- Cultural Mobilities Research
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Leuven
Parkstraat 45, bus 3615
BE-3000 Leuven
Belgium - +32-16-320159
Noel B. Salazar
KU Leuven, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty Member
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University of Essex, Department of Psychology, AlumnusUniversity of Pennsylvania, Anthropology, Alumnus add
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Globalization, Chile, Tanzanian Studies, Dark Tourism, Anthropology of space, Actor Network Theory, and 274 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Narrative, Narrative Methods, Language and Culture, Language and Migration, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Language and Ideology, Language and Identity, Transnationalism and multiple identities, Contemporary International Migration, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Transnational migration, Anthropological Linguistics (Languages And Linguistics), Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), Anthropology of Development, Border Studies, Development anthropology, History of Tourism, Social Sciences, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Travel Writing, Critical Discourse Studies, Tourism Studies, Geography, Cultures and heritage tourism, Tourism History, Area Studies, Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Ethnohistory, Tourism Geography, Indonesian Studies, Anthropology of Mobility, Urban Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Glocalization, Applied, engaged, and public anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, Migration mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Ethnography, Media Anthropology, Social Networks, Southeast Asian Studies, Social Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Anthropology of Tourism, Historical Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Ethnolinguistics, Anthropological Linguistics, Latin American Studies, Asian Studies, African Studies, Social Geography, Human Geography, Social Theory, Public Sociology, Critical Theory, Sociolinguistics, International Development, Mobility/Mobilities, Cultural Heritage, World Cultural Heritage, Nationalism, History of Nationalism and Nation-Building, Nationalism And State Building, Cosmopolitan Studies, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Qualitative Methods, Hospitality, Yogyakarta, Authenticity, Destination Image, Globalization and Glocalization, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Intangible Culture (Anthropology), Standardization, Cultural Anthropology, Mixed Methods Research, Ethnographic Methods, Mixed Methods, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Mixed Methodologies, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Mixed Methods (Methodology), Research Methods and Methodology, Qualitative methodology, Borderlands Studies, Media Studies, Africa, Culture, Media and Cultural Studies, Transnational Labour Migration, Ideology, Indonesia, Migration, Migration Studies, Identity (Culture), Ethnographic fieldwork, Migration (Anthropology), Transnationalism, Social Mobility, Cultural Tourism, Resistance (Social), Representation of Others, Sustainable Communities, Community Development, Sustainable Tourism, Tanzania, Power (social), Tour Guiding, Sustainable Development, Meaning, Meaning Making, Global Tourism, Appropriation, Heritage Value, Value Theory, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, Social sciences and values, Social Representations, Values, Economic Anthropology, International Economics, Development Economics, Economics, Construction of Meaning, Cultural World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Enlistment, Latin American politics, Latin American History, Chilean Social and Cultural History, Latin American and Caribbean History, Immobility, 20th Century Chile, History of Chile, Chilean Politics, Stereotypes and Prejudice, Tourism (Anthropology), Stereotypes, Concepts, Seduction, Critical Discourse Analysis, The Fantastic, Creativity, Cliché, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), People, Tourism, The tourist experience, Space and Place, Social Identity, Archaeology, Heritage Conservation, Stakeholders, Cultural Geography, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Comparative Methods, East Africa, Asian History, European History, Research Methodology, Cosmopolitanism, Narrative and interpretation, History, African History, Indian Ocean World, Ethnic Studies, Development Studies, Hospitality Management, Case Study Research, Hospitality Studies, Storytelling, Tourist Behavior, Discourse Analysis, Other, Representations, Postcolonial Literature, Encyclopaedic Literature, Representation Theory, Postcolonial Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Vacations, Holidays, Tourism Community Development, Sustainable Tourism Development, Bussiness success, Transnational Communities, Transnational Networks, Belgium, Tourism Development, Success (Organisational), Non Profits, Peace and Conflict Studies, Developing Countries, Political Economy, Inequality (Economics), Feminist Theory, Identity politics, Marxism, Social Interaction, Social Development in developing countries, NGOs (Anthropology), Social Psychology, Human Development, Psychology, Rural Development, Motivation (Psychology), Ancient borders and borderlands (Archaeology), Yogyakarta Indonesia, Arusha, Zanzibar, Hybridity, Scape, Nomadism, Nomadic Peoples, Third Space, Third space (Humanities), Tim Ingold, History of Science, Cultural Studies, Racial and Ethnic Politics, Cultural History, Popular Culture, Race and Ethnicity, Ethnicity, Cultural Theory, Indigeneity, Intangible cultural heritage, Unesco, Maasai, Anthropology of Borders, Cultural Memory, Cultural Encounters, Mobility and Ethics (Anthropology), Heritage Studies, Theme Parks, Imagination, Anthropology of locality, Museum Studies, Museum Anthropology, Museology, Museum, Imagineering, Cultural Heritage Management, Localization, Theme Park, Museums and Identity, Imagination and migration, Anthropology of Media, Historia de Chile, Historia Contemporánea de Chile, Literatura chilena, Chilean Literature, Chilean Spanish, Turismo, Chilean History, Chilean Diaspora, Academic Mobility, Mobility, Mobilities Studies, Chilean Political Economy, Movilidad y Transporte, Movilidad Humana, Buen Vivir, Plurinacionalidad, Migraciones Internacionales, Temporary migration, National Identity, Post-Colonialism, Michel Foucault, Environmental Sustainability, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), ANTHROMOB, and Noel B Salazar edit
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I obtained my PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and am currently Professor at the Departm... moreI obtained my PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and am currently Professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven (Belgium). From 2011 until 2015 I served as Executive Committee member of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (including as President of EASA) and from 2013 until 2018 as Vice President and from 2018 until 2023 as Secretary-General of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES).
My research interests include anthropologies of mobility and travel, the local-to-global nexus, discourses and imaginaries of Otherness, heritage, cultural brokering, cosmopolitanism, and endurance. I have published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and newspaper articles on these topics in the USA, the UK, India, Indonesia, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Estonia, and Colombia.
I am the author of Momentous Mobilities (2018, Oxford: Berghahn), Envisioning Eden (2010, Oxford: Berghahn) and co-editor of Pacing Mobilities (2020, Oxford: Berghahn), Methodologies of Mobility (2017, Oxford: Berghahn), Mega-event Mobilities (2016, London: Routledge), Keywords of Mobility (2016, Oxford: Berghahn), Regimes of Mobility (2014, New York: Routledge) and Tourism Imaginaries (2014, Oxford: Berghahn). I founded CuMoRe (Cultural Mobilities Research) and the EASA Anthropology and Mobility Network.
I am on the editorial boards of, among others, Applied Mobilities, Mobile Culture Studies Journal, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and the International Journal of Tourism Anthropology. In addition, I am on UNESCO’s and UNWTO’s roster of consultants, and I am an expert member of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee and the UNESCO-UNITWIN Network 'Culture, Tourism and Development'. edit
This book critically analyses the concept of endurance from different theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and empirical perspectives. The first part of the book takes a closer look at endurance, by examining how it relates to... more
This book critically analyses the concept of endurance from different theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and empirical perspectives.
The first part of the book takes a closer look at endurance, by examining how it relates to concepts such as resilience, perseverance, and perdurance. By analysing how these concepts overlap but differ, we reach a better understanding of what constitutes endurance. Furthermore, endurance is reconfigured as a as a mundane aspect of everyday life. The latter part of the book focuses on embodied experiences of endurance, more specifically on endurance running, walking, and (physical) performances. The different contributions focus on the meanings, values, and attributes that people ascribe to endurance in various socio-cultural contexts. The book uncovers practices, environments, and discourses in which endurance is applied and manifested, from drought-affected communities in rural Australia to professional endurance runners in Ethiopia as well as migrants in Greece and performance acts in domestic spaces in the United Kingdom and beyond.
This book will be of interest to scholars of movement sciences, sports studies, mobilities, leisure studies, and resilience studies.
The first part of the book takes a closer look at endurance, by examining how it relates to concepts such as resilience, perseverance, and perdurance. By analysing how these concepts overlap but differ, we reach a better understanding of what constitutes endurance. Furthermore, endurance is reconfigured as a as a mundane aspect of everyday life. The latter part of the book focuses on embodied experiences of endurance, more specifically on endurance running, walking, and (physical) performances. The different contributions focus on the meanings, values, and attributes that people ascribe to endurance in various socio-cultural contexts. The book uncovers practices, environments, and discourses in which endurance is applied and manifested, from drought-affected communities in rural Australia to professional endurance runners in Ethiopia as well as migrants in Greece and performance acts in domestic spaces in the United Kingdom and beyond.
This book will be of interest to scholars of movement sciences, sports studies, mobilities, leisure studies, and resilience studies.
Research Interests:
Resilience, Anthropology of Sport, Resilience (Sustainability), Interdisciplinary Studies, Anthropology of Sports, and 14 moreMovement Science, Human Movement Science, Endurance running, Endurance, Endurance sport, Sports Anthropology, GRIT, Perseverance, Endurance Performance, Endurance In Performance Art, Human Movement Sciences, ANTHROMOB, Physical Endurance, and Social Science of Sports
Turning the attention to the temporal as well as the more familiar spatial dimensions of mobility, this volume focuses on the momentum for and temporal composition of mobility, the rate at which people enact or deploy their movements as... more
Turning the attention to the temporal as well as the more familiar spatial dimensions of mobility, this volume focuses on the momentum for and temporal composition of mobility, the rate at which people enact or deploy their movements as well as the conditions under which these moves are being marshalled, represented and contested. This is an anthropological exploration of temporality as a form of action, a process of actively modulating or responding to how people are moving rather than the more usual focus in mobility studies on where they are heading.
Research Interests:
Grounded in scholarly analysis and personal reflection, and drawing on a multi-sited and multi-method research design, Momentous Mobilities disentangles the meanings attached to temporary travels and stays abroad and offers empirical... more
Grounded in scholarly analysis and personal reflection, and drawing on a multi-sited and multi-method research design, Momentous Mobilities disentangles the meanings attached to temporary travels and stays abroad and offers empirical evidence as well as novel theoretical arguments to develop an anthropology of mobility. Both focusing specifically on how various societies and cultures imagine and value boundary-crossing mobilities “elsewhere” and drawing heavily on his own European lifeworld, the author examines momentous travels abroad in the context of education, work, and spiritual quests and the search for a better quality of life.
Research Interests:
European Studies, Anthropology, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Travel Writing, and 76 moreMobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage, Anthropology of Mobility, Educational Anthropology, Indonesian Studies, Academic Mobility, Transformation, Tourism (Anthropology), Travel Behaviour, Indonesia, Travel & Tourism, Border Crossing, Chile, Tanzanian Studies, Work and Labour, Socio-cultural theory, Travel Literature, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Tanzania, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Education, Social Mobility, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Mobilities Studies, Belgium, Study Abroad, Maasai, Student Mobility, Mobility, Travel and Tourism Industry, Travel, Anthropology of Labour, Traveling, Study Abroad Programs, Antropología cultural, Pilgrimage and Tourism, Boundaries, Antropología Social, Antropología, Sustainable Mobility, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, International student mobility, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Travel and Tourism, Studying Abroad, Immobility, Travelling, Antrophology, End of the world, Boundary-Crossing, Mobility/immobility, Travail, Anthropology and Education, Travel Behavior, Anthropological Theory, Tourism Antropology, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Anthropologie Sociale Et Culturelle, Short-Term Study Abroad, Anthroplogy of Tourism, Anthropological Debates, Antropology, Antropologia, Anthropology of Labor, Mobility and Immobility, End of the World Mythology, ANTHROMOB, Maasai Culture, Labour anthropology, and Musing
Research into mobility is an exciting challenge for the social sciences that raises novel social, cultural, spatial and ethical questions. At the heart of these empirical and theoretical complexities lies the question of methodology: how... more
Research into mobility is an exciting challenge for the social sciences that raises novel social, cultural, spatial and ethical questions. At the heart of these empirical and theoretical complexities lies the question of methodology: how can we best capture and understand a planet in flux? Methodologies of Mobility speaks beyond disciplinary boundaries to the methodological challenges and possibilities of engaging with a world on the move. With scholars continuing to face different forms and scales of mobility, this volume strategically traces innovative ways of designing, applying and reflecting on both established and cutting-edge methodologies of mobility.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methodology, and 47 moreEthnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Interpretive research methodology, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnographic fieldwork, Cultural Anthropology, Mixed Methods Research, Ethnographic Methods, Research methods (Anthropology), Comparative Methods (Anthropology), Experimental Fieldwork (Anthropology), Qualitative Research Methods (Anthropology), Ethnography (Research Methodology), Mobilities Studies, Ethnographic Methods (Anthropology), Mobile Methods, Mobilities, Contemporary anthropological methods and theory, Experimental Anthropology, Research Methodology (social sciences), Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Mobility Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Ethnographic Fieldwork, Qualitative Methods, Anthropological Method & Theory, Ethnography Research methodology, Anthropology; Qualitatve Research Methods; Innovation, Embodied Ethnographic Methods, Social Science Research Methods, Ethnographic Approach/methods, Methodologies and Methods in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic methodologies, Ethnographic Methodology, Advanced Research Methodology in Social Sciences, Anthropological Methods, AnthropologicalTheory and Methodology, Methodology of Social Sciences, Mobile Methodologies, Methodology: Ethnography, Ethnography & Qualitative Methods, ANTHROMOB, Anthropological Theory and Methodology, and ethnography and methodology
Mobility studies emerged from a postmodern moment in which global ‘flows’ of capital, people and objects were increasingly noted and celebrated. Within this new scholarship, categories of migrancy are all seen through the same analytical... more
Mobility studies emerged from a postmodern moment in which global ‘flows’ of capital, people and objects were increasingly noted and celebrated. Within this new scholarship, categories of migrancy are all seen through the same analytical lens. This book builds on, as well as critiques, past and present studies of mobility. In so doing, it challenges conceptual orientations built on binaries of difference that have impeded analyses of the interrelationship between mobility and stasis. These include methodological nationalism, which counterpoises concepts of internal and international movement and native and foreigner, and consequently normalises stasis. Instead, the book proposes a ‘regimes of mobility’ framework that addresses the relationships between mobility and immobility, localisation and transnational connection, experiences and imaginaries of migration, and rootedness and cosmopolitan openness. Within this framework and its emphasis on social fields of differential power, the various contributors to this collection ethnographically explore the disparities, inequalities, racialised representations and national mythscapes that facilitate and legitimate differential mobility and fixity. Although they examine nation-state building processes, the anthropological analysis is not confined by national boundaries.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, International Regimes, Globalization, Ethnography, and 30 moreMobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cosmopolitan Studies, Anthropology of Mobility, Language and Power, Cosmopolitanism, Symbolic Boundaries, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Ethnographic fieldwork, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic Methods, Social Mobility, Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Cultural Globalization, Boundaries, Mobilities, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Methodological Nationalism, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Immobility, Anthropology of migration, Stasis, Mobility/immobility, Regime Types, Noel B Salazar, Anthropology of Migrations, and ANTHROMOB
As tourism service standards become more homogeneous, travel destinations worldwide are conforming yet still trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctiveness. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia... more
As tourism service standards become more homogeneous, travel destinations worldwide are conforming yet still trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctiveness. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Arusha, Tanzania, this book offers an in-depth investigation of the local-to-global dynamics of contemporary tourism. Each destination offers examples that illustrate how tour guide narratives and practices are informed by widely circulating imaginaries of the past as well as personal fantasies of the future. The author reveals how local guides in Yogyakarta and Arusha insure the continued reproduction and localization of tourism fantasies, but they also use the privileged contact with foreigners to foment their own imaginations of "paradise on earth." The book focuses on the human mechanics of globalization, cosmopolitan mobility, and the role of the imaginary in giving people’s lives meaning, demonstrating essential ways in which ethnographies of tourism and travel contribute to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates about the local–global nexus.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, European History, Geography, Cultural Geography, and 39 moreArea Studies, African Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Social Sciences, Globalization, Research Methodology, Ethnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Narrative, Glocalization, Social and Cultural Anthropology, African History, Anthropology of Mobility, Indonesian Studies, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Narrative and interpretation, Cosmopolitanism, Asian History, East Africa, Localization, Comparative Methods, Tanzanian Studies, Imagination, Cultural Anthropology, Antropología Social, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Antropology Social, Antropologia Social, Scape, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Imaginaries are representational assemblages of the past, ways to understand and(re)create history and projections of the self and others that ground ever-changing identities. They are embedded in the cultural meaning-making systems of... more
Imaginaries are representational assemblages of the past, ways to understand and(re)create history and projections of the self and others that ground ever-changing identities. They are embedded in the cultural meaning-making systems of each society. However, researchers and practitioners within the heritage field have not directly analysed heritage as a product-producer of imaginaries or conceived heritage itself as an
imaginary. This conceptual article proposes imaginaries as a useful analytical lens to critically study heritage. Imaginariesenable us to uncover how people assume and signify heritage from various positions and experiences. Furthermore, this article aims to shed light on how alternative imaginaries grounded in non-western ontologies enable us to rethink heritage meaning and practice in the encounters and conflicts between different systems of meaning in daily life. More concretely, we identify three significant contributions of using imaginaries as a lens for the study of heritage. To illustrate our theoretical propositions, we incorporate empirical examples from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Ecuadorian Andes.
imaginary. This conceptual article proposes imaginaries as a useful analytical lens to critically study heritage. Imaginariesenable us to uncover how people assume and signify heritage from various positions and experiences. Furthermore, this article aims to shed light on how alternative imaginaries grounded in non-western ontologies enable us to rethink heritage meaning and practice in the encounters and conflicts between different systems of meaning in daily life. More concretely, we identify three significant contributions of using imaginaries as a lens for the study of heritage. To illustrate our theoretical propositions, we incorporate empirical examples from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Ecuadorian Andes.
Research Interests:
Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Intangible cultural heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), and 14 moreCultural Anthropology, Intangible Heritage, Heritage, Cultural Heritage and Ethnology/anthropology Research, Museum and Heritage Studies, Anthropology, Heritage, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Socio-cultural Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, Critical Heritage Studies, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO world heritage, UNESCO, intangible heritage, and ANTHROMOB
The Special Issue pursues a two-fold objective: (1) fostering a grounded debate on the analytical fruitfulness of the neo-nomad concept to describe historically situated empirical phenomena, and (2) exploring the sociopolitical... more
The Special Issue pursues a two-fold objective: (1) fostering a grounded debate on the analytical fruitfulness of the neo-nomad concept to describe historically situated empirical phenomena, and (2) exploring the sociopolitical consequences of these allegedly alternative, although possibly highly individualistic, forms of living for collective projects, such as communities, welfare, and the state.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Nomadism, and 14 moreMobilities Studies, Mobility, Mobilities, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Mobility Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Human Mobility, Self-Actualization, SELF ACTUALISATION, ANTHROMOB, Neo-Nomadism, Digital Nomadism, neo-nomads, and mobility and the humanities
Places are key to our understanding of human mobilities and the other way around. Places and mobilities exist in a co-constitutive relationship, making it difficult to disentangle one from the other. Research across disciplines needs to... more
Places are key to our understanding of human mobilities and the other way around. Places and mobilities exist in a co-constitutive relationship, making it difficult to disentangle one from the other. Research across disciplines needs to pay more sustained attention to how places are mobile and to how mobilities are emplaced. It is crucial to undertake both endeavours simultaneously. Privileging the former, as happens in globalization studies, leads to de-essentialized conceptualizations of place, questioning the traditional taken-for-granted bond between peoples and territories, but it also creates a disconnect between high-level theory and lived experiences. Favouring the latter, on the contrary, as happens in more micro-scale and phenomenological approaches, leads to embodied understandings of human movement, but often overlooks the influential local-to-global power relations and structures that are implicated in local(ized) practices and processes. Based on a critical reading of existing scholarship and drawing on ethnographic and emic understandings of mobility-related issues in various contexts around the globe, this article develops conceptual as well as methodological insights about the multiple ways in which places are mobile and mobilities are emplaced. This includes anthropological reflections on displacement and immobilization. I end by offering suggestions for future transdisciplinary research on the place-mobility nexus.
Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Space and Place, Anthropology of Mobility, Language, Space and Place, Anthropology of space, and 14 moreExperiences of Place and Space, Phenomenology of Space and Place, Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Mobilities, Anthropology of Space and Place, Mobility Studies, Human Mobility, Immobility, Emplacement, Mobility/immobility, Anthropological Theory, The Language of Place and Space, and ANTHROMOB
This reflexive article combines recent as well as established insights from various anthropological subfields and beyond to address a world that is increasingly on the move, and this in ways that we do not fully understand, let alone... more
This reflexive article combines recent as well as established insights from various anthropological subfields and beyond to address a world that is increasingly on the move, and this in ways that we do not fully understand, let alone manage or control. As such, the text involves a critical thinking exercise that focuses on the importance of processes of motion and communication, ranging from planetary and even cosmic mobilities to micro-movements and exchanges at the cellular and atomic levels. Taking this broader context of mobility and change into account in the Anthropocene Epoch automatically leads to a serious overhaul of how “the human” has traditionally been understood and the vital role of what we have come to term “the environment”. This radical rethinking has obvious consequences for a human-centered scientific discipline like anthropology in terms of ontologies and epistemologies, theories and methodologies. I end the article by offering some concrete suggestions on how anthropology, as a holistic discipline without clear-cut boundaries, can position itself in a world that is currently undergoing very rapid changes.
Research Interests:
Communication, Mobility/Mobilities, Sociology of Knowledge, Anthropology of Knowledge, Environmental Anthropology, and 15 moreAnthropology of Mobility, Indigenous Knowledge, Anthropology of Communication, Anthropocene studies, Communication Studies, Relatedness, Anthropocene, Mobility Studies, Non-Anthropocentric Knowledge, Culture and the Anthropocene, The Anthropocene, Environment, ANTHROMOB, Other-than-humans, and More-than-Human and Multispecies Studies
In this article, I discuss immobility as both an analytical concept and a lived experience. I review contemporary scholarly understandings of immobility and disentangle the unavoidable relational dynamics with its positive linguistic... more
In this article, I discuss immobility as both an analytical concept and a lived experience. I review contemporary scholarly understandings of immobility and disentangle the unavoidable relational dynamics with its positive linguistic opposite, mobility. Concrete illustrations from migration studies and the global coronavirus crisis illustrate how immobility, at various scales of analysis and experience, is not only theoretically but also socially, economically, and politically relevant. Together with the in-depth review of existing scholarship, these examples confi rm that the conceptual distinction made between immobility and mobility is often purely heuristic. In the messiness of people's lives, mobility and immobility are not mutually exclusive categories but, rather, two dynamic sides of the same coin.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Cultural Theory, Migration, and 13 moreMigration (Anthropology), Relationality, Literature Review, Mobility, Experience, Immobility, Anthropology of migration, Mobility/immobility, Theories of Relationality, Mobility and Immobility, ANTHROMOB, Inmovilidad, and Immobilité
Historically, recreational running grew partially with the aim of controlling the side effects of “sedentary” lifestyles and physical inactivity, i.e., obesity, heart diseases and other health risks. This trend developed in the 19th... more
Historically, recreational running grew partially with the aim of
controlling the side effects of “sedentary” lifestyles and physical
inactivity, i.e., obesity, heart diseases and other health risks. This
trend developed in the 19th century, with the emergence of middle
classes who had the requisite time and resources to exercise during
their leisure time. Recreational running became popular in the
1970s, within the context of renewed societal attention to fitness
and physical health, which developed in countries such as the
USA and spread quickly to other industrialised nations. Based on
ethnographic research, I discuss in this article the crucial role that
mobile tracking devices, as markers of an active lifestyle, play in
keeping runners (im)mobile. I focus on how the data generated by
GPS sports watches are widely shared and used by runners and their
followers in general as well as specialised social media platforms. I
disentangle why, paradoxically, these mobility technologies make
exemplary mobile people more immobile, because many hours
are spent behind electronic device screens to communicate (and
seeking social approval for) their mobile performances. I place my
critical anthropological analysis of recreational running and mobility
technologies within the context of wider societal trends related to
(self-)discipline.
controlling the side effects of “sedentary” lifestyles and physical
inactivity, i.e., obesity, heart diseases and other health risks. This
trend developed in the 19th century, with the emergence of middle
classes who had the requisite time and resources to exercise during
their leisure time. Recreational running became popular in the
1970s, within the context of renewed societal attention to fitness
and physical health, which developed in countries such as the
USA and spread quickly to other industrialised nations. Based on
ethnographic research, I discuss in this article the crucial role that
mobile tracking devices, as markers of an active lifestyle, play in
keeping runners (im)mobile. I focus on how the data generated by
GPS sports watches are widely shared and used by runners and their
followers in general as well as specialised social media platforms. I
disentangle why, paradoxically, these mobility technologies make
exemplary mobile people more immobile, because many hours
are spent behind electronic device screens to communicate (and
seeking social approval for) their mobile performances. I place my
critical anthropological analysis of recreational running and mobility
technologies within the context of wider societal trends related to
(self-)discipline.
