CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

CFP ends 15 March 2004
Journeys of Expression III: Tourism and Festivals as Transnational Practice

3rd annual Tourism and Festival Research Conference
Innsbruck, Austria, 5-7 May 2004

Journeys of Expression III is a three day academic conference being held in Innsbruck, Austria from 5 to 7 May 2004. It is being co-organised by the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change at Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom) and the Institute for European Ethnology and Folklore at Innsbruck University (Austria).

The aim of the conference is to present and discuss a selection of case studies and theoretical approaches focusing on the relation between tourism and festivals in the context of the contemporary world(s). Why do tourists go to festivals? How do they participate? What do they experience and through which forms of symbolic or semiotic frameworks do they make this experience meaningful? Do festivals become nodes of a transnational social system, of a 'global village'? What is the meaning of the economic and symbolic exchange processes involved? How are the touristic strangers 'domesticated'? Are there meta-narratives, and what is their ideological grounding, and their vision of the world?

The conference welcomes case studies and theoretical explorations that address such questions. Themes of interest to the conference include:

- tourism and festivals as transnational social phenomena;
- tourism, festivals and symbolic economy within global communities;
- hospitality, participation and transnational exchange;
- 'cultural' festivals as international institutions, utopias and doctrines;
- enacting symbolic continuities of social space, time and cosmos;
- festivals between the expression of power and the communication of experience;
- tourism as a global geographical extension of ritual processes;
- heritage, culture and nature as sacred spaces;
- the challenge of internationalisation to cultural values and organisation patterns;
- domesticating the alien: cooking, eating and digesting the stranger.

We welcome critical contestations and discussions of such themes. Please send a 250 word abstract to Dr David Picard (d.picard@shu.ac.uk). The deadline to submit abstracts is the 15th of March 2004.

Conference convenors: Mike Robinson, David Picard, Oliver Haid Executive producer: Frederic Revaz

David Picard Ph.D.
Tourism Development & Consultancy Unit
Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change
Sheffield Hallam University
Howard Street - Owen Building
Sheffield S1 1WB
United Kingdom

Phone +44 (0) 114 225 3973
Fax +44 (0) 114 225 3343
Email d.picard@shu.ac.uk
Website www.tourism-culture.com

FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE ON 'TOURISM & LITERATURE' IN HARROGATE, UK, FROM 22-26 JULY 2004 --- MORE DETAILS AT WWW.TOURISM-CULTURE.COM