It has been repeatedly argued that we live in precarious times: the proliferation of as diverse risk scenarios and real life events as those of terrorism, environmental degradation, war, famine and uncontrolled migration flows across the world has suggested to some that the ‘end of tourism’ might be nigh, not just as an academic thematic, but also a socio-political reality. Both ends of this debate merit careful consideration: the ‘end of tourism’ was promoted to an analytical (epochal) tool in the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ in the first decade of the 21st century. Hannam (2008) has explained that tourism ends in new global environments of mobilities in the sense that we cannot separate it from other forms of spatio-temporal and functionally differentiated movement any more, such as migration, business travel, technological services, skills and the like (Hannam et. al. 2006; Urry 2007; Sheller 2014). In this respect, it is better to consider phenomena of nomadology – that is, the movement of travellers as collective or individual nomads (sub cultural enclaves, fan groups on the move, backpackers but also businessmen and women) to a paradigmatic shift in contemporary societies (Maffesoli 1996; D’Andrea 2006; Thulemark and Hauge 2014). To further facilitate such nomadological mobilities, telecommunication industries have developed blended forms of tourism such as those used in film and Internet business (Tzanelli 2010, 2013, 2015), whereas independent business has also designed digital sites and elevated web surfing into a form of touring the world in global markets (Germann Molz 2012, 2013).
Yet, mobilities discourse can also be applied to observations that tourism ends where terrorism and other forms of social conflict thrive (Korstanje and Clayton 2012; Korstanje, Tzanelli and Clayton 2014; Korstanje, Skoll and Timmerman 2014).Of course, in different ways, Tzanelli (2011) and Korstanje, Skoll & Timmermann (2015) have argued that terrorism and the history of modern leisure are inextricably intertwined. Nomadology is also part of the contemporary politics of risk and terror (as in terrorism, strikes, protests and social movements, especially of the anarchist end). But Gale’s (2008:9) conviction that with global events such as 9/11 and 7/7 we might have reached the end of tourism as we know it, in that institutions (e.g. policing and surveillance mechanisms controlled by nation-states), independent organisations and tourists focus less on leisure itineraries and more on managing mobility risks (Beck 1992, 2002, 2009) merits careful consideration.
Additional evidence on environmental pollution and poverty induced by climate change across the world seconds this thesis, reminding us that nature can demote whole regions and countries to the ‘Third World’ or aggravate already existing social problems such as tribalist divisions, civil conflicts and ‘warlordism’ (Urry 2011). Because such risk scenarios and realities also circulate in global social biospheres such as those of tourism/leisure, they affect tourist resorts and markets. This call for papers invites social science and interdisciplinary scholars to engage with these nomadological debates in various combinations.
Additional evidence on environmental pollution and poverty induced by climate change across the world seconds this thesis, reminding us that nature can demote whole regions and countries to the ‘Third World’ or aggravate already existing social problems such as tribalist divisions, civil conflicts and ‘warlordism’ (Urry 2011). Because such risk scenarios and realities also circulate in global social biospheres such as those of tourism/leisure, they affect tourist resorts and markets. This call for papers invites social science and interdisciplinary scholars to engage with these nomadological debates in various combinations.
References:
Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society. London: Sage.
Beck, U. (2002) 'The terrorist threat: World risk society revisited', Theory, Culture & Society, 19 (4): 25-56.
Beck, U. (2009) World at Risk. Cambridge: Polity.
D'Andrea, A. (2006)'Neo-nomadism: a theory of post-identarian mobility in the global age', Mobilities, 1 (1): 95-119.
Gale, T. (2008) 'The end of tourism or endings of tourism?', in Burns, P. and Novelli, M. (eds) Local-Global Connections. Wallingford: CABI, 1-14.
Germann Molz, J. (2012) Travel Connections. Abingdon: Routledge.
Germann Molz, J. (2013)'Social networking technologies and the moral economy of alternative tourism: The case of Couchsurfing.org', Annals of tourism research, 43 (3): 210-30.
Hannam, K. (2008) 'The end of tourism? Nomadology and the mobilities paradigm', in J. Tribe (ed.) Philosophical Issues in Tourism. Clevedon: Channel View.
Hannam, K., Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2006) 'Mobilities, immobilites and moorings', Mobilities, 1 (1): 1-22.
Korstanje, M.E. Skoll, G, and Timmermann, F. (2015) 'Terrorism, tourism and worker unions: The disciplinary boundaries of fear',International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, 2 (1): 1-12.
Korstanje, M.E. and Clayton, A. (2012) 'Tourism and terrorism: conflicts and commonalities', Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4 (1): 8 - 25.
Korstanje, M.E., Tzanelli, R. and Clayton, A. (2014) 'Brazilian World Cup 2014, terrorism, tourism and social conflict', Event Management, 18 (4): 487-491.
Maffesoli, M. (1996) The Time of the Tribes. London: Sage.
Sheller M (2014a) 'Sociology after the mobilities turn', in P. Adey, D. Bissell, K. Hannam, P. Merriman and M. Sheller (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities. London and New York: Routledge, 45-54.
Thulemark, M. and Hauge, A. (2014) 'Creativity in the recreational industry: Re-conceptualization of the Creative Class theory in a tourism-dominated rural area', Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 18 (1): 87-105.
Tzanelli, R. (2010) The Cinematic Tourist: Explorations in Globalization, Culture and Resistance. New York & Abingdon: Routledge.
Tzanelli, R. (2011) Cosmopolitan Memory in Europe's 'Backwaters': Rethinking Civility. New York &Abingdon: Routledge.
Tzanelli, R. (2015) Mobility, Modernity and the Slum: The Real and Virtual Journeys of Slumdog Millionaire. New York & Abingdon: Routledge.
Urry, J. (2007) Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity.
Urry, J. (2011) Climate Change and Society. Cambridge: Polity.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Connections between nomadologies (from travel or fan subcultures to cyber-terrorist cultures), new technologies and culture industries (e.g. social media, film, the internet)
- Dark tourism/thana tourism and slum tourism as digital and/or embodied forms of tourism
- The role of digital mobilities in enabling different forms of embodied nomadologies
- Theoretical and/or empirical connections between tourism nomadologies and creative/cultural industries
- Effects of terrorism or climate change in tourist destinations
- Practices of consumption, ideologies of consumerism and terrorism
- Risk perceptions, policy planning and tourism
- Tourism in the Middle East
- Tourism and the Muslim World.
- Connections between terror, protests, strikes, social movements and places/sites of pilgrimage
Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 15 September, 2016
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