- Email: [email protected]
New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac
Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
Opinion Piece
New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac Jeffrey S. Podoshen a, *, Susan A. Andrzejewski b, Vivek Venkatesh c, d, Jason Wallin e a
Department of Business, Organizations and Society, Franklin and Marshall College, 415 Harrisburg Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603, USA Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics, California State University Channel Islands, One University Drive, Camarillo, CA 93012, USA c Graduate Programs in Educational Technology, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W. LB-579 Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada d Academic Programs and Development, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W. LB-579 Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada e Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, 116 St. and 85 Ave., Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada b
h i g h l i g h t s The role of emotions is likely to be more complex in dystopian dark tourism than is often proposed. Tourism benefits from a deeper integration of perspectiveeespecially those found in the fast growing CCT tradition. Dark tourism theory development will result from an increase in novel insights.
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 2 May 2015 Accepted 2 May 2015 Available online xxx
Dark tourism has become a rather unique realm in the tourism literature and is growing in practice. In order to fully and properly comprehend the phenomena, scholars need to more fervently embrace methods of inquiry beyond narrow positivist approaches. Dark tourism scholars can benefit by integrating techniques and approaches from the realm of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and its related realms of semiotics and aesthetics. Additionally, this paper clarifies the understanding of emotions in dark tourism and dystopian dark tourism experiences and explicates further distinctions between utopia and dystopia. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Dark tourism Consumer culture theory Emotions in tourism
1. Approaches to dark tourism inquiry Utilizing approaches from the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) tradition (Arnould & Thompson, 2005), we can begin to answer questions and build theoretical insights that researchers ordinarily could not answer. While dark tourism and its production and consumption have seen an increase in exploration over the past number years, the layered dynamics, multifaceted nature and intersection of motivational constructs of the phenomena generally indicates that understanding cannot be reduced to convenient or structured analysis e often nested in the positivist paradigm. As the CCT tradition rose to seek introspection on consumption practices that couldn't be adequately examined through traditional economic inquiry or the positivist lens, dark tourism (and much of heritage tourism) ontology and epistemology yearns for advocacy
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.S. Podoshen), [email protected] (S.A. Andrzejewski), [email protected] (V. Venkatesh), jwallin@ ualberta.ca (J. Wallin).
of interpretative approaches that follow ideas from phenomenology that emphasizes the lived experience as the basis of human behavior. As Sandberg (2005) and Prasad and Prasad (2002) mention, these interpretative approaches lead not only to new forms of knowledge but also help flesh out debates on the limitations, intersections and criticisms of both the knowledge produced and its generalizability. Dark tourism and tourism research in general has more recently found itself at the center of this metalevel debate that has been long ongoing in fields such as Marketing, Organizational Studies and Consumer Studies. Isaac (2015) suggests that “emotions exist on two spectra viz. from light to dark and from weak to strong,” and that respondents cannot answer a question such as “how is a visitor feeling?” in our study (Podoshen et al., 2015) because we have “no systematic structure allowing such emotions to be distinguished and labeled, let alone measured.” This critique suggests a reversion to a rather antiquated and narrow model of affective range. In our original paper we examine the notion of intensity as qualities of being affected e thus looking at varying levels of affectation amongst participants. Further, Giorgi (1994) and Sandberg (2005) warn us that interpretative researchers
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008 0261-5177/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
2
J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4
often fallback on positivistic approaches (as suggested and advocated by Isaac, 2015) when justifying results. This becomes problematic when researchers seeking to integrate post-modern, semiotic or even aesthetic-centered (see Biehl-Missal, 2013; Fillis, 2014) approaches find themselves pigeon-holed in a scholarly realm that is very much dominated by the positivist disposition (Askegaard, 2014). To this we have to ask, what is systematic … and what is structure? Further we have to ask if critiques based on positivist integration lead dark tourism scholarship down an inevitable field of narrow positivism and normative centeredness with a crowding out of alternative techniques and traditions? While the field of tourism is ripe with positivist influence and perspective and integrated with theory and inquiry from management science and related disciplines that rely on experiments, measurement and a quest for objective truth, it is welcoming to see debate