A conference tourist - and his confessions: theorizing on conference tourism, aeromobility and environmental change.

Auteur(s)
Hoeyer, K.G.
Jaar
Samenvatting

Conference tourism, aeromobility and the consequences for environmental change are considered on the basis of the author's diary notes from many years of travelling to and fro and participating at many international research conferences, and secondly, on new empirical research material from Norway on the ecological and climate change aspects and importance of leisure time activities in late modernity. Conference tourism is in this context is mainly considered to belong to leisure time, a view elaborated on in the theorizing. In Norwegian ecophilosophy human life in the industrial growth society or a grobalizing society is described as life in a pipe system. In this analysis of conference tourism the concept life in corridors is used to catch some major aspects of the lives of academics in a world of international conferences. As in the historical term the Polish corridor they are channels established through foreign territories to achieve highly efficient communication. But there is only communication along the corridor; it is closed to both sides. There is no communication to the territories they pass through. This is the very condition for efficiency. In the life as a conference tourist which also is a life in and with aeromobility - there are corridors everywhere: along the highways or high speed railways to the international airports for departure; for the luggage on transport belts; following all the others to the departure gates; then, going through the gates for embarking; following the others to your seat; the airplane itself follows an air corridor, be it in the troposphere or the stratosphere. When landing, everything goes in reverse. Everything looks the same wherever you are in the world. Even the language is the same; the globalized Anglo-American, the corridor language for the whole world. This same language is also the conference language itself; also in the conferences where researchers gather to present their latest findings within the language turn in discourse analysis. There are not many differences among the various international conferences; though there are always some aspects of pleasant enchantment included, so that they can compete with other conferences. Conference tourism is globalized as most other major forms of tourism; it is part of the globalization of academia, and it serves to make academics players in the processes of grobalization. Conference tourism is a global industry where competition on a global market is an important factor. A tunnel view on reality is an obvious implication of being a busy corridor traveller. In an age of ecological enlightenment it is questioned whether academics are all very well informed about the severity of these effects. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.

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Publicatie

Bibliotheeknummer
C 42068 (In: C 41981 CD-ROM) /15 /70 / ITRD E136910
Uitgave

In: Proceedings of the European Transport Conference ETC, Noordwijkerhout, near Leiden, The Netherlands, 17-19 October 2007, 11p 11 ref.

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