1,721,087 research outputs found
Whither religious tourism research? : conclusion and final remarks
No full textThe expanding field of religious tourism underpins the urgency for the construction of research agenda that addresses the myriad concerns that the phenomenon generates. The growth of global tourism, domestic and international, appears commensurate with the growth in religious tourism, and with this expansion comes renewed concerns about how religious institutions, events and places are increasingly falling under the tourist gaze. The continuum of religious tourism is typified by the sacred at one end and the profane at the other, encapsulating the problematisation of religious tourism. Contributions to this volume throw up several themes for discussion, albeit a mere slice of the wider phenomenon. Whether religious tourism is a mode of travel that is the archetype for sustainable tourism or not remains at large, and is what this endeavour seeks to unpack. Moreover, as religious tourism booms, the urgency for research that seeks solutions for evident growing pains is vital
Resilience in the visitor economy : cultural economy, human social networks, and slow change in the regional periphery
No full textQuestions concerning the resilience of regional areas have risen to prominence as the downstream impacts of local and global change, including globalization effects, socio-demographic transformations, economic restructuring, and decline of traditional industries (such as agriculture and mining) are more marked in peripheral settings. This occurs at a time when regional and local governments have experienced diminishing authority over planning, regulating, and shaping their immediate social, economic, and environmental contexts. In confronting the issue of the visitor or tourism economy in regional contexts, Kneafsey’s (2001: 762) assertion that ‘the countryside is increasingly viewed as both a commodity in itself and as a set of commodifiable signs and symbols’ epitomizes the economic utility of such places and this is a central platform of the chapter. Connectivity as part of human social networks is contextualized with resilient regional tourism in accordance with Lew’s (2014: 18) assessment where the emphasis is on ‘slow change challenges that a community or collective must address’, which is ‘beyond the interests of any one individual or enterprise’
Introduction : islandscapes and tourism : setting the scene
No full textThe links between islandscapes and tourism are unassailable. The essential nature of islandscapes, particularly their backdrop, lends them to touristification in the contemporary globalised context. ‘Getting away from it all’ is central to tourists’ selection of an island as a holiday destination – it is this that is fundamental to making islands favourably predisposed for tourism development. In seeking to inform and shape the islandscapes agenda, the selection of perspectives herein showcases the interactions between islands and the evidently diverse encounters with tourism. On small islands, dotted across the globe, tourism looms large, yet as geographer Stephen Britton forewarns, it holds enormous promise, but can also unravel delicately poised islandscapes. For many small island developing states, their reliance on tourism is well known, yet this very dependence echoes Britton’s assertions, and highlights the vexed articulations that tourism tends to raise, and what this anthology appraises extensively
Understanding tourism resilience : adapting to social, political, and economic change
No full textThe links between uncertainty and adaptive capacities suggests that developing adequate responses to the vicissitudes of global and local events is key to enabling rapid rebound and at the very least, efficient adaptation. When it comes to social, political, and economic change, these dimensions tend to unfold gradually making responses dependent on mutable circumstantial and contextual stimuli. This contrasts with fast change where scale, change, and response occur at different speeds. International tourism, which is often accompanied by the global branding of multinational companies, can be viewed as a symbolic coming of age for an emerging economy. In such contexts where tourism is a vital cog in the local economy, the overriding ability to adapt and deal effectively with change frames the nature and extent of resilience. A global scan of tourism in practice exemplifies that at a local level, tourism communities are increasingly subject to the repercussions of wider global developments, and that the course of building adaptive capacities, although reliant on local action to some degree, pivots on the extent of global change, as well as particular variations in regional and country contexts. That tourism drives social change is often made obvious where its manifestation and rapid growth becomes a prominent instigator of change, intertwining with the socio-economic fabric of communities and creating new norms. In examining tourism and resilience, with a focus on social, economic, and political change, the human-in-nature perspective and the ways in which this interaction plays out is emphasised. The tourism system is a complex adaptive system with each part either working to enhance or limit resilience building, thus necessitating a whole-of-system emphasis, rather than tinkering with its individual parts. Adapting to change is a continual, evolutionary process, responding to feedback loops and instituting resilience measures. Hopefully this is done in deliberate and organised ways, wherein policy makers, community, and industry are cohesive, rather than in ad hoc, unintended ways where the gulf between government, industry and community is wide