and discussion about scholarly methods that search for alternative insights and perspectives. The pages of Tourism Management are no stranger to these controversies (see Ryan & Gu, 2010; 2011; Shepherd, 2011) and the editorship should be applauded for seeking articles that embrace post-modernism, constructivism and interpretative research. Unfortunately, Tourism Management is in the minority of tourism journals, and adding to the problem is that qualified reviewers with expert knowledge of interpretativism and non-“normal science” are few and far between. Often times, the review process for interpretative pieces is steered toward positivist objectivity e which results in a rather untenable situation for researcher, reviewer and the greater field of tourism. Thankfully, interested scholars can borrow theory building techniques, insights and novel approaches from related disciplines and traditions (such as CCT) that have already paved a path. In terms of understanding dark tourism and its trajectory through the modern consumption milieu, Foley and Lennon (1996), Lennon and Foley (1999), Stone (2006; 2009), and Stone and Sharpley (2008) have paved a path of introspection and reflection that have offered incredible insight into the human condition. This path of introspection, however, is only going to move forward with a richer and deeper understanding from a blending and bridging of disciplinary techniques and knowledge. Levy's recent work (2015) amplifies the discourse about research methodology that is much more wide sweeping than narrow methods such as survey deployment and experimentation. Harkening back to Mead (1934), Levy (in press) explains that consumption (such as the consumption of death) research needs to focus on integration from a variety of sources and that the researchers need to immerse themselves in all aspects of the environment and not over rely on “scales of economy and aggregate behaviors.” To us, such a call favours triangulation of data sources, adoption of both emic (insider) and etic (outsider) perspectives in description of phenomena; as well as a willingness to consider humanist perspectives in the analysis of consumption rituals in the context of dark tourism. This follows Park (2012) call for an increase in acceptance of alternative research methods, and an uptick in participant-observation based methods in some of the top tourism journals (see Lugosi, 2014; Reijnders, 2011). 2. Emotions e a closer look Isaac (2015) adds some valuable thoughts to emotion in tourism experiences. We, however, want to delve a bit deeper on the role of emotion in dark tourism and dystopian dark tourism. Specially, Isaac (2015) mentions that hedonic sites are the converse to dark sites. In our conceptualization of emotion we view the hedonic dimension of emotion as ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. In short, we are not suggesting that tourists are only experiencing “dark” emotions. Instead, the DDT model suggests that emotional contagion among consumers may also center on shared (not necessarily negative) emotions/simulation (e.g., sharing the experience of the
excitement of fleeing a crime scene, etc.). Similarly, Isaac (2015) suggests that feelings are “short-lived, immediate reactions, or a more long-term mind-set changing emotion.” In our conceptualization of emotion, emotion refers to states that last a relatively short period of time, whereas moods may last hours/days/weeks, and anything lasting longer probably refers to emotional disorders or personality traits (Oatley, Keltner, & Jenkins, 2006) and are not specifically included in the scope of our model. We take the position that emotions are short-lived reactions that come about because of exposure to stimuli (i.e., dark aesthetics/ making absent death present). We would welcome dark tourism study that specifically examined personality traits and emotional disorders. Isaac (2015) claims that it is “too difficult if not impossible” for tourists to self report how they are feeling because the respondent has no systematic structure for allowing such emotions to be distinguished, labeled or measured. We believe this lies in direct contrast to much of what we know about emotion. Fehr and Russell (1984) first suggested that people think about emotions in terms of prototypes, which suggests that the experience of emotion shares a common script that allows one to label their emotion. In a similar vein, Ekman and Friesen (1971) demonstrated that the expression of the six basic emotions is universal across cultures. Both lines of research support the idea that tourists can selfidentify the emotions they experience, and many of the emotions we viewed, via nonverbal behavior, also convey felt emotion (e.g., grimacing to display disgust, etc.). Most certainly, emotion, in general, has been defined differently by individual theorists; however, most agree that emotions serve important social functions and that they help individuals to attain their goals (Oatley et al., 2006). The emotions in our DDT model serve a social function of bringing people together in response to shared experience and allow people to pursue their goals by making sense of the dystopia through that experience. More recently, Gross and Feldman Barrett (2011) argue that all theories of emotion agree that emotion includes a collection of psychological states that encompass subjective experience, expressive behavior (e.g., nonverbal and verbal behavior), and peripheral physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, breathing, etc.). Again, this further supports our conceptualization as we discuss subjective experience in DDT (as reported by the tourists), expressive behavior (which we note), and the peripheral physiological responses are also included in the text (e.g., grimacing, gagging, etc.). 