| Summary: |
Tourism is a well established phenomenon across the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) Region and despite political instabilities
it demonstrates remarkable resilience. As well as being a major
economic force and a key driver for development, tourism is also
an important mechanism for social exchange and identity building
at both the individual and regional/national levels. Over recent
years the rate of tourism development has increased substantively.
Multi-national investments in hotels, resort complexes and infrastructure,
together with major heritage conservation projects are catalysing
significant social changes (such as shifting patterns of labour
migration and the testing of ‘traditional’ values and
practices), environmental changes (at the aesthetic level and in
terms of physical change), and political changes (re-orientation
of alliances and new globalised relationships).
The aims of this major international and multi-disciplinary conference
are: To critically explore the major issues facing the MENA region
with regard to the development of tourism and its relationships
with heritage and culture; To draw upon ideas, cases and best practice
from international scholars and help develop new understandings
and research capacities regarding the relationships between tourism,
heritage and culture in the MENA Region and; To provide a major
networking opportunity for international scholars, policy makers
and professionals.
CALL FOR PAPERS
In this major conference we seek to examine the phenomenon of
tourism across the Middle East and North Africa Region and its changing
relationships with heritage and culture. We wish to promote dialogue
across disciplinary boundaries and thus we welcome papers from the
following disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, architecture,
art and design history, cultural geography, cultural studies, ethnology
and folklore, history, heritage studies, landscape studies, linguistics,
museum studies, political science, sociology, tourism studies and
urban/spatial planning.
Key themes of interest to the conference include:
- Histories, mobilities, and the symbolic / political economies
of tourism
- Tourism in the construction of places / spaces / nations
- The role of archaeology in contemporary tourism
- Structures / infrastructures of international tourism –
building/ architecture/ design for tourism & tourists
- Tourism and the role of the museum
- The conservation of heritage for tourism
- The practices and performances of ‘tradition’
- Tourist art and art for tourists
- Intangible heritage and its role in tourism
- Rural and urban tourism practices
Please submit a 300 word abstract including title and full contact
details as an electronic file to Prof Mike Robinson (ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk).
You may submit your abstract as soon as possible but no later than
30th November 2008.
Conference Organisers: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds
Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, and the Council for British
Research in the Levant, Amman, Jordan.
|
