Tourism mobilities and the re-negotiation of space in the Anthropocene
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Guest Editors:
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Introduction
Since its early conceptualization to acknowledge the irreversible human impact on the biophysical and geological systems of the Earth, the notion of the Anthropocene has sparked debate on shifting human-environment relationships. More than just a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene reflects that current human-environment relationships are based on ideas, symbols, and apprehensions of planetary environmental crises (Moore, 2019; Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019) and that there is an urgent need for alternative epistemological approaches (Lorimer, 2012; Ulmer, 2017). Noel Castree (2014) points to how the Anthropocene is among the key signifiers in the reframing and rethinking of societal decision-makers. The Anthropocene is an important concept in human geography because it consolidates in social imaginaries that define people’s political and ethical positions as they make sense of evolving human-environment relationships. In tourism geographies, the notion of the Anthropocene has fuelled debate and research on the role of tourism, leisure, and events. It has also reinforced, exacerbated, and challenged current norms and attitudes in times of planetary crisis (see Gren & Huijbens, 2015; Huijbens, 2023; Moore, 2019 2015; Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019). However, critical reflections on the future of tourism mobilities and space in the age of the Anthropocene are still in their infancy.
Beyond ‘sustainability’ discourses
Debates in tourism geographies have relied heavily on ‘sustainability’ to propose solutions to the negative impacts of tourism around the world. However, the immanency of multiple intersecting planetary crises calls for a reflection as to whether ‘sustainability’ – both as a concept and a process – can still be useful to understand and respond to the current challenges tourism is facing. Arguably, the focus on sustainability and its managerial undertone reiterates a rhetoric that deliberately overlooks the pleas for mitigating and reducing the ongoing effects of climate change in tourist, leisure, and event spaces (Morazzoni & Pecorelli, 2022; 2023). Soares and Scott (2023) illustrate this shortfall regarding ‘sustainability’ discourses and global warming and the promotion of sporting events. They demonstrate how a significant body of critical literature addresses the use of sporting events as a tool to engage people in social development beyond the sporting context. Yet, there is still limited attention paid to the role of sport events and related tourism mobilities from the lens of the Anthropocene. From this perspective, the relationships between climate change and tourism mobilities need to be redefined and expanded to encompass current theoretical shifts around the conceptualisation of the human-environmental relationship in the context of the Anthropocene.
The future of tourism mobilities in the Anthropocene
Tourism geographers will have to understand how ideas, symbols and apprehensions shaping space and tourism mobilities are being re-negotiated in the Anthropocene. This shift is needed to comprehend the ethical, emotional, and political underpinnings of individuals and collectives in times of planetary crisis. Re-negotiations hereby refer to processes, practices and perspectives that question the given status-quo. In the space of the Anthropocene, the status quo of human-environment relationships is greatly challenged by the disappearance of natural markers and ways of life and the subsequent appearance of other markers and practices to mitigate crisis. The emphasis of the papers of this special issue will lie on re-negotiations born out of the societal and physical changes tourism space and mobilities undergo in the Anthropocene. The appearance and disappearance of spatial components such as landmarks, infrastructure, and ways of life, will be renegotiated in various and complex ways depending on local contexts and their extra-local relations. It will thus also be important for this special issue to explore how tensions and contradictions animate tourism space and mobilities as some actors will benefit over others from renegotiations in the Anthropocene (Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019).
Disappearance
Gren and Huijbens (2019: 125) describe “the role of tourism in the faith of the geographically differentiated Anthropos as one with the Earth is unneglectable.” Over the last two decades, areas facing increasing socio-ecological vulnerability have been promoted, imagined, and consumed in concerning ways. The disappearance of natural markers due to climate change and environmental degradation has fuelled their enrolment in tourism imaginaries and mobilities. This can be prominently seen in trends regarding last-chance tourism including cruises to retreating ice sheets in Arctic Sea or trips to endangered and disappearing natural sites like the Great Barrier Reef or the Maldives (Lemelin et al. 2010; Palma et al., 2019; Piggott-McKellar & McNamara, 2017; Wu et al.2020). Similarly, current trends in outdoor activities and sporting activities like skiing, hiking, and mountain-biking indicate an adaptive approach to changing environmental conditions (Bustad et al. 2022; Nilson & Demiroglu, 2023). Also, the event sector is picking up on this disappearance of natural markers in drastic and sometimes creative responses in the context of environmental change.
