Music Tourism and Travel

CALL FOR PAPERS

Soundtracks: Music, Tourism and Travel
Liverpool, United Kingdom
6-9 July 2012

As an expression of culture, a form of intangible heritage, a signifier of place, and a marker of moments, music provides an important and emotive narrative for tourists. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult to imagine tourism ‘in silence’, outside of the scores and songs which accompany and punctuate journeys. From touristic performances of traditional dance, pilgrimages to the homes and graves of composers and singers, impromptu street entertainments, tours to concerts, attending festivals, to the sounds of the car radio, the travelling with ipods and the ‘muzak’ of hotel lifts, music can both activate and shape the journey, and passively permeate its duration. Music can both define and transcend the borders of destinations, emphasise and challenge notions of tradition, provide opportunities for liminal play, transgression and resistance and, help define the identities of visitors and the visited.

In this, the CTCC’s 6th international research conference, and in the City of Liverpool famed for its popular music, we seek to explore the relationships between tourism, tourists and all forms/genres and sub-genres of music including: popular, classical, folk, dance, rock, jazz and hip-hop, across all cultures and continents. In the context of new and old global mobilities, we are interested in musical pilgrimage, the material and social flows of travellers and musicians, the cultural and economic policies that promote music tourism, festivals and performances for tourists, ethnographies of touristic encounters with music, the place of music in the representation of tourism destinations and, the role of music in the construction of tourist discourses, narratives and memories. As in previous events, the conference aims to provide critical dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries and epistemologies and thus we welcome papers from the widest range of disciplines and fields including: anthropology, cultural geography, cultural studies, ethnology and folklore, history, heritage studies, landscape studies, leisure studies, museum studies, musicology and ethnomusicology, philosophy, political sciences, sociology, subaltern studies, tourism studies and urban/spatial planning.

We welcome innovative perspectives on all aspects of music and tourism. Key themes of interest to the conference include:
Musical memory – the role of music in narratives of touristic experience
Fans, pilgrimage and performances – motivations, behaviours and meanings
The tourist’s involvement in preserving and creating musical traditions
Managing tourists at musical sites
Musical imaginaries – representing places, peoples and pasts in music
Dance tourism and embodied practices
Designing ambience – mobilising music in touristic spaces
Music festivals as opportunities for tourist encounters
Inspirations – travelling musicians
Music as intangible heritage – touring through traditions
Challenging musical traditions – tourist ‘noise’
Please submit a 300 word abstract including title and full contact details as an electronic file to ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk. You may submit your abstract as soon as possible but no later than November 21st 2011.

For further details on the conference please contact us at Email ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk or Tel. +44 (0) 113 812 8541.

Online dialogue: UK and Arab world

“We are looking for a motivated group of 13 young people from across the UK, to participate in an exciting new joint project between the British Youth Council and the British Council’s Global Changemakers Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programme, where we are giving you the chance to join other young people from the MENA region in a series of online digital dialogues exploring in depth common issues such as identity, education, health, climate change and more. 

If this sounds like something you are interested in why not apply!
Criteria
You must be…
● Aged between 17 and 25 and resident in the UK.
● Motivated and willing to learn and overcome new challenges.
● Able to commit for 6 months until June 2011.
● Have regular internet access
● Available for an hour a week to check the online Facebook group for updates and to answer any questions posted by other members of the community (this may be more during weeks of dialogue) and to read some resources to prepare you for the dialogue.
As a participant we will give you the opportunity to…
● Develop relationships & explore common issues with young people from the MENA region.
● Get training in facilitation skills and intercultural dialogue.
● Be supported to develop a community action project in partnership with young people from the MENA region.
● Possibly have the chance to attend a Global Changemakers meeting representing young people in the UK.”
For further information, and an application form, see the original posting.