Research Interests:
Sociology of Sport, Mobility/Mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, Mobile Technology, Running, and 15 moreTechnology and Mobility, Mobilities Studies, Mobile Technology Applications, Sports, Mobility, Endurance running, Mobility Studies, Sport Studies, Immobility, Mobility/immobility, Long Distance Running, Mobility enhancement technologies, Socio Cultural Studies In Sport, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, and ANTHROMOB
Purpose-As tourism destinations grapple with declines in tourist arrivals due to COVID-19 measures, scholarly debate on overtourism remains active, with discussions on solutions that could be enacted to contain the excessive regrowth of... more
Purpose-As tourism destinations grapple with declines in tourist arrivals due to COVID-19 measures, scholarly debate on overtourism remains active, with discussions on solutions that could be enacted to contain the excessive regrowth of tourism and the return of ''overtourism''. As social science holds an important role and responsibility to inform the debate on overtourism, this paper aims to understand overtourism by examining it as a discursive formation. Design/methodology/approach-The paper explores recurring thematic threads in scholarly overtourism texts, given the phrases coherence as a nodal-point is partially held in place by a collective body of texts authored by a network of scholars who have invested in it. The paper uses interdiscursivity as an interpretative framework to identify overlapping thematic trajectories found in existing discourses. Findings-Overtourism, as a discursive formation, determines what can and should be said about the self-evident ''truths'' of excessive tourist arrivals, the changes tourists bring to destinations and the range of discursive solutions available to manage or end overtourism. As the interpellation of these thematic threads into scholarly texts is based on a sense of crisis and urgency, the authors find that the themes contain rhetoric, arguments and metaphors that problematise tourists and construct them as objects in need of control and correction. Originality/value-While the persistence of the discursive formation will be determined by the degree to which scholarly and other actors recognise themselves in it, this paper may enable overtourism scholars to become aware of the limits of their discursive domain and help them to expand the discourse or weave a new one.
Research Interests:
Discourse Analysis, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Travel & Tourism, and 14 moreTourism and Language, Tourism (Languages and Linguistics), Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Critical Tourism Studies, Tourism Discourse Analysis, Tourism Discourse, Tourism and Hospitality Studies, Interdiscursivity, Anthroplogy of Tourism, Discourse Analysis (DA), Linguistic Tourism, ANTHROMOB, overtourism, and Overtourismus
Taken together, the various articles that make up this special issue offer a variety of analyses in different social, cultural, material, political, economic, and historical settings from which to understand how discrimination, and... more
Taken together, the various articles that make up this special issue offer a variety of analyses in different social, cultural, material, political, economic, and historical settings from which to understand how discrimination, and segregation are formed in contexts of high mobility and intense labour, with a special focus on processes of racialization, but not excluding others like age and gender. The papers explore how mobility and labour converge to create and perpetuate racial categories, cultural profiling, and forms of exclusion. The contributions include both contemporary and historical studies, and their geographies encompass the arctic, the Middle East, Asia, the Atlantic, Europe and the seas themselves. These include analyses of labour lifestyles in arctic working camps, the racialization of Filipino workers in container ships, or the racialization of Chinese workers in Singapore, the livelihoods of expats between Europe and Dubai and how they cope with different racial categories, as well as an analysis of segregation in Cyprus and Italy, the roles of age differentiation in the future of mobile labour, and a historical perspective on mobile labour in the Atlantic in the 19th century.
The main point is to show how mobility is a factor in amplifying categories of race, as well as gender and age. Mobility does not necessarily mean deleting or alleviating these. Highly mobile lifestyles, particularly in the context of labour mobilities, do not translate into a more liquid, transnational, or hybrid outset. What people do and how people move operate together to perpetuate certain categories and profiles – and, as we discussed, there are even new categories and profiles that are created by a moving lifestyle. This special issue only offers a starting point to consider and tackle these important issues.
The main point is to show how mobility is a factor in amplifying categories of race, as well as gender and age. Mobility does not necessarily mean deleting or alleviating these. Highly mobile lifestyles, particularly in the context of labour mobilities, do not translate into a more liquid, transnational, or hybrid outset. What people do and how people move operate together to perpetuate certain categories and profiles – and, as we discussed, there are even new categories and profiles that are created by a moving lifestyle. This special issue only offers a starting point to consider and tackle these important issues.
Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, Labor Migration, Transnational Labour Migration, Migrant labour, and 15 moreMobilities Studies, Anthropology of Labour, International Labour Migration, Labour migration, Geographical Labour Mobility, Mobility Studies, Labor mobility and human capital, Global Labor Migration and Immigration, Labour Mobility, International Labor Migration, Migrant Labor, Anthropology of Labor, Labor Mobility, ANTHROMOB, and Labour anthropology
Étudier la mobilité en sciences sociales n’est pas chose facile tant les interprétations de ce qui est entendu par « mobilité » divergent. Il peut être question de mobilité spatiale, physique, informationnelle, culturelle, sociale ou... more
Étudier la mobilité en sciences sociales n’est pas chose facile tant les
interprétations de ce qui est entendu par « mobilité » divergent. Il peut être question de mobilité spatiale, physique, informationnelle, culturelle, sociale ou matérielle, pour n’en citer que quelques-unes. Cette complexité s’est avérée dans l’élaboration même de ce numéro thématique et, de surcroît, avec l’idée que celle-ci devienne mode de vie. En effet, qu’est-ce qu’un mode de vie mobile ? Si nous avions une idée relativement claire de ce que cela signifiait, travaillant sur ce sujet depuis plusieurs années, nous nous sommes aperçus au fur et à mesure que de nombreuses variantes et nuances provenant de conceptions différentes permettaient de questionner l’idée que nous en avions et, ainsi, de la faire évoluer. Il nous a donc fallu réfléchir ce numéro autrement, en nous servant de ces divergences pour saisir toute la complexité de ce qu’est un mode de vie mobile. La proposition qui est faite ici relève plus d’un laboratoire réflexif sur la mobilité comme mode de vie — ce qui est nommé en anglais lifestyle mobilities — à partir de cas d’études variés que d’une volonté de catégorisation en vue de démontrer tout le potentiel de recherche de ce champ d’études relativement récent. Elle découle également d’une volonté d’offrir un premier numéro en français sur cette thématique et ainsi de suggérer une terminologie en français de notions fréquemment utilisées dans la littérature scientifique anglophone ayant trait à ces modes de vie mobiles.
interprétations de ce qui est entendu par « mobilité » divergent. Il peut être question de mobilité spatiale, physique, informationnelle, culturelle, sociale ou matérielle, pour n’en citer que quelques-unes. Cette complexité s’est avérée dans l’élaboration même de ce numéro thématique et, de surcroît, avec l’idée que celle-ci devienne mode de vie. En effet, qu’est-ce qu’un mode de vie mobile ? Si nous avions une idée relativement claire de ce que cela signifiait, travaillant sur ce sujet depuis plusieurs années, nous nous sommes aperçus au fur et à mesure que de nombreuses variantes et nuances provenant de conceptions différentes permettaient de questionner l’idée que nous en avions et, ainsi, de la faire évoluer. Il nous a donc fallu réfléchir ce numéro autrement, en nous servant de ces divergences pour saisir toute la complexité de ce qu’est un mode de vie mobile. La proposition qui est faite ici relève plus d’un laboratoire réflexif sur la mobilité comme mode de vie — ce qui est nommé en anglais lifestyle mobilities — à partir de cas d’études variés que d’une volonté de catégorisation en vue de démontrer tout le potentiel de recherche de ce champ d’études relativement récent. Elle découle également d’une volonté d’offrir un premier numéro en français sur cette thématique et ainsi de suggérer une terminologie en français de notions fréquemment utilisées dans la littérature scientifique anglophone ayant trait à ces modes de vie mobiles.
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Tourism mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, TOURISME, Tourism Mobility, and 15 moreAnthropologie, Lifestyle Mobilities, Critical Tourism Studies, Mobilité, Mobilités, Les Mobilités, Anthropologie Sociale Et Culturelle, Lifestyle Mobility, Nomades, Mode De Vie, ANTHROMOB, Mobile lifestyle, Rv Rental, Mobilités Internationales, and anthropologie tourism
In this short article, I offer a personal reflection on my own mobilities and how these influenced my academic interest in human movement and brought me in contact with mobility studies and Transfers. On the special occasion of the... more
In this short article, I offer a personal reflection on my own mobilities and how these influenced my academic interest in human movement and brought me in contact with mobility studies and Transfers. On the special occasion of the journal's tenth anniversary, I look back at how the journal has fared. I remind readers of the initial plans and expectations that were expressed by the founding editors, with a focus on issues that are important from an anthropological point of view. I complement this critical and constructive analysis with a brief look into the future. In which direction should Transfers ideally be moving? What are the implications of societal developments such as the ones surrounding the coronavirus pandemic for the journal and its thematic focus?
Research Interests:
Languages, Testimony, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Interdisciplinarity, and 15 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Critique, Cultural Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies, Mobility, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Immobility, International Circulation of Ideas and Experts, Mobility/immobility, ANTHROMOB, Circulation of Ideas in Intelectual and Cultural History, Circulation of Ideas, Covid-19, and Coronavirus COVID-19
While situations of crisis are a cause of great distress for those affected, particularly the most vulnerable ones, they offer scholars unique opportunities to study people and society because such circumstances intensify existing... more
While situations of crisis are a cause of great distress for those affected, particularly the most vulnerable ones, they offer scholars unique opportunities to study people and society because such circumstances intensify existing processes, revealing what works well and where there are problems. The 2020 coronavirus outbreak was not any different. From a mobility studies perspective, one of the most striking things that occurred during the global pandemic were the changed patterns of who and what moved when, where, and how. Authorities across the planet (re-)classified the most common mobilities along ?essential? and ?non-essential? axes, the latter category temporarily being restricted or even forbidden. This article offers a critical assessment of such crisis regimes of (im)mobility, taking Belgium and its capital city Brussels as an illustrative case study. I reflect on the mobility implications of COVID-19 mitigation measures for citizens and others, highlighting how the condition of lockdown led to (sometimes unexpected) alterations in people?s daily mobilities. The anthropological analysis shows that an exceptional situation, such as the one witnessed in 2020, clearly brings to the fore which types of (im)mobility are valued by various stakeholders in society, which ones are discursively framed as essential (mainly from a socio-economic perspective) and which ones are experienced as existential (contributing to people?s general well-being).
Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, Crisis Management, Essentialism, Essentialism, Philosophy, and 15 moreMobility, Crisis, Existentialism, Mobilities, Existence, Mobility Regimes, Existentialism In Philosophy, Regimes of Mobility, ANTHROMOB, Theory of Essentialism, Covid-19, Coronavirus COVID-19, Coronavirus (COVID-19), COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and Coronavirus Pandemic
In this commentary piece, I combine insights gained from the various contributions to this special issue with my own research and understanding to trace the (dis)connections between, on the one hand, (post-)nationalism and its underlying... more
In this commentary piece, I combine insights gained from the various contributions to this special issue with my own research and understanding to trace the (dis)connections between, on the one hand, (post-)nationalism and its underlying concept of belonging and, on the other hand, cosmopolitanism and its underlying concept of becoming. I pay special attention to the human (im)mobilities mediating these processes. This critical thinking exercise confirms that the relationship between place, collective identity and socio-cultural processes of identification is a contested aspect of social theory. In the discussion, I suggest four points to be addressed in the future if we want to make existing theories about post-national formations and processes of cosmopolitanization more robust against the huge and complex challenges humankind is facing.
Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Cosmopolitan Studies, Anthropology of Mobility, Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and 13 moreMobilities Studies, Postnationalism, Belonging, Sense of belonging, Identity and Cosmopolitanism, Mobility Studies, Nationalism and anthropology, Nationalism, Anthropology, Identity, Post-Nationalism, Actually Existing Cosmopolitanism, Belonging and Citizenship, Ideological Becoming, and ANTHROMOB
Migration and tourism are interconnected forms of human mobility, similar but different. It is impossible to draw neat boundaries around the two because they constantly intersect, sometimes within one and the same individual. Tourism and... more
Migration and tourism are interconnected forms of human mobility, similar but different. It is impossible to draw neat boundaries around the two because they constantly intersect, sometimes within one and the same individual. Tourism and migration often fuel each other, thereby raising two interesting questions that are rarely asked, namely ‘What would tourism be without migration?’ and ‘What would migration be without tourism?’. In significant ways, sustainability is directly related to the ‘mobility’ aspects of tourism-related labour. However, in tourism studies, research on mobility often focuses merely on tourist movements. In general, there has been little detailed examination of the mechanisms that comprise and (re)produce the border-crossing movements of tourism labourers. If there is little attention to tourism-related labour mobilities, considerations related to the sustainability
implications of worker mobility are highlighted even less often. Indeed, despite the anthropocentric focus of sustainability as a concept, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the aspect of social sustainability. As the COVID-19 crisis shows, when it comes to the nexus between migration and tourism, the current and future challenges are huge.
implications of worker mobility are highlighted even less often. Indeed, despite the anthropocentric focus of sustainability as a concept, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the aspect of social sustainability. As the COVID-19 crisis shows, when it comes to the nexus between migration and tourism, the current and future challenges are huge.
Research Interests:
Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism mobilities, Tourism Geography, Labor Migration, Sustainable Tourism, and 15 moreTourism Studies (Sustainability), Transnational Labour Migration, Migrant labour, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism Mobility, International Labour Migration, Labour migration, Tourism Labour, Tourism and migration, Tourism and migration, Tourism Sustainability, Tourism-migration, ANTHROMOB, Tourism and Migration Nexus, and Migration and Tourism
It is hard to talk about human mobilities without taking into consideration how mobility is being shaped by and shaping processes of imagination. The key concepts of imagination and mobility have rich and complex genealogies. The matter... more
It is hard to talk about human mobilities without taking into consideration how mobility is being shaped by and shaping processes of imagination. The key concepts of imagination and mobility have rich and complex genealogies. The matter is even made more complex because there are many related concepts surrounding them. Imagination is
associated with images, imagery and imaginaries, whereas mobility is connected to movement, motion and migration (not to mention its imagined opposite, immobility). To be able to see the forest for the trees, I focus in this critical reflection on a discussion of the concepts themselves. One of the analytical advantages of mobility studies, a
relatively novel field of study, is that it shows us how imagination (a dynamic psychological process) and imaginaries (products of the imagination) are crucial for very different forms of human (im)mobility.
associated with images, imagery and imaginaries, whereas mobility is connected to movement, motion and migration (not to mention its imagined opposite, immobility). To be able to see the forest for the trees, I focus in this critical reflection on a discussion of the concepts themselves. One of the analytical advantages of mobility studies, a
relatively novel field of study, is that it shows us how imagination (a dynamic psychological process) and imaginaries (products of the imagination) are crucial for very different forms of human (im)mobility.
Research Interests:
Psychology, Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, and 15 moreAnthropology of Mobility, Cultural Psychology, Culture, Imagination, Social Imaginaries, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Mobilities Studies, Anthropology of Imaginary, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Mobility Studies, Human Mobility, Immobility, Theories of Imagination, Theories of Mobility and Inequality, and ANTHROMOB
This special issue is a reflection by tourism scholars on the initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world, with travel and tourism being among the most significant areas to bear those impacts. However, instead of an analysis of... more
This special issue is a reflection by tourism scholars on the initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world, with travel and tourism being among the most significant areas to bear those impacts. However, instead of an analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism places and sectors, as is the emphasis for many other journal special issues this year, the papers in this issue focus on visions of how the pandemic
events of 2020 are contributing to a possibly substantial, meaningful and positive transformation of the planet in general, and tourism specifically. This is not a return to a ‘normal’ that existed before – but is instead a vision of how the world is changing, evolving, and transforming into something different from what it was before the 2020 global pandemic experience. Comments from the guest editors for this special issue
are individually identified in this introduction editorial.
events of 2020 are contributing to a possibly substantial, meaningful and positive transformation of the planet in general, and tourism specifically. This is not a return to a ‘normal’ that existed before – but is instead a vision of how the world is changing, evolving, and transforming into something different from what it was before the 2020 global pandemic experience. Comments from the guest editors for this special issue
are individually identified in this introduction editorial.
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism mobilities, Travel & Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, and 15 moreTourism, Travel, Geography of Tourism, The Future of Travel and Tourism, Travel Studies, Future Development Trends In Tourism, Tourism and social-cultural transformation, Current and Future Trends in Tourism and Hospitality., Tourism Sustainability, ANTHROMOB, Transformational tourism, Covid-19, Coronavirus COVID-19, Pandemic Coronavirus COVID19, and COVID-19 PANDEMIC
We know relatively little about the human dynamics of crises, partially because it is so difficult to plan research on them. While crisis situations cause great distress for those affected (particularly those who are most vulnerable),... more
We know relatively little about the human dynamics of crises, partially because it is so difficult to plan research on them. While crisis situations cause great distress for those affected (particularly those who are most vulnerable), they do offer unique opportunities to study people and society. I speak from experience.
Research Interests:
Si bien la antropología y el turismo no siempre han tenido una relación feliz, la antropología del turismo ha alcanzado la mayoría de edad, y esto en diferentes tradiciones académicas. Desde hace medio siglo, este subcampo de la... more
Si bien la antropología y el turismo no siempre han tenido una relación feliz, la antropología del turismo ha alcanzado la mayoría de edad, y esto en diferentes tradiciones académicas. Desde hace medio siglo, este subcampo de la antropología desempeñó un papel importante en el establecimiento de los estudios de turismo. Aquí trazo esta historia, analizando el influyente papel en los volúmenes editados de Anfitriones e Invitados para dar forma a la relación entre la antropología y el turismo. Me acerco a cómo algunas ideas novedosas no fueron recogidas, mientras que otras empezaron a llevar sus propias vidas. Este ejercicio nos ayuda a comprender mejor la posición actual de la antropología del turismo dentro de los estudios de antropología y
turismo, así como a identificar las direcciones futuras. Esto incluye el reconocimiento de que no hay un solo canon, sino múltiples antropologías del turismo. La antropología como disciplina tiene importantes contribuciones que hacer al estudio del turismo. Ofrece un enfoque holístico para el análisis crítico del turismo a través de su marco comparativo y la capacidad de unir varias escalas, reconociendo la interconexión intercultural de los ámbitos económico, ambiental y social. La pregunta que pide una respuesta es cómo los antropólogos deben tratar la implicación de la disciplina en el turismo contemporáneo alrededor del globo.
turismo, así como a identificar las direcciones futuras. Esto incluye el reconocimiento de que no hay un solo canon, sino múltiples antropologías del turismo. La antropología como disciplina tiene importantes contribuciones que hacer al estudio del turismo. Ofrece un enfoque holístico para el análisis crítico del turismo a través de su marco comparativo y la capacidad de unir varias escalas, reconociendo la interconexión intercultural de los ámbitos económico, ambiental y social. La pregunta que pide una respuesta es cómo los antropólogos deben tratar la implicación de la disciplina en el turismo contemporáneo alrededor del globo.
Research Interests:
Imaginário, Antropología cultural, Imaginarios sociales, Antropología Social, Turismo, and 15 moreAntropología, Turismo e Antropologia, Imaginário social, História do Turismo, Antropologia Y Turismo, Turismo Cultural, Imaginários turísticos, Antropologia Social y Cultural, Antropología del turismo, Antropología social y cultural, TEORIA TURISTICA, ANTHROMOB, Historia del turismo, turismo y movilidades, and antropologia del turismo
The terror of the neoliberal markets and the terror of politics both threaten academic freedom – sometimes subtly, sometimes more openly. In this Forum, we ask our contributors to reflect on the entanglements between economy and politics... more
The terror of the neoliberal markets and the terror of politics both threaten academic freedom – sometimes subtly, sometimes more openly. In this Forum, we ask our contributors to reflect on the entanglements between economy and politics and how they contribute to the ongoing precaritisation in academia, how they shape individual researchers’ biographies and how they influence academic research. But more importantly, beyond analysis, this Forum also invites its contributors to reflect on concrete interventions from their respective positions.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Academic Freedom, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 15 moreNeoliberalism, Precarity, Precariousness, Precariat, University, Academics, Intellectual/Academic Freedom, University management, EASA, Precarious work, Precarious Work, Higher Education, Academic Labor, ANTHROMOB, academic management for Universities, Academic Precarity, and Precariousness of university teaching
The concepts of migration and mobility clearly intersect, but they are not synonyms. While migration by definition entails mobility, migration studies has privileged studying other aspects of the migratory process. This article analyzes... more
The concepts of migration and mobility clearly intersect, but they are not synonyms. While migration by definition entails mobility, migration studies has privileged studying other aspects of the migratory process. This article analyzes migratory (im)mobilities and methodologies to study them and it critically reflects on the usefulness of mobility studies as an analytical lens to study human migration. Lack of empirical data suggests that we need more systematic comparative studies of how migratory mobilities are generated in everyday life and facilitated as well as constrained by specific mobility circuits and institutions.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Sciences, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, and 15 moreMigration, Migration Studies, Theory (Anthropology), Migration (Anthropology), Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Migration Theory, Mobilities, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Mobility Studies, Human Mobility, Theories of Migration, Anthropology of migration, Anthropological Theory, and ANTHROMOB
Although most forms of tourism are, and have always been, highly mediated activities, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been given to the crucial role of human brokers in tourism.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Heritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 15 moreHeritage Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Museum Anthropology, Cultural Tourism, Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tour Guiding, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Cultural Brokerage, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, Broker, and ANTHROMOB
It is significant that this plea for a fundamental reconsideration and reorganization of knowledge production, classification and dissemination is published here and not in one of the currently dominant Anglo-Saxon journals.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Theory (Anthropology), Anthropology of Power, and 15 moreKnowledge and Power, Cultural Anthropology, Academia, Knowledge Production, World Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, World Anthropologies, Anthropological Theory, Knowledge dissemination, Power and Knowledge, (Anthropological) Production of Knowledge, ANTHROMOB, Knowledge Classification, Multivocality, and IUAES
As a concept, mobility captures the common impression that one’s lifeworld is in flux, with not only people, but also cultures, objects, capital, businesses, services, diseases, media, images, information, and ideas circulating across... more
As a concept, mobility captures the common impression that one’s lifeworld is in flux, with not only people, but also cultures, objects, capital, businesses, services, diseases, media, images, information, and ideas circulating across (and even beyond) the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphors trying to describe (perceived) altered spatial and temporal movements: deterritorialization, reterritorialization, and scapes; time-space compression, distantiation, or punctuation; the network society and its space of flows; the death of distance and the acceleration of modern life; and nomadology. Scholars have used figures of mobile people, too, from nomads to pilgrims, to describe both self and other in the social sciences and humanities for a long time. Taking the societal implications of various forms of mobility seriously and not as a given, the critical discussion of mobility concepts and figures presented here helps us to assess the analytical purchase of the conceptual perspective of mobility studies to normalize movement within the single category of “mobility.”
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, and 15 moreTheory (Anthropology), Concepts, Cultural Anthropology, Research methods (Anthropology), Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Mobilities, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Mobility Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Freedom of movement, Anthropological Theory, Anthropological Methods, New Mobilities Paradigm, and ANTHROMOB
This article provides an ethnographic analysis of domestic labor mobility among Brazilian construction workers in the context of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. We start from the premise that mobile laborers are crucial for... more
This article provides an ethnographic analysis of domestic labor mobility among Brazilian construction workers in the context of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. We start from the premise that mobile laborers are crucial for the physical development and expansion of cities. However, the importance of domestic migrants in this process is insufficiently addressed in mobility studies. Building on existing research on domestic population movements in Brazil, we argue that the current generation of mobile
construction workers draws on the intangible and material infrastructure generated by previous generations of migrants to enable novel kinds of (permanent) labor mobilities.
construction workers draws on the intangible and material infrastructure generated by previous generations of migrants to enable novel kinds of (permanent) labor mobilities.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Ethnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, and 62 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Brazilian Studies, Anthropology of Mobility, Olympic Social Legacies, Community As Stakeholder Within Mega Event Planning, Mega Events As Catalysts For Regeneration, Brazilian History, Urban Studies, Construction, Brazil, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Transnational and internal migration, Brazil History, Urban And Regional Planning, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Cultural Anthropology, Mega Events, Urban mobility, Internal migration, Ethnography of urban spaces, Mobilities Studies, História do Brasil, Mobility, Mega Sport Events, Anthropology of Labour, Olympic Games, Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Olympics, Mega-Events, Antropologia Urbana, Geographical Labour Mobility, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Olympic Studies, Do mega events really benefit the local residents?, Urban Ethnography, Mega events and legacy, Megaeventos Esportivos, Lessons Learnt from Mega Projects and Mega Events, Mega-Events and Urban Regeneration, Labor mobility and human capital, Mega Sporting Events, Impacts of Mega Events, Labour Mobility, Mobile Ethnography, Megaevento, Megaeventos, Mega Event, Labour Market Mobility, Sports Mega Events, Mobility (Internal and International Migration), Megaevents, Anthropology of Labor, Mega Events In Contemporary Brazil, Sociology of Sport Mega-events, Mega-Sports Events, Labor Mobility, ANTHROMOB, Mega Sports Event, Labour anthropology, and Labour anthropoogy
以中国的度假游客为研究对象,分析传统精英文化对当代精英人士旅游行为、思想观念与态度的影响,以及中国季节性旅游行为呈现出来的新的时代特征和文化内涵。探讨在社会历史语境下,近年的政治变革如何重 塑度假旅游目的地,以及旅游实践在中国文化中的重要性。基于人类学视角对云南省丽江市的度假游客进行定性 研究,民族志调查结果显示出中国度假旅游模式与西方学术文献资料中记载的其他地区具有惊人的相似性及预期 差异性。
Research Interests:
Chinese Studies, China Tourism, Chinese Language and Culture, China, Anthropology of China, and 19 moreChina studies, Contemporary China, Chinese history (History), Seasonality, Mandarin, Chinese tourism culture, Mandarin Chinese, Chinese tourism, Tourism in China, China Study, Tourism Seasonality, Mandarin Language, Second Home Tourism, Lifestyle Mobility, Chinese Tourists, China Tourism/hotel Businesses, Bahasa Mandarin, Seasonality In Tourism, ANTHROMOB, and Chinese Anthropology
This conversation considers some of the disciplinary divides and anxieties surrounding contemporary research on media and mobility through a discussion of linkages between these two research fields and the role of non-media centric... more
This conversation considers some of the disciplinary divides and anxieties surrounding contemporary research on media and mobility through a discussion of linkages between these two research fields and the role of non-media centric focuses on media across the disciplines. The conversation was sparked by the three-day workshop, Anthropologies of Media and Mobility: Theorizing Movement and Circulations across Entangled Fields, held in September, 2017 at The University of Cologne.1 One of the coconvenors Roger Norum sat down with a trio of leading scholars working on media and mobility, Heather Horst, David Morley, and Noel B. Salazar. They address a number of critical topics such as the nature of binary and category disruption, contextually dependent forms of media, the value of collaborative scholarship, the roles of methodologies in academic practice and the critical role played by early-career researchers in pushing various boundaries across our fields.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Media Studies, New Media, Media and Cultural Studies, Social Anthropology, and 41 moreDigital Humanities, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Media Anthropology, Research Methodology, Mobility/Mobilities, Digital Media, Mobile Media, Qualitative methodology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Collaboration, Dialogue, Digital Culture, Digital Media & Learning, Social Media, Media, Anthropology of Media, Media Ethnography, Media (Anthropology), Cultural Anthropology, Conversation, Mobile media (Communication), Digital Anthropology, Early career academics, Mobility, Interview, Digital Society, Contemporary anthropological methods and theory, Mobility Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Antropología De Los Media, Anthropological Method & Theory, Media and Culture, Anthropological Methods, AnthropologicalTheory and Methodology, Study of and History of Scholarly Disciplines, Ethnography of Media, ANTHROMOB, Antropology of Media, Antropologi Media, and Antropologia Dei Media
... a taste of the diversity of contexts in which anthropologists around the globe are studying tourism (and beyond)
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 39 moreSocial Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Tourism Geography, Cultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Anthropology, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, World Anthropology, Travel and Tourism Industry, Cultural Anthropology & Archaeology, Tourism and Hotel Management, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Turismo e Antropologia, Ethnography and Tourism, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Tourism Sector, Tourism, Social science, statistics, Anthropology, Tourism, World Anthropologies, Antropologia Y Turismo, Tourism Academia, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Antropología del turismo, Anthroplogy of Tourism, Anthropolgy of Tourism, Antropologia Do Tursmo, Tourism of Anthropolgy, ANTHROMOB, Tourism Anthropology, Antropologia Do Turismo, Anthropology of Tourisme, American Anthropologist, and Turizm Antropolojisi
This Afterword reviews the special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism on Critical Geographies, which focuses on the intricate relationships between tourism and various forms of tourism related violence. It notes the slippery and... more
This Afterword reviews the special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism on Critical Geographies, which focuses on the intricate relationships between tourism and various forms of tourism related violence. It notes the slippery and complex concept of violence in tourism, and that it is typically seen from the viewpoint of the tourist, with researchers working from the anthropological host and guests relationship model as a way of negotiating kinship and friendship between societies, with broader aspects of tourism's power play with socio-cultural change perhaps conveniently forgotten. Tourism and tourists are seen as hiding their corporate and personal violence behind destination branding, tourism imaginaries and saleable commodification. While the innovative approaches adopted by papers in the special issue are commended, two key and still outstanding issues are highlighted. Tourism researchers must find ways to share their work more effectively across all stakeholders, as well as publishing in academic journals. And researchers should become more self reflexive and critical of themselves, seeking to address the complex practical challenges for sustainable tourism thinkers and doers of creating better links between the visitors and businesses of developed societies, and the culture and communities of developing societies. In the acclaimed novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, writer Milan Kundera (1984) reflects on the insignificance of a single lifetime, thus the title, the " lightness " of being. Tourists, too, are usually imagined and portrayed as light-hearted figures, visiting peoples and places across the globe without caring much about the systemic inequalities that make their travels possible, and having, for the unaware casual observer, a light impact on their destinations. Consequently, tourism was, for a long time, not considered as a topic worthy of serious scientific inquiry. Nobody within academia wanted researchers to be confused with tourists (although I met dozens of scholar-tourists while conducting ethnographic fieldwork on tourism). Times have changed. The special issue of which this Afterword forms a part is far from being " light ". On the contrary, some may even feel that the mass of frivolous tourists is not given enough voice. The focus of this special issue is on the intricate relationship between tourism and various forms of violence. Violence is a slippery concept (Scheper-Hughes & Bourgois, 2003; Whitehead, 2004). When queried about the links between tourism and violence, most people spontaneously mention overt physical manifestations that involve (international) tourists: different types of personal crimes (including assault, battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping, homicide, and rape), or terrorist attacks (in countries such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Tunisia or Turkey). These are also the typical things that are
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 21 moreSocial Anthropology, Violence, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Violence (Anthropology), Cultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Anthropology, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Tourism and Hotel Management, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Anthropology of Violence, Sustainable/Responsible Tourism, Strategic Sustainable Tourism Policy making, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Figures of mobility, from nomads to flâneurs and tourists, have been used to describe both self and other in the social sciences and humanities for a long time. They act as a conceptual shorthand in contemporary scholarly debates,... more
Figures of mobility, from nomads to flâneurs and tourists, have been used to describe both self and other in the social sciences and humanities for a long time. They act as a conceptual shorthand in contemporary scholarly debates, allowing social theorists to relate broad-scale phenomena to the human condition. This repeated usage highlights how these figures have become 'keywords', in the sense given by Raymond Williams, which typify much of the vocabulary constituting the study of human mobility today. In this general introduction, I lay out the overall conceptual framework behind the various contributions to this special issue.
Research Interests:
Social Theory, Anthropology, Historical Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, and 36 moreSocial Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage, Anthropology of Mobility, History of Anthropology, Critical Social Theory, Exile, Contemporary Social Theory, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Cultural Anthropology, Nomadism, Mobilities Studies, Raymond Williams, Epistemology of the Social Sciences, Tourism, Mobility, Pilgrimage and Tourism, Mobilities, Flaneur, Nomads, Figure, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Introduction, Special Issue, Classical and Contemporary Social Theory, Pedestrian, Flâneur, Tourists, Noel B Salazar, Sociology of Mobility, and ANTHROMOB
作为文化掮客的导游是人类学研究中经常出现的研究对象。全球化语境下,旅游机制不断发
展,出现诸多新的旅游现象。回顾人类学文献中关于导游的研究,结合当下的旅游新机制,可以看出信息技
术背景下新的旅游文化、社交媒体及智能手机软件对旅游的影响,以及诸如Airbnb等短租网站的兴起为旅
游人类学研究带来多方面启发
展,出现诸多新的旅游现象。回顾人类学文献中关于导游的研究,结合当下的旅游新机制,可以看出信息技
术背景下新的旅游文化、社交媒体及智能手机软件对旅游的影响,以及诸如Airbnb等短租网站的兴起为旅
游人类学研究带来多方面启发
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Tourist Behavior, and 37 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Cosmopolitan Studies, Heritage Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Tourism, Travel Behaviour, Travel & Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Anthropology, Food and Tourism, Food Tourism, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism Guidance, Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Tour Guiding, Otherness, Travel, Traveling, Culinary Tourism, Food and Gastronomy Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Identity and Cosmopolitanism, Representation, Otherness, Identity, Otherness, Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical cosmopolitanism, Travel Behavior, Food Tourism/ Culinary Tourism, Tour guide, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Concept of Otherness, Travel Anthropology, Stereotypes and the conception of the otherness, Tourism Imaginaries, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Tourists have been labelled, metaphorically, in multiple ways. This includes descriptions of tourists as (secular) pilgrims in a quest of authenticity but also as travellers on a sacred journey. In contrast, the stereotypical image that... more
Tourists have been labelled, metaphorically, in multiple ways. This includes descriptions of tourists as (secular) pilgrims in a quest of authenticity but also as travellers on a sacred journey. In contrast, the stereotypical image that tourists are hedonists is related particularly (but not exclusively) with sun, sand and sex, and is associated with, sometimes unbridled, consumerism (cf. Salazar 2010a). This research probe deals with the question whether a tourist is a ‘secular pilgrim’ or a ‘hedonist in search of pleasure’. Both descriptors refer to a debate among tourism scholars that started back in the 1970s. It is important to put the question and possible answers to it within the historical context of this discussion.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 32 moreSocial Anthropology, Tourist Behavior, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage, Conceptual Metaphor, Cultural Tourism, Theory of Metaphor and Rhetorics, Travel & Tourism, Metaphor, Concepts, Cultural Anthropology, The tourist experience, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Metaphors, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Pilgrimage and Tourism, Tourist Motivation, Secular Pilgrimage, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Theories in Tourism, Cultural Studies Cultural Tourism, Hedonism, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Cultural heritage tourism, Tourism Theory, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Tourism Theories, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Like imaginaries in general, tourism imaginaries have a function: to satisfy social needs, aspirations, and fantasies. Identities of destinations and their inhabitants are endlessly (re)invented, (re)produced, (re)captured and (re)created... more
Like imaginaries in general, tourism imaginaries have a function: to satisfy social needs, aspirations, and fantasies. Identities of destinations and their inhabitants are endlessly (re)invented, (re)produced, (re)captured and (re)created in a bid to obtain a piece of the lucrative tourism pie.
Research Interests:
Sociology, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Marketing, and 35 moreTourism Management, Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Sociology of Tourism, Chinese Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Social Representations, Heritage Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Chinese Language and Culture, Travel & Tourism, China, China Going Global, Sustainable Tourism, Imagination, China studies, Social Imaginaries, Chinese outbound tourism, Cultural Anthropology, Contemporary China, Tourism, Imaginário, History of the Imaginary, Imaginarios sociales, Chinese, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Imaginário social, Imaginary, Chinese tourism culture, Social imaginary, Chinese tourism, Chinese Tourists, Tourism Imaginaries, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
The role of anthropology as an academic discipline that seeds tourism imaginaries across the globe is more extensive than generally acknowledged. In this article, I draw on ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia and Tanzania to... more
The role of anthropology as an academic discipline that seeds tourism imaginaries across the globe is more extensive than generally acknowledged. In this article, I draw on ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia and Tanzania to examine critically the recycling of long-refuted
ethnological ideas and scientific ideologies in contemporary tourism interpretation. A fine-grained analysis of local tour guide narratives and practices in two popular destinations, Yogyakarta and Arusha, illustrates empirically how outdated scholarly models, including anthropological ones, are strategically used to represent and reproduce places and peoples as authentically different and relatively static, seemingly untouched by extra-local influences.
ethnological ideas and scientific ideologies in contemporary tourism interpretation. A fine-grained analysis of local tour guide narratives and practices in two popular destinations, Yogyakarta and Arusha, illustrates empirically how outdated scholarly models, including anthropological ones, are strategically used to represent and reproduce places and peoples as authentically different and relatively static, seemingly untouched by extra-local influences.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Philosophical Anthropology, and 49 moreSociology of Tourism, Cultural Heritage, Anthropology of Knowledge, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Social Representations, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Cultural Tourism, Indonesia, The Other, The Other in Western literature, Tanzanian Studies, Sustainable Tourism, Brand Image, Imagination, Text And Image, Social Imaginaries, Representation of Others, Tanzania, Cultural Anthropology, Indonesia (Area Studies), Theories Of The Other/Postcolonialism, Imagined Community, The Monstrous and Otherness, Image, Tourism, Knowledge, Representation, Tour Guiding, Otherness, Imagineering, Imaginarios sociales, Imagined Interactions, Other, Imagined Communities, Imaginário social, Image Marketing, Identity, Otherness, Critical Discourse Analysis, Sociological and anthropological theory, Tourist Guiding, Tourist Guiding and Interpretation, Anthropological Theory, Tour guide, Imagine, History of Anthropology and Anthropological Theory, Images of the Other, Stereotypes and the conception of the otherness, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Ethnographic practice developed within anthropology as a fieldwork method and methodology that values uncertainty and the necessary reflexivity this triggers. In order to give this epistemological challenge a chance, ethnographers were... more
Ethnographic practice developed within anthropology as a fieldwork method and methodology that values uncertainty and the necessary reflexivity this triggers. In order to give this epistemological challenge a chance, ethnographers were allowed sufficient time to soak in 'Otherness'. Time was deemed indispensable to cope with the ambiguity of what exactly to look for while 'being there', in the field. Long periods of waiting were seen as a precondition for creativity and serendipity. But how to guarantee these unpredictable scientific values while various authorities and media demand from anthropologists, like from other scholars in the social sciences, to shed light on what is going on immediately. External contingencies that stress the quantitative aspects of research output often prevent anthropologists from indulging in 'slow science'. Instead, they have to write and publish quickly to keep their ethnographic account relevant before it becomes obsolete, hereby blurring the line between the anthropological quest and journalistic accounts. How do up-and-coming anthropologists think of the 'good old' long-term fieldwork? What do they consider to be the most ideal forms of ethnographic practice to address present-day research challenges and realities? Which characteristics of anthropological knowledge gathering do they find most essential? What is their ethnographic agenda for the future?
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methodology, and 14 moreEthnography, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Ethnography (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnographic fieldwork, Ethnographic Methods, Serendipity, Contemporary anthropological methods and theory, Anthropological Method & Theory, Anthropological Theory, Anthropological Methods, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
This article analyzes Chinese seasonal tourists, whose cultural practices originate from and provide new meaning to traditional Chinese elite culture. We place contemporary seasonal lifestyle tourism in China in its broader... more
This article analyzes Chinese seasonal tourists, whose cultural practices originate from and provide new meaning to traditional Chinese elite culture. We place contemporary seasonal lifestyle tourism in China in its broader socio-historical context and describe how recent political changes have reshaped the place and significance of these practices within Chinese culture at large. Grounded in an anthropological approach, we draw on an exploratory qualitative study of seasonal tourists in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, to illustrate the multiple issues at hand. Our ethnographic fieldwork findings reveal surprising similarities as well as expected differences between Chinese seasonal lifestyle tourism and comparable practices described in the scholarly literature elsewhere.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, and 23 moreMigration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Migration, Culture, Cultural Tourism, Chinese Language and Culture, China, Migration Studies, Anthropology of China, China studies, Lifestyle & Consumption, Social Imaginaries, Cultural Anthropology, Chinese history (History), Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Seasonality, Temporary migration, Lifestyle Mobilities, Lifestyle Migration, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Chile's geographical remoteness has largely defined the imaginaries people share about this Latin American country. Despite its historical image as finis terrae (“the end of the world”), migrants from all corners found their way to these... more
Chile's geographical remoteness has largely defined the imaginaries people share about this Latin American country. Despite its historical image as finis terrae (“the end of the world”), migrants from all corners found their way to these isolated peripheral lands. Thanks to new means of transport and communication, Chile nowadays is as exposed to the global circulation of people, objects and ideas as the rest of the world. Based on a combination of archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, this article traces how old (and originally foreign) imaginaries about Chile as an inaccessible island keep on influencing how contemporary Chileans participate in and frame their perceived exclusion from a plethora of new transnational mobilities, regardless of whether they have the means and freedom to cross imaginary boundaries and real borders or not. Although increasingly under outside pressure, the value of immobility remains at the core of the Chilean social imaginary, geo-politics and cultural life.
Research Interests:
History, Cultural History, Latin American Studies, Latin American Literature (Literature), Anthropology, and 71 moreHistorical Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Latin America (Comparative Politics), Latin American and Caribbean History, Mobility/Mobilities, Latin American politics, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Latin American Foreign Policy, History of Chile, Latin American literature, Chile, Latin American social movements, Latin American History, Latin American Politics (Political Science), Imagination, Latin American culture, Social Imaginaries, Cultural Anthropology, Nation Branding, Branding, Social Mobility, 20th Century Chile, Colonial Latin American History, Imaginário, Historia, Mobility, History of the Imaginary, Latin America, Colonial Latin America, Imaginarios sociales, Anthropology of Imaginary, Antropología, América Latina y el Caribe, Sociology and Anthropology, Country Branding, Imaginaire, Identidad y alteridad en América Latina, Modernidade e América Latina, Imaginário social, Historia De América Latina, America Latina, América Latina, Imaginary, Latin America and the Caribbean, Place Branding, Social imaginary, Imaginario, Historia de Chile, Historia Universal, Latinoamericana y de Chile. Geografía., Santiago de Chile, Filosofía latinoamericana y pensamiento crítico en América Latina, National imaginaries, Teoría de los imaginarios (Durand, Castoriadis), Chile After 1973, Estudios sobre las ideas. Literatura e Historia cultural en América latina. Debates intelectuales., Historia Contemporánea de Chile, Literatura Latina, Geographical Imaginaries, Antropologia do Imaginário, Advertising and Branding, Sociologie De L´imaginaire, Historia colonial de América y Chile, Imaginaire Social, Modernidad En América Latina, Historia Colonial De América Latina, Historiografía Latina, National Imaginary, El Multiculturalismo En America Latina, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Mobility studies emerged from a postmodern moment in which global ‘flows’ of capital, people and objects were increasingly noted and celebrated. Within this new scholarship, categories of migrancy are all seen through the same analytical... more
Mobility studies emerged from a postmodern moment in which global ‘flows’ of capital, people and objects were increasingly noted and celebrated. Within this new scholarship, categories of migrancy are all seen through the same analytical lens. This article and Regimes of Mobility: Imaginaries and Relationalities of Power, the special issue of JEMS it introduces, build on, as well as critique, past and present studies of mobility. In so doing, this issue challenges conceptual orientations built on binaries of difference that have impeded analyses of the interrelationship between mobility and stasis. These include methodological nationalism, which counterpoises concepts of internal and international movement and native and foreigner, and consequently normalises stasis. Instead, the issue offers a regimes of mobility framework that addresses the relationships between mobility and immobility, localisation and transnational connection, experiences and imaginaries of migration, and rootedness and cosmopolitan openness. The introduction highlights how, within this framework and its emphasis on social fields of differential power, the contributors to this collection ethnographically explore the disparities, inequalities, racialised representations and national mythscapes that facilitate and legitimate differential mobility and fixity. Although the authors examine nation-state building processes, their analysis is not confined by national boundaries.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Social Theory, Anthropology, Social Anthropology, International Regimes, and 24 moreEthnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Transnationalism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Migration, Migration Studies, Transnational migration, Cultural Anthropology, Contemporary anthropological methods and theory, Regime Theory, Regulatory Regimes, Methodological Nationalism, Immobility, Sociological and anthropological theory, Anthropology of forced migration and displacement, Anthropological theories, Anthropological Theory, Popular Regimes, Regime Types, History of Anthropology and Anthropological Theory, Noel B Salazar, Regimes of Mobility, and ANTHROMOB
It is hard to imagine tourism without the creative use of seductive as well as restrictive imaginaries about peoples and places. This article presents a conceptual framework for the study of tourism imaginaries and their diffusion. Where... more
It is hard to imagine tourism without the creative use of seductive as well as restrictive imaginaries about peoples and places. This article presents a conceptual framework for the study of tourism imaginaries and their diffusion. Where do such imaginaries originate, how and why are they circulated across the globe, and what kind of impact do they have on people’s lives? I discuss the multiple links between tourism and imagination, illustrating the overlapping but conflicting ways in which imaginings and fantasies drive tourists and tourism service providers alike. By applying this conceptual approach to international tourism in developing countries, I illustrate how the critical analysis of imaginaries offers a powerful deconstruction device of ideological, political, and sociocultural stereotypes and cliche´s.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Globalization, and 19 moreCreativity, Space and Place, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Tourism (Anthropology), Ideology, Stereotypes, Stereotypes and Prejudice, Critical Discourse Analysis, Imagination, Concepts, The tourist experience, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), The Fantastic, Tourism, People, Seduction, Cliché, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
In community-centered cultural tourism, the encounter with the ‘Other’ is central and the role of professional intermediaries in facilitating this experience crucial. Tour guides are often the only ‘locals’ with whom tourists spend a... more
In community-centered cultural tourism, the encounter with the ‘Other’ is central and the role of professional intermediaries in facilitating this experience crucial. Tour guides are often the only ‘locals’ with whom tourists spend a considerable amount of time. These tourism service workers have considerable agency in the image-building process of the peoples and places visited. They not only shape tourist imaginaries but indirectly influence the self-image of those visited too. Using ethnographic examples from long-term fieldwork in Tanzania, this paper scrutinizes how local guides handle their public role as ambassadors of communal cultural heritage and how communities variously react to their tourismifying narratives and practices. Selected modules from the well-established and award-winning Cultural Tourism Program (CTP) are taken as an instructive case study. Findings reveal multiple issues of power and resistance that help us grasp what is at the root of many community-centered tourism conflicts and how these can be overcome.
