| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative introspection as a methodological tool of reflexivity - from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary co-production
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Transdisciplinarity Conference (ITD21), 13-17 Sept: Creating spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper explores reflexivity through "collaborative introspection" as a methodological tool for transcending a multidisciplinary dialogue and achieving transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. Reflexivity is argued to be applicable for critically addressing assumptions and ideologies of the research team (Popa et al., 2015), joint problem framing (Pearce & Ejderyan, 2019), experimentation (Popa et al., 2015), or more generally as a focal area to be used for addressing challenges in transdisciplinary projects (Jahn, et al., 2012; Polk, 2015). However, discussions on reflexivity rarely place focus on how a reflexive dialogue can be used to gather empirical material in a collaborative manner, making use of the participating researchers’ subjectivity, personal experiences and understandings of a specific topic. The authors of this text are part of a transdisciplinary research team exploring the role of tourism in multicultural societies. The team involves researchers from the fields of design, marketing, tourism studies, human-computer interaction, and migration studies. In the project we collaborate with each other across disciplines in different case studies. However, we have experienced a tendency to fall back into our disciplinary silos, where we explore the same topic from our own disciplinary lenses. As an attempt to bring ourselves together we decided to go personal. Instead of looking at the role of tourism in multicultural societies from our disciplinary viewpoints, we dug into our memories of acting as tourists ourselves in a reflective session. More specifically, inspired by the tool Tell your story by means of an object (td-net, 2021), we shared and reflected upon our own tourism experiences through our core project concepts, which are diversity, inclusivity and integration. The dialogue that emerged forced us to focus on our research topic not as researchers who are expected to maintain objectivity but rather as individuals allowing ourselves to be subjective. This created a feeling of working ‘together’ instead of ‘with’ each other. The reflections created genuine and honest dialogue highlighting our national, cultural, gender and racial differences. The differences and similarities of our personal experiences depend on the social categories and identities that we are part of. Thus, by bringing our personal stories as empirical material, we created an opportunity to listen to each other beyond our disciplinary boundaries. It made us understand the layers of hierarchy, privilege and disadvantages that we face in our lives as individuals, and to understand instances of inclusion and exclusion in tourism at a deeper level. From our experience, we propose what we term "collaborative introspection" as a reflexive methodological tool for transdisciplinary research and practice. Collaborative introspection exercises challenge the commonly held idea of neutrality. It can be used as a tool for a transdisciplinary group to come together, transform thoughts and develop empathy and ethics in research. References: Jahn, T., Bergmann, M. & Keil, F. (2018). Transdisciplinarity: between mainstreaming and marginalization, Ecological Economics 79 Pearce, B. J., & Ejderyan, O. (2020). Joint problem framing as reflexive practice: honing a transdisciplinary skill. Sustainability science, 15(3), 683-698. Polk, M. (2015). Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving. Futures, 65, 110-122. Popa, F., Guillermin, M., & Dedeurwaerdere, T. (2015). A pragmatist approach to transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: From complex systems theory to reflexive science. Futures, 65, 45-56. Td-net (2021, April 7). Tell your Story by Means of an Object. Retrieved from: https://naturalsciences.ch/co-producing-knowledge-explained/methods/td-net_toolbox/_tell_your_story_by_means_of_an_object_
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| 2. |
- Aronsson, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Place making taking place: the New Mill Town
- 2021
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Ingår i: 29th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research, 21-23 Sept. Shaping mobile futures: Challenges and possibilities in precarious times.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Traditionally, place making has been associated with specific settings, with functions that contribute to the uniqueness of the place, for spatial planning purposes and in projects that aim at upgrading or maintaining spaces. This focus on physical elements as end products, and experts as decision-makers, has been challenged by a democratic view, with active involvement of interested parties. The place is made sense of by those who use it, and place making is described as a collective effort and an empowering tool. We argue that top-down and bottom-up perspectives of place making constitute a continuum of exclusion, at one end, and inclusion of people at the other. Most places develop through a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes, with several actors involved who have multiple, often unspoken and even conflicting objectives and values. The study examines the interplay between exclusion and inclusion in place making and the challenges and opportunities associated with making multiple voices heard. The development of a cultural and creative center in southwest of Sweden constitutes the case study. The area has gone from an industrial community (mill town) to an international cultural environment and tourist attraction through decisions and actions that individuals, groups, businesses and public authorities have been part of in different phases. The methods are observations and interviews together with analysis of written historical and contemporary documents. The preliminary results indicate that inclusion works well in specific sectors and spaces, however, outside these, there is little inclusion, although there is benevolence and mutual dependence.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Björner, Emma, et al.
