Relations between strangers: cycles of structure and meaning in tourist systems

Tourism is a paradoxical human activity–a supposedly ‘smokeless industry’ that produces littered beaches, a cornucopia to local economics that gives rise to inflation and embittered natives, a profitable enterprise that often requires governmental subsidy. It is also a major social and economic phenomenon: witness 280 million international tourists and 180 billion dollars in expenditures in 1979 (Waters, 1979). For the population of many societies, it is a primary source of work; for others it is a primary outlet for leisure. An understanding of the modern era is incomplete without understanding the social processes of tourism. This paper speculates about cycles of structure and myth in tourism development. The goal is an integrated theory of tourism, based on empirical evidence, amenable to test, and permitting the prediction of future behaviour. The paper is divided into several sections. First, we briefly review some earlier analytic frameworks used for understanding tourism. We draw upon these frameworks to develop an integrated explanation of the behaviour of tourists, the evolution of the tourist industry, and the consequences of tourism for host and guest populations. Second, our attention is devoted to structural and symbolic factors shaping relations between strangers. Such relations, we argue, are the engine of change in tourism. Third, we present a typology of the social cycles involved in tourism. We attempt to describe which elements of the social order are likely to respond in predictable patterns to tourism development; speculate on the form these responses might take and provide a set of hypothetical curves for potential indicator measures. We close by suggesting some theoretical and practical implications of our discussion.     

A management strategy for information processing

This is the second of three articles on Management Strategy for Information Processing by this author. This paper discusses the methodology known as Business Systems Planning for assessing future computer systems requirements.     

Media Visualisation of Conflict: Studying News Imagery in 21st Century Wars

This article considers the influence of the ‘visual turn’ in diverse academic literature on the media representation of conflict. Primarily drawing on examples from American and British scholarship, the article presents encouraging evidence that the visualisation of conflict in news media is finally getting the kind of sustained theoretical scrutiny and rigorous empirical analysis that it deserves. Authors from varied disciplinary fields of research, from security studies to visual culture, are now engaging in a range of analytical and empirical investigations into the purportedly powerful roles of mediated visual imagery during wartime, employing conceptual tools such as ‘mediatisation’ and ‘performativity’. This article offers a summation of some of the key approaches: their intersections, distinctions and usefulness; while suggesting trajectories for further critical research into media visualisation of conflict.     

Fathers' involvement and the impact on family mental health: evidence from Millennium Cohort Study analyses

This paper reports evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) on the relationship between fathers' involvement and the mental well-being of mothers, fathers and children. Drawing on previous research, we use a tripartite definition of father involvement: engagement, accessibility and responsibility. After searching 14 databases and websites, we screened for applicability, coded, quality assessed and synthesised the evidence. The majority of studies focused on ‘accessibility’ in terms of family structure or on ‘responsibility’ in terms of father employment. Overall, the studies suggest that aspects of fathers' involvement can positively influence both maternal and child mental well-being; fathers' mental health was only analysed in relation to one aspect of involvement: parental or father employment was found to influence fathers' mental well-being positively. Further MCS-based research is recommended to examine the impact of fathers' involvement on their own mental well-being, as well as the broader impact of a more active or ‘modern’ fatherhood model encompassing engagement and an understanding of responsibility beyond the breadwinning role.