Râna Campbell | University of Akureyri (original) (raw)
Papers by Râna Campbell
Global Discourse, 2020
Þjóðmyndir was a collaborative photography project carried out by individuals frequenting two soc... more Þjóðmyndir was a collaborative photography project carried out by individuals frequenting two social service organisations that work in close partnership in Ísafjörður, Iceland, under the guidance of the author. It offered participants an opportunity to express themselves creatively in the public sphere and aimed to engage them in participative processes of learning, creating and reflecting to this end. The project struggled with the participatory and collaborative research traditions that informed it, yet it defined its own, unique collaborative culture around the social learning that emerged from the participants’ entering into relation with and emotionally affecting one another. Consequently, it succeeded at creating a space for the processes of subject formation inherent to discussions of both collaborative research and social-relational affect. This paper examines instances of affect and collaboration particular to the project through the lens of disability studies in order to advance an understanding of the intersectional relevance of affect theory and collaborative methodologies to social care practice.
Proceedings of the Heritage, Tourism, and Hospitality International Conference, HTHIC 2014, 2014
The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to a declining fishing industry o... more The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to a declining fishing industry over recent decades, while cultural policies emphasizing regional development have taken shape alongside the growth of the tourism industry. Such policies have resulted in a proliferation of private enterprises- cum- cultural institutions across the countryside, many of which challenge the representational styles and ideologies of older heritage museums. Within the context of a master’s thesis in Coastal and Marine Management, two qualitative case studies examining heritage museums in the region were conducted in order to determine what meaning local communities attribute to the types of heritage represented by these museums, and what values they associate with the museums as cultural institutions. Fieldwork consisted of twelve in-depth, phenomenological interviews with professionals connected to each site and a focus group discussion among five Westfjords residents with no ties to either. Data analysis consisted of applying open and data-driven thematic coding schemes to interview and focus group transcripts, respectively. Findings revealed that both museums are at the centre of important debates about identity, representation, museology, and cultural tourism in Iceland and embody various complex issues in international heritage scholarship. Many of these issues are interlinked with questions of heritage destination branding and raise concerns about the packaging of identity, history, heritage, and culture for tourism marketing purposes. This paper describes the main findings of the aforementioned research and examines them within a critical analysis framework for heritage destination branding based on two prominent texts from the tourism marketing literature.
SHS Web of Conferences, 2014
Icelandic cultural heritage museology is embedded in a complex of social, political, and economic... more Icelandic cultural heritage museology is embedded in a complex of social, political, and economic matters, at both the national and continental levels, that look to tourism as an opportunity for development in rural regions. The present paper draws on master’s research that examined the relationships of Westfjords communities with two maritime heritage museums in the region. Two qualitative case studies based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with heritage producers connected to each site were supplemented with additional qualitative data from a focus group comprised of five Westfjords residents. Open and closed coding schemes based on the condensation of transcripts into thematic units were used to analyze the data, thus producing descriptions of the representational ethos of each museum, and findings were subjected to ethical analysis. Both museums were found to reflect contemporary issues that are subject to debates about cultural identity, heritage, and representational style and ideology, while analysis revealed that there is a persistent danger of oversimplifying or distorting cultural representations, particularly where each museum has stakes in tourism. This was judged a potential disservice to the nuanced identities of local communities, and a recommendation was put forth for museums to engage conscientiously with questions of identity and cultural representation.
The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to the decline in the fishing ind... more The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to the decline in the fishing industry over recent decades. At the national level, new cultural policies emphasizing regional development have taken shape alongside the growth of the tourism industry. This has resulted in a proliferation of private enterprises- cum- cultural institutions across the countryside, many of which challenge the representational styles and ideologies of older heritage museums. I conducted case studies of the Westfjords Heritage Museum in Ísafjörður and the Sea Monster Museum in Bíldudalur in order to produce descriptions of the meaning that local communities attribute to the kinds of maritime heritage represented by these museums; and to determine what values they associate with the museums as cultural institutions. I conducted twelve in- depth, phenomenological interviews with heritage professionals and decision- makers for these sites, and moderated a two- hour- long focus group discussion among five Westfjords residents with no professional ties to the museums, using key observations from the interviews as topics. Thematic coding of the interviews reveals that the museums find themselves at the center of important debates about identity, representation, museology, and cultural tourism in Iceland, in addition to embodying various types of well- established, complex issues in international heritage scholarship. Condensation of the focus group into broad theoretical categories situates the museums within their wider cultural landscapes and introduces a diversified set of perceptions of heritage and representation. The study culminates in a rudimentary ethical reading of the results that serves to underline the importance of establishing an ethical framework for heritage representation and cultural tourism management in the Westfjords.
