In this episode, I talk to ⁠Shirley Nieuwland⁠, independent researcher and consultant, about urban tourism and sustainability. Shirley has written her dissertation on those topics by researching sustainable tourism development in cities in the Netherlands and in Spain. In this episode, we unpack some buzzwords, from ‘overtourism’ to ‘degrowth’ and ‘gentrification’, and talk about how tourism can be part of the solution more than the problem.   Shirley’s recommended resources: - Rotmans, J. (2021). Omarm de chaos. De Geus. - Milano, C., Novelli, M., & Cheer, J. M. (2019). Overtourism and degrowth: A social movements perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(12), 1857-1875. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1650054⁠ - Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing. - “Bye Bye Barcelona”, documentary available on Youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdXcFChRpmI⁠                         Shirley’s highlighted work: - Nieuwland, S., Versloot, E., & van der Zee, E. (2022). The Rotterdam way: a new take on urban tourism management. In J. van der Borg (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Urban Tourism (pp. 127-142). Edward Elgar Publishing. ⁠https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789907407.00014⁠ - Nieuwland, S., & Lavanga, M. (2020). The consequences of being ‘the Capital of Cool’. Creative entrepreneurs and the sustainable development of creative tourism in the urban context of Rotterdam. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(6), 926-943. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1841780⁠   Thank you to Elmeri Tommiska for the music and post-production assistance.

In this episode, I talk to Julia Martínez-Ariño, Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) about religion in cities. Julia’s research focuses on religion and secularism, and the way they materialize in everyday urban settings. In her book, “Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe”, Julia discusses the messy and multilayered daily deployment of secularism in French cities. Julia’s recommended readings: Beaman, L. G. (2013). Battles over Symbols: The Religion of the Minority versus the Culture of the Majority. Journal of Law and Religion, 28, 67–104. Amiraux, V. (2016). Visibility, transparency and gossip: How did the religion of some (Muslims) become the public concern of others? Critical Research on Religion, 4(1), 37–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050303216640399 Koenig, M. (2007). Europeanising the governance of religious diversity: An institutionalist account of Muslim struggles for public recognition. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(6), 911–932. Griera, M. (2016). The governance of religious diversity in stateless nations: The case of Catalonia. Religion, State & Society, 1–19. Schiller, M. (2015). Paradigmatic pragmatism and the politics of diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(7), 1120–1136. Julia’s highlighted work: Griera, M., Müller, T., & Martínez-Ariño, J. (2022). The Politics of Mapping Religion: Locating, Counting, and Categorizing Places of Worship in European Cities. Space and Culture, 26(2), 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/120633122311611 Martínez-Ariño, J. (2021). “It’s the First Sukkah since the Inquisition!”: Jewish Celebrations in Public Spaces in Barcelona. In Bramadat, P., Griera, M., Burchardt, M., & Martinez-Ariño, J. (Eds.). Urban religious events: Public spirituality in contested spaces. Bloomsbury Publishing, 95-110. Martínez-Ariño, J. (2020). Urban secularism: Negotiating religious diversity in Europe. Routledge. Thank you to Elmeri Tommiska for the music and post-production assistance.

In this episode, I talk to Delia Dumitrica (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) about the way the nation is represented, or flagged, in cities, and how that is often done in ways that are mundane or taken for granted. Delia’s research focuses on protest communication, digital activism and the discursive construction of the political functions of new media. In addition to this, she has worked on everyday and banal forms of nationalism. You can read Delia’s work on the visual representations of nations in cities here. Delia’s recommended readings: Billig, M. (1995). Banal Nationalism. Sage. Skey, M. (2011). National belonging and everyday life: The significance of nationhood in an uncertain world. Springer. Delia’s work on the visual representations of nations in cities: Dumitrica, D. (2019). The ideological work of the daily visual representations of nations. Nations and Nationalism, 25(3), 910-934. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/nana.12520 Thank you to Elmeri Tommiska for the music and post-production assistance.

In this episode, I talk with Isabel Awad (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) about what makes cities such an interesting venue to examine and what they can help us understand. Isabel is part of the Vital Cities and Citizens network at Erasmus University Rotterdam for which she is project leader of the research team on Inclusive Cities and Diversity. Isabel has been involved in the research programme “(Re)mapping Rotterdam”. In this video, Isabel and her colleague Zouhair Hammana talk with Adel AlBaghdadi, founder of WE Organization, about the mapping exercise used in the course “Communicating (in)equality in the city” at EUR. You can read some of Isabel’s work here and here. Isabel’s recommended readings: Young, Iris Marion. (2000). Inclusion and democracy. Oxford University press. Young, Iris Marion. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press. Cerwonka, A., & Malkki, L. H. (2008). Improvising theory. In Improvising Theory. University of Chicago Press. Isabel’s work: Awad, I. (2011). Latinas/os and the mainstream press: The exclusions of professional diversity. Journalism, 12, 515-532. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911408221 Awad, I. (2014). Journalism, poverty, and the marketing of misery: News from Chile's “largest ghetto.” Journal of Communication, 64, 1066-87. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12124 Thank you to Elmeri Tommiska for the music and post-production assistance.