3. Durban, South Africa, XVI ISA World Congress, 23 – 29 July, 2006
XVI ISA World congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa, 23-29 July 2006
Deadlines set by RC50:
The final deadline for abstracts to be sent to the session coordinators is 12th December 2005. This means that the initial dealine of October 1, 2005 has been postponed. Look at www.ucm.es/info/isa for the coordinators’ e-mail addresses.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
NA: National Association |
The above timetable allows RC50 to put the session presentations according to the following scheme:
|
Dates in July |
Time |
Time |
Time |
Session |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday 24 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
18.00 – 20.00 |
1 |
|
Tuesday 25 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
18.00 – 20.00 |
2 |
|
Wednesday 26 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
18.00 – 20.00 |
3 |
|
Thursday 27 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
18.00 – 20.00 |
4 |
|
Friday 28 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
18.00 – 20.00 |
5 |
|
Saturday 29 |
13.30 – 15.30 |
15.45 – 17.45 |
|
6 |
|
Saturday 29 |
|
|
18.00 – 20.00 |
Business Meeting |
This is a pre-liminary schedule. Depending on the number of abstract sent in, this scheme might be adapted. It is suggested to have 30 minutes for each presentation.
Deadlines set by ISA [see www.ucm.es/info/isa ]:
|
|
|
September 15, 2005
March 31, 2006 Abstracts will be included in a print booklet to be distributed to registrants at the World Congress. These abstracts will also be included in Sociological Abstracts.
May 31, 2006
June 30, 2006
We also encourage participants to make their complete papers
available to Sociological Abstracts' vast user audience. To do so,
simply send a hard copy of the complete paper, noting that the
abstract has been submitted electronically, to: Making the paper available in this manner in no way limits the author's copyright.
|
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 1: Paradigms and perspectives in the sociology of tourism
In 1970, Margareth Masterman concluded in “Criticism and the growth of knowledge” that Kuhn uses the word ‘paradigm’ in twenty-two different senses. Consequently, paradigm is not a clear concept. Jennings (2001) defines paradigms as a set of beliefs, encompassing also an ontology about the nature of reality, an epistemology of the relationship between researcher and its objects and a methodology as a set of rules for conducting research, linked to research techniques. According to this definition, he identifies a positivist, an interpretative, a critical, a feminist, a chaos and a post-modern paradigm. This last paradigm, for example, is closely related to theories of changing societies and ‘a set of beliefs’, nevertheless it primarily describes only Western societies.
Paradigm debates have a political and philosophical foundation, which define the standpoint of the subject against the object. Paradigm debates have a social, political and philosophical under-layer on which e.g. the standpoint of the subject against the object is defined. The post-modern paradigm, for example, is closely related to theories of changing societies and clearly related to ‘a set of beliefs’, but mainly Western societies.
Hemmingway (1999) adds the aspect of ‘values’ to the paradigm concept. Values result from belief sets of a society. In this respect, paradigms are not neutral, but are related to societies, cultural communities and politics. Inglehart (1998a; 1998b) has created an encompassing overview of global value systems, their similarities and differences as well as their changes over almost twenty-five years. An interesting extension of this study would be to compare these various scientific arenas according to these global value systems. The paradigm debates also have their regional arenas. French structuralists and language philosophers such as Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Baudrillard, and Barthes had an influence on tourism studies (see e.g. MacCannell, 1976; Selwyn, 1996).Another significant gap between paradigms and their application in ‘knowledge arenas’ is between academia and the tourist production sector of public policy and private enterprises.The academic discourse on tourism and its underlying paradigms are quite diversified, however, a rough distinction can be made. On the one hand are the analytical approaches of sociology, anthropology and cultural geography (with a predominantly constructivist or post-structuralist perspective), while on the other hand, there are the more instrumental approaches in marketing and spatial geography, with an emphasis on neo-positivism and a critical perspective.
Tourism policy and the industry sector are mainly instrumental and based on a positivist paradigm. This not only assumes the possibility of knowing cause and effects, but also the ability to intervene effectively and to re-structure reality according to policy aims. Two strands of knowledge dominate: a positivist faith in control over costs and benefits, and a mix of viewpoints on sustainable development. In both cases, tourism implies a confrontation between people from different cultural and / or ethnic backgrounds.
Papers which contribute to a critical assessment of paradigms, compare between Western and Non-western paradigmatic frameworks, introduce new paradigmatic perspectives or even relate to post-paradigm approaches to international tourism are welcome. It is also the intention to build upon the discussions held during the RC50 in-between meeting in Wageningen.
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
Jaap Lengkeek jaap.lengkeek@wur.nl
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 2: Tourism, Globalisation and Destinational Society
Mobility, flux, complexity, hybridity: these are some of the key terms with which social scientists conceptualise the changes brought about by globalisation. How do these terms relate to the experience and practice of contemporary international tourism, one of the major forces for the mass movement of people and imagery across cultural and geographical borders?