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Úrdráttur
Á síðustu árum hefur stöðug fólksfækkun átt sér stað á Vestfjörðum samfara minnkandi fiskveiðum og fiskvinnslu á svæðinu. Í landinu er menningarstefna þar sem lögð er áhersla á svæðisþróun sem myndast hefur samhliða auknum ferðaþjónustuiðnaði. Þetta hefur haft í för með sér fjölgun menningartengdra verkefna um land allt í eigu einkaaðila, sem mörg hver sýna menningu landsmanna og hugmyndafræðina sem þar liggur að baki á annan og nýstárlegri hátt en eldri söfn hafa gert hingað til. Ég gerði vettvangsrannsókn í Byggðasafni Vestfjarða á Ísafirði og í Skrímslasafninu á Bíldudal í þeim tilgangi að athuga vihorf fólks á svæðinu til sýninga á þessum sjávartengda menningararfi, sem þessi söfn hafa sett á laggirnar; hvaða gildi þessi söfn sem menningarstofnanir halda á lofti, að mati fólks á svæðinu. Ég tók 12 yfirgripsmikil viðtöl við stjórn og starfsfólk safnanna, auk þess sem ég setti saman og stjórnaði fimm manna hópi af fólki frá Vestfjörðum, sem engin fagleg tengsl höfðu við þessi söfn, til þess að ræða lykilatriði rannsóknarinnar. Við flokkun viðtalanna eftir ákveðnum þemum kom í ljós mikilvægi safnanna í samfélagsumræðunni er varðar hugtök eins og samsömun, sýningar, safnafræði og menningartengda ferðaþjónustu á Íslandi, auk þess sem komið var inn á velþekkt og flókin atriði innnan alþjóðlegrar fræðimennsku um menningararfinn. Samantekt umræðnanna úr umræðuhópnum sýnir stöðu safnanna í menningarflóru landsins um leið og hún sýnir fjölbreyttan skilning fólks á menningararfinum og kynningu á honum. Rannsóknin nær hámarki sínu þegar helstu niðurstöður hennar eru að lokum skoðaðar með undirstöðuatriðum siðfræðinnar í huga, til þess að undirstrika mikilvægi þess að setja á stofn siðfræðilegar reglur til kynningar á menningararfinum og stjórnunar á mennta- og menningartengdri ferðamennsku á Vestfjörðum.
Global Discourse, 2020
Þjóðmyndir was a collaborative photography project carried out by individuals frequenting two soc... more Þjóðmyndir was a collaborative photography project carried out by individuals frequenting two social service organisations that work in close partnership in Ísafjörður, Iceland, under the guidance of the author. It offered participants an opportunity to express themselves creatively in the public sphere and aimed to engage them in participative processes of learning, creating and reflecting to this end. The project struggled with the participatory and collaborative research traditions that informed it, yet it defined its own, unique collaborative culture around the social learning that emerged from the participants’ entering into relation with and emotionally affecting one another. Consequently, it succeeded at creating a space for the processes of subject formation inherent to discussions of both collaborative research and social-relational affect. This paper examines instances of affect and collaboration particular to the project through the lens of disability studies in order to advance an understanding of the intersectional relevance of affect theory and collaborative methodologies to social care practice.
Proceedings of the Heritage, Tourism, and Hospitality International Conference, HTHIC 2014, 2014
The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to a declining fishing industry o... more The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to a declining fishing industry over recent decades, while cultural policies emphasizing regional development have taken shape alongside the growth of the tourism industry. Such policies have resulted in a proliferation of private enterprises- cum- cultural institutions across the countryside, many of which challenge the representational styles and ideologies of older heritage museums. Within the context of a master’s thesis in Coastal and Marine Management, two qualitative case studies examining heritage museums in the region were conducted in order to determine what meaning local communities attribute to the types of heritage represented by these museums, and what values they associate with the museums as cultural institutions. Fieldwork consisted of twelve in-depth, phenomenological interviews with professionals connected to each site and a focus group discussion among five Westfjords residents with no ties to either. Data analysis consisted of applying open and data-driven thematic coding schemes to interview and focus group transcripts, respectively. Findings revealed that both museums are at the centre of important debates about identity, representation, museology, and cultural tourism in Iceland and embody various complex issues in international heritage scholarship. Many of these issues are interlinked with questions of heritage destination branding and raise concerns about the packaging of identity, history, heritage, and culture for tourism marketing purposes. This paper describes the main findings of the aforementioned research and examines them within a critical analysis framework for heritage destination branding based on two prominent texts from the tourism marketing literature.
