ATLAS Annual Conference 2026
Community, Collaboration and Co-creation in Times of Crisis
Leeds, United Kingdom
June 23-26, 2026
Special Track 1 – Regenerative Tourism
Special Track 2 – From Dissonance to Design: Ethics, Evidence, and Care across Dark & Heritage Sites
Special Track 3 – Systems Thinking for Collaborative Tourism Governance in Times of Crisis
Special Track 4 – Volunteer Tourism and Space Place Mobilities in Tourism
Special Track 5 – Platformisation of tourism and hospitality work and impact on worker well-being: The role of social dialogue
Special Track 6 – Co-Creating Acts of Community Resistance in Tourism Destinations in times of Crisis
Introduction
Community, Collaboration and Co-creation in Times of Crisis
We live in a time of multiple, intersecting crises that are shaping new ways of engaging with and experiencing tourism. These crises include growing inequalities, threats to democracies, social fragmentation, the rise of populism and nationalism, forced displacement, climate change, global oligarchies, the increasing power of technocracy, wars, and pandemics. These changes and challenges not only refine the meaning of communities but also influence how collaborative and participatory patterns emerge and evolve among tourism stakeholders.
In traditional anthropology and sociology, the concept of communities has often been framed in unproblematic terms (Jørgensen, 2024). However, recent global geo-political, ecological and economic shifts have contributed to a more critical examination of this concept. Communities are typically defined as groups that share a common geographical or physical space (Urry, 2001) but also belong to the same social group. In discussing the local turn in tourism, Higgins-Desbiolles and Bigby (2022, p.2) define local communities as “more than just a certain group of people associated with a place. Instead, we are more broadly inclusive of the local community, the local ecology (living air, land and waterscapes and more-than-human beings) and all generations pertaining to that place (including future ones)”.
The concept is further problematised in relation to growing divisions, polarised identities and ideologies, global misinformation (via the web, for example) and human/non-human exploitation. In acknowledging the contradictions, ‘fractures and disenchantments’ of our time (Braidotti, 2019, p.36), Rosi Braidotti calls for closer scrutiny on the meaning and entanglements of ‘we’ (p.37). This invites a critical reconsideration of how our shared condition shapes understandings of who ‘we’ are and to what extent, we can argue, we are in this together.
The possibilities and potentials of our collective praxis and aspirations to navigate, through transformation and resistance, fractures and ‘irreconcilable power differences’ (Braidotti, 2019, p.43), allow us to consider the heterogeneity and diversity of relational subjects (both human and non-human) and approaches. Accordingly, Braidotti (2019, p.157) argues that “we-are-in-this-together-but-we-are-not-one-of-the-same” (italics in the original). This highlights that our heterogeneity is defined by social categories such as class, race, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness but also by power, norms, values, privileges, rights, entitlements (Braidotti, 2019). The multiplicity of relational, heterogeneous subjects forms communities that must act together to reclaim power, agency and freedom.
Within the leisure context of tourism and events, we focus on the affirmative possibilities that community participation can forge through collaboration, driven by the shared aspiration of empowerment, fairness and inclusion. However, this is not without challenges, as communities’ involvement, participation and co-production are often hindered by the “structural injustices under which tourism operates” (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020, p.616). Localising (Freya Higgins-Desbiolles and Bigby, 2022) and socialising tourism (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020) may open possibilities for greater justice and well-being for local communities and, more broadly, for all tourism stakeholders.
For this conference, we invite contributions from a wide range of multi-, intra- and transdisciplinary fields on ways community participatory and collaborative approaches unfold in tourism destinations. We encourage critical debates on innovative and creative theoretical, methodological and practical community approaches to collaboration and co-creation within the fields of events, tourism and hospitality. Furthermore, we seek thought-provoking insights into the factors that might hinder such approaches. In reflecting on how, if and to what extent collaboration and co-creation develop in tourism contexts, we pose the following questions:
How do power structures influence collaboration and co-creation in tourism destinations?
What power dynamics influence collaborative approaches to tourism?
How do collaboration and co-creation unfold in a time of multiple, intersecting crises? Which crises are the most influential, and how can they be overcome through community involvement and collaboration?
How do communities respond locally to global changes and challenges?
To what extent are grassroots movements and approaches influential in shaping co-creation of types of tourism that benefit destinations and communities? Have these evolved over time and in response to the multiple crises experienced globally?
What are the enablers and barriers to developing collaboration and co-creation within the tourism sector between Western and Indigenous approaches?