Appearance
Yet, the disappearance of natural markers is just one facet of a much more complex and unexplored relationship between tourism mobilities and the Anthropocene. We must also reflect on emerging and renewed relationships between tourism mobilities, space, and the environment. The idea of the Anthropocene encapsulates the materiality of socio-technical designs built to alleviate the effects of unsustainable consumption and production patterns. As a prime example, renewable energy transitions have turned landscapes around the world into terrains for the deployment of new infrastructure (Bridge et al., 2013). Disruption to landscape aesthetics is a dimension that has caught the attention of tourism geographers, particularly among scholars interested in changing visual consumptions and perceptions of tourism and leisure spaces. However, the socio-technological landscapes of the Anthropocene give space symbolic meaning of sustainability and green futures, causing tensions over the future of these spaces (Prince et al., 2023). The tourism space of the Anthropocene is filled with tensions over the politics of landscape aesthetics.
Since its early conceptualization to acknowledge the irreversible human impact on the biophysical and geological systems of the Earth, the notion of the Anthropocene has sparked debate on shifting human-environment relationships. More than just a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene reflects that current human-environment relationships are based on ideas, symbols, and apprehensions of planetary environmental crises (Moore, 2019; Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019) and that there is an urgent need for alternative epistemological approaches (Lorimer, 2012; Ulmer, 2017). Noel Castree (2014) points to how the Anthropocene is among the key signifiers in the reframing and rethinking of societal decision-makers. The Anthropocene is an important concept in human geography because it consolidates in social imaginaries that define people’s political and ethical positions as they make sense of evolving human-environment relationships. In tourism geographies, the notion of the Anthropocene has fuelled debate and research on the role of tourism, leisure, and events. It has also reinforced, exacerbated, and challenged current norms and attitudes in times of planetary crisis (see Gren & Huijbens, 2015; Huijbens, 2023; Moore, 2019 2015; Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019). However, critical reflections on the future of tourism mobilities and space in the age of the Anthropocene are still in their infancy.
Beyond ‘sustainability’ discourses
Debates in tourism geographies have relied heavily on ‘sustainability’ to propose solutions to the negative impacts of tourism around the world. However, the immanency of multiple intersecting planetary crises calls for a reflection as to whether ‘sustainability’ – both as a concept and a process – can still be useful to understand and respond to the current challenges tourism is facing. Arguably, the focus on sustainability and its managerial undertone reiterates a rhetoric that deliberately overlooks the pleas for mitigating and reducing the ongoing effects of climate change in tourist, leisure, and event spaces (Morazzoni & Pecorelli, 2022; 2023). Soares and Scott (2023) illustrate this shortfall regarding ‘sustainability’ discourses and global warming and the promotion of sporting events. They demonstrate how a significant body of critical literature addresses the use of sporting events as a tool to engage people in social development beyond the sporting context. Yet, there is still limited attention paid to the role of sport events and related tourism mobilities from the lens of the Anthropocene. From this perspective, the relationships between climate change and tourism mobilities need to be redefined and expanded to encompass current theoretical shifts around the conceptualisation of the human-environmental relationship in the context of the Anthropocene.