3. Utopia, dystopia and “Isolation” We appreciate the additional insight that Isaac (2015) has offered about utopia and dystopia in “Every Utopia Turns Into Dystopia.” Where we disagree is regarding the implied isolation of dystopia as a concept. Referring to our model in Podoshen et al. (2015), we present the “cultural fascination with utopia/dystopia” as a construct on the outer layer of model e encompassing the model's process and acting as a relational bridge between “death and society” and “dystopian dark tourism consumption.” This, for us, was a deliberate attempt to explicate dystopia and utopia as enveloping curiosity present in the human condition that underlies a larger process e not an isolated variable, nor simply a rejection of utopias, since dystopian dark tourism may involve seeking out aspects of reality that rejoin a broader potential for expression and enunciation. In the model we have this fascination with utopia/ dystopia dovetail with a cultural fascination of death in general, which, we believe is entirely appropriate in an increasingly violent world. While we agree with Isaac (2015) that the Holocaust was a major (if not THE major) catastrophic event in modern history, recent events surrounding ISIS, the never ending (and increasingly barbaric) wars in the Middle East and the global ugliness
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4
surrounding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia throughout the globe, humanity finds itself contemplating the idea of utopia versus the reality of utopia gone wrong. As Lyotard (1979) mentions, WWII really marked the end of cultural fetishization for utopias. It's time to face up to the horrors birthed by this culture. Podoshen, Venkatesh, and Jin (2014) go into great depth about utopia, dystopia and the relationship between the two and the relationship's role in a consumption context. It is the relationship between “no place” and “difficulty.” The idea of utopia in the consumerscape is not an entirely new concept (see Kozinets, 2001, 2002; Maclaran and Brown, 2001; 2005). While these works examine the quest for utopia e we examine the concern and sensemaking related to the horror of dystopia with an epistemology firmly entrenched in a strengthened desire to seek more macrosocial explanatory frameworks (see Askegaard & Linnet, 2011). Unabashedly and specifically, we involve a communitarian approach nested in the postmodern perspective (see Ozcaglar-Toulouse & Cova, 2010) that integrates the sociohistorical dimensions of consumption. As OzcaglarToulouse and Cova (2010) and Bergadaa (2006) mention, this process rooted in understanding not only “acts” but elucidates the social connections that often play a role in the process of the act. Thus, in our study, measuring emotion on an individual level only gives us one small part of the story. Acknowledgements We wish to thank Isaac (2015) for his insight and critique. We hope that scholars we will read this series of pieces and grapple with the issues that surround dark tourism inquiry e and that some will further embrace the wealth of diverse perspective, insights and methodologies available to us e that reside both inside and outside of tourism studies. We wish to sincerely thank Isaac's insightful commentary where he adds some additional insight to utopia/dystopia and emotion. In our rejoinder, we wish to elucidate on our approach to studying dark tourism (Podoshen et al., 2015) and the study of emotion, and then discuss the integration of perspectives that largely exist outside of the positivist realm. We believe the study of dark tourism greatly benefits from the existence of multiple, competing schools of thought and the use of multiple methodologies. References Arnould, E., & Thompson, C. (2005). Consumer culture theory (CCT): twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 868e882. Askegaard, S. (2014). Consumer culture theory e neo-liberalism’s “useful idiots?”. Marketing Theory, 14(4), 507e511. Askegaard, S., & Linnet, J. T. (2011). Towards an epistemology of consumer culture theory. Marketing Theory, 11(4), 381e404. en marketing? Revue Francaise Bergadaa, M. (2006). Quoi de neuf dans la recherche de Gestion, 162(32), 95e97. Biehl-Missal, B. (2013). The atmosphere of the image: an aesthetic concept for visual analysis. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 16(4), 356e367. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across culture in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 124e129. Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 464e486. Fillis, I. (2014). The impact of aesthetics on the celtic craft market. Consumption, Markets & Culture, 17(3), 274e294. Foley, M., & Lennon, J. (1996). JFK and dark tourism: a fascination with assassination. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 195e197. Giorgi, A. (1994). A phenomenological perspective on certain qualitative research methods. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 25, 191e220. Gross, J. J., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2011). Emotion generation and emotion regulation: one or two depends on your point of view. Emotion Review, 3, 8e16. Isaac, R. K. (2015). Every utopia turns into dystopia. Tourism Management (in press). Kozinets, R. V. (2001). Utopian enterprise: articulating the meanings of star trek's culture of consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(3), 67e88. Kozinets, R. V. (2002). Can consumers escape the market? emancipatory illuminations from burning man. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), 20e38.