How do collaborative approaches develop over a human/non-human continuum?
References
Braidotti, R. (2019). Posthuman knowledge (Vol. 2). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jørgensen, M. T., Sundbo, J., & Fuglsang, L. (2024). Co-creating communities of place in second home tourism. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 24(2), 153-172.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2021). Socialising tourism for social and ecological justice after COVID-19. In Global tourism and COVID-19 (pp. 156-169). Routledge.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F., & Bigby, B. C. Embracing the Local Turn in Tourism to Empower Communities.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F. and Bigby, B.C. (2022) A local turn in tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research 92, 103291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2021.103291.
Urry, J. (2001). The sociology of space and place. The Blackwell companion to sociology, 1(1), 3-15.
Keynote speakers
Anna De Jong
Anna de Jong is a Professor of Tourism and Regional Development at the University of Glasgow. Anna is an interdisciplinary social scientist, with a background in human geography, tourism management and philosophy. Her current research takes focus with tourism governance in regional areas, guided by wider concerns of resident inequalities, political capacities and participatory governance.
Sandro Carnicelli
Sandro Carnicelli is a Professor of Tourism and Leisure Studies at the University of the West of Scotland and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Culture, Sport, and Events (CCSE). Sandro is a member of ABRATUR (International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil) and the current chair of the Renfrewshire Council Tourism Leadership Group. Previously, he was the Treasurer of the Leisure Studies Association and a member of the Executive Board of ABPCO (Association of British Professional Conference Organisers).
As a researcher, Sandro has been working in the fields of Tourism, Events, and Leisure for 20 years. Sandro has now over 50 publications between book chapters and peer-reviewed papers. Sandro has co-edited three books: Digital Leisure Cultures (2014); Lifestyle Sports and Public Policy (2014); and Tourism Cases in Latin America (2025). He has delivered funded projects for organisations such as the Carnegie Trust, UK Department of Transport, the Moffat Trust, The Higher Education Academy, and the UKRI-GCRF. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Leisure Studies Journal, and the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. He acts as an Associate Editor for Event Management Journal, and he is currently the Editor in-Chief of the World Leisure Journal.
Raoul Bianchi
Raoul Bianchi is Reader in Political Economy in the Faculty of Business & Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. Following ethnographic field research on different aspects of tourism development and cultural heritage in the Canary Islands in the 1990s, over the past two decades his work pivoted towards theoretical scrutiny of the international political economy of tourism and related themes, including, dynamics of tourism and capitalism; tourism geopolitics and citizenship; tourism, work and labour relations and more recently, questions related to the political economy of crisis and postgrowth visitor economies. His primary empirical focus remains Spain, southern Europe and the wider Mediterranean region, which has led to long and fruitful collaborations with the Universities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and others in the region, as well as the independent research think-tank, Alba Sud. Raoul was for several years a visiting lecturer at Wageningen University and Research and is currently an Associate Editor at Annals of Tourism Research and editorial board member of Tourism Planning and Development and the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. Raoul has also been closely involved in campaigns for tourism and socioecological justice and was previously a member of the executive council of former UK NGO, Tourism Concern.
Conference Sub-Themes
The main theme of the conference is:
Community, Collaboration and Co-creation in Times of Crisis
In the context of tourism destinations navigating complex crises, turbulence and uncertainty we welcome abstracts in the following areas:
- Power and Participation in Tourism – Exploring how social, political, and institutional hierarchies shape collaboration and co-creation in destinations, particularly during periods of instability.
- Collaborative and Systemic Pathways in times of (Poly)crisis – Exploring how collaboration and systemic co-creation foster resilient communities and destinations amid the uncertainty of multiple intersecting crises.
- Grassroots Innovation and Community-Led Tourism – Highlighting the impact of bottom-up initiatives on co-created tourism practices that address evolving local needs and complex disruptions.
- Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Approaches to Co-creation– Fostering inclusive, culturally sensitive, and respectful collaboration in tourism, particularly during times of social or environmental turbulence.
- Rethinking Co-Creation in Tourism – Advancing innovative theories, methods, and practical approaches to enhance participatory practices.
- Human and Non-Human Collaboration – Integrating environmental systems, non-human actors, and ethical considerations into tourism co-creation.
- Barriers and Breakthroughs in Participatory Tourism – Examining challenges, approaches and strategies that shape successful collaborative initiatives under turbulent contexts.
- Local Adaptation to Global Change – Investigating how communities and destinations transform tourism practices through participatory, systemic and co-creative approaches.
