Storybook Worlds Made Real: Essays on the Places Inspired by Children's Narratives ed. by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. West (review)

Any of us Fairytale and Fantasy aficionados know how well these tales burn into our hearts and provide us with countless hours of daydreaming material, but it is the potential of greatness that these stories open up for our often times limited waking life. Storybook worlds, as much as they are for our own nostalgia and connection to a natural world, serve as a money-making machine for industries that prey upon the scarcity of these literary spaces. With this book being released during a pandemic era, the impeccable timing allows for readers who have grown comfortable within the four walls of their home to travel through worlds that have been inaccessible during lockdowns and quarantines. The book allows for a strong sense of living vicariously through the eyes of the authors in the collections and takes readers through a journey of reflection and adventure that has simply not been an option for many of us post COVID-19. There is something for every reader in this collection, and in many ways some of the essays in this collection highlight the risk of these beautiful worlds being made into a media entity so far removed from the stories that taught empathy for all life, meaningful contemplation, and a deep respect for the natural world around us.

Tourism and the transformation of religious hospitality: An ethnography of osettai along the Choishi- michi pilgrimage route, Japan

The increasing popularity of walking pilgrimage has created new forms of inter-action and exchange between pilgrims and residents along pilgrimage routes. As a result, religious hospitality along these pilgrimage routes is also under trans-formation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted along the Koyasan Choishi-michi pilgrimage route in Wakayama, Japan, this article examines how the meanings and experiences of osettai ('religious hospitality') change over time and space. Focusing specifically on the role tourism plays in the current trans-formation of religious hospitality, the article begins with a historical analysis of osettai and its meanings in pre-modern Japan. Next, we examine how osettai was interrupted due to the decline in walking pilgrims, but also sustained through the maintenance of indirectly related religious practices. The discussion then outlines the transforming meanings of osettai from a practice of giving offerings in return for spiritual reward, to a commodified economic service and finally to a form of cultural exchange. We conclude that placing religious faith as a central theme of analyses, not tourism, can offer new insights and deepen our understandings of how religious hospitality is both transformed and maintained through tourism.

Post-knowledge Economy and Lifelong Language Learning: New Agendas and Issues

Despite being a late twentieth century concept, LLL is continuing to attract the attention of scholars, policymakers and practitioners. LLL principles, strategies and practices, while remaining inviolable in their foundations, require research to continually revisit them in relation to current trends, for example, the post-globalising world;the post-knowledge society;the digital economy and digitalisation of all spheres of human life, including education;the coronavirus pandemic and the possibility of increased ‘hybrid' forms of learning. In response to these developments, the chapter poses and addresses a number of problems related to the future positioning of LLL as a contributor to new forms of human capital development required to respond to the above challenges. The chapter pays special attention to LLL as an educational open continuum concerned with socio-, inter-, and poly-cultural personality development at the level of informal language education and how it prepares students to respond to potential changes in their future professional careers, while also raising issues about the commercial role of language proficiency and the commodification of language as a factor of success in the professional and social spheres of human life. Finally, the chapter discusses the permanent development parameters of student communicative individuality and identifies the characteristics of the life spheres in which people can realize their personal potential through continuous language improving. By blending conceptual and practical issues, the chapter offers a new strategic and practical perspective on LLL implementation. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Locked in, logged out: pandemic and ride-hailing in South Africa and Kenya

This article examines the impact of the pandemic on ride-hailing drivers and their mitigation strategies during lockdown in Africa. Ride-hailing has emerged as one of the latest paid-work opportunities for the continent's many unemployed. Yet, ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Bolt misclassify drivers to avoid regulation and responsibilities towards workers' welfare. Drawing on 34 in-depth interviews with ride-hailing drivers, driver representatives and trade unions in South Africa and Kenya, this article makes two arguments. First, the gig economy in Africa provides work opportunities for the unemployed on the continent and simultaneously vitiates the working conditions through the commodification and informalisation of work. Second, the state-directed emergency measures act as a veneer to capital's efforts to commodify labour and the gig economy platforms have emerged as primary tools for it. Our account points to an urgent need for better regulatory systems to hold platform companies accountable and a collective bargaining mechanism in the gig economy.