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Sustainable Communities, Cultural Heritage, Ethnography, Power (social), and 15 moreCommunity Development, Heritage Tourism, Sustainable Development, Cultural Tourism, Resistance (Social), Tanzanian Studies, Sustainable Tourism, Imagination, Environmental Sustainability, Representation of Others, Tanzania, Tourism, Tour Guiding, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
At the roots of many travels to distant destinations - be it in the context of tourism or migration – are historically laden and socio-culturally constructed imaginaries. People worldwide rely on such imaginaries, from the most... more
At the roots of many travels to distant destinations - be it in the context of tourism or migration – are historically laden and socio-culturally constructed imaginaries. People worldwide rely on such imaginaries, from the most spectacular fantasies to the most mundane reveries, to shape identities of themselves and others. These unspoken representational systems are powerful because they enact and construct peoples and places, implying multiple, often conflicting, representations of Otherness, and questioning several core values multicultural societies hold, by blurring traditional territorial, social and cultural boundaries, and creating hybrid forms. What are the contours of power, agency, and subjectivity in imaginaries of transnational mobility and the intersecting social categories those visions both reify and dissolve? Ethnographic studies of human (im)mobility provide an innovative means to grasp the complexity of the global circulation of people and the meaning-making images and ideas surrounding these movements. As a polymorphic concept, mobility invites us to renew our theorizing, especially regarding conventional themes such as culture, identity, and transnational relationships. This paper critically analyses some preliminary findings of an ongoing multi-sited research project that traces how prevalent imaginaries of transnational tourism to and migration from the “global South” are (dis)connected. I suggest anthropology has unique contributions to make to the current debate in the social sciences by ethnographically detailing how mobility is a contested ideological construct involving so much more than mere movement.
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Ethnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Migration mobilities, and 20 moreTransnationalism, Anthropology of Mobility, Indonesian Studies, Migration, Identity (Culture), Ideology, Indonesia, Tanzanian Studies, Migration Studies, Imagination, Transnational migration, Migration (Anthropology), Transnational Labour Migration, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Ethnographic fieldwork, Tanzania, Social Mobility, Tourism, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Ethnographic practice developed within anthropology as a fieldwork method and methodology that values uncertainty and the necessary reflexivity this triggers. In order to give this epistemological challenge a chance, ethnographers were... more
Ethnographic practice developed within anthropology as a fieldwork method and methodology that values uncertainty and the necessary reflexivity this triggers. In order to give this epistemological challenge a chance, ethnographers were allowed sufficient time to soak in 'Otherness'. Time was deemed indispensable to cope with the ambiguity of what exactly to look for while 'being there', in the field. Long periods of waiting were seen as a precondition for creativity and serendipity. But how to guarantee these unpredictable scientific values while various authorities and media demand from anthropologists, like from other scholars in the social sciences, to shed light on what is going on immediately. External contingencies that stress the quantitative aspects of research output often prevent anthropologists from indulging in 'slow science'. Instead, they have to write and publish quickly to keep their ethnographic account relevant before it becomes obsolete, hereby blurring the line between the anthropological quest and journalistic accounts. How do up-and-coming anthropologists think of the 'good old' long-term fieldwork? What do they consider to be the most ideal forms of ethnographic practice to address present-day research challenges and realities? Which characteristics of anthropological knowledge gathering do they find most essential? What is their ethnographic agenda for the future? This special issue offers promising young scholars a unique opportunity to address these major questions.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methods and Methodology, Research Methodology, and 13 moreEthnography, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Ethnography (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnographic fieldwork, Ethnographic Methods, Contemporary anthropological methods and theory, Anthropological Method & Theory, Anthropological Methods, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Earlier versions of the articles in this special issue were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia (2-6 December, 2009), in a session organized by Noel B. Salazar and kindly sponsored... more
Earlier versions of the articles in this special issue were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia (2-6 December, 2009), in a session organized by Noel B. Salazar and kindly sponsored by the Society for Cultural Anthropology.
Research Interests:
This special issue explores how and why conflicts arise in the development and practice of heritage tourism. From New York City’s Ground Zero and the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá in Yucatan, Mexico, to an Underground Railroad site... more
This special issue explores how and why conflicts arise in the development and practice of heritage tourism. From New York City’s Ground Zero and the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá in Yucatan, Mexico, to an Underground Railroad site in Pennsylvania and a post-industrial Massachusetts town, the authors of these four articles are concerned with identifying the often overlapping interests of stakeholders in their attempts to gain access to and guide the development of heritage resources. This issue grows out of a 2003 symposium entitled ‘Resolving Conflicts in Heritage Tourism: A Public Interest Anthropology Approach’, at the 102nd annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago, Illinois, organised by Dr Peggy Reeves Sanday, Noel Salazar, and Benjamin Porter of the University of Pennsylvania. The symposium encouraged scholars to consider heritage apart from official and ‘top-down’ definitions as well as how an emerging methodological approach, public interest anthropology, could be applied to the analysis of heritage conflicts.
Research Interests:
All papers in this special issue on public interest anthropology applied to cultural heritage and tourism were originally presented at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The panel took up the general... more
All papers in this special issue on public interest anthropology applied to cultural heritage and tourism were originally presented at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The panel took up the general conference theme, ‘Peace', in an exploration of heritage, tourism, and the ways public interest anthropology can address proliferating conflicts arising in tourism at heritage sites. Each author addresses a diverse assortment of themes intersecting with tourism, heritage, and the public interest, analyzing how groups formulate heritage identities and translate these identities into representations and special interests.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Social Anthropology, Research Methodology, and 15 moreSocial Identity, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Cultural Heritage Conservation, Heritage Conservation, Cultural Heritage Management, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Cultural Anthropology, Heritage, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Public Interest, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
I focus on the creative writing produced by Indonesian female migrant workers, specifically those working in domestic service.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Indonesian Studies, Migrant Literature, Anthropology Of Literature, and 12 moreIndonesia, Migration Studies, Migration (Anthropology), Hong Kong, Migrant and Diasporic Literature, Indonesia (Area Studies), Literature and migration, Migrant Domestic Workers, Anthropology of migration, Migration literature, Literature and Anthropology, and ANTHROMOB
This chapter describes how the interdisciplinary field of mobility studies has opened new scholarly perspectives, including when it comes to cultural mobilities.
Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Mobile and Locative Art, Cultural Anthropology, and 14 moreMobilities Studies, Mobility, Mobilities, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Mobile Culture, Mobile art, Intra-European Mobility, Mobility of Artists, Cultural Mobility, ANTHROMOB, Anthropologie de la mobilité, Future of Mobility, and Mobile Culture Studies
Walking the city is a practice that seems to be favored by many scholars and artists who want to understand cities and how city life is experienced. Academics have a lot to learn from the critical walking methodologies and participatory... more
Walking the city is a practice that seems to be favored by many
scholars and artists who want to understand cities and how city life is experienced.
Academics have a lot to learn from the critical walking methodologies and participatory practices that were developed in the arts. Artists, on the other hand, can enrich their
engagements with walking by incorporating walking-related insights generated
by scholars.
scholars and artists who want to understand cities and how city life is experienced.
Academics have a lot to learn from the critical walking methodologies and participatory practices that were developed in the arts. Artists, on the other hand, can enrich their
engagements with walking by incorporating walking-related insights generated
by scholars.
Research Interests:
Walking (Art), Research methods (Anthropology), Walking and Exploring, Walking, Methodologies for Artistic Research, and 12 moreCity Walking, Anthropology of Walking, Walking in the City, Urban walking, Walking Methodologies, Urban Walkability, Walking and Exploring the Urban Context, ANTHROMOB, Walking Methods, Urban Walks, Walking as Method , and Walking Urbanism
This chapter is organized into four sections that explore different facets of glocalization: (1) as a cultural approach, (2) as a tool to mitigate crises in tourism experiences, (3) as a business approach to develop successful tourism... more
This chapter is organized into four sections that explore different facets of glocalization: (1) as a cultural approach, (2) as a tool to mitigate crises in tourism experiences, (3) as a business approach to develop successful tourism experiences, and (4) as an impetus for transformative tourism experiences.
Research Interests:
“Many believe that people on the move have no home, but certainly this is not true. They do have a home, or multiple homes even. They can feel at home in different places because they take ‘stuff’ and people with them so that they can... more
“Many believe that people on the move have no home, but certainly this is not true. They do have a home, or multiple homes even. They can feel at home in different places because they take ‘stuff’ and people with them so that they can (re)create a home wherever they go”
Research Interests:
In this chapter, then, I assess the general understandings about pace
of life by disentangling anthropologically how the dynamics of pace and
pacing work out in recreational mobilities.
of life by disentangling anthropologically how the dynamics of pace and
pacing work out in recreational mobilities.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, and 14 moreAnthropology of Sport, Running, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Sports, Human Movement Science, Mobility, Mobilities, Endurance running, Long Distance Running, Human Movement, Sports Anthropology, Pacemakers, Human Movement Sciences, and ANTHROMOB
This volume is intended as a contribution towards the rebalancing of our scholarly attention to both temporal and spatial dimensions of mobility, through a focus on pace and pacing. Pace is a concept that helps us understand the dynamic... more
This volume is intended as a contribution towards the rebalancing of our scholarly attention to both temporal and spatial dimensions of mobility, through a focus on pace and pacing. Pace is a concept that helps us understand the dynamic relationships between people, space and time.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, and 15 moreTime Perception, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Time, Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Duration, Speed, Mobility Studies, Tempo, Intensity, Human Movement, Anthropology of Space and Time, ANTHROMOB, Pacing, and Anthropologie de la mobilité
Grounded fieldwork, the “having been there,” forms the basis of the captivating stories narrated by the most widely read anthropologists. From a historical perspective, the discipline made a big leap forward when it changed from armchair... more
Grounded fieldwork, the “having been there,” forms the basis of the captivating stories narrated by the most widely read anthropologists. From a historical perspective, the discipline made a big leap forward when it changed from armchair philosophizing to scholarship that is deeply rooted in empirical data gathering. Many people nowadays associate anthropology with ethnography. Even if the referents to the former part of the word have become blurred, the latter part does not seem to have lost any of its significance; it refers literally to the written report of whomever (or whatever) is being studied.
Research Interests:
"Heritage is a discourse;
we should question it."
Noel B. Salazar,
University of Leuven – Belgium
we should question it."
Noel B. Salazar,
University of Leuven – Belgium
Research Interests:
Museum Studies, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Museum, Museum Anthropology, and 15 moreIntangible cultural heritage, Cultural Heritage Management, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Intangible Heritage, Museum and Heritage Studies, Intangible Heritage Studies, Museums and Heritage, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Discourse Analysis, Authorised Heritage Discourse, Anthropology, Politics, Discourse Analysis, Discourse and Heritage, ANTHROMOB, and Anthropology and Museums
Borders are as much physical as they are imagined, and it takes
human creativity to deal with the border regimes imposed upon each of us.
human creativity to deal with the border regimes imposed upon each of us.
Research Interests:
Border Studies, Migration, Border Crossing, Migration Studies, Anthropology of Borders, and 15 moreBorder Theory, Borderlands Studies, Borders, Borders and Frontiers, Boundaries, Borderlands, Border Regions, Transnational and cross border mobility, Borders and Borderlands, Cultural politics of cross-border mobility, Borders and Mobility Rights, Migration and Border Studies, ANTHROMOB, Human Mobility across the border, and Borders and Mobility
Based on their own research and internationally recognized
expertise, Portuguese anthropologists Xerardo Pereiro and Filipa Fernandes
present a timely overview of anthropological research on tourism.
expertise, Portuguese anthropologists Xerardo Pereiro and Filipa Fernandes
present a timely overview of anthropological research on tourism.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Tourism (Anthropology), and 32 moreCultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Turismo, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Turismo e Antropologia, Theories in Tourism, Turismo e Cultura, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Turismo sostenible, Tourism Sector, Turismo, teoría, sociología, Tourism, Research Methods, Management, TEORIA DO TURISMO, Antropologia Y Turismo, Tourism Theory, HOTELERIA Y TURISMO, Turismo Cultural, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Antropología del turismo, ANTHROPOLOGIA DEL TURISMO, TEORIA TURISTICA, ANTHROMOB, Tourism Research Methodology, Anthropology of turism, Teoria Del Turismo, Antropologia Do Turismo, Research Methods in Tourism, and Buena prácticas en turismo
Este libro sobre palabras clave para el estudio de la movilidad en América Latina se inscribe en una larga tradición dentro de las ciencias sociales y las humanidades.
Research Interests:
Latin American Studies, Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 24 moreUrban Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Cultural Anthropology, Central & South America (Anthropology), Urban mobility, Mobilities Studies, Keywords, Mobility, Latin America, Mobilities, Latinoamerica, América Latina, Keyword Research, Cultural and Social Anthropology, South America, Movilidad y Transporte, Movilidad, Keyword Method, Movilidad Urbana, Transporte - estudios de movilidad - Movilidad y transporte, New Mobilities Paradigm, Keyword analysis, Urban Anthroplogy, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cosmopolitan Studies, and 37 moreTourism (Anthropology), Tourism Geography, Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Cultural Anthropology, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Identity and Cosmopolitanism, Turismo e Antropologia, Ethnography and Tourism, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Tourism Sector, Critical cosmopolitanism, Tourism and cosmopolitanism, Anthropology, Tourism, Antropologia Y Turismo, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Antropología del turismo, Anthropologie Sociale Et Culturelle, Anthroplogy of Tourism, Anthropolgy of Tourism, Actually Existing Cosmopolitanism, Cosmopolitance, Travel Anthropology, Antropologia Do Tursmo, Cosmopoliten, Tourism of Anthropolgy, ANTHROMOB, Tourism Anthropology, Anthropology of Tourisme, Anthropology of Travel, and Cosmopolites enracinés
Research Interests:
African Studies, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, and 33 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Africa, Tourism (Anthropology), Cultural Tourism, Cultures and heritage tourism, Travel & Tourism, Tanzanian Studies, Paradoxes, Tanzania, Cultural Anthropology, Nomadic Peoples, Nomadism, Mobility and Ethics (Anthropology), Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Maasai, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Paradox, Socio-cultural anthropoogy, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Nomads, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Nomadic/Indigenous People, Maasai/Kenya, ANTHROMOB, TANZANIA STUDIES, Maasai Culture, Masai, and Anthropologie de la mobilité
Asia’s market share in global tourism has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In countries like China, India, and South Korea, the emergence of a rising Asian middle class that can afford to travel is quickly turning the... more
Asia’s market share in global tourism has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In countries like China, India, and South Korea, the emergence of a rising Asian middle class that can afford to travel is quickly turning the region into one of the most attractive tourist markets. As a result, Asian tourism hot spots, like destinations elsewhere in the world, are competing to obtain their piece of the lucrative Asian tourist pie. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand are already strongly positioned; China is the fastest rising star; and competition is high in Malaysia, Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Here, by way of an ethnographic case study, I examine how tourism in Yogyakarta (commonly referred to as Jogja), Indonesia, has been opening up to Asian tourists and how local tour guides have adapted their practices, originally oriented toward Western tourists, to fit what they perceive to be the interests and expectations of Asian clients. The research described here was part of a larger multisited study of guiding discourses and practices.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Management, Social Anthropology, and 42 moreTourist Behavior, Cultural Heritage, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Destination Management, Tourism (Anthropology), Tourism Geography, Cultural Tourism, Indonesia, Travel & Tourism, Destination Image, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Anthropology, The tourist experience, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism and Hospitality Education, Tourism Guidance, Asian Tourism, Tourism, Tourist Behaviour, Travel and Tourism Industry, Tour Guiding, Perceptions and attitudes of Tourists, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tourism and Hotel Management, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Yogyakarta, Tourist, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Tourism Sector, Tourism Guide, Destination Development, Tourist Guiding, Tour guide, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Tour Guiding and Tourism Studies, Sustainable/Responsible Tourism, Tourist Guide, ANTHROMOB, and East Asian Tourism
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 17 moreAnthropology of Mobility, Mega Event Planning, Mega Events As Catalysts For Regeneration, Mega Events, Mobility, Mega Sport Events, Mega-Events, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Mega Projects, Critical Sociology, Mega events and legacy, Mega-Events and Urban Regeneration, Critical Anthropology, Impacts of Mega Events, Sports Mega Events, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Indonesian History, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, and 38 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Indonesian Studies, Sociocultural Theory, Indonesia, Cultural Anthropology, Indonesia (Area Studies), Social Mobility, Mobilities Studies, Sociocultural Anthropology, Mobility, Mobility Management, Antropología cultural, Mobilities, Indonesian, Antropología Social, Antropologia social e cultural, Cultural Antrhropology, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Immobility, Indonesia Migrant Worker, Antropology Social, Archipelago, Archipelagic studies, Antropologia Social, Mobility/immobility, Antropologia culturale, Indonesia , migration studies ,education, Antropologia Social y Cultural, Cultural Antropology, Antropología social y cultural, Noel B Salazar, Mobility and Immobility, Indonesian Migrant Workers, Indonesia Migration and Settlement, Islands and Archipelagos, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Management, Social Anthropology, and 33 moreTourism mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Recreation & Leisure Studies, Tourism (Anthropology), Transdisciplinarity, Travel & Tourism, Leisure Studies, Leisure, Leisure (Social Sciences), Cultural Anthropology, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, TRANSDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, Tourism Mobility, Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Loisirs, Tourism and Leisure, Occupational and Leisure Mobility, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Tourism, Leisure and Outdoors, Leisure Movility, Anthropology of travel and tourism, Leisure and Tourism, Mobil Turizm, Tourism and Mobilities, Noel B Salazar, Leisure Mobility, ANTHROMOB, Anthropology of Leisure, turismo y movilidades, and Sociologie des loisirs
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 32 moreAnthropology of Mobility, Symbolic Boundaries, Theory (Anthropology), Concepts, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Cultural Anthropology, Mobility and Ethics (Anthropology), Social Mobility, Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Free Movement, Mobilities, EU free movement rights, Free movement of persons, Freedom, Sustainable Mobility, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Theory of Anthropology, Freedom of movement, Sociological and anthropological theory, EU free movement law, Freedom of movement (EU Law), Anthropological Theory, Mobility and Migration, New Mobilities Paradigm, Mobility (Internal and International Migration), Noel B Salazar, Critique of Anthropological Theory, ANTHROMOB, Free mobility, and Anthropologie de la mobilité
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Anthropology, Critical Discourse Studies, Social Anthropology, Genealogy, and 38 moreEthnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Social Capital, Cosmopolitanism, Political Regimes, Gender, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Critical Discourse Analysis, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Ethnographic fieldwork, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic Methods, Mobilities Studies, Keywords, Mobility, Motility, Infrastructure, Mobilities, Antropología Social, Freedom, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Keyword Research, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Immobility, Keyword Method, Sociological and anthropological theory, Mobility/immobility, Critical Anthropology, Anthropological Theory, Keyword analysis, Mobility and Imobility, Theories of Mobility and Inequality, Noel B Salazar, Sociology of Mobility, and ANTHROMOB
While UNESCO’s world heritage list numbers almost 1000 properties, ethnographic research shows an uncomfortable paradox. On the one hand, the world heritage ‘brand label’ is stimulating standardization, predominantly in the fields of... more
While UNESCO’s world heritage list numbers almost 1000 properties, ethnographic research shows an uncomfortable paradox. On the one hand, the world heritage ‘brand label’ is stimulating standardization, predominantly in the fields of conservation and visitor management. On the other hand, the particularities of each propertythe historical, cultural, socio-economic and geographical context in which they are embeddedoften lead to different dynamics ‘on the ground’. These processes do not take a single course, but, rather, proceed in parallel, mutually influencing each other. Based on long-term fieldwork, this paper illustrates some of the issues at stake by focusing on Indonesia, where nearly all cultural world heritage is located in the central part of Java. As the archaeologically important Sangiran Early Man Site (No. 593) is little known and hardly visited, I zoom in on the neighbouring Borobudur Temple Compounds (No. 592) and the Prambanan Temple Compounds (No. 642), both listed in 1991.
On first sight, Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist structure with Hindu elements, and Prambanan, a complex of Hindu temples with Buddhist elements, share many similarities. Only 40 kilometres apart from one another, both sites are managed in similar ways. The parks surrounding the temple compounds and the related infrastructure (ticket booths, interpretative services and parking lots) are administered by PT Taman Wisata, a state-owned enterprise. Souvenir stands, food stalls and other tourism-related structures outside the main grounds fall under the control of the Provincial Tourism Office (Borobudur is in Central Java while Prambanan is in Yogyakarta). The actual monuments resort under the responsibility of the National Archaeology Department of Indonesia (and, with the on-going process of regional autonomy, increasingly the provincial Archaeology Departments). Not surprisingly, this fragmented distribution of authority leads to similar management issues at both properties.
In-depth fieldwork, however, reveals some interesting differences that explain how the dynamics of world heritage play out ‘on the ground’. While the Indonesian central government has successfully drawn upon both properties as ‘national patrimony’ and icons for the country’s tourism development, for politico-religious reasons it has always favoured Borobudur over Prambanan. This situation led Muslim fundamentalists to bomb the upper terrace of Borobudur in 1985. When Prambanan was structurally damaged after the 2006 earthquake, the national authorities were remarkably slow to respond, but locals mostly blamed UNESCO for this. In sum, this study confirms the importance of ethnographic research in disentangling the complex dynamics of world heritage. Despite their proclaimed universal value, my findings illustrate that world heritage properties, even neighbouring ones, can have very different values and meanings for different groups of stakeholders at local, national and global levels.
On first sight, Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist structure with Hindu elements, and Prambanan, a complex of Hindu temples with Buddhist elements, share many similarities. Only 40 kilometres apart from one another, both sites are managed in similar ways. The parks surrounding the temple compounds and the related infrastructure (ticket booths, interpretative services and parking lots) are administered by PT Taman Wisata, a state-owned enterprise. Souvenir stands, food stalls and other tourism-related structures outside the main grounds fall under the control of the Provincial Tourism Office (Borobudur is in Central Java while Prambanan is in Yogyakarta). The actual monuments resort under the responsibility of the National Archaeology Department of Indonesia (and, with the on-going process of regional autonomy, increasingly the provincial Archaeology Departments). Not surprisingly, this fragmented distribution of authority leads to similar management issues at both properties.
In-depth fieldwork, however, reveals some interesting differences that explain how the dynamics of world heritage play out ‘on the ground’. While the Indonesian central government has successfully drawn upon both properties as ‘national patrimony’ and icons for the country’s tourism development, for politico-religious reasons it has always favoured Borobudur over Prambanan. This situation led Muslim fundamentalists to bomb the upper terrace of Borobudur in 1985. When Prambanan was structurally damaged after the 2006 earthquake, the national authorities were remarkably slow to respond, but locals mostly blamed UNESCO for this. In sum, this study confirms the importance of ethnographic research in disentangling the complex dynamics of world heritage. Despite their proclaimed universal value, my findings illustrate that world heritage properties, even neighbouring ones, can have very different values and meanings for different groups of stakeholders at local, national and global levels.
Research Interests:
Buddhism, Hinduism, Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, and 39 moreHeritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Heritage Conservation, Unesco, Cultures and heritage tourism, Indonesia, Islam, Cultural Heritage Management, World Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Politics (Anthropology), Politics of Heritage Policies, Heritage, Museum and Heritage Studies, Hindu temples, Yogyakarta, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Javanese studies, Hindu temple architecture, history, symbology, Buddhist Temples, History and Heritage, History of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, Mobile Cultural Heritage, Heritage studies the politics of heritage, Heritage and Globalization, UNESCO world heritage, Borobudur, Politics of Cultural Heritage, Borobudur, Indonesia, Noel B Salazar, Prambanan, Heritage Globalization, ANTHROMOB, Global and Local Cultural Heritage, and Borobudur temple
This chapter discusses some of the most pressing challenges that lie ahead in cultural heritage tourism and stresses the importance of heritage interpretation for its sustainable development. The case study of central Java, Indonesia,... more
This chapter discusses some of the most pressing challenges that lie ahead in cultural heritage tourism and stresses the importance of heritage interpretation for its sustainable development. The case study of central Java, Indonesia, illustrates the general trends and shows the urgent need for more dialogue and collaboration between the fields of heritage management and tourism.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, Ethnography, and 22 moreHeritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Narrative and interpretation, Cultural Tourism, Indonesia, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Cultural World Heritage Sites, Cultural Heritage Management, World Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Interpretation, Cultural Anthropology, Tourism Guidance, Tourism, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, Tour Guiding, Tour guide, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO world heritage, and Noel B Salazar
Research Interests:
Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Migration mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, and 19 moreMigration (Anthropology), Social Imaginaries, Cultural Anthropology, Failure, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Paradise imagery, Social imaginary, Lifestyle Migration, Imagination and migration, Anthropology of migration, Paradise, Middle Class, Middle Classes, Middle-class, Migration and Lifestyle, Noel B Salazar, Migration Imaginaries, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Management, Social Anthropology, and 29 moreCultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Sustainable Development, Cultural Heritage Conservation, Heritage Conservation, Cultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Cultural World Heritage Sites, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Heritage Management, World Cultural Heritage, Cultural Anthropology, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism Impacts, Tourism, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, World Heritage Site Studies, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Cultural and Social Anthropology, World Heritage, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO world heritage, Sustainable/Responsible Tourism, Tourism Sustainability, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Education, Tourism Marketing, and 42 moreSocial Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Educational Anthropology, Tourism (Anthropology), Cultural Tourism, Education (Tourism Studies), Travel & Tourism, Applied Anthropology of Education, Tourism Education, Sustainable Tourism, Interpretation, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Education, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Tourism and Hospitality Education, Tourism Guidance, Hospitality & Tourism Education, Tourism, Travel and Tourism Industry, Tour Guiding, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Seduction, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Seduction theory, Tourism Guide, Interpretation of Heritage Tourism, Anthropology and Education, Tourist Guiding, Tourist Guiding and Interpretation, Tour guide, Cultural Antropology, Guided Tours, Challenges faced by tour guides, Tour Guiding and Tourism Studies, Seducción, Seduccion, Tourist Guide, Noel B Salazar, SEDUÇÃO, Seducation, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Research Methodology, and 27 moreEthnography, Mobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Migration mobilities, Qualitative methodology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Migration, History of Anthropology, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research, Migration Studies, Qualitative Research Methods, Geography of Mobility and Migrations, Ethnographic fieldwork, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic Methods, Mobilities Studies, Tourism, Mobility, Mobilities, Migrations as Human Mobilities, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Anthropology of migration, New Mobilities Paradigm, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Conservation, and 20 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Sociocultural Theory, Cultural Heritage Conservation, Heritage Conservation, Architectural Conservation, Architectural Heritage, Cultural Anthropology, Preventive conservation, Archaeological Heritage Management, Heritage Politics (Anthropology), Sociocultural Anthropology, Cultural Heritage and Ethnology/anthropology Research, Science for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Anthropology, Heritage, Anthropology issues in conservation of the built heritage, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, Restoration and Conservation of Ancient and Historic Buildings and Structures, Architectural Heritage Conservation, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Heritage Tourism, Cultures and heritage tourism, Cultural World Heritage Sites, World Cultural Heritage, World Heritage Centre, and 19 moreWorld Heritage Enlistment, Heritage Politics (Anthropology), Tourism and Heritage, Heritage and Tourism, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, Cultural Heritage and Ethnology/anthropology Research, World Heritage Site Studies, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Anthropology, Heritage, UNESCO World Heritage and labelling, Cultural and Heritage Tourism, Cultural heritage tourism, World Heritage, Interpretation of Heritage Tourism, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, UNESCO world heritage, World Heritage Studies, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, and 23 moreSocial Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Tourism mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, Heritage Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Cultures and heritage tourism, Travel & Tourism, Imagination, Social Imaginaries, Cultural Anthropology, Mobilities Studies, Tourism, Mobility, Travel and Tourism Industry, Mobilities, Cross-cultural tourism studies; tourist motivation and travelling behaviour, Tourist studies, Tourism Imaginaries, Imaginaries, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Latin American Studies, Anthropology, Latin American and Caribbean History, Mobility/Mobilities, Latin American politics, and 11 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, History of Chile, Chile, Latin American History, Imagination, Chilean Politics, 20th Century Chile, Chilean Social and Cultural History, Immobility, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
This chapter explores how translocal processes of heritage policymaking and management influence its values and meanings—both in times of stability and of turmoil—but also how “foreign” elements are incorporated and strategically... more
This chapter explores how translocal processes of heritage policymaking and management influence its values and meanings—both in times of stability and of turmoil—but also how “foreign” elements are incorporated and strategically (mis)used by local service providers in the heritage products told and sold to tourists. The case study from Central Java, Indonesia, provides unique insights because the current socioeconomic conditions have intensified existing conflicts over heritage appropriation and interpretation on local, national, regional, and global levels (cf. Salazar 2010b). An in-depth analysis of the empirical findings leads to a broader reflection on the dynamic interplay between the externally imaged (represented) and locally imagined value and meaning of world heritage in Indonesia and beyond. The ethnographic data illustrate that the significance of heritage—be it natural or cultural, tangible or intangible—is characterized by ever-changing pluriversality. However, before delving into the crux of the matter, it is essential to sketch the wider context.
Research Interests:
Economics, Development Economics, International Economics, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, and 21 moreCultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Social sciences and values, Values, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Economic Anthropology, Cultures and heritage tourism, Value Theory, Heritage Value, Meaning, Cultural World Heritage Sites, World Cultural Heritage, World Heritage Enlistment, Construction of Meaning, Meaning Making, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, Appropriation, Global Tourism, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
The European continent has been so inundated by images of African migrants trying to enter ‘fortress Europe’ that many Europeans now uncritically assume that the majority of Africans wants to emigrate. But how do Africans themselves... more
The European continent has been so inundated by images of African migrants trying to enter ‘fortress Europe’ that many Europeans now uncritically assume that the majority of Africans wants to emigrate. But how do Africans themselves imagine such migratory process? Based on ongoing fieldwork in Tanzania, this paper critically explores the currently dominant imaginaries of migratory movements in function of the desire to belong to a broader imagined cosmopolis (often the one depicted in entertainment media). Not only is Tanzania a marginal player in the global field of migration, contemporary images and ideas about emigration in this East African country appear to stand in sharp contrast with common European views on African (im)mobilities. Using an ethnographic approach, I illustrate how migration, in the broadest sense, is much more than mere movement between places; it is embedded in deeply engrained but dynamic processes of cultural meaning-making.
Research Interests:
African Studies, Anthropology, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Ethnography, and 16 moreAfrica, Migration, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Cosmopolitanism, Culture, East Africa, Meaning, Tanzanian Studies, Migration Studies, Imagination, Transnational migration, Migration (Anthropology), Ethnographic fieldwork, Tanzania, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Researching tourism in Asia, like elsewhere in the world, is a fascinating but extremely challenging endeavour. Since tourism is a multi-layered phenomenon – marked by a plethora of politico-economic, socio-cultural, and other processes... more
Researching tourism in Asia, like elsewhere in the world, is a fascinating but extremely challenging endeavour. Since tourism is a multi-layered phenomenon – marked by a plethora of politico-economic, socio-cultural, and other processes of production, consumption, representation, and regulation on local, national, regional, and global levels – many studies fail to understand and explain it adequately. Collaborative, mixed-methods, and multi-sited research have been proposed as possible ways to tackle and unpack tourism’s complexity. However, these are demanding to engage with as a graduate student, often with limited time, experience, and resources. Using my dissertation fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as an example, I demonstrate how a “glocal ethnography” approach helped me capturing the details of the local tourism scene while at the same time paying attention to how that local reality is firmly embedded in and continuously interacting with broader processes and power structures. In this chapter, I offer a tentative description of what glocal ethnography entails and I illustrate the use of this methodology in my own study of tour guiding.
Research Interests:
Asian Studies, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Southeast Asian Studies, Social Research Methods and Methodology, and 16 moreResearch Methods and Methodology, Research Methodology, Ethnography, Mixed Methods, Qualitative methodology, Mixed Methodologies, Qualitative Methods, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Mixed Methods (Methodology), Ethnography (Research Methodology), Ethnographic fieldwork, Mixed Methods Research, Ethnographic Methods, Tourism, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Heritage destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing standards of global tourism at the same time as trying to maintain, or even increase, their local particularity. While local and national tourism authorities and... more
Heritage destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing standards of global tourism at the same time as trying to maintain, or even increase, their local particularity. While local and national tourism authorities and tour operators package and sell so-called ‘authentic’ cultural landscapes or ‘traditional’ cultures, what counts as heritage – be it material or intangible – and the way it is interpreted is increasingly defined and controlled supralocally. This chapter sketches the broad picture of global heritage tourism in the 21st century and illustrates the general trends with examples of ongoing ethnographic research on cultural heritage tourism in central Java, Indonesia.
Research Interests:
Globalization, Cultural Heritage, Ethnography, Heritage Studies, Glocalization, and 16 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Narrative and interpretation, Authenticity, Culture, Indonesia, Destination Image, Globalization and Glocalization, Intangible Culture (Anthropology), Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Cultural Anthropology, Standardization, Global Tourism, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Researching cultural tourism, covering the gamut from global standards of hospitality to dyadic host-guest interactions, is a fascinating but challenging endeavour. Since travel-for-leisure is a multi-layered phenomenon, many studies fail... more
Researching cultural tourism, covering the gamut from global standards of hospitality to dyadic host-guest interactions, is a fascinating but challenging endeavour. Since travel-for-leisure is a multi-layered phenomenon, many studies fail to understand and explain it adequately. Using a research project in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as an example, I demonstrate how a “glocal ethnography” approach helps to capture the details of the local cultural tourism scene while at the same time it pays attention to how that lived reality is firmly embedded in and continuously interacting with supralocal processes. Cultural tourism offers many possibilities for glocal ethnographies, especially where international tourists meet local manufacturers, retailers, and service providers in the production, representation, and consumption of glocalized tourism goods and services. I illustrate the potential as well as weaknesses of the methodology with ethnographic examples on cultural tour guiding. For those researchers wanting to conduct in-depth studies, glocal ethnography offers a valuable innovative methodology. By engaging in a genuine holistic approach, tourism scholars have a great opportunity to take the lead, thereby demystifying the common stereotype that all they are able to do is applied quantitative research.
Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Globalization, Research Methods and Methodology, and 17 moreResearch Methodology, Ethnography, Glocalization, Mixed Methods, Qualitative methodology, Qualitative Methods, Indonesian Studies, Cultural Tourism, Indonesia, Localization, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Hospitality, Ethnographic Methods, Tourism, Yogyakarta, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Globalization, Museum Studies, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Museum, and 16 moreNationalism, Museum Anthropology, Anthropology of locality, Localization, National Identity, Nationalism And State Building, Imagination, Museums and Identity, Cultural Heritage Management, Museology, History of Nationalism and Nation-Building, Imagineering, Theme Parks, Theme Park, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Success stories in tourism usually come from the industry and are eagerly used as marketing tools to promote destinations. This chapter reflects on what ‘successful tourism’ is, and why scholars are more cautious than practitioners are in... more
Success stories in tourism usually come from the industry and are eagerly used as marketing tools to promote destinations. This chapter reflects on what ‘successful tourism’ is, and why scholars are more cautious than practitioners are in using this kind of catchphrase terminology. The discussion takes into account the contemporary context of an increasingly powerful global tourism-industrial complex. By way of a case study, the second part of the chapter analyzes a remarkable transnational network that has organically grown and aims at creating sustainable small-scale tourism projects worldwide. Focusing on the network’s unique combination of for-profit and non-profit activities in Belgium, Indonesia, and Tanzania, I assess the degree to which they are examples of ‘successful tourism’. The examples show that sustainable tourism development takes vision, planning, and a lot of work and dedication to assure that projects that were successful at one stage remain so in the near future.
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Anthropology, Globalization, Ethnography, Transnationalism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 17 moreIndonesian Studies, Fieldwork in Anthropology, Success (Organisational), Indonesia, Localization, Tourism Community Development, Tanzanian Studies, Tanzania, Transnational Communities, Sustainable Tourism Development, Belgium, Transnational Networks, Bussiness success, Tourism Development, Non Profits, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Many Western development NGOs have a well-established tradition of organizing field trips for their staff, volunteers, and benefactors to projects in developing countries. These NGOs are increasingly offering their ‘off-the-beaten-track’... more
Many Western development NGOs have a well-established tradition of organizing field trips for their staff, volunteers, and benefactors to projects in developing countries. These NGOs are increasingly offering their ‘off-the-beaten-track’ journeys to the broad public as well. This kind of tourism can be called ‘development tourism’. Interestingly, the motivations of tourists participating in such journeys clearly differ from the intentions of the organizing NGOs. Although aimed at confronting people with the complexity of development aid and gain extra support for project work, the case study analyzed in this chapter shows how tourists choosing for development tourism seem to be more preoccupied with their self-development. Development tourism can therefore best be regarded as yet another response to the growing demand for new, distinctive kinds of leisure for the educated, mainly Western, middle-class.
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Critical Theory, Psychology, Social Psychology, Geography, Area Studies, and 44 moreAnthropology, Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Social Anthropology, Development Studies, Tourist Behavior, Languages and Linguistics, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Social Sciences, Globalization, Ethnography, International Development, Motivation (Psychology), Social and Cultural Anthropology, Sustainable Development, Development anthropology, Social Development in developing countries, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Rural Development, Human Development, Local Development, Developing Countries, Economic Development, Tourism Community Development, The Other in Western literature, Volunteerism, Social Imaginaries, Cultural Anthropology, Development, NGOs (Anthropology), Volunteer Tourism, Volunteers, volunteering, & voluntarism, Middle Class Identity, Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism, Development Aid, Special Interest Tourism (Adventure, Film, Wine Tourism etc.), International Aid and Development, Voluntourism, The West, Tourism NGOs, Tourism Planning & Development, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Although most forms of tourism are highly mediated activities, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the essential role of brokers.
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Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Travel & Tourism, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), and 10 moreTourism, Language Brokering, Cultural Brokerage, Culture Brokering, Culture Broker, Cultural Brokering, Cultural Broker, Tourism services, ANTHROMOB, and Cultural brokers
En tant que métaphore, la mobilité capture l'impression commune que notre monde est en constante évolution.
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Research Interests:
European Studies, Anthropology, Historical Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 15 moreHistory of Anthropology, Voluntary Associations, European Union, Anthropology of Europe, Cultural Anthropology, History and anthropology, Encyclopedia, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, Anthropological History, EASA, ANTHROMOB, History of learned societies, and historiography of learned societies
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 15 moreAnthropology of Mobility, Migration, International Migration, Migration Studies, Theory (Anthropology), Migration (Anthropology), Concepts, Cultural Anthropology, Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Scape, Anthropological Theory, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, and ANTHROMOB
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Research Interests:
Tourism Studies, Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Culture, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), and 12 moreTourism, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Brokerage, Cultural Brokerage, Culture Brokering, Culture Broker, Cultural Brokering, Cultural Broker, Noel B Salazar, Cultural Touirism, ANTHROMOB, and Cultural brokers
Research Interests:
Anthropology of Tourism, Tourism (Anthropology), Social Imaginaries, Tourism and Culture (Anthropology of Tourism), Imaginarios sociales, and 10 moreAnthropology of Imaginary, Anthropology/Sociology of Tourism, Cultural Imaginaries, Imaginário social, Imaginary, Social imaginary, Geographical Imaginaries, Imaginaire Social, Tourism Imaginaries, and Noel B Salazar
Research Interests:
History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Social Anthropology, and 27 moreCultural Heritage, Indonesian History, Heritage Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Tourism, Indonesian Studies, Cultural Heritage Conservation, Heritage Conservation, Unesco, Cultural Tourism, Indonesia, Cultural World Heritage Sites, Cultural Heritage Management, World Cultural Heritage, Cultural Anthropology, Indonesia (Area Studies), Heritage, Tourism, Tourism in protected areas/World Heritage, Anthropological Archaeology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, UNESCO world heritage, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, Borobudur, Indonesia, Noel B Salazar, Prambanan, and ANTHROMOB
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Mobility/Mobilities, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Mobility, and 19 moreTheory (Anthropology), Cultural Anthropology, Mobilities Studies, Mobility, Anthropology of Globalization, Theories of Globalisation, Marcel Mauss, Arjun Appadurai, Mobilities, Anthropology of Global Connection, Franz Boas, James Clifford, Sociological and anthropological theory, Anthropological theories, Anthropological Theory, George Marcus, History of Anthropology and Anthropological Theory, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
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Research Interests:
Anthropology, Tourism Studies, Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 34 moreRecreation & Leisure Studies, Pierre Bourdieu, Leisure Studies, Leisure, Leisure (Social Sciences), Cultural Anthropology, Bourdieu, History of leisure, Epistemology of the Social Sciences, Tourism, Industrialization, Encyclopaedic Literature, Holidays, Sociology of Leisure, Making use of leisure time, Tourism and Leisure, Encyclopedia, Industrialisation, Vacations, Tourism, Leisure and Outdoors, Social and Cultural History of Leisure, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, Theory of Pierre Bourdieu, Leisure time, Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Leisure and Recreation, Leisure and Tourism, Vacation, Holiday, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, Vacationing, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
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Research Interests:
Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies, Heritage Politics (Anthropology), Politics of Heritage Policies, Book Reviews, and 9 moreCultural Heritage and Ethnology/anthropology Research, Book Review, Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, Heritage studies the politics of heritage, Politics of Cultural Heritage, Noel B Salazar, ANTHROMOB, Cultural heritage policy, and Heritage Regimes
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Research Interests:
Mobility/Mobilities, Border Studies, Anthropology of Mobility, Indonesian Studies, Migration, and 11 moreIndonesia, Migration Studies, Anthropology of Borders, Migration (Anthropology), Anxiety, Book Reviews, Book Review, Borders and Borderlands, Anthropology of migration, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
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Research Interests:
Anthropology, Indonesian Studies, Martial Arts, Indonesia, South East Asian martial Arts, and 10 moreMartial Arts (Anthropology), Java (Indonesia), Anthropology of Indonesia, Book Reviews, Book Review, Research in Martial arts, Pencak Silat, Anthropology and Martial Arts, Noel B Salazar, and ANTHROMOB
Why do people travel? Travel has always been central to humanity. While mass tourism only origi-nated in the nineteenth century, seasonal migration, pilgrimage and other forms of travel existed in most societies long before that period.... more
Why do people travel? Travel has always been central to humanity. While mass tourism only origi-nated in the nineteenth century, seasonal migration, pilgrimage and other forms of travel existed in most societies long before that period. Today, the practice of journeying across imagined as well as physical ‘borders’ is practically universal, and travel encompasses many areas of social life. Un-doubtedly, transnational mobility is now one of the most pervasive and visible activities the world over. While travel motivations widely differ, ‘free’ movement is often fuelled by the incessant desire for novelty and difference and propelled by prefabricated images and myths about ‘Other’ peoples and places. At the same time, human mobility is marked by fundamental imbalances of power, re-flecting economic disparities, and providing grounds for sociocultural conflict. As a central dimen-sion of globalisation, cross-border travel offers us a useful lens on many key questions about trans-nationalism and cosmopolitanism, identity and heritage, commoditisation, historical and cultural representation, authenticity and ownership, inequality, gender relations, environmental sustaina-bility, and more. How do people move across various sociocultural boundaries and how do they create specific cultures of mobility? Drawing upon contemporary anthropological concepts and theories of movement and border crossings (rather than place and location), this course analyses ‘travel’ as a dynamic set of sociocultural practices and discourses. Students are invited to think crit-ically about the complex interrelationships between various forms of border-crossing human mo-bilities.
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This seminar proposes an in-depth anthropological analysis of the key words that scholars in the social sciences use when theorizing processes of mobility and immobility.
