Richard Ek

Giorgio agamben and the spatialities of the camp: an introduction

Abstract The Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agambens conclusion that the camp has replaced the city as the biopolitical paradigm of the West is as difficult to digest as it is easy to see how it responds to contemporary political tendencies in the world today. In this introduction to this theme issue on Giorgio Agamben and the spatialities of the camp, a detailed exposition, emulating the structure of Agambens seminal book Homo Sacer, is conducted, tracing the genealogies of Agambens ideas and commenting on his swiftly enhanced importance in the social sciences and humanities. The introduction concludes by outlining some possible research fields in human geogrphy where much insight could be gained if Agambens work is given more detailed consideration.

A Dynamic Framework of Tourist Experiences: Space‐Time and Performances in the Experience Economy

This article outlines a conceptual model that allows a discussion regarding tourist experiences. Through the notion and deconstruction of the concept “experience design” it is argued that in order to be able to analyze tourism and develop new innovative strategic approaches to tourism management, dynamic notions of space, time and performance have to be especially attended to. This is done through a discussion of “experience” and “design” as both nouns and verbs. This makes it possible to work with four definitions of “experience design”, all situated on a continuum from a static starting point to a dynamic endpoint. It is argued that most research findings are placed in the more static half of this continuum, even if there are tendencies toward more dynamic approaches. These efforts are however usually based on a spatial ontology that is situated in the static half of the continuum. This paper aims to enhance these tendencies by focusing on the more dynamic half of the continuum. Notions of space‐time as relational processes that should be understood as a hermeneutic circle and a view on the tourist as an active performer and producer of space are stressed. This conceptual model is crystallized and exemplified through the case of tourist photography, showing that the ontology chosen has a direct result on the concrete conduct of method and area of research interest.

Creating Cross‐Border Destinations: Interreg Programmes and Regionalisation in the Baltic Sea Area

Abstract European Union financed Interreg programmes focusing on cross‐border region building form an important part of the EU integration policy. The region building processes involve many fields of action in which destination development is one. In this article, the latest finished programme, Interreg III, will be highlighted with special focus on cross‐border regions in the Baltic Sea Area. The purpose is to analyse how regional identities are re‐presented and re‐negotiated in connection with cross‐border tourism destination development. These questions are analysed with the help of a methodology based on storylines using three selected programme regions as case studies. In our analysis we have found three storylines that in different ways enlighten our understanding of these regions’ (actual and possible) political identities: the notion of borders, the practice of history and the future‐oriented visions. The study reveals the presence of two fundamental and contradictory visions grounded in the European project: regionalisation and internationalisation. It also shows that the cross‐border region co‐operation processes share a narrative characterised by liberal economic rationality. Political issues are downplayed in relation to economic issues, even though in the case of tourism political issues like regional identity are not possible to avoid.

Can there only be one? Towards a post-paradigmatic service marketing approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to unlock positions regarding the goods/services dichotomy in service marketing and to offer an argument that treats goods and services on an ontologically equal basis.Design/methodology/approach – A close reading of influential texts that argue in favor of a service‐dominant logic (SDL) and new paradigms in service marketing.Findings – Both the SDL proposal and calls for new service paradigms can be understood as ad hoc solutions that serve to reproduce and even strengthen the asymmetry between goods and services. A post‐paradigmatic analysis opens up new possibilities for service marketing research and practice.Research limitations/implications – By showing how goods and services can be positioned equally, hitherto invisible sites of value creation become potential subjects for analyses in service marketing.Practical implications – Service marketing practices are situated so as to explain the value creating interactions between service providers and customers in a ...

A Revolution in Military Geopolitics

Abstract This paper looks into the recent discussions within the US military community of a coming or current ‘revolution in military affairs’ (RMA) which is said to imply fundamental changes in military geopolitical imaginations and practices (military geopolitics). In a first step, an account of the rhetorical and the conceptual part of the discourse of the RMA is conducted. In a second step, the proclaimed RMA is situated within a wider cumulative technological and organizational development in warfare after the Second World War. In a third step, special attention is given to geopolitical incongruities or contradictions apparent within the discourse of the RMA, and between the rhetorical part of the RMA and more conventional geopolitical practices and imaginations. In a conclusion, the promise of an actor–network approach in further investigations of contemporary techno-geopolitical discourses and practices is spoken for.