(författare)
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A New China : Portrayal of Chinese Cities in the International Arena
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper looks at the international media portrayal of two Chinese mega-cities – Beijing and Shenzhen – to better understand the contemporary China brand. During the last two decades, China started to leave its closed-door policies in the international arena, and showed signs to participate in the global economy. Politically and economically, China started to increase the quantity and intensity of its relations with the rest of the world. As mentioned in the country’s official five-year plans, China sees its’ mega-cities as an integral part of its relations with the rest of the world through social, cultural, and economic transaction. It has moreover been claimed that Chinese mega-cities can be regarded as tools in China’s nation branding. This research conceptualizes international print media as a crucial platform to promote city and nation brand images for branding professionals and administrators, as well as a significant information source for target audiences. Subsequently, two research questions are posed to analyze place brand images. Initially, we look at how Chinese cities are portrayed in the international arena by official Chinese resources. Secondly, we look at selected international newspapers for their portrayal. Through an inductive content analysis, we identify images, narratives and characteristics of Chinese mega-cities promoted to international target audiences. We also seek whether there are significant differences between Chinese and international media coverage through a quantitative content analysis. The findings of this research shed light on the components and imagery of the contemporary China brand, elucidate how the branding of Chinese mega-cities relates to the branding of China, and propose a method to measure the effectiveness of Chinese place branding campaigns.
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| 6. |
- Björner, Emma, et al.
(författare)
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Chinese tourism consumption vis-à-vis tourism development strategies in the Arctic
- 2021. - 1
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Ingår i: Asian Mobilities Consumption in a Changing Arctic. - : Routledge. - 9781003039518 ; , s. 29-42
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current national Arctic strategies of Sweden, Norway, and Finland consider tourism as a key industry and point out its significance for sustainable development in the region. Concurrently, China’s Arctic Policy talks about China being the source of tourists to the Arctic. Additionally, the tourism industry’s own strategies recognise that the Asian market shows strong growth in the number of travellers over the last decade. Further, there is great potential in the longer term. This chapter addresses how tourism development and destination branding is portrayed in policy and strategy documents dealing with the Arctic and how that corresponds with Chinese tourism consumption in the case of the Swedish Arctic. The findings show that, at all levels, tourism development and destination branding as portrayed in policies and strategies s increasingly tied to all three pillars of sustainability, even though economic and environmental aspects still dominate. Furthermore, relevant Chinese consumption patterns are elaborated upon. These patterns indicate that Chinese tourists are both similar to and different from Western travellers and have certain traits, partly influenced by cultural and Confucian values. Policies and strategy documents should be aligned with this notion in order to facilitate sustainable tourism development in the Arctic.
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| 8. |
- Björner, Emma, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Crafting Sweden as a sustainable destination - Place branding, destination governance and social learning
- 2023
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Ingår i: The 7th Annual Conference of the International Place Branding Association, Helsingborg, 18-20 October.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tourism destinations have been conceptualized as being in a persistent state of ‘becoming’, due to their ongoing sustainability actions and their commitment to sustainable destination development. Governments and DMOs have leading roles in the development of sustainable destinations, while other stakeholders also are involved in a participatory agenda. Collaboration and learning have been depicted as a key to success when developing sustainable destinations. There have been calls for further research on destination governance, its structures, processes and how it is carried out. The aim of this study is to explore how a destination is governed to become and appear sustainable, and especially how collaboration and learning materialises in the process. The study includes an analysis of national destination governance in Sweden in recent years, which has developed to involve more stakeholders and various aspects of sustainability. Methods include action-oriented research and document analysis, with a focus on national and regional initiatives. The findings outline actions and initiatives by the Swedish government, the national DMO and regional DMOs, to move the Swedish tourism industry, and Sweden as a destination, in a more sustainable direction. Collaboration and learning can be traced in all initiatives. A participatory agenda permeates the destination governance, through a multi-stakeholder process based on a distributed approach to steering and managing destinations. In tandem, leadership and guidance are desired when it comes to coordination and unifying of forces to move the destination Sweden in a sustainable direction.
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| 9. |
- Björner, Emma, et al.
(författare)
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Creating an inclusive city through internal city branding : The case of Shanghai
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose: Lend support to the idea that city branding is not just an economic activity inspired by market considerations, but also related to social and cultural goals. Study whether Shanghai is an inclusive city and how is it internally in order to be inclusive.Method: Case study approach using secondary materials such as policy documents, news articles, online data, etc. The empirical context is the mega-city of Shanghai.Findings: The study shed light on the way inclusiveness plays out in the city of Shanghai, and show that Shanghai – through visions, strategies and concepts as well as the World Expo 2010 – is moving in the direction of being more inclusive, and striving towards becoming a city for old and new Shanghai residents.Research implications: The research on city branding towards internal audiences is to be further explored. So is research on how and in what ways city branding can steer a city towards social and cultural goals, and created positive change of society.Practical implications: The study can supply city brand managers with insights into the importance of branding a city for social and cultural goals, and highlight the importance of having an inclusive approach towards city residents.Originality/value: Contributing with a theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature on internal city branding.
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