SHS Web of Conferences, 2014
Icelandic cultural heritage museology is embedded in a complex of social, political, and economic... more Icelandic cultural heritage museology is embedded in a complex of social, political, and economic matters, at both the national and continental levels, that look to tourism as an opportunity for development in rural regions. The present paper draws on master’s research that examined the relationships of Westfjords communities with two maritime heritage museums in the region. Two qualitative case studies based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with heritage producers connected to each site were supplemented with additional qualitative data from a focus group comprised of five Westfjords residents. Open and closed coding schemes based on the condensation of transcripts into thematic units were used to analyze the data, thus producing descriptions of the representational ethos of each museum, and findings were subjected to ethical analysis. Both museums were found to reflect contemporary issues that are subject to debates about cultural identity, heritage, and representational style and ideology, while analysis revealed that there is a persistent danger of oversimplifying or distorting cultural representations, particularly where each museum has stakes in tourism. This was judged a potential disservice to the nuanced identities of local communities, and a recommendation was put forth for museums to engage conscientiously with questions of identity and cultural representation.
The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to the decline in the fishing ind... more The Westfjords of Iceland have seen steady depopulation related to the decline in the fishing industry over recent decades. At the national level, new cultural policies emphasizing regional development have taken shape alongside the growth of the tourism industry. This has resulted in a proliferation of private enterprises- cum- cultural institutions across the countryside, many of which challenge the representational styles and ideologies of older heritage museums. I conducted case studies of the Westfjords Heritage Museum in Ísafjörður and the Sea Monster Museum in Bíldudalur in order to produce descriptions of the meaning that local communities attribute to the kinds of maritime heritage represented by these museums; and to determine what values they associate with the museums as cultural institutions. I conducted twelve in- depth, phenomenological interviews with heritage professionals and decision- makers for these sites, and moderated a two- hour- long focus group discussion among five Westfjords residents with no professional ties to the museums, using key observations from the interviews as topics. Thematic coding of the interviews reveals that the museums find themselves at the center of important debates about identity, representation, museology, and cultural tourism in Iceland, in addition to embodying various types of well- established, complex issues in international heritage scholarship. Condensation of the focus group into broad theoretical categories situates the museums within their wider cultural landscapes and introduces a diversified set of perceptions of heritage and representation. The study culminates in a rudimentary ethical reading of the results that serves to underline the importance of establishing an ethical framework for heritage representation and cultural tourism management in the Westfjords.
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Úrdráttur
Á síðustu árum hefur stöðug fólksfækkun átt sér stað á Vestfjörðum samfara minnkandi fiskveiðum og fiskvinnslu á svæðinu. Í landinu er menningarstefna þar sem lögð er áhersla á svæðisþróun sem myndast hefur samhliða auknum ferðaþjónustuiðnaði. Þetta hefur haft í för með sér fjölgun menningartengdra verkefna um land allt í eigu einkaaðila, sem mörg hver sýna menningu landsmanna og hugmyndafræðina sem þar liggur að baki á annan og nýstárlegri hátt en eldri söfn hafa gert hingað til. Ég gerði vettvangsrannsókn í Byggðasafni Vestfjarða á Ísafirði og í Skrímslasafninu á Bíldudal í þeim tilgangi að athuga vihorf fólks á svæðinu til sýninga á þessum sjávartengda menningararfi, sem þessi söfn hafa sett á laggirnar; hvaða gildi þessi söfn sem menningarstofnanir halda á lofti, að mati fólks á svæðinu. Ég tók 12 yfirgripsmikil viðtöl við stjórn og starfsfólk safnanna, auk þess sem ég setti saman og stjórnaði fimm manna hópi af fólki frá Vestfjörðum, sem engin fagleg tengsl höfðu við þessi söfn, til þess að ræða lykilatriði rannsóknarinnar. Við flokkun viðtalanna eftir ákveðnum þemum kom í ljós mikilvægi safnanna í samfélagsumræðunni er varðar hugtök eins og samsömun, sýningar, safnafræði og menningartengda ferðaþjónustu á Íslandi, auk þess sem komið var inn á velþekkt og flókin atriði innnan alþjóðlegrar fræðimennsku um menningararfinn. Samantekt umræðnanna úr umræðuhópnum sýnir stöðu safnanna í menningarflóru landsins um leið og hún sýnir fjölbreyttan skilning fólks á menningararfinum og kynningu á honum. Rannsóknin nær hámarki sínu þegar helstu niðurstöður hennar eru að lokum skoðaðar með undirstöðuatriðum siðfræðinnar í huga, til þess að undirstrika mikilvægi þess að setja á stofn siðfræðilegar reglur til kynningar á menningararfinum og stjórnunar á mennta- og menningartengdri ferðamennsku á Vestfjörðum.