Richard Ek | Karlstad University (original) (raw)

Papers by Richard Ek

We hope to design a study on the development of a course on our master’s program. The course has ... more We hope to design a study on the development of a course on our master’s program. The course has been developed over two years in order to address two fundamental problems in the ten year old program: students from Asian and African countries were often unable to complete the program. The hitch seemed to be writing and discussing in an independent, critical and reflective way. The aim of this seminar is to share our experiences with teachers from other international programs.This paper introduces the epistemological context first, our interlocutors Paul Trowler and Ali Cooper, and their concept of Teaching and Learning Regimes. Having introduced that, we move on to introduce the analytical-pedagogical approach to the simultaneous shaping of identities and learning of the students. Finally, we present the students classroom activities which make up the studied case and which is also what we try to develop. (Less)

Regional Studies, Aug 7, 2023

Social Science Research Network, Jan 5, 2016

Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, Sep 16, 2010

Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2008

Revisiting Foucualt through Reading Agamben : Implications for Work Place Subjectification, Desub... more Revisiting Foucualt through Reading Agamben : Implications for Work Place Subjectification, Desubjectification and the Dark Side of Organizations

Journal of applied learning and teaching, Mar 10, 2023

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Experience Management and Marketing, 2020

Demonstrating a cheerful and positive disposition at work has become an expectation in many jobs.... more Demonstrating a cheerful and positive disposition at work has become an expectation in many jobs. This demand is particularly strong for frontline staff members who have to meet customers directly, such as those in the hospitality industry. Maintaining a friendly and helpful demeanor can be difficult, especially when one is having a tough period in other aspects of one's life. Maintaining a charming and happy front is emotional work (Hing 2010, Ooi and Ek 2010).

Regional Studies, Aug 7, 2023

Social Science Research Network, Jan 5, 2016

Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, Sep 16, 2010

Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2008

Journal of applied learning and teaching, Mar 10, 2023

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Experience Management and Marketing, 2020

Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 2023

This paper addresses one of the pedagogical challenges that followed the presence of increasingly... more This paper addresses one of the pedagogical challenges that followed the presence of increasingly multinational student groups, particularly the increased diversity of academic backgrounds among students. Theoretically, this challenge can be understood as an encounter between different teaching and learning regimes (TLRs). TLR, coined by Trowler and Cooper (2002), implies a constellation of assumptions, rules, relationships, and practices regarding the conduct of higher education that colours academic staff members' performance in their profession. It has become a widely used heuristic tool in the reflection process among university staff. It is shown in this paper that TLRs are not only a heuristic tool that can be applied in teacher reflection but may also be fruitfully applied in the classroom in student-teacher interaction. Consequently, we decided to bring the TLR into the classroom. The written student reflections constitute the empirical material that this analysis is based on. We approach these reflections as expressions of confessions of the Self, as laid out by Michel Foucault. We conclude that it is useful for the students to reflect upon TLR's, but simultaneously, such an approach runs the risk of enhancing pedagogical and epistemological conformism at the neoliberal university.

Journal of Place Management and Development, 2021

Purpose-This paper aims to focus on the representation of the cultural phenomena hygge in Denmark... more Purpose-This paper aims to focus on the representation of the cultural phenomena hygge in Denmark and fika in Sweden in destination branding and address the inevitability of their essentialization through the branding process. Design/methodology/approach-Three relevant semi-structured interviews with destination marketing organisation's employees were conducted, as well as a content-based analysis of three social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). A total of 465 posts in total were analysed (140 Facebook posts, 109 Twitter posts, 216 Instagram posts). Findings-This study demonstrates how, when communicated through social media, intangible cultural assets are transformed into tangible elements. It explains why the representation and place branding processes necessarily simplify and essentialize the destination. Originality/value-Destination branding scholars have traditionally criticised the flattening and essentialization of culture in destination branding and have called for a more nuanced approach to presenting a destination. This paper situates destination branding as a process that necessitates the manipulation of the presentation of the destination, which inevitably essentializes the place; this is intended. Critical destination branding researchers need to rethink their criticisms and acknowledge the inherent essentialization goal of destination branding.

Tourism Geographies An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 2019

Research on tourism enclaves has relied mainly on topographical understandings of the phenomenon.... more Research on tourism enclaves has relied mainly on topographical understandings of the phenomenon. The focus has been on the ontic, that which is or exists instead of the relational qualities or properties of tourism enclaves. Topographical conceptions thus tend to simplify enclavic processes and attributes that are much more complex than meets the eye. In this article, we make the case for topological understandings of tourism enclaves, based on a relational ontology, as a complement. We thereby strive to offer more nuanced conceptions of tourism enclaves. We depart from Agamben’s political ontology to illustrate our claim. Seen topologically, tourism enclaves are not simply spaces marked-off from the norm, but rather constituents of the norm. Tourism enclaves need to be theorized as ‘prototypes’ or ‘laboratories’ of new subjectivities (ways of being, relating, and experiencing the world). The tourist thus emerges as a model figure of biopolitics in the contemporary, the norm rather than the exception. The tourist is not that which is abandoned by the sovereign in the manner of Agamben, but rather a free exilant, a subject that self-willingly chooses abandonment. We deploy topological concepts, like Agamben’s the ban, the camp, and state of exception. Such a conception, we argue, widens the ontological register or horizon of tourism theory.