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Lennon, J., & Foley, M. (1999). Interpretation of the unimaginable: the U.S. Holocaust memorial museum, Washington, D.C., and ‘Dark tourism'. Journal of Travel Research, 38(1), 46e50.. Levy, S. (2015). Olio and integraphy as method and the consumption of death. Consumption. Markets and Culture, 18(2), 133e154. Lugosi, P. (2014). Mobilising identity and culture in experience co-creation and venue operation. Tourism Management, 40(1), 165e179. Lyotard, J.-F. (1979). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge, Geoff Bennington and brian massumi (trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Maclaren, P., & Brown, S. (2001). The future perfect declined: utopian studies and consumer research. Journal of Marketing Management, 17, 367e390. Maclaren, P., & Brown, S. (2005). The center cannot hold: consuming the utopian marketplace. Journal of Consumer Research, 32(September), 3e323. Mead, G. (1934). Mind, self and society. In C. W. Morris (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Oatley, K., Keltner, D., & Jenkins, J. M. (2006). Understanding emotions (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Ozcaglar-Toulouse, N., & Cova, B. (2010). A history of french CCT: pathways and key concepts. Recherche et Applications en Marketing, 25(2), 69e91. Park, C. W. (2012). Two types of attractive research. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 299e302. Podoshen, J. S., Venkatesh, V., & Jin, Z. (2014). Theoretical reflections on dystopian consumer culture: black metal. Marketing Theory, 14(2), 207e227. Podoshen, J. S., Venkatesh, V., Wallin, J., Andrzejewksi, S., & Jin, Z. (2015). Dystopian dark tourism: an exploratory examination. Tourism Management (in press). Prasad, A., & Prasad, P. (2002). The coming age of interpretative organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 5(1), 4e11. Reijnders, S. (2011). Stalking the count: Dracula, fandom and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(1), 231e248. Ryan, C., & Gu, H. (2010). Constructionism and culture in research: understandings of the fourth buddhist Festival, the fourth buddhist Festival, Wutaishan, China. Tourism Management, 31(1), 167e178. Ryan, C., & Gu, H. (2011). The allure of the post-modern e a response to Robert Shepherd, Shepherd. Tourism Management, 32(1), 191e192. Sandberg, J. (2005). How do we justify knowledge produced within interpretative approaches? Organizational Research Methods, 8(1), 41e68. Shepherd, R. (2011). Historicity, fieldwork, and the allure of the post-modern: a reply to Ryan and Gu. Tourism Management, 32(1), 187e190. Stone, P. R. (2006). A dark tourism spectrum: towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions. Tourism, 54(2), 145e160. Stone, P. R. (2009). Making absent death present. In R. Sharpley, & P. R. Stone (Eds.), The darker side of travel: The theory and practice of dark tourism (pp. 23e38) (Tonawanda: Channel View). Stone, P., & Sharpley, R. (2008). Consuming dark tourism: a thanatological perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 574e595.
Jeff Podoshen is Associate Professor and Chair of the department of Business, Organizations and Society at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, USA. Jeff's area of research relates to dark consumption and dark tourism practice, and he often blends and bridges theory from a variety of disciplines (such as marketing, social psychology and sociology) in order to explain phenomena and build theory. One of the early pioneers of the use of netnography in social sciences research, Jeff utilizes a myriad of mixed method and cutting edge qualitative techniques to distill complex data into more easily defined categories that allows for greater introspection on specific subcultures.
