Vacations offer a break from daily stressors but at the same time introduce challenges away from home. While the positive aspects of vacationing, especially individual benefits, are well documented, the challenges couples face and their psychological mechanisms and outcomes remain unexplored. This study investigated the effects challenges and challenge resolution might have on shared experiences and on relationship quality. We collected data from 100 romantic couples at major tourist destinations in the Netherlands in Spring 2024. Random intercept regression models showed that novelty is positively associated with positive emotions, passionate love, and feelings of connection with partner; and that challenges would take away some of these benefits. Interestingly, challenges were associated with self-expansion, a major predictor of long-term love and passion, especially when partially resolved. Positive emotions mediated some of these relationships. These findings highlight the importance and value of studying challenges and challenge resolution on vacations for relationship and experience quality.
While live event experiences have become increasingly mediatized, the prevalence of ephemeral content and diverse forms of (semi)private communication in social media platforms have complicated the study of these mediatized experiences as an outsider. This article proposes an ethnographic approach to studying mediatized event experiences from the inside, carrying out participatory fieldwork in online and offline festival environments. I argue that this approach both stimulates ethical research behavior and provides unique insights into mediatized practices. To develop this argument, I apply the proposed methodology to examine how festival-goers perceive differences between public and private, permanent and ephemeral when sharing their live event experiences through social media platforms. Drawing on a substantial dataset containing online and offline participant observations, media diaries, and (short in situ and longer in-depth) interviews with 379 event-goers, this article demonstrates the value of an ethnographic approach for creating thick descriptions of mediatized behavior in digital platforms.
This project focussed on the way in which images were used on Instagram to connect to the Oerol festival 2017 in the sense of ‘presencing’ (cf Meese et al., 2015). The case study is part of a PhD project that focuses on liveness in the mediatised experience of cultural events/festivals. Liveness is understood as being connected through media to events that matter to us as they unfold (cf. Vianello, 1985; Couldry, 2004; Auslander, 2012). Oerol is an ideal case to study how liveness is constituted during a cultural event.Oerol is an annual festival for theatre, dance, street theatre, art and music that takes place during ten days in June on the island of Terschelling. Since performances are created or adapted specially for the unique natural locations where they are carried out (beaches, woods, dikes, barns, streets, etc) this case provides an interesting surrounding to explore the relation between presence and liveness. The festival attracts about 50.000 visitors each year.
MULTIFILE
The climate change and depletion of the world’s raw materials are commonly acknowledged as the biggest societal challenges. Decreasing the energy use and the related use of fossil fuels and fossil based materials is imperative for the future. Currently 40% of the total European energy consumption and about 45% of the CO2 emissions are related to building construction and utilization (EC, 2015). Almost half of this energy is embodied in materials. Developing sustainable materials to find replacement for traditional building materials is therefore an increasingly important issue. Mycelium biocomposites have a high potential to replace the traditional fossil based building materials. Mycelium is the ‘root network’ of mushrooms, which acts as a natural glue to bind biomass. Mycelium grows through the biomass, which functions simultaneously as a growth substrate and a biocomposite matrix. Different organic residual streams such as straw, sawdust or other agricultural waste can be used as substrate, therefore mycelium biocomposites are totally natural, non-toxic, biological materials which can be grown locally and can be composted after usage (Jones et al., 2018). In the “Building On Mycelium” project Avans University of Applied Sciences, HZ University of Applied Sciences, University of Utrecht and the industrial partners will investigate how the locally available organic waste streams can be used to produce mycelium biocomposites with properties, which make them suitable for the building industry. In this project the focus will be on studying the use of the biocomposite as raw materials for the manufacturing of furniture or interior panels (insulation or acoustic).
