Szilvia Gyimothy - Böcker

This volume addresses the transformative power of tourism social media and offers novel theoretical and methodological approaches to its academic investigation. Acknowledging the collective value creation mechanisms of new media, the authors explore how technology nurtures, augments and modifies social or commercial interactions in tourism. The book emphasizes the role of fantasy and imagination in fluid tourism experiences and critically scrutinizes contested concepts pertaining to human interaction in cyberspace, such as equality, anonymity, transparency, democratization, and publicity culture. The chapters summon insights from Media Studies, Actor-Network Theory, Communicative Action and Symbolic Convergence among others, and offer a palette of emerging methods suitable for academic enquiries of virtual worlds. The theoretical grounding, empirical evidences, and interdisciplinary analysis of the anthology expand the actual research agenda and shed light on conceptual tensions and ambiguities in the present literature. As such, Tourism Social Media: Transformations in Identity, Community and Culture contributes to increasing research reflexivity in tourism studies at large.

The widespread international interest in the Nordic region and the mobility of Nordic brand imaginaries calls for more research into the global relevance of Nordic place branding practices. This book offers a timely attempt to unpack the specificity of the Nordic in regards to place branding by gathering different transdisciplinary accounts written by researchers in marketing, tourism, geography, communication, sociology, and political science. Chapters are organized according to three themes of poetics, practices and politics, which deal with the construction, enactment and appropriation of the Nordic place brand and branding. The contributions consolidate Nordic place branding scholarship and its scientific engagement with processes of de-politicization, consensus making, collaboration and transparency. At the same time, Nordic ideals, policies and values offer a critical lens to explore hitherto unexplored issues in place branding such as feminism, post-colonialism, sustainability, and equality. Solidly grounded in contemporary geopolitical and sociocultural challenges within and beyond the Nordic region, The Nordic Wave in Place Branding will enhance theoretical, methodological and practitioner perspectives in in international place branding. This timely book will be of interest to advanced students of branding and place management, as well as policy makers, regional developers and researchers within the fields of tourism, destination marketing, branding, and media and communication.Contributors include: M. Andéhn, L.P. Andersen, L.R. Bjørst, R.B. Broegaard, S. Brorström, S.H. Cassel, T. Chekalina, S. Degerhammar, J. Edlom, J. Eksell, A. Fjällhed, M. Fuchs, U.P. Gad, A. Heith, O.H. Jørgensen, M. Kavaratzis, B. Kramvig, L.H. Larsen, D. Laven, F. Lindberg, L. Margaryan, M. Meldgaard, T. Nielsen, J. Östberg, J.C. Pasgaard, C. Ren, K. Seppel, K. Simm, K. Simonsen, K. Tamm Hallström, P. Tammpuu, S. Taylor, K. Topsø Larsen, P. Varley, A.M. Waade

This book employs an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral lens to explore the collaborative dynamics that are currently disrupting, re-creating and transforming the production and consumption of tourism. House swapping, ridesharing, voluntourism, couchsurfing, dinner hosting, social enterprise and similar phenomena are among these collective innovations in tourism that are shaking the very bedrock of an industrial system that has been traditionally sustained along commercial value chains. To date there has been very little investigation of these trends, which have been inspired by, amongst other things, de-industrialization processes and post-capitalist forms of production and consumption, postmaterialism, the rise of the third sector and collaborative governance. Addressing that gap, this book explores the character, depth and breadth of these disruptions, the creative opportunities for tourism that are emerging from them, and how governments are responding to these new challenges. In doing so, the book provides both theoretical and practical insights into the future of tourism in a world that is, paradoxically, becoming both increasingly collaborative and individualized.