Vivek Venkatesh is Associate Dean, Academic Programs and Development at the School of Graduate Studies, Acting Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, and Associate Professor in the Educational Technology graduate program at Concordia University in al, Canada. Vivek and his multi-disciplinary, interMontre institutional team's research programs - which traverse the areas of learning sciences, digital citizenship, niche online communities, and extreme metal music studies - have been funded to the tune of more than CAD $4.5 million by provincial, federal and international agencies.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
4
J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4 Jason is Associate Professor of Media and Youth Culture Studies in Curriculum at the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he teaches courses in visual art, popular culture, and cultural curriculum theory. Jason is author of “A Deleuzian Approach to Curriculum: Essays on a Pedagogical Life” (Palgrave Macmillan), coauthor of “Arts-Based Research: A Critique and Proposal” (with jan jagodzinski, Sense Publishers), co-editor of Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Considerations in Niche Online Communities (with Vivek Venkatesh, Juan Carlos Castro, and Jason Lewis, IGI Press) and coeditor of “Deleuze, Guattari, Politics and Education” (with Matt Carlin, Bloomsbury). Jason is assistant editor for the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (Routledge) and reviews editor for Deleuze Studies (Edinburgh University Press).
Susan Andrzejewski is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Martin V. Smith School of Business and Economics at California State University Channel Islands. Susan's research lies at the intersection of consumer behavior and social psychology. The foundation of much of this work stems from the idea that psychological principles strongly influence what happens in the consumer marketplace. This work has been published in numerous marketing and psychology journals.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
Opinion Piece
New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac Jeffrey S. Podoshen a, *, Susan A. Andrzejewski b, Vivek Venkatesh c, d, Jason Wallin e a
Department of Business, Organizations and Society, Franklin and Marshall College, 415 Harrisburg Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603, USA Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics, California State University Channel Islands, One University Drive, Camarillo, CA 93012, USA c Graduate Programs in Educational Technology, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W. LB-579 Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada d Academic Programs and Development, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W. LB-579 Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada e Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, 116 St. and 85 Ave., Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada b
h i g h l i g h t s The role of emotions is likely to be more complex in dystopian dark tourism than is often proposed. Tourism benefits from a deeper integration of perspectiveeespecially those found in the fast growing CCT tradition. Dark tourism theory development will result from an increase in novel insights.
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 2 May 2015 Accepted 2 May 2015 Available online xxx
Dark tourism has become a rather unique realm in the tourism literature and is growing in practice. In order to fully and properly comprehend the phenomena, scholars need to more fervently embrace methods of inquiry beyond narrow positivist approaches. Dark tourism scholars can benefit by integrating techniques and approaches from the realm of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and its related realms of semiotics and aesthetics. Additionally, this paper clarifies the understanding of emotions in dark tourism and dystopian dark tourism experiences and explicates further distinctions between utopia and dystopia. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Dark tourism Consumer culture theory Emotions in tourism
1. Approaches to dark tourism inquiry Utilizing approaches from the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) tradition (Arnould & Thompson, 2005), we can begin to answer questions and build theoretical insights that researchers ordinarily could not answer. While dark tourism and its production and consumption have seen an increase in exploration over the past number years, the layered dynamics, multifaceted nature and intersection of motivational constructs of the phenomena generally indicates that understanding cannot be reduced to convenient or structured analysis e often nested in the positivist paradigm. As the CCT tradition rose to seek introspection on consumption practices that couldn't be adequately examined through traditional economic inquiry or the positivist lens, dark tourism (and much of heritage tourism) ontology and epistemology yearns for advocacy
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.S. Podoshen), [email protected] (S.A. Andrzejewski), [email protected] (V. Venkatesh), jwallin@ ualberta.ca (J. Wallin).