Sticky Landscapes and Smooth Experiences: The Biopower of Tourism Mobilities in the Öresund Region

As landscapes become ordered according to certain sets of economic, political, ecological or social practices and discourses, other possible orderings become limited in their potential. This article illustrates this with an example taken from the field of tourism and place marketing. The empirical focus is golf experiences in Scania, Sweden, bookable by individual consumers over the Internet. The ordering of what is termed the ‘golfscape’ is unfolded with the help of an assemblage of arguments taken from writings on mobility, biopower and subjectification, post‐foundational views of the materiality of the social and recent conceptualisations of the socio‐cultural and spatial impact of tourism. The booking sequence, i.e. the interaction between consumer and booking software, is analyzed as a series of negotiations, techniques and technologies of control and enactments of power. It is concluded that mobility studies can benefit from a Foucauldian power perspective when explaining practices of mobility and spatial fixation.

Imagining the Alpha male of the tourism tribe

Abstract This paper analyses how the “alpha male” of the tourism academy tribe is imagined in celebratory contexts. The tradition is interesting from a gender perspective, in that the majority of celebratory portraits found in tourism research journals are those of male scholars. Whether this is regarded as a coincidence or a consequence of the resilience of a glass ceiling, it is interesting to investigate how these “alpha males” and their academic lifeworks are described, characterized, and presented. The paper contains a quantitative description and qualitative analysis of the portraits published in Anatolia. In particular, we apply philosopher Stephen Pepper’s root metaphors of formism, organicism, mechanism, contextualism to examine how tourism research work in the world is imagined.

Tourism social media as a fire object

Tourism studies have conceptualised social media as artefacts and networks of tangible objects based on neat distinctions and categorisations. Within the academic field of actor network theory (ANT) these neat ontological distinctions and categorisations have been problematised. John Law and Annemarie Mol are the scholars that most consequently have investigated the spatialities of messier ways to conceptualise and approach societal objects and the trajectories of societal phenomenon. The project initiated by Law and Mol is an effort to widen the ontological register that traditionally has dominated in social science research, tourist studies included. The purpose of this chapter is to address and problematise social media in tourism with the research of Law and Mol as an analytical and methodological lens.

Mobility and place: enacting Northern European peripheries.

of the intellectually challenged and the visually impaired. ‘Activities and spaces’ looks at residential relocation decision-making by the retired, at gender issues and at interactions in the elementary (primary) school classroom. ‘Experiences and environments’ focuses on human responses to the city and on aesthetic issues. ‘Experiences and spaces’ examines the quality of urban life, cognitive mapping and conservation. While it is diffi cult to imagine another book written by geographers currently tackling anything like this assortment of issues in little over 200 pages of text, shared themes are carried over with considerable skill and give a genuine fl ow to the text. The seventh and fi nal part offers a useful manual as to how novice researchers might construct their own research projects. Taken as a whole, PEBR exudes a businesslike character reminiscent of textbooks in the natural sciences. Chapters have introductions and conclusions. Sections are enumerated with up to four levels of weighting. Lists of bullet points abound. Most pages have at least one subheading. Bold and italic print provides emphasis for key points. There are few photographic illustrations but around 55 fi gures and more than 60 tables enliven the text. There is ample material into which one might dip if wanting to fi nd a quick classroom or fi eld project or if wishing to introduce students to specifi c aspects of social science research methodology. More critically, if an intending student wanted to build a research project in this area, then PEBR is the source to which they should be recommended. The problem, however, is whether the target market for this book retains any real vigour. New researchers are understandably sensitive to what is up to date and characterized by animated debate, yet analysis of the substantial bibliography reveals a literature that is undeniably aging. Only 48 out of more than 400 cited sources derive from the last decade and, of those, a third are associated with one or more of the authors of this book. Many of the landmark studies are more than 20 years old and, frequently, sub stantially more. The inescapable conclusion is that relatively few other researchers continue to work within the frameworks offered by PEBR. While its authors are to be commended for continuing to assert the value of an unfashionable corpus of scholarship that has long since faded from the spotlight, the failure to build bridges with the research frontiers of contemporary human geography means that this admirably crafted book will not gain the readership that it once would certainly have attained.