Hospitality & tourism in the age of extremes: A biopolitical lens

Organiser: Rodanthi Tzanelli

Theme: As both an absolute norm and a context-based practice, hospitality has evolved into a field nestled within a network of other scholarly fields, including those of tourism and migration. This symposium invites participants to critically deliberate on hospitable and inhospitable forms of mobility for human populations and natural environments in our hypermobile age. The symposium’s presenters are asked to reflect on the relevance of biopolitical approaches to hospitality in the dawn of a new and difficult century.

Programme (27 April 2023)

12:00 - 12:15: Introduction: Biopolitics and social science wars on (post) human interests.

(Rodanthi Tzanelli, School of Sociology & Social Policy/Mobilities Area, Bauman Institute, University of Leeds, UK)

12:15 - 12:50: Enduring hospitality: A planetary perspective.

(Noel Salazar, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Leuven, Belgium)

12:50 – 13:00: Questions

13:00-13:35: The biopolitics of tourism territories in the age of extremes: An illustration from the Québec’s pleasure peripheries in Canada.

(Dominic Lapointe, Department of Urban Studies and Tourism, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada)

13:35-13:45: Questions

13:45-14:00: Short break

14:00-14:35: Guests without hosts: The digital biopolitics of network hospitality.

(Jennie Germann Molz, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, MA, USA)

14:35-14:45: Questions

14:45-15:20: Deliberating on hospitality/tourism biopolitics: A discussant’s perspective.

(Claudio Minca, Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna, Italy)

15:20-16:00: General discussion