This project aims to develop a measurement tool to assess the inclusivity of experiences for people with varying challenges and capabilities on the auditory spectrum. In doing so, we performed an in-depth exploration of scientific literature and findings from previous projects by Joint Projects. Based on this, we developed an initial conceptual model that focuses on sensory perception, emotion, cognition, and e[ort in relation to hearing and fatigue. Within, this model a visitor attraction is seen as an “experienscape” with four key elements: content, medium, context, and individual. In co-creative interviews with experts by experience with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum, they provided valuable insights that led to a significant expansion of this initial model. This was a relevant step, as in the scientific and professional literature, little is known about the leisure experiences of people with troubled hearing. For example, personal factors such as a person’s attitude toward their own hearing loss and the social dynamics within their group turned out to greatly influence the experience. The revised model was then applied in a case study at Apenheul, focusing on studying differences in experience of their gorilla presentation amongst people with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum.Societal issueThe Netherlands is one of the countries in Europe with the highest density of visitor attractions. Despite this abundance, many visitor attractions are not fully accessible to everyone, particularly to visitors with disabilities who sometimes are not eligible to ride due to safety concerns, yet when eligible generally still encounter numerous barriers. Accessibility of visitor attractions can be approached in various ways. However, because the focus often lies on operational and technical aspects (e.g., reducing stimuli at certain times of the day by turning o[ music, o[ering alternative wheelchair entrances), strategic and community-focused approaches are often overlooked. More importantly, there is also a lack of attention to the experience of visitors with disabilities. This becomes apparent from several studies from Joint Projects, where visitor attractions are being visited together with experts by experience with various disabilities. Nevertheless, experience is often being regarded as the 'core product' of the leisure sector. The right to meet, discover, develop, relax and thus enjoy this core product is hindered for many people with disabilities due to a lack of knowledge, inaccessibility (physical, digital, social, communicative as well as financial) and discrimination in society. Additionally, recreation entrepreneurs still face a significant gap in reaching the potential market of guests with disabilities and their networks. Thus, despite the numerous initiatives in the leisure sector aimed at improving accessibility on technical and operational fronts, often people with disabilities are still not being able to experience the same kind of enjoyment as those without. These observations form the pressing impetus for initiating the current research project, tapping into the numerous opportunities for learning, development and growth on making leisure offer more inclusive.Benefit to societyIn total, the current project approach comes with a number of enrichments in terms of both knowledge and methodology: a mixed-methods approach that allows for comparing data from different sources to obtain a more complete picture of the experience; a methodological co-design process that honours the 'nothing about us without us' principle; and benchmarking for a group (i.e., people with challenges on the auditory spectrum) that despite the size of its population has thus far mostly been overlooked.
This proposal originates from a pilot of the ‘Frontrunners coalition’ on initiatives for the Circular Economy at the city level. This spin off project studies strategizing in hotels, to find innovative solutions how to manage the integration of circularity in the overall business strategy. The theoretical innovation is to better understand the strategizing process by using the theoretical framework of “strategy-as-practices (S-as-P)”. Exploring in two cases the daily challenges of implementing principles of the circular economy at a luxury and a budget hotel (group). The “strategy-as-practices (S-as-P) framework will be used, emphasizing that strategizing is a joint process of (higher) management and other practitioners (within and outside of the company). The data collection and analysis will be executed by Bachelor and Master students of Hotelschool the Hague and faculty of the research centre. The stages of the Design Oriented Research Approach will be used in this project, with a focus on the stages of Analysis & Diagnoses and Solution Design. The hotels will facilitate this research by giving access and support to the operations and (formal) meetings and additional primary data collection. (Small teams of) Student researchers collect qualitative data based on interviews and observations: they will ‘blend’ in during a 10-week period. Faculty of Hotelschool The Hague will safeguard the continuity and alignment in the project in the several rounds in which these steps are executed. The finding will be presented to the participating companies, the coalition in Amsterdam and the Hospitality industry. Direct societal impact is the showcasing of potential initiative and the responsibility of organizations towards circularity in their environment. Another result is the proposal for a larger follow-up project. This larger project will continue this study within a broader set of hotels but will also be studying and developing potential interventions for improvement the strategizing process.