From Idleness to the Abolition of Work in Ricardo Talesnik's La Fiaca

This article analyses Ricardo Talesnik's play and film (directed by Fernando Ayala) La fiaca [Idleness] and its critique of the notion of work. Talesnik denounces how modern disciplinary institutions form the workforce and a way-of-life-to-work. He questions the work-system by critiquing the commodity-form, standardised time represented in the money-form, worker subjectivity as a national citizen, and Schuld (debt/guilt). Talesnik's critique is developed when the play's main character performs a "Duchamp-like” strike by refusing to go to work. When analysed with Marx's and Foucault's theories of production and power, La fiaca could be read as a play that supports the abolition of work to question modern life under late capitalism. Therefore, what this play effectively critiques is the commodification of everyday life, which leaves no option but to create another way of life by interrupting the process of capitalist production of value and questioning the primacy of labour. Talesnik's play shows the coercive forces of the capitalist mode of production, but also the institutional framework built to correct anyone who dares to challenge it. This makes La fiaca a crucial intervention that helps us understand current post-work criticism and the present tension between work and social reproduction in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On epidemiology as racial-capitalist (re)colonization and epistemic violence

This commentary reflects upon power-knowledge dynamics and matters of epistemic, procedural, and distributive justice that undergird epidemiological knowledge production related to racial health inequities in the U.S. Grounded in Foucault's power-knowledge concepts-"objects", "ritual", and "the privileged"-and guided by Black feminist philosopher Kristie Dotson's conceptualization of epistemic violence, it critiques the dominant positivist, reductionist, and extractivist paradigm of epidemiology, interrogating the settler-colonial and racial-capitalist nature of the knowledge production/curation enterprise. The commentary challenges epidemiology's affinity for epistemological, procedural, and methodological norms that effectively silence/erase community knowledge(s) and nuance in favor of reductionist empirical representations/re-presentations produced by researchers who, often, have never stepped foot inside the communities they aver to model. It also expressly names the structurally racist reality of a "colorblind" knowledge production/curation system controlled by White scholars working from/for an invisibilized White scientific gaze. In this spirit, this commentary engages the public health critical race praxis principle of "disciplinary self-critique", illuminating the inherent contradictions of a racial health equity discourse that fails to interrogate the racialized power dynamics underlying its knowledge production enterprise. In doing so, this commentary seeks to (re)frame and invite discourse regarding matters of epistemic violence and (re)colonization as manifest/legible within epidemiology research, suggesting that the structural racism embedded within-and perpetuated through-our collective work must be addressed to advance antiracist and decolonial public health futures. In this regard, I suggest the value of engaging poetry as praxis-as mode of knowledge production/expression to "center the margins" and offer counternarratives to epidemiology's epistemic violence. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Open educational resources or platforms Challenges of the Public University in a context of growing technological mediation

The word platform, widely used in everyday speech to name all types of online services, has, however, a precise definition: it is a service (generally commercial) that collects and processes data from its users within the framework of competitive dynamics. Its widespread use with a broader meaning hides the differences between public and private infrastructure, between resources and exploitations. In the case of educational platforms, making these differences invisible contributes to the processes of commodification and privatization of education. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to cling to any tool that would allow educational continuity to be guaranteed, once the period of restrictions has been overcome and face-to-face education is back, it is necessary to recover a critical approach that preserves autonomy, promotes significant uses of technology, and secures the rights of teachers and students.

Balai Banjar Reformation: Traditions and the commodification of vernacular public space

This article presents a study of spatial change taking place in a balai banjar – a form of public place within the Balinese traditions that exist at the neighbourhood level. The study addresses balai banjar’s fundamental function as a center for communal action in sustaining both community and the natural environment. After Bali’s integration into the Indonesian State, these roles have been extended to accommodate state functions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, balai banjar has been converted into a center for information and vaccination to combat the deadly viral infection. While the importance of this public place is undeniable, several balai banjar, have had their spatial structures rearranged to enable commodified functions. Using a qualitative approach, this study promotes a discussion by investigating spatial changes taking place with the balai banjar of Dangin Peken Sanur, Kota Denpasar on the Island of Bali. This study explores in depth both the origins and implications arising from the transformation of functions, physical form and spatial layout of this balai banjar. In summary, both positive and negative consequences result. The rationale supporting such change include behavioural modification, consequent upon technological advancement in communication, as well as physical, geographic and economic impacts. © 2022. ISVS E-journal. All Rights Reserved.

