Ethnodrama and ethnotheatre in tourism

© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Ethnodrama and ethnotheatre are two ways of knowing that turn ethnographic work into drama scripts and theatrical productions. They have been employed within several fields of inquiry due to their propensity to interrogate and challenge existing socio-political power structures and promote political change. Moreover, they are effective approaches to convey meanings to academic and non-academic audiences. Despite this, they have been relatively neglected in tourism. By mobilizing seminal work in the social sciences, performance studies and theatre studies on performance texts and arts-based research, this paper presents and discusses ethnodrama and ethnotheatre as two alternative methodological approaches in tourism. This work contributes to tourism knowledge by partially addressing the need for methodological diversity advocated by qualitative tourism scholars

Advances of nanotechnology in agro-environmental studies

With the increase in the world population and the demand for food, new agricultural practices have been developed to improve food production through the use of more effective pesticides and fertilisers. These technologies can lead to an uncontrolled release of undesired substances into the environment, with the potential to contaminate soil and groundwater. Today, nanotechnology represents a promising approach to improve agricultural production and remediate polluted sites. This paper reviews the recent applications of nanotechnologies in agro-environmental studies with particular attention to the fate of nanomaterials once introduced in water and soil, to the advantages of their use and their possible toxicology. Findings show that the use of nanomaterials can improve the quality of the environment and help detect and remediate polluted sites. Only a small number of nanomaterials demonstrated potential toxic effects. These are discussed in detail

Art tourism and urban development in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi – a business owners’ perspective

Drawing on the emerging body of knowledge on art tourism, this paper aims to examine whether and how the development and promotion of forms of art could act as a catalyst for tourism and urban development in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi’s commercial and industrial district. More specifically, this work focuses on the perceptions of a specific group of stakeholders, namely Emiratis who own a business in the area, to understand the role of art in propelling urban change in a non-post-industrial city. Overall, the empirical material, co-constructed during a series of focus groups, seems to highlight business owners’ support for art tourism initiatives as these are perceived as vehicles to attract visitors to the area and increase their businesses’ profitability. However, the multiple (and often divergent) views expressed on the types of art to consider for art tourism development also unveil the problematic role of art objects and expressions in representing and promoting the perceived main characteristics of a cultural group

Design of a New System of High-power Efficiency Conditioning Cogeneration Energy for a Building of the University of Cagliari with Fossil Fuel Plants

Abstract An analysis of Italy's National Energy Budget of in the last decades shows the important role of the civil sector and the impact of fossil fuels in air conditioning systems. The high consumption of fossil fuel is Likely due to the predominance of plants with conventional boilers in buildings. Based on the analysis of the Exergy flow this paper proposes the Cogeneration technology for Air conditioning systems with heat pumps to implement the Rational Use of Energy. The feasibility of a retrofit intervention on existing systems of a large size is shown, by the projection of a cogeneration plant for the buildings of the University of Cagliari currently equipped with fossil fuel plants

Critical theories in tourism - a systematic literature review

Critical approaches to tourism knowledge production and representation alongside critical approaches to tourism as a lived experience outside academic circles (its impacts on places, peoples and economies) are not new in tourism. However, propelled by a ‘critical turn’ and by an overall critique of positivist research, debates concerning the meanings and implications of ‘the critical’ in tourism have gained momentum and more visibility in the last fifteen years. As an attempt to organise and critically assess the growing body of knowledge on criticality, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of critical studies published in tourism journals, books and book chapters in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian) in the last 43 years (1977–2020). Four main aspects of criticality in tourism were assessed, namely the main critical approaches mobilized, the areas/topics of interest, authorship and the emancipatory outcomes pursued. The review shows that a) the word ‘critical’ in tourism is mobilised within a multiplicity of different and not clearly defined approaches, beliefs and terminologies alongside diverse understandings of criticality; b) a significant nexus exists between criticality and sustainability; c) Western universities plays a dominant role in propelling critical scholarship; and d) limited explanations are provided on how participatory and emancipatory practices are sought and achieved. Based on the outcomes of our review, critical research in tourism should not stop debating the meanings associated to the term ‘critical’, challenge traditional capitalist discourses of sustainability with alternative theories (such as regenerative tourism), consider postcolonial/decolonial perspectives, and provide more details on how emancipation and participation are supposed to be achieved

