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This is a call for papers for Tourism and Performance: Scripts, Stages and Stories, an international research conference organised by the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom. The extended deadline for this CFP is 1 May 2005. Due to lower venue costs, we have been able to reconsider the registration fees, and offer a student rate. Prof Edward Bruner from the University of Illinois, USA will give a plenary speech on 'Experience, Narrative and Memory in Tourism'.

CONTEXT AND AIMS

Performance has been theorised as a way by which human beings act in society and organise their being in the world. In the context of tourism, there is much debate regarding the idea of tourists as performers, 'acting out' spaces, and enacting 'scripts', through which they organise and add meaning to their experiences and journeys. Tourism in this sense can be seen to be 'staged'. But such perspectives raise a number of questions regarding the reflexivity, the hermeneutics, the sensual and aesthetic modalities, the social interactions and the political economy of tourist performance: How is individual tourist performance linked to socially prescribed or learnt models regarding tourism behaviour and spaces? How are spaces and material culture 'enacted' by and for tourists? What are the production and consumption modalities of in situ and in visu stages for tourism performance? How is tourism performance linked to modes of touristic social interaction during the journey? What roles do stories play in generating performativity and in liberating tourists from the acts of travel and tourism?

The aim of this conference is to explore such questions by drawing on the methodological and conceptual knowledge of different disciplinary perspectives including those of: tourism studies, anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, folkloric studies, literature, critical theory, linguistics, human/cultural geography, psychology, theatre studies and other relevant approaches.

THEMES

Key themes of interest to the conference include:

- Who is cooking who? Tourism consumption, digestion, and excretion

- Hermeneutics, reflexivity and agency: Tourism as a parable of the social world

- Eden, Sodom & Gomorrah, the Solitary Wanderer, the Golden Fleece: Archaeologies of tourist imaginary and performance

- Odour, sound, vision, taste - making sense of the senses: cognitive categories and perceptive processes in tourism experience

- Objects as props - objects as texts

- Staging, eroticising, and making visible: Translations, adaptations, and variations of the 'cultural'

- Reconsidering the economic in tourism: Transnational spaces of encounter, production and exchange

- Political and symbolic manipulation of tourism scripts

- 'Losing the plot': Tourism lost in translation

PROGRAMME

The conference is organised by Prof Mike Robinson and Dr David Picard, from the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Sheffield Hallam University. It will accommodate key note presentations and a series of themed sessions. Prof Edward Bruner from the University of Illinois, USA has confirmed his participation as a key note speaker. An informal welcome reception will be organised in the early evening of 14 July 2005. The conference will officially open in the morning of 15 July.

VENUE AND REGISTRATION

The conference will take place in Sheffield, United Kingdom. The registration fee for the conference is £190 if paid before 1 June 2005 and £240 if paid after this date. We also offer a student rate at £160. This includes the full conference documentation, an ISBN referred proceedings CD-ROM, day-time conference catering, a conference dinner and a field study.

ACCOMMODATION

The conference registration fee does not include accommodation. This can be booked directly with the venue (address to be confirmed through our website). Delegates will benefit from excellent rates at the hotel / conference venue where 3* style bed and breakfast accommodation is available. A single B&B will be at £55, a double B&B at £80 per night. As in previous events, we expect that the majority of delegates will stay on the conference site and therefore urge early bookings to avoid pain, disappointment and depression.

CALL FOR PAPERS

People who wish to present a paper should send a 300 word abstract with full address details as an electronic file to Prof. Mike Robinson and Dr. David Picard (send to [log in to unmask] ) as soon as possible but by 1 May 2005 at the latest. Late abstracts might be also accepted.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For any other or further enquiry regarding this conference or the Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change, please visit www.tourism-culture.com or contact us at:

conference convenors:

Prof. Mike Robinson Dr David Picard

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conference administrators:

Mr Francesco Gilardi Ms Annie Yeromian

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ADDRESS

Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change

Sheffield Hallam University

Howard Street, Owen Building

Sheffield S1 1WB, United Kingdom

Phone: +44 (0) 114 225 3973

Fax: +44 (0) 114 225 3343

Web: www.tourism-culture.com