The future of tourism mobilities in the Anthropocene
Tourism geographers will have to understand how ideas, symbols and apprehensions shaping space and tourism mobilities are being re-negotiated in the Anthropocene. This shift is needed to comprehend the ethical, emotional, and political underpinnings of individuals and collectives in times of planetary crisis. Re-negotiations hereby refer to processes, practices and perspectives that question the given status-quo. In the space of the Anthropocene, the status quo of human-environment relationships is greatly challenged by the disappearance of natural markers and ways of life and the subsequent appearance of other markers and practices to mitigate crisis. The emphasis of the papers of this special issue will lie on re-negotiations born out of the societal and physical changes tourism space and mobilities undergo in the Anthropocene. The appearance and disappearance of spatial components such as landmarks, infrastructure, and ways of life, will be renegotiated in various and complex ways depending on local contexts and their extra-local relations. It will thus also be important for this special issue to explore how tensions and contradictions animate tourism space and mobilities as some actors will benefit over others from renegotiations in the Anthropocene (Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019).
Disappearance
Gren and Huijbens (2019: 125) describe “the role of tourism in the faith of the geographically differentiated Anthropos as one with the Earth is unneglectable.” Over the last two decades, areas facing increasing socio-ecological vulnerability have been promoted, imagined, and consumed in concerning ways. The disappearance of natural markers due to climate change and environmental degradation has fuelled their enrolment in tourism imaginaries and mobilities. This can be prominently seen in trends regarding last-chance tourism including cruises to retreating ice sheets in Arctic Sea or trips to endangered and disappearing natural sites like the Great Barrier Reef or the Maldives (Lemelin et al. 2010; Palma et al., 2019; Piggott-McKellar & McNamara, 2017; Wu et al.2020). Similarly, current trends in outdoor activities and sporting activities like skiing, hiking, and mountain-biking indicate an adaptive approach to changing environmental conditions (Bustad et al. 2022; Nilson & Demiroglu, 2023). Also, the event sector is picking up on this disappearance of natural markers in drastic and sometimes creative responses in the context of environmental change.
Appearance
Yet, the disappearance of natural markers is just one facet of a much more complex and unexplored relationship between tourism mobilities and the Anthropocene. We must also reflect on emerging and renewed relationships between tourism mobilities, space, and the environment. The idea of the Anthropocene encapsulates the materiality of socio-technical designs built to alleviate the effects of unsustainable consumption and production patterns. As a prime example, renewable energy transitions have turned landscapes around the world into terrains for the deployment of new infrastructure (Bridge et al., 2013). Disruption to landscape aesthetics is a dimension that has caught the attention of tourism geographers, particularly among scholars interested in changing visual consumptions and perceptions of tourism and leisure spaces. However, the socio-technological landscapes of the Anthropocene give space symbolic meaning of sustainability and green futures, causing tensions over the future of these spaces (Prince et al., 2023). The tourism space of the Anthropocene is filled with tensions over the politics of landscape aesthetics.
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The Special Issue
This Special Issue invites contributions from tourism geographies and associated fields that critically reflect on the multifaceted and complex notions of the Anthropocene in relation to the current planetary environmental crises. It welcomes contributions that explore the emergence of alternative epistemological approaches and experiences in the Anthropocene. We welcome a diversity of critical reflections on a conceptual and empirical level of how space and tourism mobilities are being re-negotiated in the times of the Anthropocene. In particular, we seek contributions that advance current knowledge in the field and help “formulate a coherent approach to understanding the meaning behind the range of mobilities undertaken by individuals” (Hall, 2008: 7). Scholars are invited to submit contributions that cover the following topics in relation to the Anthropocene:
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Abstract Submission & Timeline
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Extended abstracts (approximately 1300 words, including references and a minimum of 4 keywords) should be sent to the Guest Editors Alberto Amore ([email protected]), Solène Prince ([email protected]), Barbara Grabher ([email protected]) and Valeria Pecorelli ([email protected]) by January 31 2025. Affiliations, contact information (including email and ORCID) should also be included in the abstract.