- Creative Co-Created Experiences – Showcasing innovation, engagement, and imaginative collaboration in events, tourism, outdoor recreation, and hospitality under disruption.
- Inclusive Tourism Futures – Envisioning resilient, equitable and community-empowering collaborative practices in tourism destinations in times of uncertainty.
Call for Special Tracks
The conference organizers invite proposals for organizing special tracks during the conference and encourage ATLAS Special Interest Groups and Chapters to plan meetings and workshops within or alongside the conference programme. Please contact admin@atlas-euro.org before December 15th 2025 if you have any plans to organize a Special Track, SIG meeting or a project meeting during this conference.
Special Track 1
Regenerative Tourism
Special Track Convenors
Sanna-Mari Renfors – Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Aisling Ward – Munster Technological University, Ireland
A shift from sustainability to the regenerative paradigm is needed to increase the vitality of ecological systems and human wellbeing. As a result of this mindset shift, regenerative tourism has become increasingly promising in responding to environmental and social challenges as an alternative to the current methods of developing and managing tourism.
This Special Track aims to foster a comprehensive forum for exploring how embracing an ecological worldview, the regenerative mindset and the principles of regenerative development can be applied to tourism. It welcomes contributions related to increasing the regenerative capacity and wellbeing of natural and human living systems in the tourism context.
The track invites researchers to discuss regenerative tourism as a concept and its practical considerations in action. In line with the theme of the ATLAS 2026 conference, the track fosters interdisciplinary dialogue about collaborative and community participatory approaches in regenerative tourism.
Therefore, this session welcomes submissions on topics including, but not limited to:
• Theoretical perspectives of regenerative tourism – concepts, principles and systems thinking
• Tourism SMEs as change agents; regenerative business models, practices and products
• Regenerative tourism entrepreneurship
• Regenerative destination planning and management
• Governance and policymaking in regenerative tourism
• The role of the tourist in regenerative tourism, behavioral change and involvement
• Place and community specific, participatory approaches to regenerative tourism
• Nature and environment
• Social, culture and economic considerations
• Regenerative justice, fairness and inclusion
• Inter- and multidisciplinary approaches to regenerative tourism
Special Track 2
From Dissonance to Design: Ethics, Evidence, and Care across Dark & Heritage Sites
SIG Dark Tourism
SIG Heritage Tourism and Education
Special Track convenors
Konstantina Zerva, University of Girona, Spain
Adrian Guachalla Gutierrez, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Gai Jorayev – Macao University of Tourism, China
This special track, jointly organised by two ATLAS Special Interest Groups, ‘Dark Tourism’ and ‘Heritage Tourism and Education’, invites contributions which showcase conceptual, methodological and empirical advances to understand the relation between heritage, tourism and dark times.
In recent years, tourism has increasingly expanded into sites and situations marked by conflict, injustice, trauma, environmental devastation and other forms of “dissonant” heritage. At the same time, educators, curators, guides and communities are experimenting with new ways of designing visitor experiences that invite critical reflection, responsibility and forms of care. This joint special track aims to explore how ethically grounded and pedagogically informed “design” can respond to the tensions, power relations and emotional demands that characterise dark and dissonant heritage.
The track invites contributions that interrogate how such sites are curated, narrated, governed, consumed and taught: from former prisons, battlefields and memorials, to sites of colonial violence, border regimes, forced displacement, socio-environmental disasters, or everyday urban marginality. We are particularly interested in how visitors’ motivations, emotions and media practices intersect with institutional strategies, community perspectives and educational interventions; and in how collaboration and co-creation can move tourism beyond voyeurism towards solidarity, recognition and repair.
We welcome conceptual, empirical, methodological and practice-based papers, as well as reflexive accounts from practitioners and educators. We invite submissions that may address, but are not be limited to, the below-mentioned areas:
• Co-creating experiences at dark tourism heritage sites – ‘voiceless’ communities in shaping the tourism product, narrative and representation;
• Ruptures in dark heritage tourism – from contestation to collaboration
• Planning for resilient dark heritage tourism
• Ethics, emotions and care in dark & dissonant heritage tourism
• Pedagogies of difficult pasts and troubling presents
• Guided Tours, Embodied Itineraries and On-Site Storytelling
• Decolonising Narratives at Dark & Heritage Sites
• Immersive Technologies and Experiential Simulations of Trauma and Conflict
• Consent, voice and vulnerability when working with affected communities in the co-creation, curation and communication of dark and dissonant heritage.