of interpretative approaches that follow ideas from phenomenology that emphasizes the lived experience as the basis of human behavior. As Sandberg (2005) and Prasad and Prasad (2002) mention, these interpretative approaches lead not only to new forms of knowledge but also help flesh out debates on the limitations, intersections and criticisms of both the knowledge produced and its generalizability. Dark tourism and tourism research in general has more recently found itself at the center of this metalevel debate that has been long ongoing in fields such as Marketing, Organizational Studies and Consumer Studies. Isaac (2015) suggests that “emotions exist on two spectra viz. from light to dark and from weak to strong,” and that respondents cannot answer a question such as “how is a visitor feeling?” in our study (Podoshen et al., 2015) because we have “no systematic structure allowing such emotions to be distinguished and labeled, let alone measured.” This critique suggests a reversion to a rather antiquated and narrow model of affective range. In our original paper we examine the notion of intensity as qualities of being affected e thus looking at varying levels of affectation amongst participants. Further, Giorgi (1994) and Sandberg (2005) warn us that interpretative researchers
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008 0261-5177/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
2
J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4
often fallback on positivistic approaches (as suggested and advocated by Isaac, 2015) when justifying results. This becomes problematic when researchers seeking to integrate post-modern, semiotic or even aesthetic-centered (see Biehl-Missal, 2013; Fillis, 2014) approaches find themselves pigeon-holed in a scholarly realm that is very much dominated by the positivist disposition (Askegaard, 2014). To this we have to ask, what is systematic … and what is structure? Further we have to ask if critiques based on positivist integration lead dark tourism scholarship down an inevitable field of narrow positivism and normative centeredness with a crowding out of alternative techniques and traditions? While the field of tourism is ripe with positivist influence and perspective and integrated with theory and inquiry from management science and related disciplines that rely on experiments, measurement and a quest for objective truth, it is welcoming to see debate and discussion about scholarly methods that search for alternative insights and perspectives. The pages of Tourism Management are no stranger to these controversies (see Ryan & Gu, 2010; 2011; Shepherd, 2011) and the editorship should be applauded for seeking articles that embrace post-modernism, constructivism and interpretative research. Unfortunately, Tourism Management is in the minority of tourism journals, and adding to the problem is that qualified reviewers with expert knowledge of interpretativism and non-“normal science” are few and far between. Often times, the review process for interpretative pieces is steered toward positivist objectivity e which results in a rather untenable situation for researcher, reviewer and the greater field of tourism. Thankfully, interested scholars can borrow theory building techniques, insights and novel approaches from related disciplines and traditions (such as CCT) that have already paved a path. In terms of understanding dark tourism and its trajectory through the modern consumption milieu, Foley and Lennon (1996), Lennon and Foley (1999), Stone (2006; 2009), and Stone and Sharpley (2008) have paved a path of introspection and reflection that have offered incredible insight into the human condition. This path of introspection, however, is only going to move forward with a richer and deeper understanding from a blending and bridging of disciplinary techniques and knowledge. Levy's recent work (2015) amplifies the discourse about research methodology that is much more wide sweeping than narrow methods such as survey deployment and experimentation. Harkening back to Mead (1934), Levy (in press) explains that consumption (such as the consumption of death) research needs to focus on integration from a variety of sources and that the researchers need to immerse themselves in all aspects of the environment and not over rely on “scales of economy and aggregate behaviors.” To us, such a call favours triangulation of data sources, adoption of both emic (insider) and etic (outsider) perspectives in description of phenomena; as well as a willingness to consider humanist perspectives in the analysis of consumption rituals in the context of dark tourism. This follows Park (2012) call for an increase in acceptance of alternative research methods, and an uptick in participant-observation based methods in some of the top tourism journals (see Lugosi, 2014; Reijnders, 2011). 2. Emotions e a closer look Isaac (2015) adds some valuable thoughts to emotion in tourism experiences. We, however, want to delve a bit deeper on the role of emotion in dark tourism and dystopian dark tourism. Specially, Isaac (2015) mentions that hedonic sites are the converse to dark sites. In our conceptualization of emotion we view the hedonic dimension of emotion as ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. In short, we are not suggesting that tourists are only experiencing “dark” emotions. Instead, the DDT model suggests that emotional contagion among consumers may also center on shared (not necessarily negative) emotions/simulation (e.g., sharing the experience of the
