in debates are not perceived similarly by the Dharavi community. The difference in perception reveals that norms and values cannot be generalized according to those of critics outside the host community. The community perceives slum tourists more as respectable guests and they generally do not think extensively about the effects of their presence. However, a responsible, social and humanitarian approach is proven to be greatly appreciated by the community.
Hence, with the results of this research, readers can be helped in taking a more accurate stance in the slum tourism debate and perhaps influence the development of this trend.
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