PAST THINK TANK: THINK TANK XII

Keynote Speakers

ALLAN WILLIAMS PhD

Title: Mobilities and sustainable tourism: enfolded, substitutable, and uncertain relationships
Date: 25 June 2012

Mobilities is a disarmingly simple concept for describing a complex and changing field of movements, which has significant implications for understanding sustainable tourism. Two important dimensions, which are important for positioning tourism, are the notions of substitutability and enfoldment. Substitutability directs attention to the alternative combinations of mobilities, including different forms of tourism that individuals may assemble as part of overall mobility portfolios. And enfoldment is the notion that there are elements of path dependency in both the co-evolution of the mobilities of group members, and the unfolding of individual life-time movements. The patterns of substitutability and enfoldment are constantly shifting, determined by the interplay between technology, culture, market relationships, and state intervention. This analysis identifies a number of implications for understanding sustainable tourism including: the challenge that path dependency poses for policy, the diverse and uncertain outcomes of mobility substitutions, the reshaping of risks and risk perception, and the role of mobility as a source of diversity and sustainable development.

BIO:

Allan Williams is Professor of Tourism and Mobility Studies at the University of Surrey. Before taking up this position in 2011, he previously held posts at the London School of Economics, University of Durham, University of Exeter, and London Metropolitan University. His research focuses on the relationship between human mobility and economic development, and he studies both tourism and various forms of migration. Knowledge, innovation and risk are central to his recent research. He has published more than a hundred journal articles and more than twenty books including International Migration and Knowledge (2008) and Tourism and Innovation (2008). He is currently engaged in a major EU FP7 project, SECOA, on the impact of human mobility and urbanization on coastal environments, and is Associate Editor of Tourism Geographies.

STEFAN GÖSSLING PhD

Title: New dimensions in transport research: understanding behaviour designing interventions
Date: 26 June 2012

The role of mental disorders is an overlooked dimension in studies of transport behaviour and mobility consumption. It is argued that mental disorders affect to a considerable degree how we understand, value, and use different transport modes. Mental disorders include anxiety-, mood-, substance abuse-, and personality disorders, each of which affects only up to a few per cent of the population in industrialized countries. On an aggregated basis, however, mental illnesses affect large parts of the population. Based on an exploratory research approach, the presentation discusses how mental disorders affect mobility consumption, also identifying social, political or institutional mechanisms that contribute to or validate mental disorders. It is argued that without a better understanding of these interrelationships, mobility consumption and -growth cannot be fully understood. Results are consequently of relevance for transport planning, the prevention of accidents, as well as the design of interventions to develop more sustainable transport systems.

BIO:

Dr. Stefan Gössling is a professor at the Department of Service Management, Lund University and the School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Kalmar, both Sweden. He is also the research coordinator of the Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism at the Western Norway Research Institute. Stefan has worked with climate change since 1992, focusing primarily on aviation-related emissions and tourism. He has also worked extensively in islands, particularly in the Western Indian Ocean and Caribbean. Consultant work includes organizations such as UNEP, UNWTO, OECD, European Commission, Caribbean Tour Operators, as well as governments (France, Norway) and companies (e.g. Scandinavian Airlines, TICOS, atmosfair). Stefan has been a contributing author to the UN IPCC Forth Assessment report, and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the UNEP Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism.