[URBANTH-L]CFP: Tourism & Globalization

[Naomi Leite]

** Apologies for cross-posting. Please distribute widely. **

CALL FOR PAPERS

TOURISM, GLOBALIZATION, AND DESTINATIONAL SOCIETY

A session to be held at the 16th ISA World Congress of Sociology
Sponsored by Research Committee 50 (International Tourism)
Durban, South Africa, July 23-29, 2006

Organisers: Kevin Meethan, kmeethan at plymouth.ac.uk; Naomi Leite, 
leite at berkeley.edu

Mobility, flux, complexity, hybridity: these are some of the key terms 
with which social scientists conceptualize the changes brought about by 
globalization. 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, 'globalized' world? How 
are specific destinations 'produced' and 'consumed'? How do we now 
conceptualize 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 globalization 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 send abstracts of no more than 300 words by December 
12, 2005, to BOTH:

Kevin Meethan (Sociology, University of Plymouth, UK), 
kmeethan at plymouth.ac.uk
AND
Naomi Leite (Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley), 
leite at berkeley.edu