As a social field, tourism is unique in that it is the only 'industry' that involves the export/import of temporary, migrant consumers. Relying as it does on place-based attractions and activities, tourism is rooted in the particularity of localities, their social and physical landscapes, and their ability, in an increasingly competitive market, to attract these migrant consumers -- the 'guests'. Yet we should not forget that for every guest, there is also a 'host', and workers in the tourism and hospitality sectors may well be as mobile as the tourists: both are held together in a complex and interlinked global network of traveling people, products, and images.
This ISA World Congress of Sociology session seeks to explore the interpenetration of the global and the local, mobility and locality, within the social field of tourism. In particular, we are concerned with the relationship between space, place, movement, and cultural identity: if all is flux and change, what theoretical models do we have with which to grasp the 'local' in this mobile, 'globalised' world? How are specific destinations 'produced' and 'consumed'? How do we now conceptualise notions of 'home', 'away', identity and belonging? How do tourism activities relate to other practices of transnational engagement and imagination? Can we speak of the emergence of a global 'tourist culture'? Does globalisation necessarily lead to the cultural and social homogeneity of destinations?
Fruitful arenas for exploration of these and related themes might include: the changing character of host-guest relations; tourist subjectivity; what happens when 'the toured' also become tourists; the relationship between tourism, migration, and other forms of international travel; the construction and experience of localities as destinations; the nature and perception of goods and services offered for consumption; the global patterns of work and employment that enable destinations to function; and the emergence of novel cultural forms in and through the touristic encounter.
We welcome both empirical and theoretical papers that critically engage these and related issues. Contributions from all disciplines will be considered.
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
Kevin Meethan k.meethan@plymouth.ac.uk
Naomi Leite leite@berkeley.edu
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 3: The Social Construction of the Tourist Experience
The first thing that comes to mind are Cohen’s seminal “modes” of tourist experience with their phenomenological perspective (Cohen 1979). Probably a more productive starting point is the definition of tourist experience in the Encyclopedia of tourism by Cohen himself:
“Experience is the inner state of the individual, brought about by something which is personally encountered, undergone or lived through. Tourist experiences are such states engendered in the course of a journey, especially a sightseeing tour or a vacation. The principal sociopsychological problem in the study of tourist experiences is their distinctive quality and their relation to the experiences of everyday life” (Cohen 2000).
Proposals may build upon and develop existing approaches, for example Pearce’s Travel Career Ladder (1998) and Ryan’s Tourist Experience (2002). Also, new perspectives which explore the affective dimension of the tourist experience would be particularly welcome. For example, the tactile and sensory features of the tourists’ experiences which might include smell, touch, and ideas of speed and comfort. As such potential topics may include different dimensions related to tourists’ experiences: for example pleasure and happiness.
Different forms of tourists’ experiences alongside those of sightseeing may also be considered, for example hedonistic tourism and the development of club and drug cultures. As such links to the idea of everyday life may also be made as in the example of McCabe’s (2002) ethnomethodological perspective.
Papers that contribute to knowledge of the role of institutions in the social construction of tourists’ experiences are also welcome, as would papers that situate the tourists’ experiences within the production and consumption of social spaces, including also the intertwining with other forms of contemporary mobility.
Diverse new approaches not mentioned here and which would contribute to the success of this section are also welcome.
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
Guili Liebman Parrinello liebman@uniroma3.it
Hazel Andrews h.andrews@londonmet.ac.uk
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 4: Tourism & Postmodernity
During the 1950s and 1960s, new epistemologies emphasising the constructed nature of everyday life challenged established understandings of “truth”, "nature" and "being". Within this context, a "post-modern condition" has been defined by the disarticulation - or 'liquidification' - of established systems of signifiers and signified, and the implosion of meaningful webs of relationships, which subtended collective understandings of “reality”.
In this sense, post-modernity called into question the categories with which to think social reality, including nation-state, society, ethnicity, family, gender, race, etc. At the same time, it appeared to enable individuals to playfully create and experiment with new semiotic compositions; compositions that inspire novel ways of relating to the world at large.
In the context of tourism, post-modern tourists were said to embrace the ludic as they participate and immerse in various sign-worlds. This supposedly new form of tourist was said to be informed of the constructed – or “artificial” – nature of the worlds touristically encountered. Academic discourse implicitly often opposed these so-called “post-tourists” to “modern” tourists seeking “authenticity,” in or beyond a particular 'solid' tourism setting.
Typically, two different perspectives characterize the relationship between post-modernity and post-tourism. The first holds that changes in the production and consumption of tourism have actually taken place during the past thirty years, with tourism becoming a metaphor for the disappearance of absolute values and beliefs as well as the postmodern fluidity of social life.
