Abstract:
"Which hotel do you live in?" It wasn't long ago that Las Vegans would hear this question regularly from outsiders. The query is not so common anymore as the city has matured over the past two decades. Yet, even today, Las Vegas is one of the least understood famous places in the world. Although people now recognize that it has many full-time residents, they still have very little knowledge about what this "other" Las Vegas is like. In the minds of its residents, as I discovered through ethnographic research, the local's Las Vegas has a unique, multifaceted personality. Life in Las Vegas is similar to other American cities with the exception of an overwhelming presence of casinos and gambling related activities. Las Vegans typically live their lives separate from the neon and glitz of the Strip, but are inevitably connected to the mystic and pervasiveness of its image, which provides a cohesive effect on the city's sense of community and place. At the same time, the connection to place and sense of community that one might expect in a typical American city is quite different in Las Vegas, partly because of that 'Vegas image' and partly because of the city's rapid growth and the diversity within its population. Understanding this aspect of Las Vegas allows geographers and others to see the pervasive nature of the insider vs. outsider dichotomy as it exists, not only for a tourist destination, but also within the most remote town.
