Valérian Geffroy | University of Lausanne (original) (raw)
Conference talks by Valérian Geffroy
Papers by Valérian Geffroy
Progress in French Tourism Geographies: Inhabiting Touristic Worlds, 2021
Dichotomies opposing the "virtual world" and "real life" persist in common discourses; they are f... more Dichotomies opposing the "virtual world" and "real life" persist in common discourses; they are frequent in outdoor sport tourism, where discursive, informational and digitally mediated practices might be viewed as hindering the experience and the contact with the environment. This chapter aims to understand such discursive oppositions among the participants, and to overcome them by documenting the integration of media practices in general within outdoor sport practices. Drawing on empirical work with travelling kayakers, paragliders and rock climbers, the chapter details wary and hostile views on media practices, then contrasts these views by showing how media practices aid or enable the coordination and communication of outdoor sport tourism activities.
Journal of Sport & Tourism, Dec 2017
This paper proposes a conceptual tool, the expression ‘playing with space’, for the analysis of a... more This paper proposes a conceptual tool, the expression ‘playing with space’, for the analysis of active sport tourism as a meaningful social practice. The expression issues from practice theories and pragmatic understandings of space, which emphasize the processual and contextual dimensions of human action and seek to seize altogether the corporealities and shared conceptions that constitute action. On such views, sport tourists are considered as reflexive and embodied beings, enjoying sensations, mobilities and places, and constantly (re)making sense of their own practices. I argue that the notion of ‘play’ allows for a comprehensive understanding of the ways active sport tourists engage with space, where space is viewed as an object or material for this play. Three major dimensions of active sport tourism are then identified: a set of playful and game-like practices with global space resulting in shared imaginaries and large-scale mobilities; a kinaesthetic play, based on freedom and sensations and deeply engaged in the materiality of the places and the omnipresent media practices that support the other dimensions of play while being fully integrated into the experience of sport tourism. This conceptual framework is a way to better understand the motives and practices of sport tourists; it is also a way to underline wider trends of contemporary leisure cultures: such cultures are increasingly integrated into the daily spheres of activity, increasingly playful and increasingly mediatized.
Norois, 2017
Les Biosphärenparks autrichiens, territoires distingués par un label de l'UNESCO pour leur gestio... more Les Biosphärenparks autrichiens, territoires distingués par un label de l'UNESCO pour leur gestion « durable », peuvent être efficacement analysés à travers la notion de « capital environnemental ». Celle-ci permet d'englober l'ensemble des valeurs, notamment non-économiques, attribuées aux objets de nature d'un espace donné, et surtout les relations sociales et culturelles qui élaborent ces valeurs. Nous tentons ici de montrer la pertinence d'une telle approche, relationnelle, constructiviste et holiste, pour la compréhension des projets de développement des territoires ruraux. Les Biosphärenparks constituent en effet une plate-forme de coordination des efforts de formalisation d'un capital environnemental ; nous entendons par là la mobilisation et la diffusion de valeurs liées à l'environnement sous la forme d'éléments de communication, de discours, qui mettent en correspondance ces valeurs avec des objets du territoire.
Progress in French Tourism Geographies: Inhabiting Touristic Worlds, 2021
Dichotomies opposing the "virtual world" and "real life" persist in common discourses; they are f... more Dichotomies opposing the "virtual world" and "real life" persist in common discourses; they are frequent in outdoor sport tourism, where discursive, informational and digitally mediated practices might be viewed as hindering the experience and the contact with the environment. This chapter aims to understand such discursive oppositions among the participants, and to overcome them by documenting the integration of media practices in general within outdoor sport practices. Drawing on empirical work with travelling kayakers, paragliders and rock climbers, the chapter details wary and hostile views on media practices, then contrasts these views by showing how media practices aid or enable the coordination and communication of outdoor sport tourism activities.
Journal of Sport & Tourism, Dec 2017
This paper proposes a conceptual tool, the expression ‘playing with space’, for the analysis of a... more This paper proposes a conceptual tool, the expression ‘playing with space’, for the analysis of active sport tourism as a meaningful social practice. The expression issues from practice theories and pragmatic understandings of space, which emphasize the processual and contextual dimensions of human action and seek to seize altogether the corporealities and shared conceptions that constitute action. On such views, sport tourists are considered as reflexive and embodied beings, enjoying sensations, mobilities and places, and constantly (re)making sense of their own practices. I argue that the notion of ‘play’ allows for a comprehensive understanding of the ways active sport tourists engage with space, where space is viewed as an object or material for this play. Three major dimensions of active sport tourism are then identified: a set of playful and game-like practices with global space resulting in shared imaginaries and large-scale mobilities; a kinaesthetic play, based on freedom and sensations and deeply engaged in the materiality of the places and the omnipresent media practices that support the other dimensions of play while being fully integrated into the experience of sport tourism. This conceptual framework is a way to better understand the motives and practices of sport tourists; it is also a way to underline wider trends of contemporary leisure cultures: such cultures are increasingly integrated into the daily spheres of activity, increasingly playful and increasingly mediatized.
Norois, 2017
Les Biosphärenparks autrichiens, territoires distingués par un label de l'UNESCO pour leur gestio... more Les Biosphärenparks autrichiens, territoires distingués par un label de l'UNESCO pour leur gestion « durable », peuvent être efficacement analysés à travers la notion de « capital environnemental ». Celle-ci permet d'englober l'ensemble des valeurs, notamment non-économiques, attribuées aux objets de nature d'un espace donné, et surtout les relations sociales et culturelles qui élaborent ces valeurs. Nous tentons ici de montrer la pertinence d'une telle approche, relationnelle, constructiviste et holiste, pour la compréhension des projets de développement des territoires ruraux. Les Biosphärenparks constituent en effet une plate-forme de coordination des efforts de formalisation d'un capital environnemental ; nous entendons par là la mobilisation et la diffusion de valeurs liées à l'environnement sous la forme d'éléments de communication, de discours, qui mettent en correspondance ces valeurs avec des objets du territoire.