CFP: Tourism and Festivals as Transnational Practice, Innsbruck, Austria, May 2004

> sorry for cross-posting...
> 
> Call for Papers
> 
> Journeys of Expression III: Tourism and Festivals as Transnational Practice
> 3rd annual CTCC Tourism & Festival Research Conference
> Innsbruck, Austria, 5-7 May 2004
> 
> Journeys of Expression III: Tourism and Festivals as Transnational Practice 
> is a small three day academic conference being held in
> Innsbruck, Austria from 5 to 7 May 2004. It is being co-organised by the 
> Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change at Sheffield Hallam
> University (United Kingdom) and the Institute for European Ethnology and 
> Folklore at Innsbruck University. The aim of the conference is to
> present and discuss a selection of case studies and theoretical approaches 
> focusing on the relation between tourism and festivals in the
> context of the contemporary world(s). 
> Since at least 12,000 BC, humans have been creating symbolic 'models' to 
> explain their existence and their relations to the world; models
> to articulate and make meaningful the contradictive conditions of our loving, 
> longing, suffering, hating, communicating, exchanging and
> 'passing by'. These models are usually expressed and mediated through various 
> forms of narration, aesthetic production and the festive
> enactment of legends and myths during moments of social concentration. Since 
> the early 19th century, social scientists and philosophers
> have been interested in the links between these festively created forms of 
> the poetic, aesthetic and artistic, and the social organisation
> of groups and societies. Such forms and practices have also long provided 
> focal points for tourists; travellers of times and spaces that
> are seeking experiences, narrations and intercultural participation that make 
> personal and collective worlds meaningful.
> 
> Within this context, this conference aims to discuss academic meanings of the 
> relation between tourism and festivals in a transnational
> context. Why do tourists go to festivals? How do they participate? What do 
> they experience and through which forms of symbolic or semiotic
> frameworks do they make this experience meaningful? Do festivals become 
> social nodes of a transnational culture, of a 'global village'?
> What is the meaning of the economic and symbolic exchange processes involved? 
> Are there meta-narratives, and what is their ideological
> grounding, and their vision of the world? 
> 
> The conference welcomes case studies and theoretical explorations that 
> address such questions. Themes for the conference include:
> 
> *     tourism and festivals as transnational social phenomena;
> *     tourism as a global geographical extension of ritual processes; 
> *     heritage, culture and nature as sacred spaces;
> *     festivals as transnational relations and exchange systems;
> *     cultural festivals as international institutions, utopias and doctrines;
> *     festivals as expressions of power;
> *     tourist participation in 'cultural' festivals and the communication of 
> experience;
> *     the challenge of internationalisation to cultural values and 
> organisation patterns.
> 
> We welcome critical contestations and discussions of such themes and would 
> particularly appreciate papers that are based on research data.
> Please send a 250 word abstract to Dr David Picard (d.picard@xxxxxxxxx). The 
> deadline to submit abstracts is the 5th of March 2004. Given
> the short notice, we will be accepting abstracts earlier to provide 
> participants with more time.
>  
> Conference convenors: Mike Robinson, David Picard, Oliver Haid
> 
> Centre for Tourism & 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
> Email d.picard@xxxxxxxxx
> Website www.tourism-culture.com
> 
>