This special track aims to foster dialogue between scholars and practitioners working on dark tourism, heritage, and tourism education, and to collectively explore how more ethical, evidence-based and caring forms of design can contribute to community, collaboration and co-creation in times of crisis.
Special Track 3
Systems Thinking for Collaborative Tourism Governance in Times of Crisis
SIG Systems Thinking
Special Track Convenors
Kyriaki Glyptou – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Rodolfo Baggio – Bocconi University, Italy
Tourism today unfolds within a landscape of overlapping crises that reshape destination relationships, challenge existing power structures and expose deep systemic vulnerabilities across tourism destinations and their governance frameworks. In such turbulent and uncertain times, new realisations emerge, prompting critical questions about who “we” are as interconnected stakeholders crucially embedded within communities, and how our actions—and those of others—ripple across our shared futures.
This is precisely where Systems Thinking offers a necessary shift in mindset. Rather than viewing the impact of crises in isolation, a systemic perspective reveals how shocks reverberate across communities, institutions, governance structures and ecosystems, bringing into focus the feedback loops, dependencies and leverage points that traditional governance approaches often overlook. Crises reveal the limitations of reductionist governance where decisions are taken isolation from the social, cultural, economic and ecological relationships that bind communities and destinations together.
Within this broader systems view, collaboration becomes not merely a participatory aspiration but a vital mechanism for system-wide transformation in crisis governance and decision-making. Systems Thinking reveals how governance choices cascade across social and ecological scales, how policies both influence and reflect community resilience and vulnerability, and how crises expose hidden interdependencies and systemic inequities. It further highlights collaboration and co-creation as powerful leverage points for structural transformation. Integrating Systems Thinking into tourism governance and policy enables actors to anticipate unintended consequences, build long-term resilience and co-design strategies grounded in community priorities.
This Special Track positions Systems Thinking as a crucial foundation for effective crisis governance and invites conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions that demonstrate how systemic approaches can transform tourism governance, policy development and impact assessment in times of crisis, strengthening the overall resilience of tourism destinations and their communities. We invite submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
1. Systems Thinking in Governance and Policy
• Governance frameworks that integrate complexity, feedback loops and long-term impacts
• How governance choices cascade across social and ecological scales
• Systems-based assessment of policy responses and their effects on community resilience
2. Crisis, Vulnerability and System Dynamics
• How crises expose system weaknesses, inequities and hidden interdependencies
• Systems mapping of vulnerabilities, cascading effects and adaptive capacities
• Long-term, transformative approaches to crisis response beyond short-term fixes
3. Systems Thinking for Power Shifts and Regenerative Futures
• Collaboration and co-creation as leverage points for structural change and power redistribution
• Systems-based approaches that foreground justice and equity in crisis governance and long-term transformation
• Co-creating solutions informed by diverse knowledges and worldviews and participatory practices.
4. Applied and Empirical Insights
• Case studies of systemic change and adaptive transitions in tourism during or after crises
• Empirical insights into complexity, interdependence and multi-scalar governance within the tourism system
• Participatory decision-making models that strengthen system resilience and support adaptive, community-centred governance
The Track will host a participatory workshop using soft systems thinking and causal loop modelling to explore a tourism crisis scenario, identify key feedback loops and reveal potential leverage points for transformative action.
Special Track 4
SIG Volunteer Tourism
SIG Space Place Mobilities in Tourism
Special Track Convenors
Elisa Burrai – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Davide Sterchele – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Antonio Paolo Russo – Rovira i Virgili University, Spain
Isabel Paulino Valldepérez – Rovira i Virgili University, Spain
In this joint special track, we explore the intersections between mobilities, volunteering, aid, and (international) development in times of crisis with a focus on the spatial and mobile dimensions of volunteering practices. This session aims to stimulate critical discussion on how multiple and overlapping crises, including growing inequalities, threats to democracy, social fragmentation, populism and nationalism, forced displacement, climate change, the rise of technocracy, wars, and pandemics, shape and transform contemporary geographies of mobility and the productions of place through volunteering.
Following Laurie and Baillie Smith (2018), and the broader call to think “biopolitically” of tourism mobilities (Sheller, 2015), we seek to challenge “fixed understandings of agency and experiences” in established volunteering scholarship. In recent decades, volunteer tourism and transnational mobility — often from the Global North to the Global South — have been interrogated for reproducing unequal power relations, white saviourism, dependency, and neo-colonial imaginaries. Yet these practices are always spatially grounded and mobile: they involve movements through specific infrastructures, affective landscapes, and territorial imaginaries that construct both volunteers and host communities in particular ways (Trifan & Dolezal, 2024).
