Steel Cities: Tradition, Transition and Transformation

Steel Cities: Tradition, Transition and Transformation

1st CALL FOR PAPERS

Sheffield, June 29th - July 2nd 2006

Steel and Tourism

The steel rails of the world's railways provided the basic infrastructure
for early modern tourism. Today, old iron and steel works provide
sites for leisure tourism. Steel as both a fundamental, functional, interior
fabric and a symbolic, highly visible substance permeates the structures,
flows, practices and narratives of contemporary tourism. Indeed steel,
though not exclusively, can be viewed as a pre-condition for modern
international tourism.

As part of the wider programme of the Steel Cities Conference - see
below - we invite researchers from all disciplines to reflect upon the
function, form and emblematic nature of steel within tourism in past,
present and future contexts. Indicative themes of interest include:

* Material diasporas: trade, tourism and the diffusion of material culture
* Tourism and imaginaries of steel making: Between nostalgia and fantasy
* Technological innovation in the structures and mobilities of international
tourism and hospitality
* Steel 'works' - tourism and the problems and possibilities of urban
regeneration
* Alchemists, Blacksmiths and Magicians: Travel and the diffusion of
knowledge
* Excalibur or the metaphorical journey from stone to iron: Travel,
popular culture and pragmatic narratives of iron and steel

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words by January 13th 2006
to: mike.robinson@shu.ac.uk

Professor Mike Robinson
Director, Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change
(www.channelviewpublications.com)
Sheffield Hallam University
Howard Street
Sheffield
S1 1WB, UK

Please visit Please visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/natcect/steelcities
and www.tourism-culture.com

Steel Cities: Tradition, Transition and Transformation

For nearly two centuries steel has been the fundamental building block
of modernity, revolutionising the lives of millions. From its use in
building
and construction, in weapons production, to its role in the home kitchen,
the transformative power of steel is undeniable. At all stages of its
life-cycle, steel impacts upon communities, regions and nations. As
China and India race to modernise their economies with imported steel,
many cities across Europe and North America are still struggling to cope
with the transition from productive to consumptive economies. The focus
of this conference is upon the ways in which economies and societies,
lives, landscapes and relationships have been, and continue to be,
transformed by steel.

The 'Steel Cities' conference will bring together academics and
professionals from a wide range of disciplines to explore the
ways by which steel has impacted upon people, places and pasts and
how it continues to shape lives and relationships in the context of local
and global change. It will take place in Sheffield, England's most famous
'Steel City', and will be led by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield
Hallam University in collaboration with a number of partners who are
interested in discussing their research and sharing and disseminating good
practice. The conference will be multi-disciplinary drawing from
architecture,
history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, cultural studies, geography,
tourism studies, museum studies, ethnology, linguistics, economics etc.

Themes of interest to the conference include:

* Labour relations and working environments in the steel sector
* The uses of steel in contemporary life
* Histories and ethnographies of steel communities
* Identity and belonging in 'steel cities'
* Representations of steel and the steel industry in the 'popular' media
* The role of the cultural industries (arts, sport, tourism, etc.) in the
regeneration of 'steel cities'
* The languages of steel cities
* Heritages of the steel industry
* Symbolic economies of steel - iconography, art and design

Dr David Picard
Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change
Sheffield Hallam University
Owen Building, Howard Street
Sheffield S1 1WB
United Kingdom

Phone: +44 (0) 114 225 3973
E-mail: d.picard@shu.ac.uk
Web: www.tourism-culture.com