Malcolm Foley

JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination

Abstract This paper sets out to explore the phenomenon that the authors have entitled Dark Tourism and to analyse evidence of its existence in the context of sites associated with the life and death of the former US President, John F. Kennedy (JFK). These sites present front‐line staff, curators, and development bodies with dilemmas concerning legitimacy of presentation/representation and lead to questions about the, often cited, educational mission, of such attractions. The media has had a central role in the development of this phenomenon and documentation and illustration via news and film has been central to much of the interpretation of JFK and the Kennedys. This paper considers media fascination with this subject and examines exploitation of this interest at three, contrasting sites.

Interpretation of the Unimaginable: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., and “Dark Tourism”

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has received visitation levels in excess of 2 million per annum since its opening in April 1993. Such a development was not without controversy. The museum’s permanent exhibition contains more than 5,000 artifacts, including photographs, uniforms, letters, and a rail car used to take Jewish prisoners and others to the death camps. Through the use of computer terminals, visitors are able to review records in newspapers, watch film clips, and hear taped interviews with Holocaust survivors. Such a concern with replication and simulation is central to the treatment and analysis of the phenomenon known as “dark tourism” (tourism of sites of death, atrocity, and mass killing). This article analyzes the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the context of dark tourism, concluding that the museum’s nature, content, and purpose pose questions about visitor motivation, “dark” attraction development, ethical management, and the interpretation of history.

Event policy: from theory to strategy.

1. Events Policy: An Emerging Field of Study 2. Events and Festivity: From Ritual to Regeneration 3. Trends in Events and Festivals: The Policy Panacea 4. Evaluating Event Outcomes: A Legitimation Crisis 5. The Politics of Events in an Age of Accumulation 6. Consuming Events: From Bread and Circuses to Brand 7. Events and Social Capital: Linking and Empowering Communities 8. Events as Cultural Capital: Animating the Urban 9. Glasgow 2014: Demonstrating Capacity and Competence 10. Destination Dubai: Events Policy in an Arab State 11. Mardi Gras New Orleans: Policy Intervention in an Historical Event 12. Singapore: A Mixed Economy of Events 13. Conclusions. Bibliography

Glasgow's Winter Festival: Can cultural leadership serve the common good?

The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between two policy objectives associated with Glasgows Winter Festival; that of developing tourism and economic regeneration and that of meeting the cultural needs and improving the quality of life of the Citys population. The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether such economic and community objectives can simultaneously be served through the cultural vehicle of a Winter Festival. This is done by comparing and contrasting the policy objectives set for the Festival with the actual outcomes. In considering the Festival, the concept of ‘leadership for the common good’, as expounded by Bryson and Crosby (1992) and Crosby and Bryson (2002) Conceptions of the Common Good, Paper presented at University of Strathclyde, October 18, 2002, has been utilised because it enables policy approaches to the (often contradictory) social, cultural and economic considerations of local government outlined above to be reviewed and contextualised simultaneously, even if they are not so easily reconciled in practice. The findings suggest that superficially, at least, the Festival seemed to be serving both of these interests but a fuller investigation led to the questioning of whose economies were being developed, whose culture was being represented and which communities were being served. For example, there was little doubt that the touristic community (both consumers and suppliers) was being served with the promotion of the Festival, in particular, and Glasgow, generally, as a ‘vibrant’ place to visit in winter, and thus the Councils objective of economic development was served. However, to what extent this met the Councils objective of ‘making the City a more vibrant place at holiday periods for the citizens of Glasgow’ (Glasgow City Council, 2003) was less obvious. If well-heeled residents of the City centre experienced a greater ‘vibrancy’ to their immediate living environments (whether welcome or not), it is far less certain that the Festival actually engaged more geographically and culturally ‘peripheral’ communities and citizens of Glasgow or added to the social and cultural regeneration of the City.

Problematising “education” and “training” in the Scottish sport and fitness, play and outdoor sectors

Sets out the issues peculiar to the Scottish workforce in sport and fitness, play and the outdoor sectors. Provides an exploration of the development of vocational education in the form of sector skills training for these sectors in opposition to that formal education provided at further and higher education level. Draws on empirical research gathered as part of a report produced on each of the above sectors and written by the above authors. The report was supported by the Scottish Skills Fund in a grant to SPRITO, the national training organisation for these sectors. Although labour market intelligence suggests there are various skills shortages in these sectors and a lack of qualified personnel, the tension between the role of formal education and vocational work‐based learning qualifications is palpable. Solutions to apparent incommensurability of the two positions are offered, designed to ensure that these sectors achieve competitive advantage from a workforce that is both competent and reflective in their work practice.

Women at leisure and in work ‐ unequal opportunities?