Authors will be informed of the outcome of the abstract review by February 28 2025. Those invited to submit their contributions will have to submit the full paper by no later than October 31 2025. The manuscripts will be subject to the usual peer review process of Tourism Geographies. Timeline:
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Guest Editors Biography
Alberto Amore is Assistant Professor in Geography of the Anthropocene at the University of Oulu, Finland. His research interests include tourism and public policy, destination resilience, spatial planning, urban regeneration, regenerative tourism and tourism and climate change. He has published in leading journals and edited book chapters in tourism, and he has published monographs as sole and co-author on urban geography, tourism and urban regenerations and resilience and tourism. He is committee member of the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group at the RGS-IBG, Associate Editor for Tourism Management Perspectives and Social Media Editor for Current Issues in Tourism.
Solène Prince is Associate Professor in tourism studies at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University (Kalmar, Sweden). She teaches various topics, including tourism theory, sustainable tourism, and research methods. Her research centres on the lived experiences of people in the tourism system, with a focus on rural tourism. Her doctoral dissertation explored the intersection of tourist and local spaces, and she later expanded her work to include ancestral tourism and tourism in renewable energy transitions. Solène’s work, published in journals like Tourism Geographies, Landscape Research and Journal of Sustainable Tourism, explores themes such as Nordic landscapes and tourist perceptions of wind turbines. She is the co-editor of Islandscapes and Tourism and serves as associate editor of Tourism Geographies.
Barbara Grabher works as Lecturer in Event Studies at the University of Brighton, UK. As a trained Anthropologist with a specialisation in Gender Studies, she researches event-based regeneration processes through a lens of Critical Event Studies with respect to case studies such as European Capital of Culture, UK City of Culture and Eurovision Song Contest. In her current project “Between Culture and Salt”, she considers the notion of the Anthropocene and its conceptual and empirical potential for the field of Event Studies in regard to the case study of Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut European Capital of Culture 2024. She published the monograph “Doing Gender in Events: Feminist Perspectives on Critical Event Studies” (Routledge, 2022) and is the co-editor of the collection “Events and Infrastructures: Critical Interrogations” (Routledge, 2024).
Valeria Pecorelli is a researcher in Geography at IULM University in Milan, Italy. Her research focuses on the theoretical and methodological aspects of cultural and critical tourism geography, particularly sustainability practices and discourses, local development, participatory tourism, urban tourism and social conflicts, islands and mountains tourism. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in journals and books.
Alberto Amore is Assistant Professor in Geography of the Anthropocene at the University of Oulu, Finland. His research interests include tourism and public policy, destination resilience, spatial planning, urban regeneration, regenerative tourism and tourism and climate change. He has published in leading journals and edited book chapters in tourism, and he has published monographs as sole and co-author on urban geography, tourism and urban regenerations and resilience and tourism. He is committee member of the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group at the RGS-IBG, Associate Editor for Tourism Management Perspectives and Social Media Editor for Current Issues in Tourism.
Solène Prince is Associate Professor in tourism studies at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University (Kalmar, Sweden). She teaches various topics, including tourism theory, sustainable tourism, and research methods. Her research centres on the lived experiences of people in the tourism system, with a focus on rural tourism. Her doctoral dissertation explored the intersection of tourist and local spaces, and she later expanded her work to include ancestral tourism and tourism in renewable energy transitions. Solène’s work, published in journals like Tourism Geographies, Landscape Research and Journal of Sustainable Tourism, explores themes such as Nordic landscapes and tourist perceptions of wind turbines. She is the co-editor of Islandscapes and Tourism and serves as associate editor of Tourism Geographies.