excitement of fleeing a crime scene, etc.). Similarly, Isaac (2015) suggests that feelings are “short-lived, immediate reactions, or a more long-term mind-set changing emotion.” In our conceptualization of emotion, emotion refers to states that last a relatively short period of time, whereas moods may last hours/days/weeks, and anything lasting longer probably refers to emotional disorders or personality traits (Oatley, Keltner, & Jenkins, 2006) and are not specifically included in the scope of our model. We take the position that emotions are short-lived reactions that come about because of exposure to stimuli (i.e., dark aesthetics/ making absent death present). We would welcome dark tourism study that specifically examined personality traits and emotional disorders. Isaac (2015) claims that it is “too difficult if not impossible” for tourists to self report how they are feeling because the respondent has no systematic structure for allowing such emotions to be distinguished, labeled or measured. We believe this lies in direct contrast to much of what we know about emotion. Fehr and Russell (1984) first suggested that people think about emotions in terms of prototypes, which suggests that the experience of emotion shares a common script that allows one to label their emotion. In a similar vein, Ekman and Friesen (1971) demonstrated that the expression of the six basic emotions is universal across cultures. Both lines of research support the idea that tourists can selfidentify the emotions they experience, and many of the emotions we viewed, via nonverbal behavior, also convey felt emotion (e.g., grimacing to display disgust, etc.). Most certainly, emotion, in general, has been defined differently by individual theorists; however, most agree that emotions serve important social functions and that they help individuals to attain their goals (Oatley et al., 2006). The emotions in our DDT model serve a social function of bringing people together in response to shared experience and allow people to pursue their goals by making sense of the dystopia through that experience. More recently, Gross and Feldman Barrett (2011) argue that all theories of emotion agree that emotion includes a collection of psychological states that encompass subjective experience, expressive behavior (e.g., nonverbal and verbal behavior), and peripheral physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, breathing, etc.). Again, this further supports our conceptualization as we discuss subjective experience in DDT (as reported by the tourists), expressive behavior (which we note), and the peripheral physiological responses are also included in the text (e.g., grimacing, gagging, etc.). 3. Utopia, dystopia and “Isolation” We appreciate the additional insight that Isaac (2015) has offered about utopia and dystopia in “Every Utopia Turns Into Dystopia.” Where we disagree is regarding the implied isolation of dystopia as a concept. Referring to our model in Podoshen et al. (2015), we present the “cultural fascination with utopia/dystopia” as a construct on the outer layer of model e encompassing the model's process and acting as a relational bridge between “death and society” and “dystopian dark tourism consumption.” This, for us, was a deliberate attempt to explicate dystopia and utopia as enveloping curiosity present in the human condition that underlies a larger process e not an isolated variable, nor simply a rejection of utopias, since dystopian dark tourism may involve seeking out aspects of reality that rejoin a broader potential for expression and enunciation. In the model we have this fascination with utopia/ dystopia dovetail with a cultural fascination of death in general, which, we believe is entirely appropriate in an increasingly violent world. While we agree with Isaac (2015) that the Holocaust was a major (if not THE major) catastrophic event in modern history, recent events surrounding ISIS, the never ending (and increasingly barbaric) wars in the Middle East and the global ugliness
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4
surrounding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia throughout the globe, humanity finds itself contemplating the idea of utopia versus the reality of utopia gone wrong. As Lyotard (1979) mentions, WWII really marked the end of cultural fetishization for utopias. It's time to face up to the horrors birthed by this culture. Podoshen, Venkatesh, and Jin (2014) go into great depth about utopia, dystopia and the relationship between the two and the relationship's role in a consumption context. It is the relationship between “no place” and “difficulty.” The idea of utopia in the consumerscape is not an entirely new concept (see Kozinets, 2001, 2002; Maclaran and Brown, 2001; 2005). While these works examine the quest for utopia e we examine the concern and sensemaking related to the horror of dystopia with an epistemology firmly entrenched in a strengthened desire to seek more macrosocial explanatory frameworks (see Askegaard & Linnet, 2011). Unabashedly and specifically, we involve a communitarian approach nested in the postmodern perspective (see Ozcaglar-Toulouse & Cova, 2010) that integrates the sociohistorical dimensions of consumption. As OzcaglarToulouse and Cova (2010) and Bergadaa (2006) mention, this process rooted in understanding not only “acts” but elucidates the social connections that often play a role in the process of the act. Thus, in our study, measuring emotion on an individual level only gives us one small part of the story. Acknowledgements We wish to thank Isaac (2015) for his insight and critique. We hope that scholars we will read this series of pieces and grapple with