[URBANTH-L] CFP: HYPER-TOURISM: RE-THINKING TRADITION IN TOURISM AND TRAVEL (Thailand)

[Angela Jancius]

HYPER-TOURISM: RE-THINKING TRADITION IN TOURISM AND TRAVEL
Hyper-Traditions Conference

Tenth Conference of the International Association for the Study of 
Traditional Environments (IASTE). Thammasat University - Bangkok, Thailand. 
December 15 - 18, 2006

As part of this international conference, the Centre for Tourism and 
Cultural Change is, in association with IASTE, inviting papers which address 
the way that the concept of tradition is being transformed in and by tourism 
and tourists, around the three axes of the conference - From Simulated Space 
to "Real" Tradition, Hyper-Traditions and "Real" Places, and Identity, 
Heritage, and Migration.

The concept of tradition is embedded in the very nature of travel and 
tourism. Long standing customs and patterns of behaviour, together with 
tangible manifestations of continuity, consistency and inheritance, form an 
essential part of the tourist search for difference and distinction dressed, 
to varying extents, in romanticised narratives. In this vein, tradition has 
become strategically and tactically mobilised within the global political 
economy, circulating as images, imaginings and ideals that fuel tourism 
development and touristic practice. Furthermore, over the years tourism 
itself as a product and project of modernity has generated its own 
traditional practices which allows us to speak of 'tourist identity' and 
which feeds into conventional binaries of tourists and the 'other' and, 
'here' and 'there'. At the same time tourism constantly challenges and 
changes our received notions of the traditional through its constant 
abstractions, reductions and packaging of social realities, and through 
their consumption as experiences. What does the transformation of tradition 
mean for the tourist? Do we have to re-configure tourism as a way of 
experiencing hyper-traditions?

We welcome perspectives on such questions from a wide range of disciplines 
including those of: anthropology, sociology, history, folkloric studies, 
literature and critical theory, linguistics, human/cultural geography, 
psychology, and urban studies etc. Indicative themes of interest include:

· The real, unreal and surreal tourist destination;
· Touristic experiences of hyper-heritages;
· Dislocation of tourists from the travel process;
· Mindscapes and mediascapes - communicating hyper-traditions to tourists;
· Celebrating the changing of tradition - festivals, tourism and 
hyper-events;
· The new economies of hyper-tourism.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Interested colleagues are invited to submit a short, one-page abstract, not 
to exceed 500 words. Do not place your name on the abstract, but rather 
submit an attached one-page curriculum vitae with your address and name. All 
authors must submit an electronic copy of their abstract and short CV via 
e-mail. Abstracts and CVs must be placed within the body of the e-mail, and 
also as attachments.

E-mail this material to Professor Mike Robinson - mike.robinson at shu.ac.uk no 
later than February 17, 2006. All papers must be written and presented in 
English. Following a blind peer review, papers may be accepted for 
presentation in the conference and/or publication in the conference Working 
Paper Series.

Contributors whose abstracts are accepted must preregister for the 
conference, pay registration fees of $375 (which includes a special 
discounted $25 IASTE membership fee), and prepare a full-length paper of 
20-25 double-spaced pages. Registered students may qualify for a reduced 
registration fee of $175 (which includes a special discounted $25 IASTE 
membership fee). All participants must be IASTE members. Please note that 
expenses associated with hotel accommodations, travel, and additional 
excursions are not covered by the registration fees and have to be paid 
directly to the designated travel agent. Registration fees cover the 
conference program, conference abstracts, and access to all conference 
activities including receptions, keynote panels, and a short tour of nearby 
sites.

For scholars and researchers interested in the study of traditional 
environments, the far-reaching transformations brought by globalization 
require not only a recalibration of the idea of tradition but also a 
substantial repositioning within a shifting intellectual environment. While 
it is clear that contemporary forces of globalization have proven 
transformative, the transformations have largely defied prediction. Contrary 
to the expectations that globalization would act as a totalizing force, 
somehow erasing "tradition" and challenging "cultural coherence," 
investigations reveal that globalization may more accurately be said to have 
destabilized the idea of tradition as a repository of authentic ideas and 
customs. In this way, it has intensified the process of de-linking identity 
and place and, by extension, intensified the deterritorialization of 
tradition: a process that has challenged the idea of tradition as an 
authentic expression of a geographically specific, culturally homogenous and 
coherent group of people. However, this process is not entirely new. Prior 
moments of globalization, such as colonialism, have also brought about the 
deterritorialization of tradition and provide useful points of comparison to 
the present moment. Prior IASTE conferences have explored the effects of 
globalization upon understandings of space and place; inquired into the 
post-traditional condition; analyzed the implications of migration, 
diasporas, and emerging hybridities; and asked whether or nor the millennium 
marked the "end of tradition." For the 2006

International IASTE Conference, participants are invited to investigate a 
new dimension of the transformation of tradition: hyper-traditions.

For further details please visit the Conference website:
http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/research/iaste/2006%20conference.htm

Professor Mike Robinson
Chair of Tourism Studies
Director, Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change
Sheffield Hallam University
Howard Street
Sheffield
S1 1WB
UK

Tel. +44 (0) 114 225 2928
Fax. +44 (0) 114 225 3343


Email: mike.robinson at shu.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://www.tourism-culture.com or 
arch.ced.berkeley.edu/research/iaste/2006%20conference.htm