The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism

by Richard Sharpley, Philip R. Stone

Overview

Over the last decade, the concept of dark tourism has attracted growing academic interest and media attention. Nevertheless, perspectives on and understanding of dark tourism remain varied and theoretically fragile whilst, to date, no single book has attempted to draw together the conceptual themes and debates surrounding dark tourism, to explore it within wider disciplinary contexts and to establish a more informed relationship between the theory and practice of dark tourism. This book meets the undoubted need for such a volume by providing a contemporary and comprehensive analysis of dark tourism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845411145
Publisher:	Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Publication date:	08/25/2009
Series:	Aspects of Tourism , #41
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Richard Sharpley is Professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. He has previously held positions at a number of other institutions, including the University of Northumbria (Reader in Tourism) and the University of Lincoln, where he was Professor of Tourism and Head of Department, Tourism and Recreation Management. His principal research interests are within the fields of tourism and development, island tourism, rural tourism and the sociology of tourism.

Philip R. Stone is a former Management Consultant within the tourism and hospitality sector, and is presently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He teaches tourism, hospitality and event management at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is also Founder and Editor of The Dark Tourism Forum, the premier online dark tourism subject resource facility and global alliance of scholars and industry practitioners (see www.dark-tourism.org.uk). His primary research interests revolve around dark tourism consumption and its relationship with contemporary society. He has published in a number of international academic journals, presented at a variety of international conferences, as well as acting as Media Consultant on dark tourism to both press and broadcast institutions across the world.

Table of Contents

Contributors

1. Shedding Light on Dark Tourism: An Introduction - Richard Sharpley

2. Making Absent Death Present: Consuming Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society - Philip R. Stone

3. Dark Tourism: Mediating Between the Dead and the Living - Tony Walter

4. Dark Tourism: Morality and New Moral Spaces - Philip R. Stone

5. Purposeful Otherness: Approaches to the Management of Thanatourism - Tony Seaton

6. (Re)presenting the Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification and Authenticity - Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone

7. Contested National Tragedies: An Ethical Dimension - Craig Wight

8. Dark Tourism and Political Ideology: Towards a Governance Model - Richard Sharpley

9. ‘It’s a Bloody Guide’: Fun, Fear and a Lighter Side of Dark Tourism at The Dungeon Visitor Attractions, UK - Philip R. Stone

10. Battlefield Tourism: Bringing Organised Violence Back to Life - Frank Baldwin and Richard Sharpley

11. ‘Genocide Tourism’ - John Beech

12. Museums, Memorials and Plantation Houses in the Black Atlantic: Slavery and the Development of Dark Tourism - Alan Rice

Life, Death and Dark Tourism: Future Research Directions and Concluding Comments  - Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

The book would be a fine addition to any tourism library and would be of interest to heritage planners and managers, tourism researchers, and graduate or senior undergraduate tourism students.

Paul F. Wilkinson

Dark tourism is a subject area that has seen substantial growth in academic attention over the past decade, beginning with Foley and Lennon's (2000) Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster (2000). This new text is thus the latest in a growing body of literature. The quality of research and the depth of thought that has gone into the study of this phenomenon over the past decade are fascinating. The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism illustrates how research in this area has moved from the simple theoretical development and case studies presented in Foley and Lennon to an understanding the development and management of dark tourism sites.

Wayne William Smith

In this perspective-broadening text, Sharpley and Stone (and their fellow observers of the prominence of sites of death and disaster) shine informed light on the rich but undersuspected connectivities of tourism. The dark and unquenchable business of thanatourism is colourfully and critically painted in arrestive shades of cultural, political, and public significance.

Keith Hollinshead