Conference Announcement and Call for Papers
Since the banking crisis in 2008 there has been much talk of responsibility and responsible capitalism amongst politicians, business leaders and academics. Although the concept has been more extensively used in the last five years than in the previous ten years it has not been subject to any concerted effort to understand the meaning of responsibility in the visitor economy.
The conference will be practice-led, focusing on the work of industry leaders. It aims to deepen and extend the dialogue between business and academia about the nature of responsibility and how it informs leadership and relations with the social, physical and global environments. A key theme will be how business and academia can work together to create a culture of responsibility that supports enterprise, exploring ways of integrating respons-ability more effectively into decision making and the development of employability skills.
The REF will compete at the end of this year and this conference is being organised right at the beginning of the next cycle. We are keen to create opportunities for emerging researchers to meet with more established academics, and with the industry, to stimulate and catalyse new interdisciplinary partnerships and increase the amount of theoretical and applied research addressing the issues of responsibility.
The International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality (ICRETH) is a research, development and consultancy centre. Through our interdisciplinary team based in Leeds, UK and a global network of partners, we push forward cutting edge analytical research on events, tourism and hospitality. For more information please visit www.leedsmet.ac.uk/icreth. Leeds Met’s Corporate Governance and Sustainability Research Group (CGSRG) is promotes and shares ideas, values, practices and innovations of corporate governance, corporate responsibility and sustainable development around the world. It advances research in the areas of corporate governance, corporate responsibility, business ethics, and sustainable business and development across disciplines, with multiple methodologies, through research collaborations worldwide.
The Academic Committee, chaired by Professor Harold Goodwin, would like to receive papers from colleagues working in any discipline which address the challenge of responsibility in the visitor economy. The topics and themes listed below are indicative rather than exhaustive. We anticipate publication in a number of formats includes academic journals, books and proceedings.
This conference is of interest to academics applying ethics and responsibility to:
- Responsibility and accountability – the philosophical perspective Professor Dr Jim Parry,
- The High Street – responsible consumption and production
- The exercise of responsibility in tourism and hospitality – Professor Harold Goodwin
- The night time economy – sex, drugs, gambling and alcohol
- Marketing and responsible consumer choices – Dr Xavier Font
- Leadership[, governance, partnerships and stakeholders – Professor Simon Robinson
- Events and festivals
- Employment, education and training in the visitor economy – Professor John Swarbrooke
- Whose responsibility is discrimination? - Professor Jonathan Long
Indicative themes and questions of interest to the Conference include:
- Behaviour. How do we enjoy ourselves while respecting others?
- Power. Who takes decisions and who pays the price? Dealing with unintended consequences.
- Responsibility. How do we know it when we see it?
- The tragedy of the commons. How do we avoid everybody’s responsibility being nobody’s?
- Change management and leadership. How and why do organisations change their behaviour?
- Trust and accountability. How and when do you communicate your responsibility efforts?
- Environment. How do we reduce the consumption and pollution of natural resources?
- Respecting cultures. How do we foster respect through engagement and challenge?
- Economy. How do we build sustainable communities?
- Education and employability. What is the responsibility of academia to train ethical managers and staff?
Please submit a 300 word abstract including title and full contact details as an electronic file to icreth@leedsmet.ac.uk. You may submit your abstract as soon as possible but no later than 20th June 2013.
For further details on the conference please email us at icreth@leedsmet.ac.uk