the issues that surround dark tourism inquiry e and that some will further embrace the wealth of diverse perspective, insights and methodologies available to us e that reside both inside and outside of tourism studies. We wish to sincerely thank Isaac's insightful commentary where he adds some additional insight to utopia/dystopia and emotion. In our rejoinder, we wish to elucidate on our approach to studying dark tourism (Podoshen et al., 2015) and the study of emotion, and then discuss the integration of perspectives that largely exist outside of the positivist realm. We believe the study of dark tourism greatly benefits from the existence of multiple, competing schools of thought and the use of multiple methodologies. References Arnould, E., & Thompson, C. (2005). Consumer culture theory (CCT): twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 868e882. Askegaard, S. (2014). Consumer culture theory e neo-liberalism’s “useful idiots?”. Marketing Theory, 14(4), 507e511. Askegaard, S., & Linnet, J. T. (2011). Towards an epistemology of consumer culture theory. Marketing Theory, 11(4), 381e404. en marketing? Revue Francaise Bergadaa, M. (2006). Quoi de neuf dans la recherche de Gestion, 162(32), 95e97. Biehl-Missal, B. (2013). The atmosphere of the image: an aesthetic concept for visual analysis. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 16(4), 356e367. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across culture in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 124e129. Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 464e486. Fillis, I. (2014). The impact of aesthetics on the celtic craft market. Consumption, Markets & Culture, 17(3), 274e294. Foley, M., & Lennon, J. (1996). JFK and dark tourism: a fascination with assassination. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 195e197. Giorgi, A. (1994). A phenomenological perspective on certain qualitative research methods. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 25, 191e220. Gross, J. J., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2011). Emotion generation and emotion regulation: one or two depends on your point of view. Emotion Review, 3, 8e16. Isaac, R. K. (2015). Every utopia turns into dystopia. Tourism Management (in press). Kozinets, R. V. (2001). Utopian enterprise: articulating the meanings of star trek's culture of consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(3), 67e88. Kozinets, R. V. (2002). Can consumers escape the market? emancipatory illuminations from burning man. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), 20e38.
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Jeff Podoshen is Associate Professor and Chair of the department of Business, Organizations and Society at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, USA. Jeff's area of research relates to dark consumption and dark tourism practice, and he often blends and bridges theory from a variety of disciplines (such as marketing, social psychology and sociology) in order to explain phenomena and build theory. One of the early pioneers of the use of netnography in social sciences research, Jeff utilizes a myriad of mixed method and cutting edge qualitative techniques to distill complex data into more easily defined categories that allows for greater introspection on specific subcultures.
Vivek Venkatesh is Associate Dean, Academic Programs and Development at the School of Graduate Studies, Acting Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, and Associate Professor in the Educational Technology graduate program at Concordia University in al, Canada. Vivek and his multi-disciplinary, interMontre institutional team's research programs - which traverse the areas of learning sciences, digital citizenship, niche online communities, and extreme metal music studies - have been funded to the tune of more than CAD $4.5 million by provincial, federal and international agencies.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008
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J.S. Podoshen et al. / Tourism Management xxx (2015) 1e4 Jason is Associate Professor of Media and Youth Culture Studies in Curriculum at the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he teaches courses in visual art, popular culture, and cultural curriculum theory. Jason is author of “A Deleuzian Approach to Curriculum: Essays on a Pedagogical Life” (Palgrave Macmillan), coauthor of “Arts-Based Research: A Critique and Proposal” (with jan jagodzinski, Sense Publishers), co-editor of Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Considerations in Niche Online Communities (with Vivek Venkatesh, Juan Carlos Castro, and Jason Lewis, IGI Press) and coeditor of “Deleuze, Guattari, Politics and Education” (with Matt Carlin, Bloomsbury). Jason is assistant editor for the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (Routledge) and reviews editor for Deleuze Studies (Edinburgh University Press).
Susan Andrzejewski is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Martin V. Smith School of Business and Economics at California State University Channel Islands. Susan's research lies at the intersection of consumer behavior and social psychology. The foundation of much of this work stems from the idea that psychological principles strongly influence what happens in the consumer marketplace. This work has been published in numerous marketing and psychology journals.
Please cite this article in press as: Podoshen, J. S., et al., New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac, Tourism Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.008