ATLAS annual conference 2012

12 - 15 September 2012, London, United Kingdom

University of East London

Re-creating the Global City: Tourism, Leisure and Mega-Events in the Transformation of 21st Century Cities

The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended towards May 15th, 2012 Doctoral colloquium and poster sessions Provisional program

Introduction

The hosting of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games in Stratford, East London, on the doorstep of the University of East London, offers a timely opportunity to reflect back upon earlier studies linking tourism and revitalisation of urban spaces, as well as to encourage critical reflection upon the complex relationship between mega-events such as (but not exclusively) the Olympics, sports, tourism and wider questions of urban regeneration, economic development. It will also invite reflections on the role of sustainability and social justice in the context of recreating the global city for the cultural and creative industries, and tourism, given the emphasis of the London Games on both the sporting legacy as well as sustainability. Once it is has been built the Olympic Park will be one of the largest urban parks in Europe, while the London 2012 Games themselves, it is argued, will provide a muchneeded stimulus for economic development, centred on the construction of new housing, transport improvements and world-class sporting and leisure facilities in what is one of the most deprived and neglected areas of East London. However, the task of evaluating the longterm effects of hosting a sporting mega-event such as the Olympics, as well the long-term effect on tourism, heritage and the cultural industries, and indeed, urban regeneration, remains a complex and ideologically-contested endeavour.

Cities worldwide have increasingly become the focus for major sporting and mega-events whilst tourism is now a central economic and cultural anchor of the urban political economy in both the capitalist heartlands as well as new mega-cities in emergent states. The notion of the city and urban spaces as tourism products, subject to a range of branding and re-imaging strategies, has long been the focus of leisure and tourism studies since the early days of neoliberalism. However, contemporary urban tourism strategies and the London 2012 Games in particular are taking place in the context of the most severe crisis in the world economy, if not capitalism itself, since the 1930s. In addition, the spectres of both global terrorism and urban social unrest has seen cities increasingly subject to new political-economic regimes structured around discourses of security and austerity, issues which are not as unrelated as they might appear.

The character of such global, cosmopolitan cities and the very nature of urban life and the political economy of 21st century cities has thus changed considerably since the initial phases of tourism and urban regeneration began during the 1970s and 1980s, presenting scholars and policy-makers with a range of new challenges and issues to be explored. Whilst the regeneration and development of former industrial areas and deprived inner cities through tourism, leisure, and heritage projects, often linked to speculative property strategies, is a well established practice in the (former) industrial heartlands of North America and Europe, the scope and scale of such interventions in the urban economy has both intensified and widened as globalisation and neo-liberal politics have continued to restructure cities around the a new cultural and creative economic nexus. Moreover, the cities of the global ‘south’ and the new ‘emergent economies’, have also witnessed precipitous population growth, urban development, and economic change, in the context of rapid globalisation and trade liberalisation. This conference thus also invites analysis of the implications for tourism and in particular the dynamics of tourism and urban development beyond the advanced apitalist centres, worldwide.

The staging of the 2012 Games in East London intersects with a wide range of perennial concerns within leisure, tourism and heritage research. Contributions are therefore invited which will explore many different facets of 21st century leisure, tourism, heritage, creative industries, mega-cultural/sporting events, urban planning, economic regeneration and sustainability.

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Keynote speakers 

• Dr. Beatriz Garcia, Istitute of Cultural Capital, Liverpool, UK

Dr Beatriz Garcia is Head of Research in Cultural Policy & Impact at the Institute of Cultural Capital and Director of Impacts 08, European Capital of Culture Research Programme at the University of Liverpool. Recent projects assess the legacy of cultural programming within major events such as the European Capital of Culture (Glasgow 1990, Liverpool 2008, lead up to Marseille 2013), the Olympic Games (summer and winter editions from Barcelona 1992 onwards) and the Commonwealth Games (Manchester 2002). Dr Garcia has been funded by the European Commission, Research Councils UK, British Academy, Universities China Committee, London 2012 Organising Committee, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Olympic Academy to conduct her research across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. She collaborated with Palmer/Rae to evaluate the impact of the European City of Culture programme (1995-2004), has been academic advisor to London 2012's Culture & Education team since 2004 and is a member of the IOC Postgraduate Research Grant Selection Committee. In 2011, she has been appointed by the London 2012 Games organising Committee to assess the legacy of its Cultural Olympiad.  Dr García publishes within academic, policy and practitioner circles and is the author of 'The Olympic Games and Cultural Policy' and 'The Olympics. The Basics' (both published by Routledge, 2012). Find access to papers & reports at:
www.beatrizgarcia.net
www.iccliverpool.ac.uk
www.impacts08.net
www.culturalolympics.org.uk

