Strategic use of social networks to promote and to innovate tourism

in the urban ecosystem

@vbazzarinvalentina.bazzarin@unibo.it

#SmartketingLesson III

Topics: local communities and conflicts

This seminar faces the importance of local communities and the key role of human capital for sustainable forms of tourism, mentioning flames, conflicts and battles won or lost in the social

media arenas.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V4kz98g6yo

Social capital / cultural capital

“involvement and participation in groups can have positive consequences for the individual and the community is a staple notion, dating back to Durkheim’s emphasis on group life as an antidote to anomie and self- destruction and to Marx’s distinction between an atomized class-in-itself and a mobilized and effective class-for-itself.” (Portes, 1998)

Social Capital“the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” (Bourdieu 1985, p. 248; 1980).

Class and capital in peer production

Class (def.)(Sociology) a group of persons sharing a similar social position and certain economic, political, and cultural characteristicsSource: Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Peer to Peer (def.)Bauwens (2009)

Community

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community

Stocks of social capital, such as trust, norms, and networks, tend to be self- reinforcing and cumulative. Successful collaboration in one endeavor builds connections and trust – social assets that facilitate future collaboration in other, unrelated tasks. As with conventional capital, those who have social capital tend to accumulate more – them as has, gets. Social capital is what the social philosopher Albert O. Hirschman calls a “moral resource,” that is, a resource whose supply increases rather than decreases through use and which (unlike physical capital) becomes depleted if not used.Source: Putnam 1993

Ex. Urban trekking in Bologna

The value of social capital

Source Portes (1998)

Community based tourism

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdR0TPrmVF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6RMc1NW59k

Insights about sustainability

Global village and globalization

The contemporary process of globalization has its origin in economic, political, and cultural factors, as documented by scholarly analyses of globalization (Beck, 2000; Held and McGrew, 2000, 2007; Stiglitz, 2002). But, as a number of studies have indicated, the forces driving globalization could only be effectuated because they have at their disposal the global networking capacity provided by digital communication technologies and information systems, including computerized, long-haul, fast, transportation networks (Kiyoshi et al., 2006; Grewal, 2008). This is, in fact, what separates, in size, speed, and complexity, the current process of globalization from previous forms of globalization in earlier historical periods.

[..] the more the globalization process proceeds, the more the contradictions it generates (identity crises, economic crises, security crises) lead to a revival of nationalism, and to attempts to restore the primacy of sovereignty.

Castells (2009)

Community in a networked society

“An abundance of claims, optimistic and pessimistic, have been made regarding what impact the media – and most recently the Internet – may have on society in general and community in particular. It seems as if each generation has been represented by its pundits on the contribution media may have on the human condition … media were equally feared as potential tools for political propaganda; television and movies, moreover, were suspected of being able to undermine the very fabric of society, deforming young minds and debasing cultural heritage. Most of such claims, initially, had little grounding in evidence, and when systematic and extensive studies were eventually conducted the results were, at best, mixed.”

in JANKOWSKI “Creating Community with Media: History, Theories and Scientific Investigations”

Broadcasting Vs narrowcasting

The media, from culturally diverse television broadcasting (for example, Al Jazeera in Arabic/English or CNN American/International/CNN en Espanol) to Web 2.0, may be the pro- tocols of communication that either bridge cultural divides or further fragment our societies into autonomous cultural islands and trenches of resistance.The multiplication of channels and modes of communication permitted by new technologies and changes in regulation, the industry has evolved from a predominantly homogeneous mass communication medium, anchored around national television and radio networks, to a diverse media system combining broadcasting with narrowcasting to niche audiences. Yet, even a fragmented audience consuming customized programming remains a subordinate addressee whose preferences are interpreted by media corporations on the basis of sociodemographic profiling.(Castells 2009)

Urban conflicts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNVF6mDG6B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8oSPnZLK04

Urban conflict and social media

Source: http://www.ejinsight.com/20140929-instagram-reportedly-blocked-in-china-amid-hong-kong-protests/

Just another niche?

Focus on tourism #SCE2014