Barbara Grabher works as Lecturer in Event Studies at the University of Brighton, UK. As a trained Anthropologist with a specialisation in Gender Studies, she researches event-based regeneration processes through a lens of Critical Event Studies with respect to case studies such as European Capital of Culture, UK City of Culture and Eurovision Song Contest. In her current project “Between Culture and Salt”, she considers the notion of the Anthropocene and its conceptual and empirical potential for the field of Event Studies in regard to the case study of Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut European Capital of Culture 2024. She published the monograph “Doing Gender in Events: Feminist Perspectives on Critical Event Studies” (Routledge, 2022) and is the co-editor of the collection “Events and Infrastructures: Critical Interrogations” (Routledge, 2024).
Valeria Pecorelli is a researcher in Geography at IULM University in Milan, Italy. Her research focuses on the theoretical and methodological aspects of cultural and critical tourism geography, particularly sustainability practices and discourses, local development, participatory tourism, urban tourism and social conflicts, islands and mountains tourism. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in journals and books.
References
Bridge, G., Bouzarovski, S., Bradshaw, M., & Eyre, N. (2013). Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy. Energy Policy, 53, 331-340.
Bustad, J. J., Clevenger, S. M., & Rick, O. J. C. (2022). COVID-19 and outdoor recreation in the post-anthropause. Leisure Studies, 42(1), 85–99.
Castree, N. (2014). The Anthropocene and geography I: The back story. Geography Compass, 8(7), 436-449.
Gren, M., & Huijbens, E. H. (2019). Tourism geography in and of the Anthropocene. In D. K. Müller (Ed.) A research agenda for tourism geographies (pp. 117–127). Edward Elgar Publishers.
Hall, C. M. (2008). Tourism Planning: Policies, Processes and Relationships (2nd ed). Pearson.
Huijbens, E. H. (2023). Tourism earthly attachments in the Anthropocene. Tourism Geographies, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2269534
Lemelin, H., et al. (2010). Last-chance tourism: The boom, doom, and gloom of visiting vanishing destinations. Current Issues in Tourism, 13(5), 477–493.
Lorimer, J. (2012). Multinatural geographies for the Anthropocene. Progress in Human Geography, 36(5), 593-612.
Morazzoni, M & Pecorelli, V. (2022). La montagna come “territorio fragile”: quale sostenibilità per i territori interessati dalle Olimpiadi Milano-Cortina 2026? Lo studio di caso di Cortina d’Ampezzo. Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 5(2): 33-49.
Morazzoni, M., Pecorelli, V. (2023). Co-costruire la montagna fragile: lo studio di caso FUTUReALPS in Valtellina. In Soggetti, Gruppi, Persone. Pratiche, spazi e dinamiche delle mobilità umane (pp. 344-349). CLEUP.
Moore, A. (2019). Destination Anthropocene: Science and tourism in the Bahamas. University of California Press.
Moore, A. (2015). Tourism in the Anthropocene Park? New analytic possibilities. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 4(2), 186-200.
Mostafanezhad, M., & Norum, R. (2019). The anthropocenic imaginary: Political ecologies of tourism in a geological epoch. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(4), 421-435.
Nilsson, R. O., & Demiroglu, O. C. (2024). Impacts of climate change on dogsledding recreation and tourism in Arctic Sweden. International Journal of Biometeorology, 68(3), 595-611.
Palma, D., Varnajot, A., Dalen, K., Basaran, I. K., Brunette, C., Bystrowska, M., Korablina, A. D., Nowicki, R. C., & Ronge, T. A. (2019). Cruising the marginal ice zone: climate change and Arctic tourism. Polar Geography, 42(4), 215-235.
Piggott-McKellar, A. E., & McNamara, K. E. (2017). Last chance tourism and the Great Barrier Reef. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(3), 397-415.
Prince, S., Ioannides, D., Peters, A., & Chekalina, T. (2024). Tourists’ perceptions of wind turbines: conceptualizations of rural space in sustainability transitions. Tourism Geographies, 26(2), 292-310.
Soares Moura, E., Scott, D. (2023). Glocalizing action in the Anthropocene: Understanding the potential roles of sport for development and peace. Leisure Sciences, 1-21.