The second contends that tourism as a practice has not changed fundamentally since the Grand Tour, but that its observation and interpretation has adopted new conceptual and ideological perspectives. In this sense, 'post-tourism', and the broader conceptual framework of post-modernity, become symbolic of the epistemological rupture taking place since the 1950s, rather than of objective social change.
In this context, it is particularly striking that the anthropological study of tourism emerges in the early 1970s, almost in chorus with the generalised critique by North American anthropologists of colonial ethnography and ethnographic writing. In turn, the analogy between the touristic and the ethnographic search for the “Other” may actually both be manifestations of the same phenomenon. While the anthropological approach to tourism was initially quite illuminating, the subsequent division of “tourism” into systems of categories and sub-categories diluted most attempts to understand it in a holistic way.
From a scientific perspective, a distinction is to be made between changing academic fashions and understandings of the world, and sociologically observed facts and social practices. This certainly unfashionable perspective aims to refocus tourism studies on historically informed empirical research and the generation of concepts grounded in significant samples of fieldwork data, rather than in 'coffee house avantgardism'.
The aim of papers to be presented during this panel is to address three central questions:
(a) Beyond conceptualisations of post-modernity, what can alternative approaches (world system theory, cultural economics, symbolical interactionism, ethno-linguistics, psychoanalysis, etc.) contribute to a deeper understanding of tourism?
(b) Which methodological frameworks and approaches have proven to be pertinent in making sense of the social fact of tourism?
(c) Seen as a form of narrative, to what extent can academic discourse in tourism studies escape intellectual fashions and metaphorical images? (e.g. Newton's gravity; Maxwell's thermodynamic; Einstein's relativity; Bohr's complementarity)
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
David Picard d.picard@shu.ac.uk
Stephanie Hom Cary shcary@berkeley.edu
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 5: Ethics of tourism and sustainable tourism
One of the most noticeable impacts of the last two decades of global neo-liberal policies - leading towards what we know as globalisation - has been the bifurcation of opinion on the benefits of this process. On one hand, those champions who see globalisation as a means to achieve global development goals. On the other hand those who believe globalisation to erode poorer regions ability for self-determination and sustainable development opportunities.
In the context of tourism development these debates have tended to polarise around the latter position as researchers have through various eras: criticised the unsympathetic and ugly nature of much mass tourism development; argued successfully that tourism in a development context can lead to a reification of colonial-era power structures, and; that tourism can reinforce the divisions between rich and poor. And yet, in an increasingly mobile world, in which the velocity of communication and ease of market entry for businesses on the one hand and an abundance of tourists on the other, there is often very little choice but to ‘ride the bus’, develop tourism and compete in the world’s largest industry. Much recent research has focused on the need to develop community based, locally determined, sustainable tourism. However there appear to be critical obstacles to overcome to achieve these goals which vary across political, social and economic regions. The concept of ‘responsible’ tourism appears to have dissolved at a time when the velocity and force of modernisation, business practices and competition is reaching ‘white-heat’. It appears there is no time to reflect and consider the impacts of actions and therefore development decisions may be made in a moral vacuum or the pressures of modernisation are simply too fierce.
There are genuine attempts made by researchers, policymakers, industries, local development agencies, tour operators and individual tourists to attain real and substantial sustainable, equitable benefits from tourism for communities and places. As Smith and Duffy (2003) lucidly identify, the ambiguities associated with neoliberal modernist patterns of political, economic and social development has an ethical dimension. There is consequently a current situation in which there is an increasingly moral dimension to tourism activities: the ethics of tourism development per se; the ethics of tourists and their moral values; the ethical dimension in any drive to develop tourism at the expense of other forms of development and the ethics of sustainability.
There are many diverse and contradictory dimensions both negative and positive. For example, there has been a recent thrust from advocates of a ‘pro-poor’ approach to tourism – i.e. one which can provide net benefits to poor people through improved linkages between tourism sectors and contribute to poverty alleviation (Ashley, Roe and Goodwin: 2001).
In another context on the ethics of sustainability, there is an important sense of public ethic and role for local governance, local economies, and indigenous self-management by host communities in counter-imperialistic strategies. In effect, these and other strategies can provide a revitalised social ethics of association amongst minority and marginal groups in the developed and developing nations of global civil society. These strategies can be used to overcome the highly commodified, normalising and marketised nature of globalised Western tourism (cf Wearing and Wearing, 1999). Such strategies can constitute a new politics of Third Space tourist cultures driven by the sustainability agenda.
