[URBANTH-L]CFP: Traditions & Transformations: Tourism, Heritage & Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa Region (Jordan)

[Angela Jancius]

Traditions and Transformations: 

Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North
Africa Region


4 - 7 April 2009, Amman, Jordan

Tourism is a well established phenomenon across the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) Region and despite political instabilities it
demonstrates remarkable resilience. As well as being a major economic
force and a key driver for development, tourism is also an important
mechanism for social exchange and identity building at both the
individual and regional/national levels. Over recent years the rate of
tourism development has increased substantively. Multi-national
investments in hotels, resort complexes and infrastructure, together
with major heritage conservation projects are catalysing significant
social changes (such as shifting patterns of labour migration and the
testing of 'traditional' values and practices), environmental changes
(at the aesthetic level and in terms of physical change), and political
changes (re-orientation of alliances and new globalised relationships). 

The aims of this major international and multi-disciplinary conference
are: To critically explore the major issues facing the MENA region with
regard to the development of tourism and its relationships with heritage
and culture; To draw upon ideas, cases and best practice from
international scholars and help develop new understandings and research
capacities regarding the relationships between tourism, heritage and
culture in the MENA Region and; To provide a major networking
opportunity for international scholars, policy makers and professionals.

CALL FOR PAPERS

In this major conference we seek to examine the phenomenon of tourism
across the Middle East and North Africa Region and its changing
relationships with heritage and culture. We wish to promote dialogue
across disciplinary boundaries and thus we welcome papers from the
following disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art and
design history, cultural geography, cultural studies, ethnology and
folklore, history, heritage studies, landscape studies, linguistics,
museum studies, political science, sociology, tourism studies and
urban/spatial planning.

Key themes of interest to the conference include:

*   Histories, mobilities, and the symbolic / political economies of tourism 

*   Tourism in the construction of places / spaces / nations

*   The role of archaeology in contemporary tourism

*   Structures / infrastructures of international tourism -
building/ architecture/ design for tourism & tourists

*   Tourism and the role of the museum

*   The conservation of heritage for tourism

*   The practices and performances of 'tradition'

*   Tourist art and art for tourists

*   Intangible heritage and its role in tourism

*   Rural and urban tourism practices

Please submit a 300 word abstract including title and full contact
details as an electronic file to Prof Mike Robinson
(ctcc at leedsmet.ac.uk). You may submit your abstract as soon as possible
but no later than 30th September 2008.

Conference Organisers: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds
Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, and the Council for British
Research in the Levant, Amman, Jordan. 

For further details on the conference please visit:
www.tourism-culture.com or www.cbrl.org.uk or contact us at: 

phone +44 (0) 113- 2838541 or email ctcc at leedsmet.ac.uk

 

=====

Daniela Carl
Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change
Faculty of Arts & Society
Leeds Metropolitan University
Old School Board
Calverley Street
Leeds
LS1 3ED
UK

phone +44 (0)113- 283 8541
fax +44 (0)113- 283 8544
www.tourism-culture.com