11 APR 2025 (FRI) 15:00-16:00

HKU Tourism Seminar Series

Navigating the Terrain of Tourism Geography: Reflections from Tourist Studies and Plasmatic Perspectives

Date: 11 APR 2025 (Friday)

Time: 15:00-16:00 (HKT)

Venue: CLL, Department of Geography, 10/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=99778

Zoom link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/98894468580?pwd=5aryIQb0EWqMiJjl6w9kY6snz9BSmO.1

Meeting ID: 988 9446 8580

Password: 805070

Abstract:

In this lecture, I will reflect on the profound influence of the journal Tourist Studies in shaping my journey as a tourism geographer since 2001. Taking the helm as Editor-in-Chief of Tourist Studies in late 2022, I have championed a critical, theoretically grounded approach to tourism research, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue that challenges conventional narratives. This intellectual commitment culminated in my recent work on plasmatic perspectives, published in Asia Pacific Viewpoint in 2023. Tourist Studies offers a critical social science lens to explore the multifaceted relationship between tourism and contemporary social dynamics, such as globalization, mobility, and the sociology of consumption. It serves as a platform for theoretical analysis and qualitative insights, examining how tourism reflects and influences broader societal changes.

My exploration of plasmatic perspectives introduces a framework for understanding cultural tourism through metaphors of fragility and interconnectedness. I will discuss key themes such as impermanence, visibility, and resilience and how these intersect with concerns of the operations of power and social and environmental justice. By embracing the complexities of tourism through a plasmatic lens, we can develop inclusive frameworks that acknowledge both the visible and hidden dynamics at play. Through this lecture, I invite attendees to engage with these critical ideas and consider their implications for the future of tourism geographic research and practice.

Prof. Chin-Ee Ong

Professor of Cultural and Tourism Management, Macao University of Tourism

A multi-disciplinary Singaporean scholar with roots in tourism and cultural geography, Professor Chin-Ee Ong is currently Professor of Cultural and Tourism Management at Macao University of Tourism. He has a range of international and regional academic and research experiences in Europe and Asia and his research and teaching focus on the cultural and creative in tourism and heritage management. In addition to research grounded in the field and the empirical, Prof Ong advances a new theoretical approach he terms, ‘plasmatic thinking’. Plasmatic thinking is aimed at interrogating the contingent and fleeting socio-material environments we live in using and challenges the static and stable view of our material and social worlds. It stresses the need to illuminate the ‘charges’; that initiate and hold social and material situations together. He clarifies and discusses these ideas in his recent Asia-Pacific Viewpoint article (Ong 2023).

Internationally, Prof Ong serves as Editor-in-Chief for Tourist Studies (Sage Publications, SSCI), Co-Chair for ATLAS Critical Tourism Studies-Asia Pacific and Asia Coordinator and Coordinator for Heritage Tourism and Education Group at the Association of Leisure and Tourism Education (ATLAS). Beyond Tourist Studies, he is also the Reviews Editor for social science-based Hospitality and Society and is on the Editorial Board for Tourism Geographies, Tourism Culture and Communication, Journal of Heritage Tourism, and Tourism Critiques and the Editorial Review Board of International Journal of Tourism Cities. In China, Prof Ong is a committee member of China Geographical Society’s Cultural Geography Sub-Committee (中国地理学会文化地理专委会).