FINANCING, COMMODIFICATION AND DEMOCRATISATION OF PORTUGUESE HIGHER EDUCATION: PROSPECTS FOR POST-COVID-19 IMPACTS

The economy and its financial dimension are central to social and political problems, especially in times of crisis. As with many other sectors, education will be affected by the scarcity of resources driven by the economic crisis that will follow the pandemic status. In this article, supported by a narrative literature review, the objective is to explore possible impacts of the pandemic caused by Covid-19 on Portuguese higher education, especially regarding its financing and democratization. Also, the discussion addresses the repercussions already observed in the teaching career of higher education. The adoption of remote education intensifies the precariousness of work, as well as the return to classes with distance measures.

Welfare Paradoxes and Interpersonal Pacts: Transnational Social Protection of Latin American Migrants in Spain

This article analyses the relationship between migration, care work, and welfare provision, highlighting the role of Latin American migrants in Spain as providers of formal and informal social protection on a transnational scale. It contributes to the debate on transnational social protection and transnational social inequalities from the perspective of welfare paradoxes and interpersonal pacts. Migrant women in Spain have become a resource for the provision of formal social protection through their employment as domestic care workers. Nevertheless, given that access to social rights in Spain depends on job stability and residency status, they have difficulties in accessing formal social protection themselves. This process constitutes a “welfare paradox,” based on the commodification and exclusion paradoxes, explained by structural factors such as the characteristics of the welfare regime (familiaristic model, with a tendency to hire domestic workers as caregivers into households), the migration regime (feminised and with a clear leaning towards Latin American women), and the economic landscape resulting from two systemic crises: the great recession of 2008 and the Covid‐19 pandemic. Interpersonal pacts, rooted in marriage/couple and intergenerational agreements, and their infringements, are analysed to explain the transnational and informal social protection strategies in the context of the “exclusion paradox” and the breach of the “welfare pact.” Our research draws on the exploitation of secondary data and multi‐sited, longitudinal fieldwork based on biographical interviews conducted with various members of transnational families in Spain and Ecuador (41 interviews).

Stay at (which) home: second homes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose>This viewpoint paper aims to provide reflections on the role of second homes in the tourism and housing markets together with future lines of research during and after the first outbreak of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. The authors aim to review the epistemological evolution of the term “second homes” because of the pandemic, as well as to unfold possible short-, medium- and long-term effects that could place second homes at the center of tourist activity and of the tourist rental market profitability.Design/methodology/approach>This paper is based on published research studies about the definition of the term “second homes”, as well as media sources related to their role during the current situation of the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.Findings>In the early stages of the pandemic, second-home owners migrated from crowded cities to low-density areas, being vectors of transmission of the virus. Now, a potential shift in tourist preferences could position second homes at the center of tourist activity as soon as travel restrictions are reduced. This could intensify existing processes of commodification of housing, empowering accommodation platforms and situating the potential for profiteering around the tourist rental market. Parallely, international interests in migrating from crowded cities to low-density areas could also be triggered.Originality/value>This viewpoint is presented as the confinement measures associated with the new pandemic are being de-escalated in most of the western countries. It is expected that sharing it will provide insights to researchers and practitioners to better plan their research around secondary housing. Its role should be analysed from different perspectives: in the spread of the virus to low-density areas to anticipate mitigation actions in future outbreaks;in the recovery process of (domestic) tourism;in the processes of commodification and financialization of housing in tourist areas;and their impacts on local residents.

The "Homosexual Code" in Contemporary Korean Theatre: The Case of Shakespeare's R & J in Seoul

This essay critiques the vogue of "the homosexual code" in contemporary Korean theatre, with a close-up analysis of ShowNote Company's Shakespeare's R & J that premiered in 2018. It first examines the surge of queer-themed films and theatres since the mid-2000s in relation to the growing visibility of homosexuality, the changing concept of masculinity, the "flower boy" syndrome, and neoliberalism in South Korea. Defining the "homosexual code" as a distancing strategy of encoding homosexuality to bypass homophobia, I problematize the way queer subject is appropriated for novelty and spectacle in the theatre industry. The second part of the essay examines ShowNote's R & J in depth, partly in response to a recent discussion of Choo Min Ju's Our Bad Magnet (2012) by Claire Maria Chambers. Pointing to a close resemblance between the two, I argue that both shows adopt the established formula of "the homosexual code," contingent upon the neoliberal ideology of commodification and consumerism.