• Prof Kevin Hannam, University of Sunderland, UK

Professor Kevin Hannam is Associate Dean of Research, Head of the Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Events, Professor of Tourism Development and Director of the Centre for Research into the Experience Economy (CREE) at the University of Sunderland, UK and a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is founding co-editor of the Routledge journal Mobilities, co-author of the recent text Understanding Tourism (Sage) and monograph Tourism and India (Routledge). He is co-chair of the ATLAS Independent Travel Research Group and chair of the World Leisure Commission on Tourism and the Environment. He has published research on aspects of cultural, heritage and nature based tourism development in India and Scandinavia. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Portsmouth.

• Prof Maurice Roche, University of Sheffield, UK

http://www.shef.ac.uk/socstudies/staff/staff-profiles/roche

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Conference themes

Political economy of tourism, sport & mega events

• Tourism, leisure and mega-events ‘after the crash’
• Globalisation, neoliberalism and the urban creative economy
• The Disneyization & Macdonalidization of urban leisure and tourism spaces
• Policy-making and the politics of urban planning for tourism and mega-events

The Olympics and tourism

• Evaluating the impact(s) and legacy of the Olympic Games/mega-events
• Tourism and the Olympic Games
• Politics, international relations and the Olympic Games
• Risk and security and mega-events/Olympic Games
• The Olympic Games/mega-events & sustainability

Mega-events, tourism and creativity

• Heritage, music and the creative industries and the re-shaping of the 21st century city
• Urban design and re-modelling the urban environment for mega-events
• Cultural planning for mega-events and urban festivals

Social justice, citizenship, tourism & mega-events

• Mega-events, citizenship and community-based planning
• Urban tourism, mega-events and social exclusion
• Social tourism and the city: working class and ethnic minority leisure/sports
• The social and cultural implications of mega-events and urban tourism/social change/gentrification

Managing mega-events and the economics of the ‘new’ urban tourism

• Transport and managing mobility for mega-events and urban tourism
• Human resources/employee relations in the new urban-creative industries
• Entrepreneurship, SMTEs in the new urban economy
• Innovation and strategic management for mega-events/tourism

Marketing, place-making and the visitor economy

• Mega-events and the representation of place
• Mega-events and tourism marketing/destination branding
• The urban visitor experience in cosmopolitan/multicultural cities
• Cultural heritage and urban tourism

Sustainability and the built environment

• Revitalising derelict urban public spaces through tourism, heritage and mega-events
• Health, wellbeing and urban regeneration
• The greening of mega-events and urban tourism
• Mega-events and/as sustainable tourism

Sport, mega events and tourism

• Destination branding and sporting mega-events
• Sports participation and the sporting legacy of mega-events
• Sporting events and urban tourism
• Sport, nationalism and cultural identity

Tourism and mega-events in emerging economies

• ‘Favela’/township tourism
• Mega-events, heritage and the (re)branding of the city in ‘emerging economies’
• Tourism, globalisation and urban transformations in the ‘third world’
• Tourism, and ‘ethnic’ entrepreneurship/informal economies in the city
   

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Abstract submission

All abstracts will be subject to double-blind review by members of the scientific committee. Acceptance of a submission will be based on: theoretical and empirical significance; methodological soundness; relevance to the theme of the conference and logical clarity. The official language of the conference is English.

Abstracts should be submitted to ATLAS by using this form.

