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- Title:
- Professor
- Teacher Group:
- Culture and Tourism
- Web site
Classes
1. Tourist Attractions (first semester)
2. Film and Tourism (second semester)
Class Content
Attractions, Film, Visual methodologies, Foundational philosophies, Experiences, Narratives
1. Tourist attractions are essentially the raison d'être for tourism - if there would not be anything that attracts tourists, then journeys would be pointless. However, what attracts tourists is not always evident - and surprisingly little research has been done of the "being" of attractions. This course departs from a common impression of attractions as tangible entities or "objects" that always can be "managed", towards a more complex understanding of the "texts" that make up the way tourists understand attractions, and the "experiences" they have at attractions.
2. Film and Tourism are both creations reflecting the cultures they are set in, and the directors/managers in charge. This course uses films to analyse how society portrays, engages with, and understands tourism. The course is built around some foundational philosophies and methodologies that will help students position their own research. We watch a selection of films together, and use chosen theories to analyse each, and learn to reflect on how films are parts of constructing the realities we live. The major assignment in the course is for each student to create their own reflective mini-film, focused on a tourism topic in society.
Brief Outline of History & Achievements
PhD (Cultural Studies, Macquarie University, Australia, 2007);
Lecturer at Southern Cross University, Australia 2004-2011;
Head of Department and researcher at University of Lapland, Finland 2011-2017;
Head of Department and researcher at University of Stavanger, Norway 2017-2019; Specially Appointed Professor at Hokkaido University 2019-
Key publications:
Edelheim, J 2015, Tourist Attractions – from Objects to Narratives, Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications. ISBN 9781845415426
Edelheim, J & Ilola, H (eds) 2017, Matkailututkimuksen avainkäsitteet [Key Concepts of Tourism Research], Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, ISBN 978-952-310-952-0 http://lauda.ulapland.fi/handle/10024/63093 (in Finnish)
To Personal Page on Hokkaido University's Researcher Directory
Academic Society Affiliations
Tourism Education Futures Initiative, link: http://tourismeducationfutures.org/ The Japan Society of Tourism and Hospitality Educators, link: http://jsthe.org/ The Finnish Society for Tourism Research, link: http://matkailututkimus.org/the-finnish-society-for-tourism-research/
johan.edelheim@imc.hokudai.ac.jp
Research Areas
I look at society and events with a purpose to highlight inequality in order to bring issues to common awareness. These matters of inequality can be found in all fields of studies and a conscious use of different theoretical lenses allows me to investigate matters in novel ways.
My research focus on:
a) the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), especially connected to tourism and hospitality Higher Education; learning, assessments, and curricula.
b) Critical Tourism Studies (CTS) connected to climate change, equality, ethnicity, indigeneity, identity, animals, and care; and
c) the philosophy of tourism and hospitality, especially ontology and axiology.
Interests
I find supervision of research degrees to be a very important part of my work as professor, and I welcome new Masters and PhD candidates to contact me with their research proposals. I especially welcome proposals that relate to my research topics, as listed above. I am currently supervising projects related to:
• Indigenous tourism in China;
• Authenticity of constructed attractions; and,
• Curriculum development in Tourism Higher Education