Purpose: This study aimed to determine the motivations of a select group of South Africans in terms of their potential engagement with cultural tourism; more specifically, the study set out to show whether these motivations influence the cultural activities that the tourists want to participate in and whether their interest in specific cultural activities determines their destination choices. Furthermore, the mediating role of activities in the relationship between cultural motivations and destination choice was also assessed. Design/methodology/approach: An online panel survey collected responses from 1,530 potential cultural tourists across South Africa. Hypotheses were tested, using structural equation modelling. Findings: The results show that tourists' motivations for cultural tourism influence their likelihood of participating in specific cultural activities. Cultural tourism is shown to be influenced by more than learning and includes entertainment, relaxation, novelty and escape dimensions. There also seems to be a difference in the activities engaged in by destination type. For example, tourists likely to take part in indigenous cultural tourism activities are more likely to do so at hedonic destinations. Practical implications: This paper contributes to the understanding of cultural tourism activities, aiding destinations in attracting cultural tourists. Destinations need to develop activities that match visitor motivations, increase satisfaction and encourage visitors to return. Originality/value: The paper increases the understanding of cultural tourism in South Africa and underlines the importance of communities in providing distinctive tourism activities. The study also has an important social dimension, highlighting the role of social status in cultural tourism consumption and destination selection.
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Cultural festivals can attract cultural tourists, extend the tourist season and add vibrancy to the cultural scene. However, there is relatively little research on how festivals affect tourist experience of the destination or outcomes such as satisfaction or repeat visitation. This study used the Event Experience Scale to measure tourist experiences at three cultural festivals in Hong Kong – the Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. The findings show that tourist experiences of these festivals are distinct, and they positively affect destination image and behavioural outcomes. Relative to permanent attractions and tours, festival experiences elicit stronger affective, conative and novelty responses. Festivals also convey a stronger impression of Hong Kong as a destination exhibiting Chinese and traditional culture, but less as a global city. The festival experience is associated with positive outcomes, namely greater satisfaction, intention to recommend and intention to return.
This collection follows anthropological perspectives on peoples (Canadian Inuit, Norwegian Sámi, Yupiit from Alaska, and Inuit from Greenland), places, and practices in the Circumpolar North from colonial times to our post-modern era. This volume brings together fresh perspectives on theoretical concepts, colonial/imperial descriptions, collaborative work of non-Indigenous and Indigenous researchers, as well as articles written by representatives of Indigenous cultures from an inside perspective. The scope of the book ranges from contributions based on unpublished primary sources, missionary journals, and fairly unknown early Indigenous sources and publications, to those based on more recent Indigenous testimonies and anthropological fieldwork, museum exhibitions, and (self)representations in the fields of fashion, marketing, and the arts.The aim of this volume is to explore the making of representations for and/or by Circumpolar North peoples. The authors follow what representations have been created in the past and in some cases continue to be created in the present, and the Indigenous employment of representations that has continuity with the past and also goes beyond "traditional" utilization. By studying these representations, we gain a better understanding of the dynamics of a society and its interaction with other cultures, notably in the context of the dominant culture’s efforts to assimilate Indigenous people and erase their story. People’s ideas about themselves and of "the Other" are never static, not even if they share the same cultural background. This is even more the case in the contact zone of the intercultural arena. Images of "the Other" vary according to time and place, and perceptions of "others" are continuously readjusted from both sides in intercultural encounters.This volume has been prepared by the Research Group Circumpolar Cultures (RGCC) which is based in the Netherlands. Its members conduct research on social and cultural change focusing on topics that are of interest to the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The RGCC builds on a long tradition in Arctic studies in the Netherlands (Nico Tinbergen, Geert van den Steenhoven, Gerti Nooter, and Jarich Oosten) and can rely on rich Arctic collections of artefacts and photographs in anthropological museums and extensive library collections. The expertise of the RGCC in Arctic studies is internationally acknowledged by academics as well as circumpolar peoples.
Fashion has become inextricably linked with digital culture. Digital media have opened up new spaces of fashion consumption that are unprecedented in their levels of ubiquity, immersion, fluidity, and interactivity. The virtual realm continuously needs us to design and communicate our identity online. Unfortunately, the current landscape of digitised fashion practices seems to lack the type of self-governing attitude and urgency that is needed to move beyond commercially mandated platforms and systems that effectively diminish our digital agency. As transformative power seems to be the promise of the virtual, there is an inherent need to critically assess how digital representation of fashion manifests online, especially when these representations become key mediators within our collective and individual public construction of self. A number of collectives and practitioners that actively shape a counter movement, organized bottom up rather than through capital, are questioning this interdependence, applying inverted thinking and experimenting with alternative modes of engagement. Starting from the research question ‘How can critical fashion practitioners introduce and amplify digital agency within fashion’s virtual landscape through new strategies of aesthetic engagement?’, this project investigates the implications of fashion’s increasing shift towards the virtual realm and the ramifications created for digital agency. It centers on how identity is understood in the digital era, whether subjects have full agency while expected to construct multiple selves, and how online environments that enact as playgrounds for our identities might attribute to a distorted sense of self. By using the field of critical fashion as its site, and the rapidly expanding frontier of digital counter practices as a lens, the aim of this project is to contribute to larger changes within an increasingly global and digital society, such as new modes of consumerism, capital and cultural value.
"My PD-trajectory aims to contribute to knowledge development in the domains of artacademic institutions, the queer/drag/HIV community, and advocacy as context for queer safety. Emphasis will be placed on how to write, document, design, and archive elements in order to shape language to actively comprehend each other’s affinities, aspirations, and propel visibility for emancipatory realities by creating empathy among differences. Incorporating the theorization of new terms such as “gift dragonomy” and “dragging as grafting” based on drag mothering knowledge will play an active role in preserving subcultural language while avoiding ‘representational fixity.”
GAMING HORIZONS is a multidisciplinary project that aims to expand the research and innovation agenda on serious gaming and gamification. The project is particularly interested in the use of games for learning and cultural development. Gamification - and gaming more broadly – are very important from a socio-economic point of view, but over the past few years they have been at the centre of critical and challenging debates, which highlighted issues such as gender and minority representation, and exploitative game mechanics. Our project’s key contention is that it is important for the European ICT community to engage with design trends and social themes that have affected profoundly the mainstream and ‘independent’ game development cultures over the past few years, especially because the boundaries between leisure and serious games are increasingly blurred. GAMING HORIZONS is a direct response to the official recognition by the H2020 programme of work that multidisciplinary research can help to advance the integration between Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). The project’s objective is to enable a higher uptake of socially responsible ICT-related research in relation to gaming. This objective will be achieved through a research-based exchange between communities of developers, policy makers, users and researchers. The methodology will involve innovative data collection activities and consultations with a range of stakeholders over a period of 14 months. We will interrogate the official ‘H2020 discourse’ on gamification – with a particular focus on ‘gamified learning’ - whilst engaging with experts, developers and critical commentators through interviews, events, workshops and systematic dialogue with an Advisory Board. Ultimately, GAMING HORIZONS will help identify future directions at the intersection of ethics, social research, and both the digital entertainment and serious games industries.EU FundingThe 14-month research project 'Gaming Horizons' was funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