The rise in resistance to global capitalism utilises the same technologies and modes of organisation to create new internationalised forms of political, environmental and social activism – which in turn has created new types and forms of tourist e.g. what Butcher (2003) defines as the ‘new moral tourist’. Butcher’s critique of self-righteous moralising by rich white eco-tourists connects with earlier arguments about dubious benefits of small scale, so-called ‘responsible’ tourism (Wheeler: 1989). However, there are competing viewpoints. In the histories of self/other ethics and human rights there is some evidence to support the possibility of the evolvement of tourist perspectives which incorporate the cultural otherness and race identity. An incorporation that we are suggesting re-inscribes as third space and moves beyond a self that is clearly delineated from others to one that empathises with the ‘we’ of the local African-American, Australian Aboriginal or the Pacific Islander community (Wearing, 1998, p. 185). Some tourists have begun to make active commitments to other communities through travel for volunteering tourism, travel for aid work, famine and poverty relief – a debate which can extend to a discussion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ tourists (e.g. McCabe and Stokoe: 2004). Often these new forms of tourism have been made possible through the same technologies and processes which have led to current divisions.
We aim to promote an intense discussion of current issues in terms of ethics of tourism and sustainability through soliciting theoretical or empirically based critical papers in relation to the following topics:
Does an ‘ethics of sustainability’ in tourism allow a revitalised social ethics which brings to the fore minority and marginal groups in globalised Western tourism?
What is the new politics of Third Space tourist cultures in an agenda set by ethical concerns and does it make tourism more sustainable?
How can this be applied to the established mass tourism developments/resorts or as an alternative to an increased proliferation of new ‘destinations’ in remote regions?
In the histories of self/other ethics and human rights there is some evidence to support the possibility of the evolvement of tourist perspectives which incorporate the cultural otherness and race identity - are we seeing this evolve in the tourism industry?
What are the moral, ethical, cultural and environmental implications of an expansion of these ethics and the increase in mobility of a mass population say through the budget airline sector?
What is the global cultural impact of increased mobility in terms of migration and national, regional and local identities?
Do new touristic forms influence a sense of global ethics, moral responsibility and sustainability? What role does tourism play in such movements?
Language and rhetoric of sustainability and ethics: promotional language, tourists talk, political rhetoric versus development realities – who is a ‘good’ tourist and why?
We are interested in critical discussion papers along these or related themes on ethics and sustainability issues.
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
Stephen Wearing S.Wearing@uts.edu.au (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
and
Scott McCabe s.mccabe@shu.ac.uk (Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Sheffield
Hallam University, UK)
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
Message from Dr Simon Milne with regard to
Session 6, Technologies and Tourism
Dr Simon Milne
Professor of Tourism &
Director - NZTRI www.tri.org.nz
Faculty of Applied Humanities
Auckland University of Technology
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1020
New Zealand
Phone: (64 9) 921 9245
Cell phone: 021 671 232
E-mail: simon.milne@aut.ac.nz
About Session 6: Technologies and Tourism
We already have a full session of four papers - drawing on a range of researchers work from Canada, Sth Pacific and NZ. Given the small number of presentation options in a single session i thought a general call for papers might be a 'little over the top'....
Carolyn Nodder is assisting with the organisation of the session.
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.
please CC your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
ISA World Congress of Sociology
Durban, South Africa
23 – 29 July 2006
RC50 on International Tourism announces call for papers under:
Session 7 [Joint sessions RC03 and RC50]: Community Development and Tourism
Increasingly researchers are trying to understand the roles, mechanisms, and impacts of experience in and on social life. Perceptions, sensations, life-styles, opinions, and perspectives infuse everyday life, but holidays provide researchers an important opportunity to explore these elements of experience. When on holidays, people express their identity most clearly through their choice of tourist destination and vacation experience. This session invites interdisciplinary contributions on the importance of experience (in particular sensorial and emotive) on community development, in general, and, in particular, on tourists, and tourism. Some of the issues relating to community development include: How can polysensorial tourism influence local people’s perception of reality? Which is the role of senses and emotions in tourist experience? Is it possible for senses to become a pull factor, a resource for tourism? How do these different experiences shape the development of the destination community? Are there any initiatives showing the benefit to communities offering polysensorial tourist experiences? Which are the most sensorial and emotional resorts? Can polysensorial and emotive tourism be considered a form of post-tourism? Which is their role in development of social relations inside and among natives and tourists?
Please in the first instance send abstracts of no more than 300 words to both:
Ada Cattaneo ada@adacattaneo.com
Please Cc your abstracts to
Ning Wang lpswn@zsu.edu.cn
Jan te Kloeze jan.tekloeze@wur.nl
The deadline for abstracts is 12th December 2005.
The intention is to have pre-circulated completed papers to the co-ordinators by end March 2006. See further announcements.
The session co-ordinators are actively seeking publication routes for the paper submissions to this session.