Tourism, Performance and Social Exclusion in “Olde York”

The walled historic city center of York, United Kingdom, is a space variously performed and contested by tourists, tourism brokers, and locals. Using ethnographic methods, this study examines issues of power and control regarding the sets of performances or optimum activities the "historic core" is meant for, and asks who the most valued groups to enact these performances are. It concludes that York center is a contested space, and through narrative, performance monitoring, and strategies of spatial regulation, certain social groups are encouraged to consume it while others are subject to accusations of performative incompetence and tactics of social exclusion