Explores the changing relationship between work and leisure with particular reference to women’s equality in economic and other activities through a review of the history of leisure opportunities since the industrial revolution; indicates the ways in which social and economic changes have had a major impact on women’s leisure needs and activities. Focuses in particular on the provision of workplace fitness facilities, undertaking a survey of more than 200 companies across a number of industry sectors (the rationale for selection is outlined here) to discover the reasons behind such provision and the actual facilities provided; identifies the reasons behind provision as primarily commercial (e.g. being seen as an additional benefit to help recruit high quality employees) and notes that assessment of user group needs was not carried out, with the result that women’s particular needs tended not to be taken into account, for example gyms (favoured by men) being more widely provided than space for aerobic exercise (favoured by women). Concludes that the findings strongly suggest that women remain unequal in their leisure as well as working lives.

Events policy: the limits of democracy

Over the last five years, the decision of major event owners such as International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to award their mega-spectacles to emerging nations outside of the developed West has generated considerable debate in the media, politics and academia. Around the time that we were asked to make a contribution to a contemporary policy debate around the theme of events, Qatar had just been awarded the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, soon after South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup, Brazil won the rights to both the 2014 Olympic Games and 2016 World Cup and Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup. The accepted world order for mega events (Roche, 2000) was being turned on its head in front of our eyes. But what are the implications of this apparent global policy shift? What will this mean for event owners, host nations, citizens (if in fact such a terminology exists) and visitors? In this short article, we offer some insights as to why the world order is changing, what this will mean for key stakeholders and where this trend will take us in the future. Let us start with the why question. There are many reasons for the shift in policy direction, but for the purposes of this short article it is worth focusing on changes in demand to host major sporting events. Put simply, more nations now realize the value of mega sporting events to ‘fix’ their destination aspirations in the minds of potential investors, residents and visitors alike. The emergence of new global competitors to the events circuit is connected to the pre-eminence of the neoliberalized order, with its associated urban entrepreneurial activity as the dominant discourse (Brenner & Theodore, 2005) governing economic development globally. When thinking about the specific context of event policy neoliberalism, as a modality of governance, provides the parameters for appropriate choices around what the function of events is in the early twenty-first century. There are remarkably similar discourses adopted across the globe, whereby events are deemed valuable only insofar as they contribute to economic restructuring or growth. What is also relatively consistent is that the institutional arrangements flowing from a neoliberal framework must also enable growth coalitions to form and public–private partnerships to flourish in the name of place making and promotion (Pratt, 2005). Events are utilized (often instrumentally) as boosterist strategies (Hiller, 2000) designed to assuage the problems associated with de-industrialisation, or with a lack of global visibility. In those nations with alternative governance systems in place (e.g. China or Qatar) the means of achieving the outcomes desired are different but the underlying rationale

The UK context of workplace empowerment

Offers insights into workplace empowerment by concentrating on the wider contemporary (UK) context of work, conceptualising work in the on‐going debates on human resource management (HRM) and postmodernity. Connections are made between theory and practice in HRM and postmodern critique, drawing on an empirical case study. Compares the postmodern motifs of consumerism and consumption, commodification and image projection and the HRM ideals of commitment, individuality and continuous development. Suggests that viewing HRM as discourse may enable a focus for, if not a reconciliation of, the debate between theoretical HRM and HRM in practice.

Healthy public policy: a policy paradox within local government

This paper presents a critical evaluation of a GP referral process within Scotland, focusing on national policy development and the theoretical and practical implications of such schemes for local communities. Findings are based upon a case study of the Scottish Borders’ GP Referral Scheme (GPERS) through a series of semi-structured interviews with participating GP practices, senior leisure and facilities’ management. Additionally, the paper draws on earlier quantitative research by the authors of all GP referral schemes within Scottish local government and utilizes national policy and strategic documentation on the general process of exercise/activity referral. It argues that the policy partnerships and alliances, advocated by central government to promote healthy public policy and a best value regime, are rhetorically admirable but naïvely neglect local realities. This study indicates that without pragmatic national-local recognition and support, integrated policy will remain an area of fragmentation and contention.

FLEXIBLE WORKING PRACTICES IN THE PUBLIC, NOT-FOR-PROFIT AND COMMERCIAL LEISURE SECTORS IN SCOTLAND

Public sector leisure managers in the UK have been struggling, since the extension of compulsory competitive tendering to leisure management in 1989, to reconcile the conflicts between becoming more consumer led and satisfying the needs of the ‘recreationally deprived’. Rationalization has ensured that a fundamental priority for managers has been the introduction of more cost-effective working practices. This article examines the diversity in employment practices across the three sectors of the leisure industry, that is, the public, not-for-profit and private sectors. The case study evidence presented found clear differences between the sectors. Although managers in not-for-profit leisure facilities have more freedom to use greater flexibility in employment practices as compared with their public sector counterparts, they are still somewhat constrained by having to meet the social objectives set by their Board of Directors. Private sector managers were found to be providing the highest proportion of full-time jobs, although they offered lower conditions of employment. This was made possible by the funding certainties created by regular monthly/annual customer memberships.