IMAGE FORMATION IN RURAL TOURISM DESTINATION

Purpose - Tourism can be an efficient factor of quality and sustainable development especially in the countryside. Nowadays many rural communities are facing agriculture decline and tourism can enable a new concept of economic development. Rural tourism is multifaceted since it can consolidate agriculture, forestry, farming, heritage with numerous and various tourism activities far away from urban center and mass tourism. Forming positive tourism image in such destination is essential. The focal purpose of this paper is to empirically test a concept of rural tourism destination image formation which did not fully commercialize their potential as a tourism destination and to define the relationship between different parameters and the image of rural tourism destination. Methodology - For the purpose of identification the relationship amidst different parameters and rural tourism destination image empirical research has been conducted applying accessible deliberate sample of tourists (600) who had visited rural areas near famous world tourism destination - Dubrovnik, Croatia in a period June 2017 - January 2018. 534 questionnaires were found to be fulfilled correctly and were used in further analysis. Data were analyzed in three steps. First, to detect the sub dimensions of affective and cognitive determinants of image exploratory factor analysis was enforced. Secondly, to test validity of the dimension of the different image components, confirmatory factor analysis was used. Thirdly, structural equation modeling was used to examine which dimension has important influence on the rural tourism destination overall. Findings - The findings suggest several differences among various analyzed image dimensions. The affective dimension of the image has an important aspect in image formation and has significant influence on the rural tourism destination overall image. Contribution - The results of this paper have provided useful strategic direction for the rural tourism destination in order to improve their competitiveness. To upgrade the current image into the marketing strategy, affective image dimension of the rural tourism destination such as experience should be presented in the further marketing communication of the regional and national tourist boards.

Classroom Exchanges: Big Data and the Commodification of Educational Communication

We contrast the centrality of free and full communication, especially as it occurs in classrooms, for John Dewey’s democratic vision of the Great Community with the technologically mediated classroom communication characteristic of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on Google’s dominance of educational communication in particular. Drawing on Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of rendition, we argue that Google’s interest in and influence over educational communication is rooted in behavioral data analytics that captures and exploits classroom language (spoken, written, and bodily) for capitalist accumulation and social control. We conclude that Dewey’s theories of language and communication are descriptively powerful regarding the commodification of communication, but his theory of power itself fails to provide a politics capable of countering Big Data’s hegemony in classrooms or the broader society. © 2021, Purdue University Press. All rights reserved.

An auto-ethnographic reflection on the nature of nursing in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this article I discuss the effects on the patient experience of isolation nursing during the CoronaVirus Disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. An unintended consequence of isolation nursing has been to distance patients from nurses and emphasise the technical side of nursing while at the same time reducing the relational or affective potential of nursing. Such distanced forms of nursing normalise the distal patient in hospital. I consider ways in which this new form of distanced nursing has unwittingly contributed to the continued commodification of nursing care in the British NHS. Autoethnography is used to describe and reflect on the illness experience, the experiences of caregivers and the sociocultural organisation of health care. The findings discuss three areas of the illness experience: intimate nursing care; communication; the 'distanced' patient experience.

Present-Day Mass Tourism: its Imaginaries and Nightmare Scenarios.

Present-day mass tourism uncannily resembles an auto-immune disease. Yet, self-destructive as it may be, it is also self-regenerating, changing its appearance and purpose. They are two modes that stand in contrast to each other. We can see them as opposites that delimit a conceptual dimension ordering varieties of present-day mass tourism. The first pole calls forth tourism as a force leaving ruin and destruction in its wake or at best a sense of nostalgia for what has been lost, the other sees tourism as a force endlessly resuscitating and re-inventing itself. This paper article highlights both sides of the story. These times of the Covid-19 pandemic, with large swathes of public life emptied by social lock-down, remind us of a second, cross-cutting conceptual dimension, ranging from public space brimming with human life to its post-apocalyptic opposite eerily empty and silent. The final part of my argument will touch on imagined evocations of precisely such dystopian landscapes.