Abstracts (maximum of 500 words) should indicate background, theoretical/practical implications, methods and/or data sources and indicative findings of the paper. The title should be no more than 12 words. Authors should also indicate which of the themes of the conference their proposed paper relates to (no more than 2). Abstracts not clearly related to the themes of the conference will not be accepted.

Abstracts should be submitted before April 15^th, 2012.

The conference organisers have the intention to publish proceedings BEFORE the conference. We would like to receive all the "papers in progress" / "working papers" / "extended abstract", and make a conference proceedings which will be distributed to all participants at the conference. The working papers should have no more then 2000 words.

Extended abstracts should be submitted to ATLAS in MS WORD by e-mail attachement to admin@atlas-euro.org.

Extended abstracts should be submitted before June 1st, 2012.

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Important dates

Abstract submission	:	May 15th, 2012
Notification of acceptance	:	May 1st and June 1st, 2012
Extended abstract submission	:	June 1stand June 15th, 2012
Conference	:	September 12th-15th, 2012
Full paper submission	:	November 15th, 2012

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Publication details

Papers of this conference are concidered to be published in the Journal of Town and City Management.

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Scientific committee

• Dr Raoul Bianchi (University of East London, UK) Conference Chair and Head Scientific Committe
• Dr Nikki Macleod (Greenwich University, UK)
• Dr Anya Diekman (Universite de Bruxelles, Belgium)
  
• Dr Melanie Smith (Budapest Business School, Hungary)
  
• Professor Gavin Poynter (London East Research Institute, UEL, UK)
  
• Professor Alan Clarke (University of Pannonia, Hungary)
  
• Dr Marcus Stephenson (Middlesex University Dubai, UAE)
  
• Andres Coca-Stefaniak (UEL; Journal of Town & City Management, UK)
  
• Dr Emma Casey (Kingston University)
• Angelique Lombarts (INHOLLAND University, Netherlands)
  
• Carlos Fernandes (Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal)
  
• Kaija Lindroth (HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences, Finland)
  
• Vincent Zammit (Institute of Tourism Studies, Malta)
• Dr Lynn Minnaert (University of Surrey, UK)
• Marc Morell (University of de Illes Balears, Spain)

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Associated meetings

Will be announced later

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Provisional program

We would like to emphasize that this programme is PROVISIONAL and changes can still occur.

Wednensday 12^th September, 2012

Thursday 13^th September, 2012

University of East London, Docklands Campus (West Building)

Friday 14^th September, 2012

Provisional program including the workshop program as a downloadable PDF.

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Optional study visits

Will be announced later

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Conference packages

Packages:	ATLAS members	Non-Members
Participants Conference participation and materials Buffet lunches Tea/coffee breaks Welcome reception Wednesday Conference dinner Excursion	€ 375	€ 425
Students Conference participation and materials Buffet lunches Tea/coffee breaks Welcome reception Wednesday Conference dinner Excursion	€ 150	€ 150
Accompaying persons Welcome reception Wednesday Conference dinner Excursion	€ 150	€ 150

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Cancellation policy

As soon as ATLAS has confirmed your registration, you are obliged to pay the conference fee. If written cancellation is received on or before Monday August 27^th, 2012, a refund of all meeting fees will be made, minus an administration fee of € 50.

No refund will be possible after Monday August 27^th, 2012, but substitute delegates can be nominated.

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Conference venues

Royal Docks Business School
University of East London
Docklands Campus
University Way
London E16 2RD
United Kingdom

Map of the Dockland Campus

University of East London
Stratford Campus
Water Lane
London E15 4LZ
United Kingdom

Map of the Stratford Campus

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Conference organisers

Conference organisers text

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Funding

Funding text

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Accomodation

We selected a range of hotels near the University of East London. Please follow this link.

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Arriving

Please find here the maps of the Dockland and the Stratford campus:

Map of the Dockland Campus

Map of the Stratford Campus

Lonely Planet online guide for East London

Transport for London

Here also some extra information on how to find the University of East London:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/about/findus/

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Transport

More information later

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Registration

• Contact

  Please contact: e-mail admin@atlas-euro.org.

   

• Registration

  Submit this form to register for the conference.

   

• Abstract submission form

  Submit this form to submit an abstract for the conference.

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