Echoing Baillie Smith, Thomas & Hazeldine (2021), we encourage closer scrutiny of how volunteering experiences move, circulate, and evolve in today’s unsettled global context. This track explores the temporalities and spatialities of volunteering, questioning universalist understandings of (international) volunteering: how places of volunteering are made and remade, how borders, infrastructures, and technologies mediate access and belonging, and how changing mobility regimes reshape ideas of care, solidarity, and moral responsibility (Di Matteo, 2024).
In a world of shifting geopolitics, forced migration, climate emergencies, conflict, and rising populist nationalism, concepts such as care, solidarity, altruism, ethics, and morality may acquire new context-specific meanings across spatial and moral geographies (Burrai and Sterchele, 2025). The deep and fast-paced socio-ecological, political, economic, and technological transformations of our time invite consideration of new forms of (im)mobile volunteering, including bottom-up and grassroots initiatives with potential for systemic change. In light of these considerations, we ask:
• How do crises reshape the spatial organisation of volunteering and the infrastructures of mobility that sustain it?
• How will mobility flows and trajectories be shaped by climate change, inequality, democracy crises, digital surveillance, and global economic shifts?
• Who will be able, or permitted, or take new interest to travel and volunteer in the future, and why?
• How do places of volunteering (villages, urban spaces, borderlands, online communities) become arenas for negotiating belonging, ethics, and power?
• Will economic and political pressures erode the Global North’s middle-class foundation of volunteer tourism, or trigger new South–North and intra-regional mobilities?
We invite conceptual, empirical, and methodological contributions that address these questions and critically examine the future of volunteer tourism and mobilities. Submissions may engage with themes such as:
• Changing spatial and power relations in volunteering mobilities;
• Ethics, care, and solidarity in situated contexts of crisis;
• Digital and virtual volunteering (im)mobilities and their spatial politics;
• The impact of surveillance, borders, and mobility restrictions;
• Postcolonial and feminist approaches to volunteering spaces and movements;
• Grassroots, place-based and locally driven forms of volunteering;
• Affective geographies and the making of “spaces of care” and “places of solidarity.”
Our aim is to map and debate possible futures: from fairer, more inclusive, and environmentally sustainable volunteer tourism to a more fragmented world where mobility is increasingly controlled, surveilled, and unequally distributed.
Finally, we will explore opportunities for publishing a collection of fully developed papers in a special issue in a relevant and high-impact journal in our field.
References
Baillie Smith, M., Thomas, N., & Hazeldine, S. (2021). Rethinking volunteering and cosmopolitanism: Beyond individual mobilities and personal transformations. Geopolitics, 26(5), 1353-1375.
Burrai, E., & Sterchele, D. (2025). Towards posthuman geographies of volunteer tourism in a time of polycrisis. Tourism Geographies, 27(3-4), 666-676.
Di Matteo, G. (2023). Resistance or exclusion? The paradoxes of volunteer tourism, migration, and memorialization nexuses. Tourism Geographies, 25(7), 1746-1762.
Laurie, N., & Baillie Smith, M. (2018). Unsettling geographies of volunteering and development. Transactions of the institute of British geographers, 43(1), 95-109.
Sheller, M. (2016). Uneven Mobility Futures: A Foucauldian Approach. Mobilities, 11(1), 15-31.
Trifan, C. A., & Dolezal, C. (2024). Digital voluntourism and sense of place: volunteers’ responsibility towards an ‘imaginary locality’. Tourism Geographies, 26(8), 1293-1312.
Special Track 5
Platformisation of tourism and hospitality work and impact on worker well-being: The role of social dialogue
Special Track Convenors
Fiona Bakas – University of Lisbon, Portugal
Michela Trentin – University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Stroma Cole – University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Tara Duncan – Dalarna University, Sweden/Thomspon Rivers University, Canada
Kavita Ashton – Equality in Tourism, United Kingdom
The Tourism and Hospitality (T&H) sector is increasingly utilising sharing economy platforms. The sector is already well known for its labour intensity and high participation rates of young people, women, and migrant workers who often lack opportunities and voice, have poor working conditions (including seasonality and unsocial hours), high rates of precarious/non-standard employment and low rates of unionization (Giousmpasoglou, 2024). Disadvantaged people, including women, are arguably more vulnerable in this new work environment and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, 2022) warns that whilst sharing platforms can contribute to more gender equality, they can also reinforce sexism and inequality.
