The production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in the contemporary city

Call for chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to Routledge’s Ambiences and Atmospheres Series or Routledge Advances in Tourism and Anthropology Series

Editors:
Iñigo Sánchez (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Daniel Malet Calvo (ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon)
Daniel Paiva (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

This book seeks to analyze the impact of tourism on the urban environment, focusing on the concept of “ambiance” as a tool to explore the physical regeneration and sensory transformation of contemporary touristic places.

Tourism-led urban regeneration initiatives have proliferated in cities across the globe, in what some authors call a process of touristification (Sequera and Nofre, 2018). The production of urban ambiances that cater to the tourists’ desire to experience the life and culture of the city has been a significant part of this process. Some authors have noted that the transformation of historic neighborhoods into thematic parks for tourism consumption, which often imply the loss of local population, along with traditional modes of social behavior and vernacular cultural practices, are some of the negative consequences of tourism, which are often expressed in the public discourse making reference to the loss of the “authenticity” and “real feel” of urban places (Zukin 2010).

In this book, we promote a critical approach to urban ambiances to question the touristified city. How do tourism and city development affect the lived ambiances in the urban context? How do sensory experiences participate in creating particular urban ambiances and places for tourist consumption? What is the role of atmospheric production in relation to the physical regeneration and marketing of contemporary touristic places? Which social actors participate globally and locally in the everyday (re)production and consumption of these ambiances of tourism?

We invite papers that explore a variety of different approaches, questions and methodologies to study the production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in the contemporary city, including, but not limited to:

• The role of the senses in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption
• Sensory and atmospheric design in touristified shops, markets, or public space
• The experience economy in tourism spaces
• Everyday perceptions of tourism-led urban transformation
• Exclusions, marginality, and contestations of touristified ambiances
• Public debates on the authenticity/inauthenticity of the ambiances of tourism
• The role of identity and the past in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption
• Creativity and the arts in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption

We intend this collection to bring together a diverse group of scholars and case studies to present a global perspective on the production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in urban settings. We welcome contributions from across the globe which work with ambiances from different perspectives.

The volume will be composed of 8000-word chapters (including footnotes and references), an Introduction by the editors and an Afterword.

– Deadline for submission of abstracts (300-400 words) and bionotes (100 words): 15 March 2020
– Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2020
– Book proposal submission: 31 April 2020
– Book contracted: September 2020
– First Book chapter draft: 31 December 2020
– Book manuscript submission: March 2021

Initial expressions of interest, enquiries and/or abstracts should be submitted to editors Iñigo Sánchez ([email protected]), Daniel Paiva ([email protected]) and Daniel Malet Calvo ([email protected])