Research Interests:
It is fashionable to imagine today’s world as being in constant motion, with people, cultures, goods, money, businesses, diseases, images and ideas ‘flowing’ in every direction across the planet. If mobility is the new scholarly mantra to... more
It is fashionable to imagine today’s world as being in constant motion, with people, cultures, goods, money, businesses, diseases, images and ideas ‘flowing’ in every direction across the planet. If mobility is the new scholarly mantra to be chanted, the chorus line might be older than most want to acknowledge. Drawing on a thematically and geographically diverse set of theoretical and ethnographic texts, this specialization seminar aims at exploring the analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching conceptual framework to study and understand the current human condition. Through lectures (where possible brought by doctoral students of IMMRC and invited speakers), reading assignments and an individual assignment (research paper) students are familiarized with contemporary concepts and theories in the anthropology of mobility. The intention is to attune training and actual research, and to bring students into touch with leading scholars and paradigms. Students are expected to actively engage in the classroom and group discussions. They are also expected to give a presentation in class.
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Muslim networks are globally diverse and mobile. Taking Islam as a transnational case study invites us to rethink Muslim religious-secular practices and their relationships to transnational public space and boundaries. By studying the... more
Muslim networks are globally diverse and mobile. Taking Islam as a transnational case study invites us to rethink Muslim religious-secular practices and their relationships to transnational public space and boundaries. By studying the discourse of contemporary Muslim scholars, the pilgrimage of observant Muslims, the female headscarf as a symbol between fashion and piety, global-local Muslim entrepreneurs, we analyze the border-crossing ‘movement’ of Muslims from different angles (social, religious and economical). These case studies deal with a range of theoretical debates by which anthropologists have come to define their thinking about the study of Muslims moving between global and local forms and practices, including key concepts such as de-territoralization and re-territorizaliton, and transnationalism among Muslims.
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Drawing on a thematically and geographically diverse set of theoretical and ethnographic texts, this seminar aims at discussing the analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching conceptual framework to study and understand the... more
Drawing on a thematically and geographically diverse set of theoretical and ethnographic texts, this seminar aims at discussing the analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching conceptual framework to study and understand the current human condition.
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Starting from a critical reflection on the main concepts of development and culture(s), the seminar zooms in on development discourse, the anthropology of development, ethnographies of aid, the world of NGOs, various types of development... more
Starting from a critical reflection on the main concepts of development and culture(s), the seminar zooms in on development discourse, the anthropology of development, ethnographies of aid, the world of NGOs, various types of development workers, the Migration-Development nexus and the wider context of development and mobility. The seminar ends by reviewing and discussing various scholarly critiques of development.While some of the reading materials used are theoretical, others include concrete case studies from across the world.
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In this talk, I approach the (dis)connections between tourism, sustainability and development from my own critical perspective as a sociocultural anthropologist. I start by briefly sketching the historical context. The idea to use tourism... more
In this talk, I approach the (dis)connections between tourism, sustainability and development from my own critical perspective as a sociocultural anthropologist. I start by briefly sketching the historical context. The idea to use tourism as a tool for development is not new and critics were quick to point out that tourism does not offer a cure-all. We had to wait until the 1980s, the decade in which the idea of sustainability was popularized, for the concerns of the critics to become more widespread. A couple of decades later, it is about time to assess whether sustainable tourism in general has been successful. Most social scientists are cautious about classifying tourism development as ‘successful’. There are actually multiple criteria to determine whether tourism is successful or not. The standards used are based on different underlying philosophies and values. As a result, success might be something different for the stakeholders involved at local, national, regional and global level. Those who argue that sustainable tourism offers communities a means to escape the confines of poverty often bring alternative forms of tourism to the fore, claiming that these allow development to be achieved sustainably and equitably. I illustrate the general principles through a case study from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This example confirms that the most successful tourism ventures are not the big projects usually highlighted by the tourism sector but the myriad small-scale, highly localized enterprises where small groups of tourists spend time learning about the local natural and cultural heritage. In the discussion, I point out that there seems to be something wrong with the way tourism in general is organized—something the critics have known all along. The alternative forms of tourism strategy has failed and we urgently need to change tourism as-a-whole, instead of offering optional ‘sustainable’ packages and products only to those who care. Solutions, however, are complex and require inclusive, multidisciplinary efforts to be successful. Success stories in tourism may not be so hard to find. However, success should not be conceived of as a static result.
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People have always been mobile, for a variety of reasons, from subsistence to experience, from necessity to privilege. Our body-in-motion is the medium for knowing the world, enriching us cognitively and existentially. Moving through and... more
People have always been mobile, for a variety of reasons, from subsistence to experience, from necessity to privilege. Our body-in-motion is the medium for knowing the world, enriching us cognitively and existentially. Moving through and with landscapes allows for sensuous experiences of the environment around us, including in the context of tourism. The lived experiences and attributed values linked to physical movement are important ways by which people express their adaptation to, and understanding of, periods of personal, social or environmental change. This is illustrated by the etymological and historical links between concepts for travel, transition and experience. This talk analyses, from an in-depth anthropological perspective, the contemporary quests to (re)discover ‘authentic’ experiences of human mobility through tourism and travel and how this is imag(in)ed in both popular culture and (social) media. I illustrate this through an ethnographic case study of recreational walking and running tourism, recreation here referring both to ‘create anew, restore, refresh’ (recreare) and to ‘restoration to health’ (recreatio).
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Research Interests:
De overheid beschermt erfgoed vanuit het algemeen belang, nl. het belang van erfgoed voor de samenleving. Moeten we ons dan niet afvragen in wiens belang dat dan is? Is die samenleving wel nog betrokken, eens iets in haar naam beschermd... more
De overheid beschermt erfgoed vanuit het algemeen belang, nl. het belang van erfgoed voor de samenleving. Moeten we ons dan niet afvragen in wiens belang dat dan is? Is die samenleving wel nog betrokken, eens iets in haar naam beschermd is? Dient de erfgoedsector vooral zichzelf en niet de samenleving in haar geheel? Wie herkent zich in wat ‘we’ vandaag als erfgoed beschouwen? Als ‘we’ wensen dat mensen zich herkennen in historische plaatsen, gebouwen, landschappen en sites, moeten we er dan niet in eerste instantie voor zorgen dat ze zich verbonden voelen met deze plaatsen? Hoe dienen overheden en de erfgoedsector dan om te gaan met de huidige waarderings- en beschermingspraktijk?
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Migration and tourism are interconnected forms of human mobility, similar but different. It is impossible to draw neat boundaries around the two because they constantly intersect, sometimes within one and the same individual. Many... more
Migration and tourism are interconnected forms of human mobility, similar but different. It is impossible to draw neat boundaries around the two because they constantly intersect, sometimes within one and the same individual. Many would-be migrants, for example, enter countries as tourists. In other instances, tourism and migration become very enmeshed in a certain location. Just think of the many islands in the Mediterranean that serve both as tourist destinations and migrant stopovers (or temporary destinations, in case they get stuck on their planned itineraries).
Tourism and migration often fuel each other, thereby raising two interesting questions that are rarely asked. The first one is: ‘What would tourism be without migration?’ The answer is simple. Global tourism would not be possible without the availability of both a numerical and functional flexible workforce of migrant workers. The labour-intensive and casual nature of tourism accentuates the role of this economic sectors as a magnet for migrant labour. Given the increasing transnational nature of tourism, it is hardly surprising that tourism employment is ‘cosmopolitan’ in nature, albeit heavily stratified according to characteristics such as age, ethnicity and gender. A mobile workforce usually offers a solution to labour shortages where the local workforce is not willing to engage in low pay, low status and seasonal employment.
This brings us to the second, related question: ‘What would migration be without tourism?’ Not only does the tourism sector provide migrant labour, many migrants are also partly inspired by tourism-related imaginaries to plan their migratory itineraries. In the sociocultural logics of migration, imaginaries play a predominant role in envisioning the green grass on the other side. Not surprisingly, many of these imaginaries are circulated via tourism. Moreover, mobile lifestyles evolve not just to explore economic opportunities not available locally but also to pursue particular types of culturally and socially desirable livelihoods, what is also known as ‘lifestyle migration’ or ‘lifestyle mobility’.
Even if tourism and migration often overlap, in practice tourist and migrant movements are governed by very different regimes of mobility. In the context of the tourism labour market, this is partially related to the type of people that is employed. Tourism largely relies on low-skilled workers and workers with little qualification in general, ethnic minority groups, unemployed youth, long-term unemployed, as well as women with family responsibilities who can take only part-time jobs. The high labour mobility is not only related to the seasonality of tourism activities but also to the high turnover of staff joining and leaving the sector. Given this general context, many issues of sustainability arise. In this talk, then, I want to focus on the questions of sustainability that are directly related to the ‘mobility’ aspects of tourism labour.
In tourism, studies of mobility often focus merely on tourist movements. UNWTO has very detailed statistics on ‘international arrivals’ for instance. Unfortunately, our understanding of the issues related to the mobility of workers to meet the increased tourism demand is less progressed. In general, there has been little detailed examination of the forces that constitute and reproduce the transnational movements of tourism-related labour. If there is little attention to tourism-related labour mobilities, considerations related to the sustainability implications of worker mobility are highlighted even less often. Sustainable development as a concept was developed alongside the acute awareness that the ecological destruction and the 1980s ‘retreat from social concerns’ – manifested as poverty, deprivation and urban dereliction that blight many parts of the world – are untenable. Though the concept of sustainable development originally included a clear social mandate, for the first decades this human dimension was neglected amidst abbreviated references to sustainability that focused on bio-physical environmental issues, or was subsumed within a discourse that conflated ‘development’ and ‘economic growth’.
Indeed, despite the anthropocentric focus of the definition of sustainability, surprisingly little attention has been given to the definition of social sustainability. Social sustainability is a wide-ranging multi-dimensional concept, with the underlying question ‘what are the social goals of sustainable development?’, which is open to a multitude of answers, with no consensus on how these goals are defined. Social sustainability is the ability of maintaining social capital, including investments and services that create the basic framework for society. This implies respecting human rights and equal opportunities for all in society. It requires an equitable distribution of benefits, with a focus on alleviating poverty.
In terms of the nexus between migration and tourism, the challenges are huge. For the Asia-Pacific region, for example, the diametrically opposed mobility trends of tourists and migrants have been pointed out. Tourists are searching for experiences in the ‘pleasure periphery’, isolated destinations facilitating frontier escapist adventure, wildlife and cultural experiences. The contemporary pattern of increasing urbanization, on the other hand, mobilizes the required workforce toward the metropolitan areas. These two trends create major challenges for tourism, which faces a growing demand for labour in both areas where there is growing labour supply but without skills (untrained agricultural workers migrating to core megacities) and where there is a shrinking labour supply of all employees (pleasure periphery).
Worryingly, sustainable tourism planning and development is threatened by quickly spreading neoliberal ideas of resilience. Resilience refers to the ability to resist and recover from aversity or disaster. When resilience is lacking, crises will be experienced as disruptive; when resilience is strong, the crisis will be experienced more smoothly. Resilience planning has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the sustainable development paradigm.
Tourism stakeholders have sought to address issues of sustainability in many ways. Similarly, communities and businesses may have developed capacity (resilience) to respond to immediate and sudden threats. Few, however, have demonstrated a capacity to adapt to incremental threats to their longevity (sustainability). In the tourism literature, there is considerable emphasis on resilience to the immediate challenges (local impacts, disasters or financial shocks, for instance), yet there is merit in conceptualizing resilience as a dynamic long-term state, where there are obvious parallels with the sustainability concept.
Even if the absolute numbers of labour mobilities may be small, they can raise delicate issues locally that need to be considered when assessing the value of tourism as a local development tool. Another issue is that increasing migrant mobility and the presence of greater numbers of migrants in a tourism destination also carries consequences for tourism in terms of the product and experience offered to tourists and the imaginary they cultivate of a destination. Migrants employed in front-stage positions interact with the host society as well as domestic and international tourists. Interestingly, those workers play the role of ‘host’ for international tourists. In the case of new arrivals, migrants play a double role: they are ‘the migrant-guest’, but they are also ‘migrant- host’ to those they serve.
In sum, it is necessary to understand tourism and migration within a specific context, and as counter-veiling forces, of a broader reading of globalisation and of uneven and unequal development. While the frontiers of tourism are dismantled through the liberalisation of the service sector, the cordon sanitaire against migration to the developed economic core is tightened, even though migrants’ remittances are, in some cases, more significant than earnings from tourism. Juxtaposing migration and tourism helps emphasise the framework of global unevenness and inequality in which all forms of people movement must be contextualised and are conditioned.
An issue that urgently requires our attention and research is the general impact of human mobility and everything that comes with it. This impact is becoming continuously greater because of the number and frequency of human movements across the planet and because of the (polluting) means of transport used. In general, the whole (environmental) sustainability argument seems to have very limited impact on how most people imagine, experience, and value translocal mobilities in the context of tourism and/or migration. This is a huge challenge, one that will only grow in the future.
Tourism and migration often fuel each other, thereby raising two interesting questions that are rarely asked. The first one is: ‘What would tourism be without migration?’ The answer is simple. Global tourism would not be possible without the availability of both a numerical and functional flexible workforce of migrant workers. The labour-intensive and casual nature of tourism accentuates the role of this economic sectors as a magnet for migrant labour. Given the increasing transnational nature of tourism, it is hardly surprising that tourism employment is ‘cosmopolitan’ in nature, albeit heavily stratified according to characteristics such as age, ethnicity and gender. A mobile workforce usually offers a solution to labour shortages where the local workforce is not willing to engage in low pay, low status and seasonal employment.
This brings us to the second, related question: ‘What would migration be without tourism?’ Not only does the tourism sector provide migrant labour, many migrants are also partly inspired by tourism-related imaginaries to plan their migratory itineraries. In the sociocultural logics of migration, imaginaries play a predominant role in envisioning the green grass on the other side. Not surprisingly, many of these imaginaries are circulated via tourism. Moreover, mobile lifestyles evolve not just to explore economic opportunities not available locally but also to pursue particular types of culturally and socially desirable livelihoods, what is also known as ‘lifestyle migration’ or ‘lifestyle mobility’.
Even if tourism and migration often overlap, in practice tourist and migrant movements are governed by very different regimes of mobility. In the context of the tourism labour market, this is partially related to the type of people that is employed. Tourism largely relies on low-skilled workers and workers with little qualification in general, ethnic minority groups, unemployed youth, long-term unemployed, as well as women with family responsibilities who can take only part-time jobs. The high labour mobility is not only related to the seasonality of tourism activities but also to the high turnover of staff joining and leaving the sector. Given this general context, many issues of sustainability arise. In this talk, then, I want to focus on the questions of sustainability that are directly related to the ‘mobility’ aspects of tourism labour.
In tourism, studies of mobility often focus merely on tourist movements. UNWTO has very detailed statistics on ‘international arrivals’ for instance. Unfortunately, our understanding of the issues related to the mobility of workers to meet the increased tourism demand is less progressed. In general, there has been little detailed examination of the forces that constitute and reproduce the transnational movements of tourism-related labour. If there is little attention to tourism-related labour mobilities, considerations related to the sustainability implications of worker mobility are highlighted even less often. Sustainable development as a concept was developed alongside the acute awareness that the ecological destruction and the 1980s ‘retreat from social concerns’ – manifested as poverty, deprivation and urban dereliction that blight many parts of the world – are untenable. Though the concept of sustainable development originally included a clear social mandate, for the first decades this human dimension was neglected amidst abbreviated references to sustainability that focused on bio-physical environmental issues, or was subsumed within a discourse that conflated ‘development’ and ‘economic growth’.
Indeed, despite the anthropocentric focus of the definition of sustainability, surprisingly little attention has been given to the definition of social sustainability. Social sustainability is a wide-ranging multi-dimensional concept, with the underlying question ‘what are the social goals of sustainable development?’, which is open to a multitude of answers, with no consensus on how these goals are defined. Social sustainability is the ability of maintaining social capital, including investments and services that create the basic framework for society. This implies respecting human rights and equal opportunities for all in society. It requires an equitable distribution of benefits, with a focus on alleviating poverty.
In terms of the nexus between migration and tourism, the challenges are huge. For the Asia-Pacific region, for example, the diametrically opposed mobility trends of tourists and migrants have been pointed out. Tourists are searching for experiences in the ‘pleasure periphery’, isolated destinations facilitating frontier escapist adventure, wildlife and cultural experiences. The contemporary pattern of increasing urbanization, on the other hand, mobilizes the required workforce toward the metropolitan areas. These two trends create major challenges for tourism, which faces a growing demand for labour in both areas where there is growing labour supply but without skills (untrained agricultural workers migrating to core megacities) and where there is a shrinking labour supply of all employees (pleasure periphery).
Worryingly, sustainable tourism planning and development is threatened by quickly spreading neoliberal ideas of resilience. Resilience refers to the ability to resist and recover from aversity or disaster. When resilience is lacking, crises will be experienced as disruptive; when resilience is strong, the crisis will be experienced more smoothly. Resilience planning has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the sustainable development paradigm.
Tourism stakeholders have sought to address issues of sustainability in many ways. Similarly, communities and businesses may have developed capacity (resilience) to respond to immediate and sudden threats. Few, however, have demonstrated a capacity to adapt to incremental threats to their longevity (sustainability). In the tourism literature, there is considerable emphasis on resilience to the immediate challenges (local impacts, disasters or financial shocks, for instance), yet there is merit in conceptualizing resilience as a dynamic long-term state, where there are obvious parallels with the sustainability concept.
Even if the absolute numbers of labour mobilities may be small, they can raise delicate issues locally that need to be considered when assessing the value of tourism as a local development tool. Another issue is that increasing migrant mobility and the presence of greater numbers of migrants in a tourism destination also carries consequences for tourism in terms of the product and experience offered to tourists and the imaginary they cultivate of a destination. Migrants employed in front-stage positions interact with the host society as well as domestic and international tourists. Interestingly, those workers play the role of ‘host’ for international tourists. In the case of new arrivals, migrants play a double role: they are ‘the migrant-guest’, but they are also ‘migrant- host’ to those they serve.
In sum, it is necessary to understand tourism and migration within a specific context, and as counter-veiling forces, of a broader reading of globalisation and of uneven and unequal development. While the frontiers of tourism are dismantled through the liberalisation of the service sector, the cordon sanitaire against migration to the developed economic core is tightened, even though migrants’ remittances are, in some cases, more significant than earnings from tourism. Juxtaposing migration and tourism helps emphasise the framework of global unevenness and inequality in which all forms of people movement must be contextualised and are conditioned.
An issue that urgently requires our attention and research is the general impact of human mobility and everything that comes with it. This impact is becoming continuously greater because of the number and frequency of human movements across the planet and because of the (polluting) means of transport used. In general, the whole (environmental) sustainability argument seems to have very limited impact on how most people imagine, experience, and value translocal mobilities in the context of tourism and/or migration. This is a huge challenge, one that will only grow in the future.
Research Interests:
While sports and tourism, in their modern configurations, both developed around the same time (in the wake of the industrial revolution), it took over a century before the two came together in ‘sports tourism’. Various scholars have come... more
While sports and tourism, in their modern configurations, both developed around the same time (in the wake of the industrial revolution), it took over a century before the two came together in ‘sports tourism’. Various scholars have come up with models to categorize the various forms that sports tourism can take (e.g. hard vs. soft or sports event tourism vs. active sport tourism), but none of these is able to capture in full the constantly evolving cross-over between sports and tourism. Based on exploratory ethnographic research, this paper analyzes the processes involved in turning the recreational practice of long-distance trail running into ‘sports tourism’. While the sportification of play and the tourismification of travel have been widely discussed in sports studies and tourism studies respectively, this case study disentangles the sportification of tourism and the tourismification of sports. The former is linked to the renewed societal attention to the (healthy) body and the shift from (passive) sightseeing to more (active) experiential forms of tourism. The latter is related to the integration of sports events and activities within broader tourism packages (irrespective of whether the sports tourism involved is passive or active). Paradoxically, trail runners, who usually identify as ‘post-sport’ or counter-cultural, seem to be simultaneously resisting and reproducing the dominant tendencies of commercialization of life.
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Sociology of Sport, Anthropology of Sport, Anthropology of Sports, Sport ethnography, Comparative sport studies, and 12 moreSports History, Sociology of Sport, History in General, Sports Sociology, Socio-Cultural Studies in Sport, Sport Studies, Socio-cultural issues in sport, Sports Studies, Sociology of Sports, Sports and Society, Cultural Studies of Sport, Socio Cultural Studies In Sport, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, and ANTHROMOB
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As a concept, mobility nicely captures the common impression that our lifeworld is in constant flux, with people circulating across the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphors attempting to describe (perceived) altered... more
As a concept, mobility nicely captures the common impression that our lifeworld is in constant flux, with people circulating across the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphors attempting to describe (perceived) altered spatial and temporal movements. Figures of mobile people, too, including the nomad, the pedestrian, the flaneur, the pilgrim, the tourist and the exile, have been used to describe both self and other in the social sciences and humanities for a long time. Such figures act as a conceptual shorthand in contemporary scholarly debates, allowing social theorists to relate broad-scale phenomena to the human condition. Taking the societal implications of various forms of mobility seriously and not as a given, the critical discussion of people ‘on the move’ during this lecture will help us to figure out the analytical purchase of the conceptual perspective of mobility studies to normalize movement within the single category of ‘mobility’. An anthropological approach has much to offer here, as it allows for an in-depth comparison between the theoretical use of key figures and, as the ethnographic examples used will demonstrate, the lived practices on which the figures themselves are based.
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As a concept, mobility nicely captures the common impression that our lifeworld is in constant flux, with people circulating across the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphors attempting to describe (perceived) altered... more
As a concept, mobility nicely captures the common impression that our lifeworld is in constant flux, with people circulating across the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphors attempting to describe (perceived) altered spatial and temporal movements. Figures of mobile people, too, including the nomad, the pedestrian, the flâneur, the pilgrim, the tourist and the exile, have been used to describe both self and other in the social sciences and humanities for a long time. Such figures act as a conceptual shorthand in contemporary scholarly debates, allowing social theorists to relate broad-scale phenomena to the human condition. Taking the societal implications of various forms of mobility and immobility seriously and not as a given, the critical discussion of people ‘on the move’ during this lecture will help us to figure out the analytical purchase of the conceptual perspective of mobility studies to normalize movement within the single category of ‘mobility’.
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Disaster research is booming these days and so are, unfortunately, disasters. However, disaster is a rather difficult topic to study. One can focus on the factors and structures potentially leading up to disaster or preventing it from... more
Disaster research is booming these days and so are, unfortunately, disasters. However, disaster is a rather difficult topic to study. One can focus on the factors and structures potentially leading up to disaster or preventing it from happening (before the fact) or on the response (after the fact), but it is almost impossible to plan research on disasters themselves. I happened to be conducting fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, when the region was struck on 27 May 2006 by a forceful earthquake (with a magnitude of 6.3), with almost 6,000 casualties and tens of thousands injured. As I was working on world heritage tourism in the region, I had a unique opportunity to observe how the disaster provoked different types of reaction locally and further away, and what this did to the relation between heritage and tourism. I take the opportunity in this paper to reflect, one decade after the facts, on what I witnessed back then. What can we learn from disasters about (world) heritage tourism in terms of sustainability or resilience? How do sociocultural, economic, political, and religious factors influence disaster, disaster risk, and disaster risk mitigation? What can anthropology, as a discipline giving due credit to “local knowledge,” contribute to disaster studies and disaster management? How to mediate the interests of the various stakeholders on the local-to-global level? These and other questions will be addressed through an in-depth analysis of the Yogyakarta earthquake.