Lessons learned : globalization, change, and resilience in tourism communities
No full textAssessing how human social systems respond to social change is a challenge because, in most instances, the systems that are being examined are implicated as both agents and victims of the change that is taking place. This is especially true of tourism, which, as an economic activity, is an active agent in creating a more globalized and homogenous world, while also being deeply dependent on at least the perception of heterogeneous places and the uniqueness of destinations. The chapters in this book were roughly structured on this awareness, grouped into chapters that discussed how tourism (as a system) responds to broad changes in social, economic, and political conditions, and chapters in which tourism is actively used to bring about changes in those same conditions
A tale of two researchers : masculinity in cross-cultural contexts
No full textContemporary discourses of masculinity are framed by dramatic shifts in the context of emergent and mostly more audible feminist discourses that agitate for a necessary reshaping of gender relations, as alluded to in the quotation above. This is underlined by the bottom-up #metoo social justice movement, on the one hand, and the seemingly anachronistic attitude of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in his 2019 International Women’s Day address where he emphasised that the rise of women should not come ‘at the expense of men’, on the other. Debates over how femininities and masculinities might best coexist, or not, resonate amid so-called ‘gender wars’ and the pursuit of a more equal and productive steady-state, as captured by Kagan (2017) above. The term ‘gender wars’ itself alludes to tensions and struggles that are more than theoretical and very much steeped in everyday life, defi ning and delineating how female, male and other exchanges and encounters are moderated and constructed. Indeed, the question of gender, and the archetypal attributes and constraints inherent and assigned accordingly, have evolved into multiple categorisations that increasingly question simplistic notions, moving discussions into unprecedented territory both for scholarly social sciences and within mundane everyday contexts
Masculinities in tourism research : implications and conclusions
No full textThat the gender equality imperative and its attendant gender wars are long established, signals that the overarching themes around gender and its many contentions, contradictions and perpetuations in the everyday are undeniable. The continuing ascendency of women in a world that is arguably, on balance, still very much a ‘man’s world’ is due to the perseverance of women in their battle for equality, empowerment and social justice. This, without doubt, disrupts the balance. Thus, like any transition, the trajectory is intense, bumpy and replete with anxiety and discomfort for some, and a source of hope and vindication for others. The bumpiness is alluded to in the opening quotation with the consequence that what being a man means is continually being reshaped amid the ongoing resetting of gender relations. Whether this is considered indulgent naval gazing by the intelligentsia and educated middle class, or timely and necessary in contemporary societies, is up for contention. Notwithstanding, gender relations are clearly pivoting away from hackneyed conceptualisations of masculinity, albeit not without a rear-guard action from constituents that remain rooted in the traditional past
Mesolimbic dopamine dysregulation as a signature of information processing deficits imposed by prenatal THC exposure
Get PDFCannabis is the illicit drug most widely used by pregnant women worldwide. Its growing acceptance and legalization have markedly increased the risks of child psychopathology, including psychotic-like experiences, which lowers the age of onset for a first psychotic episode. As the majority of patients with schizophrenia go through a premorbid condition long before this occurs, understanding neurobiological underpinnings of the prodromal stage of the disease is critical to improving illness trajectories and therapeutic outcomes. We have previously shown that male rat offspring prenatally exposed to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a rat model of prenatal cannabinoid exposure (PCE), exhibit extensive molecular and synaptic changes in dopaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), converging on a hyperdopaminergic state. This leads to a silent psychotic-like endophenotype that is unmasked by a single exposure to THC. Here, we further characterized the VTA dopamine neuron and sensorimotor gating functions of PCE rats exposed to acute stress or a challenge of the D2 receptor agonist apomorphine, by using in vivo single-unit extracellular recordings and Prepulse Inhibition (PPI) analyses. At pre-puberty, PCE male rat offspring display a reduced population activity of VTA dopamine neurons in vivo, the majority of which are tonically active. PCE male progeny also exhibit enhanced sensitivity to dopamine D2 (DAD2) receptor activation and a vulnerability to acute stress, which is associated with compromised sensorimotor gating functions. This data extends our knowledge of the multifaceted sequelae imposed by PCE in the mesolimbic dopamine system of male pre-adolescent rats, which renders a neural substrate highly susceptible to subsequent challenges that may trigger psychotic-like outcomes
- …
