Centre for Tourism Policy Studies
Tourism, space and place
Theme Leader: Dr Cathy Palmer
Space and place together with time are central to the ways in which people orientate themselves in the world. As people inhabit, organise and classify space they transform it into a meaningful world of places, things and activities. The world as space and place is fluid, nuanced and contested and shapes as much as it is shaped by the human and non-human activities that occur within it. One such transformative activity is that of tourism and its antecedent travel.
A number of interlinked areas connect our focus on the experience of space and place within tourism. The spaces and places of tourism are diverse and eclectic ranging from, for example, the coast, the countryside and the built environment to airports, cruise ships, museums, castles and souvenir shops. We seek to explore how such spaces are ‘used’ - imagined, remembered, memorialized and contested. Encounters with the buildings, monuments, objects and ‘things’ of space and place can reveal much about the ways in which tourism mediates knowledge and understanding of self, other and the wider world.
Disciplinary perspectives: social anthropology, cultural/human geography
Areas of interest:
- Material and visual culture and tourism
- Film, photography and tourism
- Identity and belonging in tourism
- Virtual and mediated space and tourism
- Embodiment and the sensory experience of tourism
- Politics of space and place