Anatolia, 2017

This paper analyses how the 'alpha male' of the tourism academy tribe is imagined in celebratory ... more This paper analyses how the 'alpha male' of the tourism academy tribe is imagined in celebratory contexts. The tradition is interesting from a gender perspective, in that the majority of celebratory portraits found in tourism research journals are those of male scholars. Whether this is regarded as a coincidence or a consequence of the resilience of a glass ceiling, it is interesting to investigate how these 'alpha males' and their academic lifeworks are described, characterised and presented. The paper contains a quantitative description and qualitative analysis of the portraits published in Anatolia. In particular, we apply philosopher Stephen Pepper's root metaphors of formism, organicism, mechanism, contextualism to examine how tourism research work in the world is imagined.

The purpose of this paper is to unlock positions regarding the goods/services dichotomy in servic... more The purpose of this paper is to unlock positions regarding the goods/services dichotomy in service marketing and to offer an argument that treats goods and services on an ontologically equal basis. Design/methodology/approach – A close reading of influential texts that argue in favor of a service-dominant logic (SDL) and new paradigms in service marketing. Findings – Both the SDL proposal and calls for new service paradigms can be understood as ad hoc solutions that serve to reproduce and even strengthen the asymmetry between goods and services. A post-paradigmatic analysis opens up new possibilities for service marketing research and practice. Research limitations/implications – By showing how goods and services can be positioned equally, hitherto invisible sites of value creation become potential subjects for analyses in service marketing. Practical implications – Service marketing practices are situated so as to explain the value creating interactions between service providers and customers in a more transparent way than is usual. Originality/value – An ontologically grounded critique of the ad hoc nature of contemporary service marketing theory.

The aim of this article is to give a tentative illustration of how a creative, post-political cit... more The aim of this article is to give a tentative illustration of how a creative, post-political citizen is imagined and encouraged to unfold within the frame of a city renewal project. As a starting point, the article outlines an exploratory framework structured through the analytical concept of postpolis. Postpolis is a term that offers an illustration of the distinguishing qualities of contemporary urbanity in a principal and schematic way. Postpolis here has three cornerstones: the idea of post-politics (the thesis that today politics is out-defined and replaced by governmental practices that leave little space for public influence and participation), the notion of biopolitics and the claim that planning is a governmental practice that is substantially influenced by business management approaches. The illustrative section of the article gives an overview of the empirical illustration H+ and SHIP. H+ is an urban regeneration project in the city of Helsingborg, in southern Sweden. As the largest urban regeneration project in Sweden to date, it will run for 30 years and affect about a third of the total area of the city. The showroom SHIP, which has been constructed in connection with this urban project, presents both what can be done and what is encouraged in tandem with an investigation of the functions, tasks and design of this showroom. The article thus initiates an ethnographic study of the showroom as a planning servicescape, in which the future citizen of Helsingborg is superimposed on the bodies of the visitors.

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B, Jan 1, 2006

Political Geography, Jan 1, 2000

… Journal of Hospitality …, Jan 1, 2008

Scandinavian Journal of …, Jan 1, 2010

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2014

Culture Unbound: Journal of Current …, Jan 1, 2010

En Suède, la rhétorique actuelle de l'aménagement du territoire met de plus en plus l'a... more En Suède, la rhétorique actuelle de l'aménagement du territoire met de plus en plus l'accent sur la nécessité d'associer la société civile aux processus de planification, cela pour deux raisons. Il s'agit avant tout d'une démarche jugée positivement, dans la mesure où cela ...

Political Geography, 2011

Geographies of Communication: The Spatial Turn in …, Jan 1, 2006

Experiencescapes. Tourism, Culture, …, Jan 1, 2005

Tourism Social Science Series, 2013

This thesis is about how geographical visions worked as discursive tools in the institutionalisat... more This thesis is about how geographical visions worked as discursive tools in the institutionalisation of the Öresund Region.

The geographical vision is defined as a cognitive set of imagined and material pictures of the future structured as a spatial whole. The geographical vision is, in addition to this, a spaceconfiguration-, power-, and disciplinary - instrument, and, the product of a discursive process of struggle/negotiation over competing understandings of how a specific territorial timespace should be shaped in the future. Three geographical visions in the discourse of the Öresund Region are deconstructed and critically discussed, presented as storylines:

-The r/evolution of regional organisms

-The "high-speed" region

-The social integration over the Sound, or, the political disciplinary project

Ek R., Hultman J. Platsen som produkt. Studentlitteratur …, Jan 1, 2007

Accounting, Organizations and Society , 2018

Following on the reiterated claim that accounting inscriptions make action at a distance possible... more Following on the reiterated claim that accounting inscriptions make action at a distance possible, we draw on post-mathematical topology to explain that this distance work is dependent on inscriptions acting on distances. By adopting a relational understanding of space, we show that accounting inscriptions by themselves create the distances across which they operate. Our case study uses pay-as-you-throw solid waste-collection invoices in a new waste-collection program aimed at increasing the sustainability of waste management. By displaying weight and cost side by side, these invoices conduct topological operations that dissolve, create, and redefine the distance between people and their waste, between the economy and the environment, and between the city and its residents. The ability of these operations to mobilize a sense of environmental responsibility, enroll residents in the city’s plans for sustainability, and translate political ambitions into individual behavior demonstrates that the performativity of accounting inscriptions resides in the efficacy of their distance work.

Key words: Inscription, Topology, Environmental governance, Invoice, Waste, Pay-as-you-throw