Matthew McDonald

Building a decommodified research paradigm in tourism: the contribution of NGOs.

This paper argues for a shift in tourism research that challenges models which prioritise commodified tourism experiences over alternative decommodified products. We feel the distinction between commodified and decommodified tourism can be demonstrated using Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) as a case study. Commodifying processes occur when the final outcome is defined as the economic use-value of a product or service. Current directions in tourism research often favour the pursuit of a commodified tourism product in the search for increased efficiency and global profits using research paradigms that narrowly pursue this direction. We argue that the negative impacts of such a trajectory restrict our ability to understand and analyse the tourism experience requiring decommodifying actions in tourism research to move forward; these we feel are best informed by alternative theoretical and philosophical perspectives that include feminism, ecocentrism, community development and poststructuralism. NGOs are used in this paper to provide an example of how the broadening of research philosophies allows access to approaches that pursue decommodification in tourism as they move beyond the almost exclusive pursuit of industry profits and place social, cultural and ecological value on local environments and economics.

De-constructing Wonderland: Surfing Tourism in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct surfing tourist space (Wonderland) in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, and to show the distribution of wealth generated through foreign tourists accessing local resources is inequitable and unsustainable. The discovery of world-class surf in this region in the early 1990’s spawned the rapid development of a foreign-controlled surfing tourism industry. This paper seeks to establish the notion of ‘tourist space’ as a conceptual tool for analysing the rise of surfing tourism in Indonesia based on 50 years of narrative, surf exploration and idealized media representations of uncrowded surf breaks and high adventure – in short, Wonderland. In the Mentawai context, a marketing synergy between foreign surf-tour operators, the media, and surfwear manufacturers have written local populations, government, and NGOs out of the ‘Wonderland’ equation. This paper analyses the construction of surfing tourist space in Indonesia by unpacking its components to reveal foundations historically based in surfer mythology. We argue that through a comparison with best practice principles of tourism development, a re-evaluation of self and other, and empowerment of community based organizations that a re-conceptualisation of tourist space may allow new, more effective foundations to be laid in pursuit of sustainable tourism development.

Understanding local power and interactional processes in sustainable tourism: exploring village–tour operator relations on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea

This paper explores the power relations in and between local villages and outside tourism operators on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The analysis of power focuses on the contingencies of agency in the interactional order allowing greater participatory approaches to sustainable tourism. The notion of power applied in this case study is derived from Michel Foucaults concept of power relations. It is argued that local power and ensuing interactions are neither a zero sum gain or over-determined structurally, but a symbiotic process. By applying Foucaults concepts to the preparation of the Ecotrekking Strategy developed by the villages on the Kokoda Track, we illustrate how power is exercised through dominance, negotiation, rationalities and resistance, all of which are interwoven into day-to-day social interactions between tourism operators and local villages. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of this analysis for sustainable tourism development.

Positive Psychology: A Foucauldian Critique

This article analyzes and critiques some of the “truth claims” of positive psychology by applying Foucaults concepts of power/knowledge, discipline, and governmentality. It illustrates how positive psychology deploys mechanisms to devalue, subjugate, and discredit humanistic psychology. It also illustrates how positive psychology privileges particular modes of functioning by classifying and categorizing character strengths and virtues, supporting a neo-liberal economic and political discourse. Last, it offers an alternative position to the prescriptive and constraining ideology of positive psychology. Such a position enables a meta-perspective and reflexivity that could sustain a flexible approach to understanding key issues like human happiness and well-being, as well as open the way for a more productive, rather than adversarial, dialogue, with humanistic psychology.

Narcissism and Neo-Liberalism : Work, Leisure, and Alienation in an Era of Consumption

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the links between neo-liberalism, narcissism and the influence of work, leisure and consumer culture on self-identity. By examining narcissism as an instrument of personality and social psychological analysis, we investigate the ways in which self-identity in neo-liberal societies is constructed and fulfilled through interactions with the marketplace, promoting self-interest and success in the form of wealth, admiration and bodily perfection. It is our contention that this process creates narcissistic identities, which attempt to defend the self against the degradation of work in neo-liberal societies, and where anxiety, emptiness and isolation are converted into pleasure and healing through leisure consumerism. In the final analysis we explore some of the links between narcissistic work and leisure, and psychological distress and disorders.

Consumer culture, the mobilisation of the narcissistic self and adolescent deviant leisure

The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the consumer packaging of adolescent deviance through commodified leisure. It argues that under conditions of neoliberalism, deviant leisure is commodified by industry, emptying deviance of its political potential, selling it back to adolescents in the form of narcissistic self-identities. These self-identities appear to challenge authority, albeit produced within youth culture and marketing, purchased and consumed in the belief that it is resistance. Forms of adolescent deviance and narcissism are normalised as challenging, exciting and risky while providing associations with power, wealth, celebrity and physical beauty. In the final analysis, we explore some possibilities for the resistance of market-based constructions of self-identity for adolescents in western consumer cultures.

WWOOFing in Australia: ideas and lessons for a de-commodified sustainability tourism

This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based exploration of the perspectives and interactions of WWOOFers and WWOOF hosts in Australia, using 323 formal written surveys of hosts and 188 surveys of WWOOFers, together with 16 in-depth unstructured WWOOFer interviews, which collectively enhances understanding of WWOOFing as an emerging, unique and valuable form of sustainable tourism. By virtue of the highly engaged and symbiotic basis of the exchange involved, WWOOFing is commonly perceived to facilitate a transcendence of the role of tourist. The research indicates this is the product of a unique relationship forged in the WWOOFing context, which differs markedly to relationships forged in more typical fee-for-service tourism contexts in which there is a different relationship at play between power, authenticity and sustainability. This relationship is outlined in order to articulate the notion that WWOOFing represents a type of “sustainability tourism” that is unexplored in the sustainable tourism literature.

Ecotourism social media initiatives in China

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of social media by ecotourism management agencies and how this potentially changes the relationship between the ecotourist and the natural environment. It examines the meaning of ecotourism and the way that social media shapes visitor perceptions and meaning through an examination of the content of 775 Sina microblog postings from five leading ecotourism site management agencies in China. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the social media postings, a series of semi-structured interviews was also conducted with followers and management agencies. The findings provide an enhanced understanding of ecotourism marketing and its impacts on the ecotourist while also creating a framework for the use of social media to market ecotourism. The framework outlines the importance of the meanings associated with this form of communication through its promotional appeal to tourists and the outcomes for both the ecotourist and site management.

Journeys of creation: experiencing the unknown, the Other and authenticity as an epiphany of the self

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the tourist experience through a focus on ‘epiphany’, which is conceptualized as an interactional moment that creates change and transformation in self-identity. We suggest that an epiphany in tourism can be understood by analysing its links with the philosophical concepts of existential authenticity, the Other and the unknown. In the experience of the unknown, the traveller becomes more conscious of authentic modes of existence. This analysis explores the theoretical boundaries of the tourist experience by focusing on the construction of self-identity and subjectivity through the process of travel.

Volunteer tourism: An existential perspective

Volunteer tourism has increased in popularity and prevalence and is no longer considered only a small section of alternative tourism. It is now part of the mainstream tourism industry and tourism experience for many people. Concentrating on the experience of the volunteer tourist and the host community, this new book builds on the view of volunteer tourism as a positive and sustainable form of tourism to examine a broader spectrum of behaviours and experiences and consider critically where the volunteer tourist experience both compliments and collides with host communities, using multiple case studies.