Ulmer, J. B. (2017). Posthumanism as research methodology: Inquiry in the Anthropocene. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(9), 832-848.
Wu, H. C., Cheng, C. C., Ai, C. H., & Wu, T. P. (2020). Fast-disappearing destinations: the relationships among experiential authenticity, last-chance attachment and experiential relationship quality. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(7), 956–977.
Bridge, G., Bouzarovski, S., Bradshaw, M., & Eyre, N. (2013). Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy. Energy Policy, 53, 331-340.
Bustad, J. J., Clevenger, S. M., & Rick, O. J. C. (2022). COVID-19 and outdoor recreation in the post-anthropause. Leisure Studies, 42(1), 85–99.
Castree, N. (2014). The Anthropocene and geography I: The back story. Geography Compass, 8(7), 436-449.
Gren, M., & Huijbens, E. H. (2019). Tourism geography in and of the Anthropocene. In D. K. Müller (Ed.) A research agenda for tourism geographies (pp. 117–127). Edward Elgar Publishers.
Hall, C. M. (2008). Tourism Planning: Policies, Processes and Relationships (2nd ed). Pearson.
Huijbens, E. H. (2023). Tourism earthly attachments in the Anthropocene. Tourism Geographies, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2269534
Lemelin, H., et al. (2010). Last-chance tourism: The boom, doom, and gloom of visiting vanishing destinations. Current Issues in Tourism, 13(5), 477–493.
Lorimer, J. (2012). Multinatural geographies for the Anthropocene. Progress in Human Geography, 36(5), 593-612.
Morazzoni, M & Pecorelli, V. (2022). La montagna come “territorio fragile”: quale sostenibilità per i territori interessati dalle Olimpiadi Milano-Cortina 2026? Lo studio di caso di Cortina d’Ampezzo. Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 5(2): 33-49.
Morazzoni, M., Pecorelli, V. (2023). Co-costruire la montagna fragile: lo studio di caso FUTUReALPS in Valtellina. In Soggetti, Gruppi, Persone. Pratiche, spazi e dinamiche delle mobilità umane (pp. 344-349). CLEUP.
Moore, A. (2019). Destination Anthropocene: Science and tourism in the Bahamas. University of California Press.
Moore, A. (2015). Tourism in the Anthropocene Park? New analytic possibilities. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 4(2), 186-200.
Mostafanezhad, M., & Norum, R. (2019). The anthropocenic imaginary: Political ecologies of tourism in a geological epoch. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(4), 421-435.
Nilsson, R. O., & Demiroglu, O. C. (2024). Impacts of climate change on dogsledding recreation and tourism in Arctic Sweden. International Journal of Biometeorology, 68(3), 595-611.
Palma, D., Varnajot, A., Dalen, K., Basaran, I. K., Brunette, C., Bystrowska, M., Korablina, A. D., Nowicki, R. C., & Ronge, T. A. (2019). Cruising the marginal ice zone: climate change and Arctic tourism. Polar Geography, 42(4), 215-235.
Piggott-McKellar, A. E., & McNamara, K. E. (2017). Last chance tourism and the Great Barrier Reef. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(3), 397-415.
Prince, S., Ioannides, D., Peters, A., & Chekalina, T. (2024). Tourists’ perceptions of wind turbines: conceptualizations of rural space in sustainability transitions. Tourism Geographies, 26(2), 292-310.
Soares Moura, E., Scott, D. (2023). Glocalizing action in the Anthropocene: Understanding the potential roles of sport for development and peace. Leisure Sciences, 1-21.
Ulmer, J. B. (2017). Posthumanism as research methodology: Inquiry in the Anthropocene. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(9), 832-848.
Wu, H. C., Cheng, C. C., Ai, C. H., & Wu, T. P. (2020). Fast-disappearing destinations: the relationships among experiential authenticity, last-chance attachment and experiential relationship quality. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(7), 956–977.