Narratives on Facebook: the impact of user-generated content on visiting attitudes, visiting intention and perceptions of destination risk

© 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Through an experiment, this paper investigates the impact of online page popularity and message valences of user-generated content in social media on pro-Iran visiting attitudes and behavioural intention as well as perceptions of destination risk. Moreover, the mediating role of perceived risk and visiting attitudes in the effect of page popularity and message valences on visiting intention is examined. Six different versions of pro-Iran visiting community Facebook pages with three different message valences and two levels of popularity were created. One hundred twenty participants were randomly exposed to one of the six Facebook pages and then asked to complete a questionnaire that assessed demographic data; visiting attitude; visiting intention; travel risk type; and perceived risk index. The perceived risk index was developed by this study through conducting online open-ended interviews. The findings show that success stories and high popularity lead to more positive attitude, higher level of intention to visit, and lower perceptions of destination risk than failure stories and low popularity. Popularity dampens the negative effect of failure stories on users’ visiting attitudes. Moreover, perceived risk underlies the pathway of page popularity and message valences to individuals’ visiting attitude and intention

Behind the research beliefs and practices of Asian tourism scholars in Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This article explores the power structures behind the research beliefs and practices of tourism scholars based in three Asian countries, namely Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. More specifically, through qualitative interviews, this study gives voice to a group of Asian tourism scholars to cast light on the historical (colonial/postcolonial) and contemporary (neocolonial) forces influencing their research beliefs and practices. Conceptually, this work mobilises the notions of “intellectual imperialism” and “captive mind”, developed by the Malaysian sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas. Overall, the empirical material supports Alatas on the idea that Asian tourism scholars are influenced by power structures that tend to reiterate Western-centric ideologies. However, an important aspect emerging from the interviews was that regional/national research agendas and the influence of other Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea and China, also play a role in shaping the research beliefs and practices of scholars based in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam

Art and tourism – a systematic review of the literature

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present a review of published academic work on art and tourism. A distinction between papers researching tourism and mentioning art just as one of tourism activities and papers covering “art tourism” specifically is proposed. Design/methodology/approach: The review is grounded on a content analysis of studies containing the words “art” and “tourism” published in the Scopus database. Moreover, to analyze papers specifically consisting of the term “art tourism” a theory‐context‐characteristics‐methods structure was used – the authors call these papers art–tourism-specific papers. Findings: While the number of “art and tourism” papers has been increasing in the past 40 years, little is known about “art tourism” as an independent form of tourism. This study finds limited work on art tourists’ characteristics, preferences and behaviors as costumers. No art-based research and little research with visual representations was found. Artists are very rarely participants of art tourism research. Research limitations/implications: Most research is conceptual, and little applied research can be identified. Importantly, besides synthesizing and critically assessing the current corpus of knowledge on art tourism, this review presents a final roadmap with directions for future research. One of the limitations of this review is that only studies included in the Scopus database and published in English were considered. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first comprehensive systematic review of published academic research on art and tourism in the past 40 years. The results of this study offer directions to future art tourism researchers

Ph.D. Students\u27 experiences and emotions in neoliberal tourism academia

Situated within the emerging social science literature contesting the diffusion of neoliberal ideologies into academia, this study explores the effects of neoliberalism (in the face of Covid-19 as well) on doctoral students. It employs a qualitative arts-based approach amalgamating aspects of autoethnography, ethnography, ethnodrama, and qualitative interviews to co-construct empirical material on Ph.D. students\u27 experiences and emotions. In general, the discussions with the doctoral students portray a rather hostile tourism academy, characterized by unhealthy levels of competition, questionable supervisory practices, and quantitative measurements of output that discourage intellectual engagement and creativity. As such, tourism doctoral students often experience negative emotional experiences, such as fear and anxiety, which in some instances also lead to high levels of stress and depression. Overall, this work contributes to our understanding of the effects of neoliberalism on tourism academia by unveiling the multiple power structures tourism doctoral students have to face throughout their Ph.D. journeys