The Digital Revolution, as a wave of innovation, is leading to the growth of some sectors of activity and jobs within them, and the reduction or disappearance of other (now old) sectors and jobs. Digitalization in the T&H sector can also be seen to play ‘a critical role in mobilizing workers social differences’ (Alberti & Iannuzzi, 2020, p. 2), transforming labour dynamics and creating opportunities and challenges for workers, particularly in the context of sharing economy platforms. Worker well-being is central to digitisation, but there is a “conceptual jungle that currently characterizes the employee wellbeing literature” (Mäkikangas et al. 2016, p. 62). Hence worker well-being is defined here as the capacity to live the lives individuals value, supported through health, financial security, work–life balance and social inclusion (ILO, n.d.; OECD, 2022), and includes having dignity, autonomy, authenticity and purpose (Mellors & Gaspar, 2025).
Platform work more generally, is seen by some as just ‘piece-work dressed up with a fancy technology’ (Dubal, 2020), but more and more people are relying on platforms for their full-time employment, rather than just supplementing their income as has been the case in the recent past (Cansoy & Schor, 2023). For workers who earn all their income from platform work, platform work is not a “gig,” but an all-consuming job with long hours, often depending on two or more platforms for livelihood.
Focusing on the impact of plaformisation on worker well-being in particular, T&H sharing platforms are defined here as companies that: 1) recruit T&H workers to work in hotels, restaurants, and events; 2) connect service providers with customers; and 3) conduct surveillance (algorithmic management and biometric control) of T&H workers whilst they are working. Despite the infiltration of digitisation within many T&H workers’ lives, for example as seen in how gender-based harassment emerges in this type of T&H platform work as the type of relationships between client and service provider (or tourist-host) is changing in the new platform work context (Bakas & Salman, 2024), very limited research exists on the impact of the rapidly technologically advancing phenomenon from a workers´ perspective (Iranmanesh et al., 2022). So how does the rise of these sharing platforms—e.g., Constellations, Coople as recruitment platforms, FairBnB as a service-provider network and algorithmic management systems—impact the workforce’s well-being and quality of life?
The future structure of employment, whether upgrading, polarization or something else, has important implications for the future of work and social dialogue. Social dialogue, which can be defined as the iinvolvement of social partners in policymaking, has started to be implemented in the tourism industry in the EU relatively recently (Dresin, 2019). However, despite the EU’s sustained efforts to promote social dialogue, it only provides minimal legal provision for its effective enforcement (Guisset, Lenaerts & Vangeel, 2025). During the COVID pandemic there was an increased realisation that collaboration between the state, industry, social partners and workers was essential to stabilise the tourism sector and lead the path of sustainable recovery. If social dialogue is an important form of collaboration and has the potential to improve workers well-being, which is essential for more resilient and human well-being centred tourism development models, more research on this topic is required to progress knowledge and ensure theory can become a reality.
We welcome critical, engaged empirical research presentations as part of this paper session. Topics for consideration might include, but are not limited to:
• Is there a well-being crisis in T&H work?
• How platformisation of the T&H sector leads to both positive and negative impacts on workers’ well-being
• Case studies of how T&H platforms influence vulnerable T&H workers
• Ways in which algorithmic surveillance in T&H work relates to precarious working conditions
• How tripartite (workers-industry-trade unions) social dialogue operates in the T&H industry
• What barriers or opportunities for collaboration are there for social dialogue in T&H?
• How T&H platforms act as mediators, attracting and selecting self-employed platform workers, how they reconfigure the roles and responsibilities of human resource management, and what is their impact on worker’s experiences
• What the implications are of platformisation at the intersections with other stakeholder groups (apart from workers) such as the destination, local community or tourists
• A focus on gendered, intersectional perspectives and how these may impact well-being, social dialogue and platformisation.
The second part of this call will be for a workshop session which will build on the collection of papers presented in session(s) above. It will also utilise the impetus of the FUTOURWORK project (see www.futourwork.eu) to bring together scholars and other interested parties to discuss how our research, outputs and dissemination can be utilised to make a difference, specifically in relations to intersectionality, social dialogue and well-being in light of the platformisation of T&H. Employing multi-stakeholder engagement in our dissemination processes, this workshop will involve group activities, lively discussion and scenario planning to work towards tangible ways forward for students, academics, workers and industry stakeholders to engage, promote and ensure well-being in the T&H sectors.
