Festivals, Tourism And Social Change ― Remaking Worlds

Traditional local festivals that foster a sense of community have increasingly become a destination of organized tourism. Picard (anthropology, Sheffield Hallam U., UK) and Robinson (tourism and culture, Leeds Metropolitan U., Leeds) introduce 16 chapters by international contributors treating the issues involved in rediscovered, reinvented, or newly created events from Australia's Camp Oven Festival to gay and lesbian pride festivals. For example, does global marketing compromise their authenticity and promote a postmodern sense of placelessness? Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

David Picard is an anthropologist (PhD, University of La Reunion, France) and is currently working as a research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. His research interests focus on the cultural economics of international tourism, especially spaces and forms of exchange between hosts and guests. David's previous research has focused on the transformation of transnational contact zones and strategies of accommodating strangers in the post-plantation context of the island of La Reunion, Indian Ocean.

Mike Robinson is Professor of Tourism and Culture and Director of the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds, UK. Mike has research interests in the way that festivals are mobilised to animate spaces and re-invigorate societies and in the ways in which tourists encounter and experience festivity within cross-cultural contexts.