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While heritage conservationists argue for the need to place preservation ahead of tourism, the reality is that tourism cannot be longer neglected as an unwanted negative sideeffect. It is a dynamic force through which heritage is not only... more
While heritage conservationists argue for the need to place preservation ahead of
tourism, the reality is that tourism cannot be longer neglected as an unwanted
negative sideeffect.
It is a dynamic force through which heritage is not only consumed
but also created. Tourism development of cultural heritage is both an opportunity and a
risk and requires careful consideration, planning, implementation and management.
Sustainable tourism development entails the adoption of planning strategies to mitigate
the negative impact of tourism without sacrificing its benefits. There is an urgent need
for new ideas and concepts that reconcile tourism and heritage preservation with the
need for sustainable development. Besides this, more attention needs to be paid to
ethical issues, in particular the involvement of local communities, ethical codes of
tourism (such as the UNWTO Global Code for Ethics in Tourism), the moral implications
of cultural heritage, the responsibilities of museums and the question of who has the
power to own and interpret heritage. As global tourism continues to expand, cultural
heritage sites and practices will be the source of historically unprecedented numbers of
tourists. Most indicators suggest there will be a huge increase in tourism worldwide
over the next ten years, virtually doubling the current numbers. While the
management of cultural heritage is usually the responsibility of a particular community
or custodian group, the protection, conservation, interpretation and (re)presentation of
the cultural diversity of any particular place or people are important challenges for us
all.
tourism, the reality is that tourism cannot be longer neglected as an unwanted
negative sideeffect.
It is a dynamic force through which heritage is not only consumed
but also created. Tourism development of cultural heritage is both an opportunity and a
risk and requires careful consideration, planning, implementation and management.
Sustainable tourism development entails the adoption of planning strategies to mitigate
the negative impact of tourism without sacrificing its benefits. There is an urgent need
for new ideas and concepts that reconcile tourism and heritage preservation with the
need for sustainable development. Besides this, more attention needs to be paid to
ethical issues, in particular the involvement of local communities, ethical codes of
tourism (such as the UNWTO Global Code for Ethics in Tourism), the moral implications
of cultural heritage, the responsibilities of museums and the question of who has the
power to own and interpret heritage. As global tourism continues to expand, cultural
heritage sites and practices will be the source of historically unprecedented numbers of
tourists. Most indicators suggest there will be a huge increase in tourism worldwide
over the next ten years, virtually doubling the current numbers. While the
management of cultural heritage is usually the responsibility of a particular community
or custodian group, the protection, conservation, interpretation and (re)presentation of
the cultural diversity of any particular place or people are important challenges for us
all.
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The broker, a classic figure in the social sciences, largely vanished from view in the late 1970s before re-emerging in the new millennium, among others as an exemplary analytical lens for critical scholarship concerned with the crossing... more
The broker, a classic figure in the social sciences, largely vanished from view in the late 1970s before re-emerging in the new millennium, among others as an exemplary analytical lens for critical scholarship concerned with the crossing of physical borders as well as socio-culturally constructed boundaries. The study of transnational mobility brokers (in the context of migration, tourism and the like) offers us many insights into the intricate mechanisms of border crossings, hereby illuminating broader contexts and processes. Even if the ability to move freely across borders is spread very unevenly within countries and across the globe, virtually everybody who is on the move transnationally relies, in one way or the other, on border-crossing broker services (whether seen as formal or informal, legal or illegal). The effects of cross-border brokerage practices are multiple and multifaceted (and by no means necessarily beneficial to those involved). In many cases, new boundaries are constructed even as borders are crossed. Importantly, cross-border brokers gain (often financially but also in terms of other personal advantages) from the mediation of something that they do not directly control themselves. In their role, they often come up against internal contradictions. Uneasy cultural identification or insecure social group membership appear to be highly instrumental to the mobility and innovative behaviour essential to the broker role. In this talk, I illustrate how in-depth ethnographic engagements with transnational mobility brokerage allow grand theoretical narratives about borders and boundaries to be put to the empirical test.
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Tourists were among those helping the rapid cross-border spread of COVID-19. As a reaction, states and supra-governmental entities implemented generalized mobility restrictions across the globe. Never in history has global mobility been... more
Tourists were among those helping the rapid cross-border spread of COVID-19. As a reaction, states and supra-governmental entities implemented generalized mobility restrictions across the globe. Never in history has global mobility been affected and restricted in such an extreme manner. Not surprisingly, tourism is among the most significant economic sectors to bear impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The current situation reconfirms how vulnerable the tourism and travel sector is to crises. Because COVID-19 containment measures limited and constrained people in their free movements, many became more acutely aware of the importance and value of travel. Can the coronavirus crisis, then, contribute to a possibly substantial, meaningful and positive transformation of the planet in general, and tourism and tourism studies specifically? Is the world changing, evolving, and transforming into something different from what it was before the 2020 global pandemic experience? While many still hope to return to ‘business as usual’ as soon as everything is over, others are seriously doubting that this will be possible. The more significant question is what kind of world we actually envision for ourselves and future generations. Tourism may help to solve some of the challenges our planet is currently facing. What is clear is that we are paying a high price to deal with the containment of the coronavirus, but the crucial question is who the ‘we’ are in this whole story. If there is one thing a situation like the one at hand teaches us, it is that we cannot solve complex challenges alone and that we need to collaborate.
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Situations labelled as ‘crisis’ offer social scientists unique research opportunities because they intensify existing processes, revealing what works well in society and where there are structural problems. The 2020 coronavirus crisis is... more
Situations labelled as ‘crisis’ offer social scientists unique research opportunities because they intensify existing processes, revealing what works well in society and where there are structural problems. The 2020 coronavirus crisis is not any different. From a mobility studies perspective, one of the most striking things occurring during the global pandemic are the changed patterns of who and what moves when and where. Authorities across the planet (re)classified the most common mobilities along ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ axes, the latter category temporarily being restricted or even forbidden. In addition to seriously disrupting existing mobility patterns, the coronavirus crisis is also an open invitation to re-imagine future mobilities. For one, the whole situation has revealed more sharply which types of (im)mobility are valued by various stakeholders in society, which ones are discursively framed as essential (mainly from a socio-economic perspective) and which ones are experienced as existential (contributing to people’s general well-being).
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The ‘experience turn’ of the 1990s pointed out that tourism entails more than sightseeing whereas the ‘mobility turn’ of the 2000s stressed the importance of moving people, objects and ideas. Remarkably little scholarly attention has been... more
The ‘experience turn’ of the 1990s pointed out that tourism entails more than sightseeing whereas the ‘mobility turn’ of the 2000s stressed the importance of moving people, objects and ideas. Remarkably little scholarly attention has been paid to how the multi-sensory and (self-powered) movement are intimately interconnected. Our body-in-motion is the medium for knowing the world, including in the context of tourism. Through our moving body, we are ‘in touch’ with our surroundings, allowing for sensual experiences of place. The lived experiences and attributed values linked to physical movement are important ways by which people express their adaptation to, and understanding of, periods of personal, social or environmental change. This is illustrated by the etymological and historical links between concepts for travel, transition and experience. This paper, then, explores anthropologically how recent developments in tourism and travel discursively frame the way in which tourists move (usually ‘slowly’ and with effort) in order to maximize the sensorial connectedness to places and people visited and to themselves. I illustrate this through an ethnographic case study of what has come to be known as recreational running tourism, recreation here referring both to ‘create anew, restore, refresh’ (recreare) and to ‘restoration to health’ (recreatio).
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This round table draws on the expertise of several anthropologists who have addressed questions that are key to the workings of the European Union and its policies. The overall aim is to give a sense of how anthropological approaches can... more
This round table draws on the expertise of several anthropologists who have addressed questions that are key to the workings of the European Union and its policies. The overall aim is to give a sense of how anthropological approaches can contribute to the ongoing debates that are both generated by, and affecting, the working of the EU.
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This round-table seeks to take forward previous discussions on academic precarity opened in previous IUAES and EASA conferences, where workshops and plenaries gave us the opportunity to raise crucial but often divergent questions. By... more
This round-table seeks to take forward previous discussions on academic precarity opened in previous IUAES and EASA conferences, where workshops and plenaries gave us the opportunity to raise crucial but often divergent questions. By drawing upon these earlier meetings, the collaboration with PrecAnthro group and EASA survey on precarity, we would like to start the debate from a threefold observation: (1) the notion itself of academic precarity differs not only according to national contexts, but also generational experiences, as the dialogue between early career and senior scholars on the topic is often muddled by mutual miscomprehension about conditions and sentiments specific to each generation; (2) from questions such as casualization and regimes of employability to physical and mental health and threats to academic freedom, the different ways how precarity is comprehended and lived need to be put in perspective; and (3), there is an urgent need to envision concrete action, on both political and institutional levels, in response to a pervasive process of precarization. Therefore, the aim of this roundtable is to found a common ground for discussions and action without obliterating the diversity of meanings, forms and temporalities of precarity in different academic contexts throughout the world. Participants to the round table will be also invited to take part actively in the debate and make reference to their own experiences of national and/or regional contexts.
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One of the attractions of mobility, as a concept-metaphor, is that it links geographical movement to some type of symbolic ‘climbing’ that individuals aspire to, be it economically (in terms of resources), socially (in terms of status) or... more
One of the attractions of mobility, as a concept-metaphor, is that it links geographical movement to some type of symbolic ‘climbing’ that individuals aspire to, be it economically (in terms of resources), socially (in terms of status) or culturally (in terms of cosmopolitan disposition). Migratory mobilities, then, are used as an indicator of the variable access to and accumulation of these various types of symbolic capital. In practice, however, there is often a lack of correspondence between the imagined ideals and aspirations on the one hand and the perceived and experienced reality on the other (e.g. the ‘American dream’). The social imaginaries underlying individual aspirations of mobility warrant closer scholarly examination, a task that is taken up in this paper. Imaginaries are historically laden, socially shared and transmitted. They play an important role in the formation of aspiration, influencing why people aspire to move and where they aspire to move to. While the reasons and motivations to cross borders and boundaries are usually multiple, they are linked to the ability of those traveling (and their social networks) to imagine the ‘elsewhere’. As such, the study of social imaginaries forms an important connection between macro- and micro-level analyses of aspiring mobilities. Imaginaries, as socially shared patterns of meaning rather than private cognition, can both endorse the normality or historicity of mobility or immobility. This points to the controlling role of mobility imaginaries. Empowered by mass-mediated images and discourses, imaginaries circulate globally and change the way in which people collectively envision the world and their place and mobility within it. The imaginaries that inspire and guide migrants do not really prepare them, neither for the fact that their aspirations cannot be realised immediately nor for the multiple risks or potential failure of their endeavour. Not surprisingly, one common expression of socio-cultural imaginaries are utopias, critical visions of good and possibly attainable alternative styles of live, located either spatially (elsewhere) or temporally (in another period) distant. As a variation on power, utopias propose an alternative by designing a future that aspires to become. The most comprehensive treatment of the role played by fantasies of a desired, better world is prob ably Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope (Bloch 1995). While Bloch focuses on the utopian political potential of the human ability to imagine a better future, he also discusses the experience of consumers daydreaming about new identities as they (window)shop. The transcending— that is, utopian— force of human imagination lies at the core of Bloch’s analysis. Economic and social remittances and (often conspicuous) consumption by migrants easily increases the feeling of relative deprivation among non-migrants, and increases their aspirations to migrate to achieve upward socio-economic mobility. The fact that migrants have a tendency to present themselves as successful and to conceal their economic and social problems further fuels this. Both potential migrants and those who stay behind often perceive economic opportunities and quality of life in the country of destination as greater than they actually are. Although most make more in wages than in their home countries, migrants are often concentrated in lower-earning, lower-prestige jobs. Many even report downward social mobility. However, television, newspaper and personal accounts of destitution by migrants abroad seem to deter little, as potential migrants either hope to be luckier or to embrace the hardship. Such a logic is part of a wider ‘culture of migration’, which is common among disadvantaged populations across the globe.
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Het profileren van het Zeeuws kapitaal zoals natuur, landschap, cultuur, erfgoed, food, in relatie tot onder meer detailhandel, toerisme, ondernemerschap en onderwijs is noodzakelijk om Zeeland duurzaam op de kaart te zetten. Tijdens het... more
Het profileren van het Zeeuws kapitaal zoals natuur, landschap, cultuur, erfgoed, food, in relatie tot onder meer detailhandel, toerisme, ondernemerschap en onderwijs is noodzakelijk om Zeeland duurzaam op de kaart te zetten. Tijdens het seminar worden aspecten van ‘het kapitaal’ belicht door onder andere Professor Noel Salazar (sociaal-cultureel antropoloog verbonden aan de KU Leuven).
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Cultural tourism is often promoted as one of the more solid segments within the wider tourism spectrum. This talk offers a critical anthropological reflection on the practices,experiences and policies of cultural tourism, broadly defined.... more
Cultural tourism is often promoted as one of the more solid segments within the wider tourism spectrum. This talk offers a critical anthropological reflection on the practices,experiences and policies of cultural tourism, broadly defined. First, I give a brief overview of various aspects of cultural tourism that have been addressed by tourism scholars. Then I zoom in on pressing contemporary issues, challenges as well as opportunities. I illustrate this with case studies and ethnographic examples from across the globe. I end by offering some venues for future attention and research.
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Imaginaries are at the roots of many (if not all) human mobilities. They help people (with the necessary means) to decide which ‘elsewhere’ to travel to. Importantly, most of these imaginaries pertain to the (final) destination, not to... more
Imaginaries are at the roots of many (if not all) human mobilities. They help people (with the necessary means) to decide which ‘elsewhere’ to travel to. Importantly, most of these imaginaries pertain to the (final) destination, not to the (im)mobilities required to get
there. For migrants, the journey is merely a means to get to their milk-and-honey destination. Many, however, are structurally forced to travel slowly, having to rely on basic forms of locomotion and using the most precarious and insecure roads and routes. These
trips, involving personal and social upheaval, can turn into powerful life-changing events that greatly influence whoever experiences them. As such, these journey conditions very much resemble those of wandering pilgrims, the archetypes of transformative traveling.
Tourists, on the other hand, many of whom desire their holiday experience to be transformative, are structurally barred from travel-as-toil. For the sake of comfort, modern transport technologies and tourism service providers alike have taken the travail out of travel, thereby taking the journey out of the holiday experience.
The movement of ‘slow travel’ is an attempt to reverse this. In this presentation, I reflect anthropologically on imaginaries of mobility (in the physical sense of 'motion’). Why does the actual journey of migrants (not to mention refugees), and it transformative effects,
hardly figures in imaginaries of migration? And what is the role of imaginaries in the tourism shift from ‘being moved’ around to a renewed desire for more active form of mobility, as an integral part of the tourist experience?
there. For migrants, the journey is merely a means to get to their milk-and-honey destination. Many, however, are structurally forced to travel slowly, having to rely on basic forms of locomotion and using the most precarious and insecure roads and routes. These
trips, involving personal and social upheaval, can turn into powerful life-changing events that greatly influence whoever experiences them. As such, these journey conditions very much resemble those of wandering pilgrims, the archetypes of transformative traveling.
Tourists, on the other hand, many of whom desire their holiday experience to be transformative, are structurally barred from travel-as-toil. For the sake of comfort, modern transport technologies and tourism service providers alike have taken the travail out of travel, thereby taking the journey out of the holiday experience.
The movement of ‘slow travel’ is an attempt to reverse this. In this presentation, I reflect anthropologically on imaginaries of mobility (in the physical sense of 'motion’). Why does the actual journey of migrants (not to mention refugees), and it transformative effects,
hardly figures in imaginaries of migration? And what is the role of imaginaries in the tourism shift from ‘being moved’ around to a renewed desire for more active form of mobility, as an integral part of the tourist experience?
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Based on ethnographic research, Prof. Noel Salazar discusses the role of mobile tracking devices, both as markers of an active lifestyle and as ‘technologies of the self’. He focuses on how the data generated by GPS sports watches are... more
Based on ethnographic research, Prof. Noel Salazar discusses the role of mobile tracking devices, both as markers of an active lifestyle and as ‘technologies of the self’. He focuses on how the data generated by GPS sports watches are widely shared by sportspeople and their followers on social media platforms. He disentangles why, paradoxically, these technologies seem to make exemplary mobile people more immobile, because many hours are spent sitting behind electronic device screens to communicate (and seeking social approval for) the mobile performances. He places his critical anthropological analysis within the context of wider societal trends related to self-discipline and self-control.
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Sustainability mitigates or prevents change by maintaining resources above a normative safe level, whereas resilience adapts to change by attempting to build capacity to return to a desired state following both anticipated and... more
Sustainability mitigates or prevents change by maintaining resources above a normative safe level, whereas resilience adapts to change by attempting to build capacity to return to a desired state following both anticipated and unanticipated disruptions. Sustainability emphasizes aspirational goals associated with the careful use of resources and ensuring provision for future generations. Resilience is pragmatic and inclusive of a range of responses that may or may not align with sustainability principles. This presentation will reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of both paradigms in preparing tour guides for the volatile future of tourism.
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‘Never before have so many people across the planet been on the move’. This kind of general statement frequently pops up in the media as well as in academic texts. As a concept-metaphor, mobility captures the common impression that our... more
‘Never before have so many people across the planet been on the move’. This kind of general statement frequently pops up in the media as well as in academic texts. As a concept-metaphor, mobility captures the common impression that our life-world is in constant flux, with not only people, but also cultures, objects, capital, businesses, services, diseases, media, images, information and ideas circulating across (and even beyond) the planet. The scholarly literature is replete with metaphorical conceptualizations attempting to describe (perceived) altered spatial and temporal movements. In this talk, I argue that it is important to identify not only various forms of mobility but also the (re)production of socio-culturally shared meanings through diverse discourses as well as practices of movement. Any narrative and experience of mobility is inevitably value-laden. Distinctions are made, which ultimately feed back into the production of the social through culturally inflected notions of what ‘mobility’ means. The currently dominant mobility discourse in Europe, for instance, equates geographical movement with social fluidity, but only for socio-cultural insiders. The recent influx in Europe of ‘outsiders’ is interpreted quite differently. In this talk, then, I illustrate the dialectic relation between ideologies of (im)mobility and actual practices of people ‘on the move’, with examples from various geographic regions and time periods.
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Historically, recreational sports such as running arose partially with the aim of controlling the side effects of a ‘seated’ life, i.e. obesity and physical inactivity. This trend developed already in the 19th century, with the emergence... more
Historically, recreational sports such as running arose partially with the aim of controlling the side effects of a ‘seated’ life, i.e. obesity and physical inactivity. This trend developed already in the 19th century, with the emergence of middle classes who had the requisite time and resources. Recreational running became very popular in the 1970s, within the context of renewed societal attention to fitness and physical health, which developed in countries such as the USA and New Zealand and spread quickly to other industrialized nations. Regular physical activities such as recreational running can be conceived of as technologies of the self, practices that are used to transform oneself (in multiple and, at times, contradictory ways). However, they do not necessarily free an individual from the domination of disciplinary ideologies. Based on (auto)ethnographic research, I discuss in this paper the crucial role that mobile tracking devices, as markers of an everyday active lifestyle, play in this process. I focus on how the data generated by GPS sports watches and the like are widely shared by amateur runners and their ‘followers’ on general as well as specialized social media platforms. I disentangle why, paradoxically, these technologies seem to make exemplary mobile citizens more immobile, because many hours are spent behind electronic device screens to communicate (and seeking social approval for) their mobile performances. I place my critical anthropological analysis within the context of wider societal trends related to neoliberal self-discipline and self-control of everyday life.
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Existing anthropological research on embodiment reveals how people ’incorporate’ physical and social environments while studies of emplacement add a ‘sense of place’ (location, material form and imaginaries) to this. That emplaced beings... more
Existing anthropological research on embodiment reveals how people ’incorporate’ physical and social environments while studies of emplacement add a ‘sense of place’ (location, material form and imaginaries) to this. That emplaced beings are not static entities but bodies-in-motion has received less attention. The human is, first, a ‘moving being’. Despite, or perhaps because of, its omnipresence in life, the physical practice of locomotion is rarely analyzed on its own terms, as a distinct category of scholarly investigation. Mobility studies have theorized how people move around environments by looking at sociocultural phenomena through the lens of movement. Most of the existing research, however, reveals little about the dynamic embodied and emplaced experiences directly related to the act of moving itself. This paper tackles these issues via an ethnographic study of recreational mobilities and the metanarratives, personal as well as societal, through which these are given meaning and made momentous. Long-distance hiking and trail running, for instance, are increasingly popular practices. Practitioner accounts reveal that a vigorously physical encounter with nature (or made-natural environment) allows people to meaningfully (re)connect to themselves, others, the environment, or the transcendent. Not unlike certain forms of wandering pilgrimage, such recreational mobilities become quest-like journeys of endurance, suffering, and sacrifice (sometimes only symbolically). Interestingly, this type of human mobility seems intimately related to reconfigured social climates Mainstream popular culture, arts, and (social) media representations increasingly depict ‘natural’ endurance heroes as true model individuals in contemporary society: dedicated, controlled, disciplined, invested in health, and self-responsible.
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Running, in all its different forms, has become a popular leisure time activity throughout Europe. While considered to be an individual sport, many runners seem to run not only out of self-interest. As such, an in-depth anthropological... more
Running, in all its different forms, has become a popular leisure time activity throughout Europe. While considered to be an individual sport, many runners seem to run not only out of self-interest. As such, an in-depth anthropological analysis of recreational running trends serves as a powerful analytical lens to better understand and contextualize contemporary expressions of human solidarity in Europe and beyond. The individual running experience is almost always connected to broader sociocultural issues. In general, group solidarity is enhanced when practitioners of an activity find themselves connecting with each other, forming relationships or ‘communitas’. Solidarity in running, then, becomes visible through the evolving structure of both formal and informal running communities and the way in which runners help each other during running events. Solidarity through running, on the other hand, is mostly expressed via participation in charity sport events. Based on preliminary ethnographic fieldwork in Brussels, Belgium, I reflect in this presentation on the intricate link between recreational running and various forms of solidarity. This link, which is often ambiguous for the runners themselves and for other stakeholders involved, gives us important insights in the current dynamics and workings of human solidarity in Europe.
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In some cities, such as Coimbra or Oxford, Universities represent one of the main attractions to be visited. This is not the case in most European cities in which the heritage of universities remains inaccessible. If physical... more
In some cities, such as Coimbra or Oxford, Universities represent one of the main attractions to be visited. This is not the case in most European cities in which the heritage of universities remains inaccessible. If physical accessibility is not always possible or wished - for obvious reasons related to the fragility of some buildings or to security - other means can eventually be explored in order to reposition Universities at the centre of the city for the local societies, and the national and international visitors: interpretation centres, events, augmented reality, offer today new and, to a larger extent, underdeveloped possibilities.
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In the context of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, there is a growing awareness that being human must be understood as ‘moving being’. People have always been mobile, for a variety of reasons, from subsistence to experience, from... more
In the context of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, there is a growing awareness that being human must be understood as ‘moving being’. People have always been mobile, for a variety of reasons, from subsistence to experience, from necessity to privilege. Our body-inmotion is the medium for knowing the world, enriching us cognitively and existentially. Through our feet, we are most fundamentally and continually ‘in touch’ with our surroundings. Moving through and with landscapes allows for sensuous experiences of the environment around us. In other words, self-propelled motion is one of the most fundamental modes of ‘belonging’ in the world. Granting that the act of moving is a universal trait, the ways in which humans move, and the processes of identity attached to these movements, are strongly linked to culture and society. As we move through space and time, we become our movement (moveo ergo sum), in a phenomenological sense and in terms of identity and social position. The act of moving thus captures a certain attitude to life as ‘potential’. This paper analyses, from an in-depth anthropological perspective, the contemporary quests to (re)discover ‘authentic’ experiences of human mobility and how this is imag(in)ed in both popular culture and (social) media. Many people perceive the most basic forms of human locomotion (walking, running and dancing) as having intrinsic value, undertaken for the simple pleasures and joy they bring. Such self-powered embodied mobilities are relatively slow and can be linked to attempts to slow down the experienced ‘pace of life’, especially by those who feel to be living in ‘overdrive’, in a state of excessive activity and speed. The quest for a slower pace of life, but still one that is in motion, is linked to nostalgia for an idealized slower pre-modern past, with an emphasis on experience and the sensuous human body.
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This article explores the rising phenomenon of recreational endurance mobilities and what this tells us about wider societal trends. People with the requisite free time and resources engage in long-distance walking or running as a... more
This article explores the rising phenomenon of recreational endurance mobilities and what this tells us about wider societal trends. People with the requisite free time and resources engage in long-distance walking or running as a temporary escape from living in overdrive, in a state of excessive activity (not necessarily physical) and speed. They yearn for a slower pace of life, closely related to nostalgia for an idealised and romanticised slower pre-modern past, with an emphasis on authentic experience (over external rewards) and the sensuous human body. Self-conscious slow mobilities such as walking or running, particularly in (remote) areas of natural beauty, nicely fit the quest for the proper pace related to the ‘good life’. Ironically, this temporary escape from dominant societal tendencies is ideologically recuperated in unexpected ways. Within neoliberal frameworks, the potential feelings of agony, hurt and suffering linked to endurance practices signify hard work and the ability to succeed. Learning how not to give up (with the acceptance of pain) and pressing to attain specified goals or aims are seen as helpful for life outside recreational endurance activities, particularly in the context of overwork, burnout and general ‘exhaustion’. Mainstream popular culture, arts and (social) media often tend to represent endurance practitioners as model individuals in contemporary society: dedicated, controlled, disciplined, culturally and economically invested in health and self-responsible. In other words, whether they themselves like it or not, endurance athletes are framed as symbolical ‘pacemakers’, people who set standards of performance and achievement (efficiency and success) for others.
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Today’s world, characterized by networked agencies, global flows, cultural hybridity, and movements of people within and across borders, contextualizes tourism in many ways. Paying close attention to the multiple translations and... more
Today’s world, characterized by networked agencies, global flows, cultural hybridity, and movements of people within and across borders, contextualizes tourism in many ways. Paying close attention to the multiple translations and circulations of the concept of “tourism” across the globe, this symposium endeavors to elaborate both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the conceptual history of tourism. With this theme in mind, the symposium will deal with the following questions: How has the western concept of tourism (primarily Anglophone and French) traveled to non-Western contexts in Asia (including the Middle East), Africa, or South America, thereby imposing a discursive hegemony of a conceptual lexicon? Which native/local concepts of hospitality have been displaced by this conceptual globalization or have transformed it? Do newly emerging forms of tourism across the globe contribute to the intellectual discussion of the “decline of the West” and the “provincialization of Europe,” or they are just further examples of westernization?
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While sports and tourism, in their modern configurations, both developed around the same time (in the wake of the industrial revolution), it took over a century before the two came together in ‘sports tourism’. Various scholars have come... more
While sports and tourism, in their modern configurations, both developed around the same time (in the wake of the industrial revolution), it took over a century before the two came together in ‘sports tourism’. Various scholars have come up with models to categorize the various forms that sports tourism can take (e.g. hard vs. soft or sports event tourism vs. active sport tourism), but none of these is able to capture in full the constantly evolving cross-over between sports and tourism. Based on exploratory ethnographic research, this paper analyzes the processes involved in turning the recreational practice of long-distance trail running into ‘sports tourism’. While the sportification of play and the tourismification of travel have been widely discussed in sports studies and tourism studies respectively, this case study disentangles the sportification of tourism and the tourismification of sports. The former is linked to the renewed societal attention to the (healthy) body and the shift from (passive) sightseeing to more (active) experiential forms of tourism. The latter is related to the integration of sports events and activities within broader tourism packages (irrespective of whether the sports tourism involved is passive or active). Paradoxically, trail runners, who usually identify as ‘post-sport’ or counter-cultural, seem to be simultaneously resisting and reproducing the dominant tendencies of commercialization of life.
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Mobility studies emerged as a critique of the tendency to ignore either past or present histories of human movement and connectedness. However, considering the growing role of (supra-)state institutions and nationalism in regulating... more
Mobility studies emerged as a critique of the tendency to ignore either past or present histories of human movement and connectedness. However, considering the growing role of (supra-)state institutions and nationalism in regulating (im)mobility and maintaining both internal and external social inequality, we must ask: How can we overcome binary thinking between ‘fixity’ and ‘motion’ and yet not oversee the differential barriers to movement? The ‘regimes-of-mobility approach’ offers a theoretical framework that neither normalizes fixed relationships between people and territory nor naturalizes or glorifies movement. It explores the relationships between the privileged movements of some and the co-dependent but stigmatized and forbidden movement, migration and interconnection of the poor, powerless and exploited. Hence, it calls for a global perspective on diverse and differentiated forms of (im)mobility - physical and social, upward and downward – on a variety of scales. Looking at intersecting regimes of mobility in a historical, transnational and global perspective helps us to understand how the movements of some ‘travellers’ are normalized while ventures of others are criminalized. Applying such a framework to social work and social pedagogy can be a rich resource in understanding how social problems work requires, conditions, brings about and regulates specific forms of both mobility and immobility.
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How has anthropology impacted the global policy fields of heritage and tourism? Because of the felt proximity between heritage and culture, one of the discipline’s key concepts, anthropologists have had an almost natural interest in... more
How has anthropology impacted the global policy fields of heritage and tourism? Because of the felt proximity between heritage and culture, one of the discipline’s key concepts, anthropologists have had an almost natural interest in heritage (particularly of the cultural kind). This was translated, among others, in anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss playing an influential role in shaping global heritage policies at UNESCO. The figure of Lévi-Strauss is also mentioned as exemplary of anthropology’s traditional anti-tourism stance and disregard for the seriousness of tourism studies. While this situation has long changed, with the anthropology of tourism booming and anthropologists taking active roles in tourism planning and development, anthropology has never played an important role at the UNWTO. In other words, the difference between anthropology’s involvement in the global policy fields of heritage and tourism is striking, even more so given that both areas have been growing towards each other over the last two decades. How to explain this? Based on my own experience collaborating with UNWTO and UNESCO during the last decade and analysis of secondary sources by other anthropologists, I reflect in this paper on how anthropology matters for heritage and tourism. I focus particularly on heritage tourism, where both fields come together, and stress the difference between various forms of direct and indirect influence. These insights are relevant for other policy domains and for the public role of anthropology in general.
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In their introduction to the edited volume, “Forces of Compassion,” Peter Redfield and Erica Bornstein pose a question: “What is it about the present…that casts the care of strangers in such a leading role?” Taking up this question, this... more
In their introduction to the edited volume, “Forces of Compassion,” Peter Redfield and Erica Bornstein pose a question: “What is it about the present…that casts the care of strangers in such a leading role?” Taking up this question, this panel explores the affective and material relationships that are at the center of humanitarian circuits of exchange. Humanitarian aid encounters have become outsized agents of political and economic change in many parts of the world, and in so doing they have reshaped North-South relations. Images of suffering strangers mediate Western perceptions aid recipients, who exist elsewhere, and are now a driving force in responses by donor communities that seek to “do something.” Central to the calls to action that underlie humanitarian impulses is a desire to connect with these distant others, often through charitable or voluntary actions. The assembled papers in this panel examine the contradictions of the “gift” that frequently animate humanitarian actions, where economic and material humanitarian exchanges are morally and politically problematized by their intersection with other forms of exchange: of sentiment, affect, and moral impulse. What kinds of new relationships are generated by the circulation of charitable gifts and voluntary labor, and with what political, social, and affective consequences? How do recipient communities frame themselves as worthy subjects, and how does the circulation and performativity of compassion become a form of agency, for both donor and recipient? How do humanitarian relationships shape subjects into specific kinds of moral and political actors, and at what cost? To take up these questions panelists focus on several intersecting themes and subjects of study. Keri Brondo and Andrea Freidus consider the subject position of the volunteer, and how acts of volunteering which are in part motivated by religious and sentimental drives to “save” their host communities are complicated by the intersection of such religio-affective impulses with the political, ecological, and economic needs of their hosts. Lisa Richey and Mary Mostafanezhad examine the conflicts underlying humanitarian relationships by tracking how international volunteers represent their ties to host communities on social media, highlighting how circuits of visual representation have become central to the problematic dynamics of suffering and care at the center of popular humanitarianism. Lydia Boyd and Pilar Rau also return to the issue of circulation—of imagery, material objects, money, and sentiment—but do so by focusing on host communities and aid recipients themselves, highlighting the often contradictory moral and economic expectations that underlie charitable gifts. At the center of these papers is a consideration of how humanitarian practice intersects with complex moral economies, ones where the donors of aid see the act of giving as an opportunity for their release from compassionate obligation and where host communities view the circulation of material support and sentiment as creating the potential for ongoing ties of mutual support.
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Historically, recreational endurance running arose partially with the aim of controlling the side effects of a ‘seated’ life, i.e. obesity and physical inactivity. This trend developed already in the 19th century, with the emergence of... more
Historically, recreational endurance running arose partially with the aim of controlling the side effects of a ‘seated’ life, i.e. obesity and physical inactivity. This trend developed already in the 19th century, with the emergence of middle classes who had the requisite time and resources. Recreational endurance running became very popular in the 1970s, within the context of renewed societal attention to fitness and physical health, which developed in the USA and spread quickly to other industrialized nations. Physical endurance activities such as long-distance running can be conceived of as technologies of the self, practices that can be used to transform oneself. However, they do not necessarily free an individual from the domination of disciplinary ideologies. Within the liberal project of self-development, people are required to take responsibility and to regulate their lives in a manner that confirms they are freely choosing individuals while, in fact, they act within clearly defined fields of possibilities. Their ‘choices’ are pertinent to and normalized within the dominant (neoliberal) discourses with which they engage. In this context, endurance runners are model individuals in contemporary society: dedicated, controlled, disciplined, culturally and economically invested in health and self-responsible. Based on exploratory ethnographic research, I discuss in this paper the crucial role that mobile tracking devices, as markers of an active lifestyle, play in this process. I focus on how the data generated by GPS sports watches are widely shared by runners and their followers on general as well as specialized social media platforms. I disentangle why, paradoxically, these technologies seem to make exemplary mobile people more immobile, because many hours are spent sitting behind electronic device screens to communicate (and seeking social approval for) the mobile performances. I place my critical anthropological analysis within the context of wider societal trends related to self-discipline and self-control.
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The desire to ‘move’ is a fundamental facet of being human, and the kinds of mobility involved in this desire are psychological and spiritual as well as physical. In the so-called ‘developed’ parts of the world, many people report to be... more
The desire to ‘move’ is a fundamental facet of being human, and the kinds of mobility involved in this desire are psychological and spiritual as well as physical. In the so-called ‘developed’ parts of the world, many people report to be living in ‘overdrive’ (in a state of excessive activity and speed). As busy as their professional lives may be, people are in search of the ‘right speed’ with which to move in their ‘free’ time, in a way that values quality over quantity, long-term benefits over short-term gains, and well-being. In this context, slowness is more than anti-speed. There are interesting parallels to be drawn between slow movements (coupled with the revaluation of physical exertion) and environmental movements, because both seek to evoke novel ideas about the proper pace of a good and enjoyable human life. The discourse around the proper pace of life emphasises experience, pleasure and the sensuous human body. Slowness is embodied in the qualities of rhythm, pace, tempo and velocity that are produced in the sensory and affective relationship between the individual and the world. Proper pace is portrayed as being subject to cultural and practical ways of doing, and as a question of aesthetics. It thus involves taking more time to be ‘in the moment’ (rather than elsewhere in thoughts). Based on preliminary research findings, this paper will address these issues against the wider background of other forms of slow mobility (whether voluntary or forced).
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Many have dreamt and thought about a peaceful, post-national global community in which people, despite their differences, could live together in harmony and solidarity. This is nothing but a utopia, a term the English philosopher Thomas... more
Many have dreamt and thought about a peaceful, post-national global community in which people, despite their differences, could live together in harmony and solidarity. This is nothing but a utopia, a term the English philosopher Thomas More coined in 1516 for an ideal, imaginary society (which stood in sharp contrast with the contentious social life and chaotic politics in Europe at the time). In this talk, I reflect on the (dis)connections between the utopian political and philosophical visions of cosmopolitanism and the more individual attempts of people to obtain a cosmopolitan outlook or disposition, a desirable contemporary form of cultural capital. What does it take to become cosmopolitan? Can one ever reach this goal or does it always remain an unfinished process of becoming? Does one actively need to travel in search of “Otherness” or is it enough to (passively) let “difference” come to you? How are individual cosmopolitan quests facilitating or, on the contrary, hindering broader societal ideologies and projects of cosmopolitanism?
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Walking is one of humankind’s most basic acts. Yet, beyond its everyday utility and purposefulness, walking often carries other pursuits along with it. People walk to relax, to exercise or to complete a pilgrimage. There are many... more
Walking is one of humankind’s most basic acts. Yet, beyond its everyday utility and purposefulness, walking often carries other pursuits along with it. People walk to relax, to exercise or to complete a pilgrimage. There are many different types of ‘walkers’, from the long-distance hikes of the Maasai warriors on the East African planes to the leisurely urban strolls of the Parisian flâneurs. Some walk to think or to stimulate the faculty of human imagination. Many of history’s great philosophers and writers recognized the benefits of ambulation. Nishida Kitaro, the illustrious Japanese philosopher, practiced meditation on a daily walk, and his route is now the heavily visited Philosopher’s Path in Kyoto. Immanuel Kant was famous for the extreme regularity of his walks in late eighteenth-century Königsberg. In this participatory outdoor walk, participants will experience firsthand the advantages and limitations of walking as a method in anthropological research and teaching. Many anthropologists have engaged in walking during their fieldwork—walking with informants, walking from one ethnographic ‘activity’ to the other, or walking as a way to relax—but so far there has been little reflection on what the practice of walking does to our (anthropological) understanding of the subjects we study, whether these are mobile or not. We will also share personal experiences with walking as a tool for teaching and mentoring, and the interesting possibilities this offers in terms of linking thoughts with feelings, legacies with ephemera, materiality with imaginaries, and mobility with immobility.
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One of the most recent scholarly debates in anthropology concerned the ontological question whether there is one world and many worldviews or, rather, multiple worlds ‘out there’. Over a decade ago, the world anthropologies network... more
One of the most recent scholarly debates in anthropology concerned the ontological question whether there is one world and many worldviews or, rather, multiple worlds ‘out there’. Over a decade ago, the world anthropologies network (mainly led by colleagues from Latin America) launched a similar epistemological discussion, by stating that there is not one anthropological discipline with many interpretations but, rather, multiple anthropologies. When applied to the specific subject matter of tourism, the question becomes whether there is one hegemonic anthropology of tourism canon or, rather, multiple anthropologies of tourism (whereby it is implicitly assumed that these are developed in different scholarly traditions across the globe). To further complicate the matter, the argument has also been made that there is not one tourism but, rather, multiple (adjectival, specialty and niche) tourisms. This paper analyzes whether there is an empirical basis that warrants pluralizing the subject matter (tourism) and the discipline (anthropology). Furthermore, it reflects on what we gain or lose, analytically, with this process of pluralization. What does it do to the object of study and the subjects studying and being studied?
The WCAA was founded with the laudable aim of promoting worldwide communication and cooperation in anthropology. In this paper, I reflect critically on how anthropology in general and the WCAA in particular have been “in the world” and... more
The WCAA was founded with the laudable aim of promoting worldwide communication and cooperation in anthropology. In this paper, I reflect critically on how anthropology in general and the WCAA in particular have been “in the world” and how they have shaped that world over the last decade.
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Behind the question on how to define and understand ethnographic theory hides a discussion about how (anthropological) knowledge is or should be produced. Going back to the etymological roots of the concepts teaches us a lot about the... more
Behind the question on how to define and understand ethnographic theory hides a discussion about how (anthropological) knowledge is or should be produced. Going back to the etymological roots of the concepts teaches us a lot about the core characteristics that define how theory is created and the ethnographic variant of this creative process.
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Not a day goes by without being confronted, one way or the other, with the multiple environmental, societal, and economic challenges that our planet faces. Because it is impossible to tackle all problems at once, the United Nations (UN)... more
Not a day goes by without being confronted, one way or the other, with the multiple environmental, societal, and economic challenges that our planet faces. Because it is impossible to tackle all problems at once, the United Nations (UN) has created so-called international observances—special days, weeks, months, years, and even decades that highlight an issue of global concern. The year 2017 happens to be the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development” (#IY2017). The idea to use tourism as a tool for development is not new. So, why this theme, and why now?
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How does the idea of ‘mobility’ (as boundary crossing) relate to the development of regimes and social practice? If we conceive of mobilities as an entanglement of movement, representation and practice, then the ways these movements are... more
How does the idea of ‘mobility’ (as boundary crossing) relate to the development of regimes and social practice? If we conceive of mobilities as an entanglement of movement, representation and practice, then the ways these movements are culturally represented and individually practiced can produce strong tensions. The researcher will investigate this hypothesis by way of an ethnographic case study of career and wellbeing mobilities in Brussels (as multicultural metropolis and policy-making heart of Belgium and Europe). A mixed methods and grounded theory approach will guide the data collection and analysis. The methods will include direct and participant observation, semi-structured and in-depth interviews, questionnaires and the gathering of supplementary data from secondary sources: audiovisual data, news media, documents, archives and the Internet. Taking seriously and not for granted the societal as well as personal implications and consequences of career (educational and occupational) and wellbeing (tourism and lifestyle) mobilities, this critical anthropological research will help to determine the analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching conceptual framework (or paradigm) in the social sciences. The findings will be used to raise academic and public awareness about the origins and enduring power and problems of ideologies wedded to the principle of mobility.
The proposed study addresses the following main hypothesis: Currently prevailing images and discourses in Flanders represent travel to (tourism) and travel from (immigration) “the South” in ways that seem at the same time unconsciously... more
The proposed study addresses the following main hypothesis: Currently prevailing images and discourses in Flanders represent travel to (tourism) and travel from (immigration) “the South” in ways that seem at the same time unconsciously disconnected from the lived present but connected with the imagined past.
The objective of this anthropological research is to study empirically how imaginaries of tourism to and immigration from “the South” (Africa, Latin America, and Asia) are interlinked and what this tells us about multiculturalism and... more
The objective of this anthropological research is to study empirically how imaginaries of tourism to and immigration from “the South” (Africa, Latin America, and Asia) are interlinked and what this tells us about multiculturalism and representations of otherness. The main hypothesis is that prevailing images and discourse represent travel to and from the South in ways that seem disconnected from the lived present but connected with an imagined past. This proposition will be analyzed through an in-depth study of how people in Brussels, Belgium, imagine and represent tourism to and migration from Indonesia, Tanzania, and Chile. The research will employ a mixed-methods approach, involving observation, interviews, archival research, and the collection of images and discourse from secondary sources (TV, advertising, printed press, digital media, cinema, photography and exhibitions). The ethnographic perspective will provide a close-grained analysis of the cultural practices and social relations that (re)produce globally circulating imaginaries of mobility and the implications this has for people’s lives. The project adds to existing research in two ways. In the study, imaginaries (representational systems that mediate reality and form identities) are operationalized as real practices: through the ethnographic method we can assess how imaginary activities, subjects, and social relations are materialized, enacted, and inculcated. Thematically, the research analyzes how widespread imaginaries and personal imaginations about mobility are interconnected and contradicting each other. The study links strongly between the social sciences and the humanities, drawing on the need to bring together aspects of anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, and geography. This timely project will enable a promising researcher affiliated with a top university in the USA to reintegrate himself in the EU, helping him to expand his academic career and facilitate the transfer of knowledge.
The current anthropological concepts and models for understanding global-local relations insufficiently capture the complexity of phenomena such as global tourism, in which processes of globalization and localization mutually constitute... more
The current anthropological concepts and models for understanding global-local relations insufficiently capture the complexity of phenomena such as global tourism, in which processes of globalization and localization mutually constitute one another. Tourist destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing corporate culture of the tourism industry while at the same time trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctive identity. The literature on local tour guides, who are key actors in this double process, mainly discusses how their discourse is manufactured and controlled at the local and national level. The proposed research will examine the hypothesis that the degree to which tour guides in Tanzania are globally connected and networked significantly affects how they represent ‘the local’ to tourists.
The current anthropological concepts and models for understanding global-local relations insufficiently capture the complexity of phenomena such as global tourism, in which processes of globalization and localization mutually constitute... more
The current anthropological concepts and models for understanding global-local relations insufficiently capture the complexity of phenomena such as global tourism, in which processes of globalization and localization mutually constitute one another. Tourist destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing corporate culture of the tourism industry while at the same time trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctive identity. The literature on local tour guides, who are key actors in this double process, mainly discusses how their discourse is manufactured and controlled at the local and national level. The proposed research will examine the hypothesis that the degree to which tour guides in Indonesia are globally connected and networked significantly affects how they represent ‘the local’ to tourists.
In this week’s episode, host Dr Jennifer Cearns is joined by Professor Noel Salazar (University of Leuven), Dr Costanza Currò (University of Helsinki), and Dr Julius-Cezar MacQuarie (Central European University) to discuss the idea of... more
In this week’s episode, host Dr Jennifer Cearns is joined by Professor Noel Salazar (University of Leuven), Dr Costanza Currò (University of Helsinki), and Dr Julius-Cezar MacQuarie (Central European University) to discuss the idea of ‘social distancing’: a term many of us have suddenly become familiar with in the light of COVID-19. What does it mean to socially distance oneself? What does that look like? And what are the ramifications of this at a societal and individual level? In this episode we set out to unpack some of these questions.
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The World Indigenous Games, de Olympische Spelen voor inheemse volkeren, vindt in Brazilië plaats. Inheemse volkeren ontmoeten er elkaar, kunnen wat van hun eigen cultuur laten zien, maar levert het ook iets meer op dan mooie foto's?
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What happens in our brains when we are using our imagination? What role does imagination play in our decisions to visit foreign countries or even to migrate there? And is there something that makes people from a particular place, say... more
What happens in our brains when we are using our imagination? What role does imagination play in our decisions to visit foreign countries or even to migrate there? And is there something that makes people from a particular place, say India, use their imagination in a unique way? Bridget Kendall talks to neuroscientist Peter Tse, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam and anthropologist Noel Salazar.