Acknowledgements
FUTOURWORK is a Horizon Europe project, funded by the European Union under grant number 101178573.
References
Alberti G. & Iannuzzi, F. E. (2020). Embodied intersectionality and the intersectional management of hotel labour: The everyday experiences of social differentiation in customer-oriented work. Gender Work Organisation, 27, 1165–1180. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12454
Bakas, F.E. & Salman, D. (2024). ‘’You ensure your own safety’: Gender and tourism labour in the gig economy’. Gender, Place and Culture. 31(8), 1072-1094, https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2024.2327999
Cansoy, M., & Schor, J. (2023). Commercialization on “Sharing Platforms”: The Case of Airbnb Hosting. American Behavioral Scientist, 68(8), 983-1006. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642231155366 (Original work published 2024)
Dubal, V. B. (2020). The time politics of home-based digital piecework. Centre for Ethics Journal, 2020, 50.
Dresin, E. (2019). Social Dialogue in the European Hotel and Restaurant Sector-EFFAT-HOTREC Work Programme 2020-2021 Issues Methodology Output.
EIGE. (2022). “Artificial Intelligence, Platform Work and Gender Equality”.
https://eige.europa. eu/publications/artificial-intelligence-platform-work-and-gender-equality
Giousmpasoglou, C. (2024). Working Conditions in the Hospitality Industry: The Case for a Fair and Decent Work Agenda. Sustainability, 16(19),8428. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198428
Guisset, A., Lenaerts, K., & Vangeel, N. (2025). How the EU shapes National Social Dialogue: A Qualitative analysis of social partners’ Involvement in the Recovery and Resilience Plans and Territorial Just Transition Plans. Shaker Verlag GmbH.
ILO. (n.d.) Decent work. https://www.ilo.org/topics/decent-work
Iranmanesh, M., Ghobakhloo, M., Nilashi, M., Tseng, M. L., Yadegaridehkordi, E., & Leung, N. (2022). Applications of disruptive digital technologies in hotel industry: A systematic review. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 107, 103304.
OECD. (2022). Promoting health and well-being at work: Policy and practices. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/e179b2a5-en
Mäkikangas, A., Kinnunen, U., Feldt, T., & Schaufeli, W. (2016). The longitudinal development of employee well-being: A systematic review. Work & stress, 30(1), 46-70.
Mellors, J. & Gaspar, T. (2025). Keeping it real? Authenticity and well-being at work. Annals of Tourism Research, 114, 104012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2025.104012
Special Track 6
Co-Creating Acts of Community Resistance in Tourism Destinations in times of Crisis
SIG Systems Thinking
SIG Visual Tourism
Special Track Convenors
Kyriaki Glyptou – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Nick Mai – University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Nika Balomenou – Swansea University, United Kingdom
Communities within tourism destinations face mounting challenges in the contemporary turbulent and uncertain era. Climate change endangers ecosystems and livelihoods; political instability and conflict fracture social cohesion; widening economic precarity deepens social inequalities; and global market volatility amplifies social, economic and economic risks and threatens stability and collective resilience. This polycrisis exposes structural injustices that often marginalize local community voices while privileging dominant interests, creating asymmetrical power relations that constrain participation in decision-making.
Amid these pressures, communities can be both passive recipients of external forces and active agents who engage in active or passive acts of resistance. Resistance takes many forms—ranging from grassroots mobilization and indigenous-led initiatives to everyday practices of resilience, cultural and natural resources preservation and identity affirmation. Yet these acts rarely emerge in isolation. They are co-created through formal and informal collaboration and interaction among diverse actors—local residents, social movements, civil society groups, tourism practitioners, researchers, filmmakers, and even non-human agents such as ecosystems and heritage landscapes—that collectively reimagine and reshape tourism futures.
Co-creating acts of resistance requires acknowledging complexity, embracing plural perspectives, and mobilizing collective capacities. It involves building solidarities across differences, experimenting with innovative practices, and identifying leverage points within systems where small actions can generate significant change. Through such collaborative resistance, communities engage affectively and collectively with their environment in ways that can allow them to reclaim agency, transform tourism from a source of vulnerability into a platform for empowerment, and open pathways towards more just, inclusive, and sustainable futures.
This track explores how communities, in times of turbulence and uncertainty, develop innovative ways to navigate structural constraints and power asymmetries, re-affirming or re-inventing their values, aspirations, and identities while co-creating tourism experiences that strengthen resilience.
