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Dark Tourism & Interpretation

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Deviance, Dark Tourism And ‘Dark Leisure’: Towards A (Re)Configuration Of Morality And The Taboo In Secular Society, Philip R. Stone Dec 2012

Deviance, Dark Tourism And ‘Dark Leisure’: Towards A (Re)Configuration Of Morality And The Taboo In Secular Society, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

A taboo is a prohibition placed on exposing what is good as well as what is bad. Indeed, prohibited by authority or social influences, taboos are rooted in an unconscious guilt and insulated from our psychosocial life-worlds by mediating institutions of religion and politics. Yet, in an age of secularisation and liberalisation, new mediating institutions of the taboo are emerging, particularly within contemporary museology. Presently, therefore, a number of time-honoured taboos are increasingly becoming translucent and, as a result, there is a new willingness to tackle inherently ambiguous and problematical interpretations. Consequently, an exhilarating phase of museological development has opened …

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Dark Tourism, Heterotopias And Post-Apocalyptic Places: The Case Of Chernobyl, Philip R. Stone Dec 2012

Dark Tourism, Heterotopias And Post-Apocalyptic Places: The Case Of Chernobyl, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

On 26 April 1986, during a procedural shut down of reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine), a catastrophic surge of energy led to a reactor vessel rupture and, subsequently, resulted in the world’s worst nuclear accident. Numbers of deaths from the disaster vary enormously, including from the radioactive fallout that encroached great swathes of Western Europe, to the apparent generational health maladies that now affect local populations. However, despite remaining health and safety concerns, illegal visitor tours to Chernobyl have flourished over the past decade or so. Moreover, during …

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Dark Tourism And Significant Other Death: Towards A Model Of Mortality Mediation, Philip Stone Dr Dec 2011

Dark Tourism And Significant Other Death: Towards A Model Of Mortality Mediation, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

Dark tourism and the commodification of death has become a pervasive feature within the contemporary visitor economy. Drawing upon the thanatological condition of society and a structural analysis of modern-day mortality, this paper establishes theoretical foundations for exploring dark tourism experiences. The study argues that in Western secular society where ordinary death is sequestered behind medical and professional façades, yet extraordinary death is recreated for popular consumption, dark tourism mediates a potential social filter between life and death. Ultimately, the research suggests that dark tourism is a modern mediating institution, which not only provides a physical place to link the …

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Dark Tourism And The Cadaveric Carnival: Mediating Life And Death Narratives At Gunter Von Hagens' Body Worlds, Philip Stone Dr Mar 2011

Dark Tourism And The Cadaveric Carnival: Mediating Life And Death Narratives At Gunter Von Hagens' Body Worlds, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

Death is universal, yet dying is not. Consequently, within contemporary secularised society, the process of dying has largely been relocated from the familiar environs of the family and community to a back region of medical and death industry professionals. It is argued that this institutional sequestration of death has made modern dying ‘bad’ against a romantic portrayal of a death with dignity, or a ‘good’ death. Moreover, the structural analysis of death reveals issues of ontological security and mortality meaning for the Self. This paper, therefore, adds to that analysis, and specifically examines the construction of mortality meaning within the …

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Life, Death And Dark Tourism: Future Research Directions, Philip R. Stone Dr Dec 2008

Life, Death And Dark Tourism: Future Research Directions, Philip R. Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

No abstract provided.

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The Darker Side Of Travel: The Theory And Practice Of Dark Tourism, Philip R. Stone Dec 2008

The Darker Side Of Travel: The Theory And Practice Of Dark Tourism, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

Over the past 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 while, 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 a such a volume by providing a contemporary and comprehensive analysis of dark tourism.

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(Re)Presenting The Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification And Authenticity, Philip Stone Dr Dec 2008

(Re)Presenting The Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification And Authenticity, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

No abstract provided.

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A Dark Tourism Spectrum: Towards A Typology Of Death And Macabre Related Tourist Sites, Attractions And Exhibitions, Philip Stone Dr Dec 2005

A Dark Tourism Spectrum: Towards A Typology Of Death And Macabre Related Tourist Sites, Attractions And Exhibitions, Philip Stone Dr

Dr Philip Stone

Deaths, disasters and atrocities in touristic form are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape, and as such, are ever more providing potential spiritual journeys for the tourist who wishes to gaze upon real and recreated death. As a result, the rather emotive label of 'dark tourism' has entered academic discourse and media parlance, and consequently has generated a significant amount of research interest. However, despite this increasing attention the dark tourism literature remains both eclectic and theoretically fragile. That is, a number of fundamental issues remain, not least whether it is actually possible or justifiable to …

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