Re-Peopling Tourism: A 'Hot Approach' to Studying Thanatourist Experiences

‘Write’ of Passage: Reflecting on the Fieldwork Process and Its Contribution to Critically Orientated Tourism Research

“…This is not, of course, to imply that I am the only researcher to have ever felt this. Indeed, it seems that it is a commonplace but frequently downplayed occurrence (exceptions to this include Crick, 2002;Dunkley, 2007;Perry, 2002). Barbara Tedlock (2000, p. 468), for example, writes that:…”

“…First, I wished to draw attention to the fieldwork journey, which frequently goes unacknowledged when it comes to research publication. I also wanted to exemplify the autoethnographic approach to research and thus, as others have done before me (see for example, Ellis & Bochner, 2003;Dunkley, 2007;Noy 2007), challenge the conventions of academic writing. This is especially important for the field of tourism studies where traditions for communicating research findings are so well entrenched (Franklin & Crang, 2001).…”

“…Such convergences between researcher and researched are often underaddressed in tourism studies literature (exceptions to this can be found in Frohlick & Harrison's 2008 special edition of Tourist Studies; as well as Bruner, 1995;Dunkley, 2007;Markula, 1997;Noy, 2007, andScarles, 2010). However, they are likely to increase as academics continue to adopt the same mobile practices or lifestyles as their research 'subjects' or participants (for more on the mobility of academics, see for example Urry, 2002).…”

“…Indeed, part of the critical approach to tourism studies is about drawing attention to a number of deeply serious, but often neglected, issues that arise out of the power dynamics intrinsic to the tourism industry and tourist practice (Tribe, 2008). However, what Franklin and Crang (2001) speak to in this quote, is an associated need within critical tourism studies to question the way in which knowledge is produced and circulated within and outside of academia, and the ways in which certain academic traditions (and methodologies) can in fact dehumanise the very human issues that we examine Dunkley, 2007).…”

“…so far as to question the way in which we write tourism and tourism research (Franklin & Crang, 2001;Dunkley, 2007;Noy, 2007). Franklin and Crang (2001, p. 14) observe for instance that:…”