We invite contributions that critically examine collaborative, participatory, and co-creative practices as forms of resistance, empowerment, and justice in tourism, hospitality and event contexts.
Indicative Themes
• Tourism in the Polycrisis: Collaborative responses to climate change, economic precarity, political instability, and global market volatility
• Acts of Resistance: Grassroots, Indigenous-led, and everyday community practices aiming to preserve culture, identity, and ecosystems
• Power and Participation: Unpacking asymmetrical power relations and structural injustices in tourism governance and decision-making
• Collaborative Futures: Co-creation and co-production among residents, civil society, social movements, tourism authorities and tourism private sector
• Human and More-than-Human Communities: Exploring the role of ecosystems, heritage landscapes, and non-human actors in shaping tourism resistance
• Localising and Socialising Tourism: Pathways for justice, well-being, and inclusive development in destinations
• Solidarity in Diversity: Building alliances across class, race, gender, ability, and cultural difference in tourism contexts
• Innovation and Leverage Points: Experimental practices and systemic interventions that foster empowerment and transformation
• Tourism as a Platform for Empowerment: From vulnerability to agency in times of turbulence and uncertainty
• Methodological Innovations: Research approaches for capturing collaboration, resistance, and resilience in tourism, hospitality, and events
• Visual and Affective Methods: Participatory filmmaking, photographic inquiry, collaborative visual ethnography, and affect-based approaches for exploring resistance, resilience, and community agency
Abstract Submission
All abstracts will be subject to double-blind review by members of the scientific committee. Acceptance of a submission will be based on: theoretical and empirical significance; methodological soundness; relevance to the theme of the conference and logical clarity. The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts should have between max. 350 words. The title should be no more than 12 words. Authors should also indicate which conference topic their proposed paper relates to.
You can submit your abstract for the Conference Themes or for one of the Special Tracks, but please note:
There are limited places available in the sessions of the Special Tracks. The track conveners have to be critical who they allow to present in their Special Tracks. They will assess the abstracts according to the theme and quality. If your abstract is not approved for the Special Track of your choice, because it does not entirely match with the respective theme but the quality is sufficient, your abstract will automatically be included in the general workshop program. Therefore please also indicate one or more of the main conference themes that match the most with your topic.
Abstracts should be submitted to ATLAS by using this form.
Scientific Committee
Constantia Anastasiadou – Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
Pavlos Arvanitis – Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
Daniel Barrera – University of Seville, Spain
Willem Coetzee – Western Sydney University, Australia
Kate Dashper – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Shanshan Dai – China University of Geoscience, China
Corné Dijkmans – Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Tara Duncan – Thompson Rivers University, Canada
Laia Encinar-Prat – University of Barcelona, Spain
Tom Fletcher – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Fabian Frenzel – Universitat Trier, Germany
Andrea Giampiccoli – Durban University of Technology, South Africa
Jennie Hall – York St. John University, United Kingdom
Karen Harris – University of Pretoria, South Africa
Xingyu Huang – Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
Milka Ivanova – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Filareti Kotsi – Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Giovanna di Matteo – Gran Sasso Institute, Italy
Nick Mai – University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Maggie Miller – George Brown College, Canada
Tanja Mihalic – University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ziene Mottiar – TU Dublin, Ireland
Chin Ee Ong – Macao University of Tourism, China
Meghan Ormond – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Brendan Pattison – York St. John University, United Kingdom
Josef Ploner – Manchester University, United Kingdom
Peter Robinson – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Neelu Seeteram – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Rhodri Thomas Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Kostantinos Tomazos – Strathclyde University, United Kingdom
Jane Turner – Leeds Trinity University, United Kingdom
Maja Turnsek – University of Maribor, Slovenia
Alex Witte – Napier University, United Kingdom
Emma Wood – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Jase Wilson – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
Angela Wright – Munster Technological University, Ireland
Tian Ye – Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom
How to get to Leeds Becket University:
https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/our-university/our-campuses/getting-to-our-campuses/
Leeds
How to get to Leeds
Important Dates
| Abstract submission | January 15, 2026 |
| Notification of acceptance | February 15, 2026 |
| Extended abstract submission | March 15, 2026 |
| Conference | June 23-26, 2026 |
| Full paper submission | September 10, 2026 |
Registration
- Contact
- Please contact: e-mail admin@atlas-euro.org
- Registration
- Submit this form to register for the conference *** FORM NOT ACTIVATED YET ***
- Abstract submission form
- Submit this form to submit an abstract for the conference