Jonathan Skinner

Dr Jonathan Skinner


Reader in the Anthropology of Events
MA, PhD, SF-HEA
+44 (0)1483 684481
53 AP 02

About

Research

Research interests

Sustainable development goals

My research interests are related to the following:

No Poverty UN Sustainable Development Goal 1 logo
Zero Hunger UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 logo
Good Health and Well-being UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 logo
Life Below Water UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 logo
Life on Land UN Sustainable Development Goal 15 logo
Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 logo

Publications

Highlights

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Skinner, J., F. Murphy and E. Heffernan (eds) (2021) Collaborations: Anthropology in a Neoliberal Age, London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-35000-226-5 (Hardback)

Skinner, J. and A. Gronseth (eds) (2021) Mobilities of Wellbeing: Migration, the State and Medical Knowledge, Durham NC: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-5310-2031-6 (Paperback)

Skinner, J. and J. Feldman (2018) Tour Guides as Cultural Mediators – Special Issue of Ethnologia Europaea /Journal of European Ethnology and volume published by Museum Tusculanum Press, 48(2): 5-120. ISBN 978-87-635-46478 / ISSN 0425-4597.

Skinner, J. and A. Kaul (eds) (2018) Leisure and Death: Lively Encounters with Risk, Death, and Dying, Boulder, Co: University of Colorado Press. ISBN: 978-1-60732-728-8 (Paperback)

** 2018 US Public Radio recommended Summer reading (Natural History & Sustainability) **

** 2020 Ed Bruner Book Prize **

Skinner, J. and L. Jolliffe (eds) (2017) Visiting Murals: Politics, Heritage and Identity, London: Routledge. ISBN 9781472461438 (Hardback)

Skinner, J., A. Wilford and P. Antick (eds) (2016) Terror on Tour - Special Issue, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 12(5), http://liminalities.net/12-5/. ISSN: 1557-2935 (Online)

Skinner, J. and D. Bryan (eds) (2015) Consuming St Patrick’s Day, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7631-5 (Hardback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2014) ‘Applied and Social Anthropology, Arts and Health’ (Special Issue)Anthropology in Action: Journal for Applied Anthropology in Policy and Practice 21(1): 2-42. ISSN 0967-201X

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2012) The Interview: An Ethnographic Approach, Oxford: Berg Publications. ISBN 9781847889409 (Paperback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2012) Writing The Dark Side of Travel, Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-341-9 (Paperback)

Skinner, J. and H. Neveu-Kringelbach (eds) (2012) Dancing Cultures: Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance, Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-575-8 (Hardback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2012) Interviewing Ireland: North and South, Irish Journal of Anthropology, Special Edition, 15(1): 5-46. ISSN: 1393-8592 (Print)

Skinner, J. and D. Theodossopoulos (eds) (2011) Great Expectations: Imagination, Anticipation, and Enchantment in Tourism, Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-277-1 (Hardback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2010) The Dark Side of Travel, Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, Special Edition, 11(1): 1-177. ISSN: 1465-2609 (Print)

Skinner, J. and M. Hills (eds) (2006) Managing Island Life: Social, Economic and Political Dimensions of Formality and Informality in ‘Island’ Communities, Dundee: University of Abertay Press. ISBN 1-899796-14-2 (Paperback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2005) Special Edition: Embodiment and Teaching and Learning in Anthropology, Anthropology in Action, 12(2), pp.1-82. ISSN 0967-201X (Print)

Skinner, J. (2004) Before the Volcano: Reverberations of Identity on Montserrat, Kingston, Jamaica: Arawak Publications. ISBN 976-189-21-5 (Paperback)

Skinner, J. (Ed.) (2002) Special Edition: Managing Island Life, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 8(2), pp.205-320. ISSN 1350-4630 (Print)

Skinner, J. and C. Di Domenico and A. Law and M. Smith (eds) (2001)Boundaries and Identities: Nation, Politics and Culture in Scotland,Dundee: University of Abertay Dundee Press. ISBN 1-899796-0808 (Paperback)

Sandra Klaperski-van der Wal, Jonathan Skinner, Jolanta Opacka-Joffry, Kristina Pfeffer (2025)Dance and stress regulation: A multidisciplinary narrative review, In: Psychology of sport and exercise78102823 Elsevier Ltd

Physical exercise is known to aid stress regulation, however the effects of specific exercise types are under-researched. Dance uniquely combines several characteristics that are known to have stress regulatory effects, such as music listening. Nonetheless, dance has received only little attention in studies examining the stress regulatory effects of exercise. We used a multidisciplinary narrative review as a novel approach to explore the complex relationship between dance and stress by integrating psychological, neurobiological, physiological, and socio-cultural findings. In particular, we looked at the effects of music and rhythm; partnering and social contact; and movement and physical activity. There is strong empirical evidence for the beneficial stress regulatory effects of music, social contact, and movement, illustrating that dance can promote coping and foster resilience. Neurobiological research shows that these findings can be explained by the effects that music, social contact, and movement have on, amongst others, dopamine, oxytocin, and β-endorphin modulation and their interplay with the stress system. Socio-cultural considerations of the significance of dance help to understand why dance might have these unique effects. They highlight that dance can be seen as a universal form of human expression, offering a communal space for bonding, healing, and collective coping strategies. This review is the first to integrate perspectives from different disciplines on the stress regulatory effects of dance. It shows that dance has a large potential to aid coping and resilience at multiple levels of the human experience. At the same time, we identified that the existing evidence is often still limited by a narrow focus on exercise characteristics such as intensity levels. This hinders a more holistic understanding of underlying stress regulatory mechanisms and provides important directions for future research. •First multidisciplinary narrative review of the stress-regulative role of dance.•Dance combines music, synchronisation, social touch, self-expression, and movement.•Different dance characteristics promote coping, foster resilience, and reduce stress.•Dance is not only a leisure time activity but a culturally significant embodied practice.•The unique stress-regulative effects of exercise types need to be better understood.

Jonathan Skinner (2023)EXISTENTIALISM AND TANGO SOCIAL DANCE The Anthropology of (Moving) Events, In: The Routledge International Handbook of Existential Human Sciencepp. 150-163 Routledge
Jonathan Skinner (2007)THE SALSA CLASS: A COMPLEXITY OF GLOBALIZATION, COSMOPOLITANS AND EMOTIONS, In: Identities (Yverdon, Switzerland)14(4)pp. 485-506 Taylor & Francis Group

This article is about the salsa dance: how it is taught; and how, why, and where it is learned. This modern social leisure pursuit has gained in popularity such that it can be found practiced throughout the world. Its social nature makes it an attractive activity for cosmopolitan citizens seeking to connect with others through a portable "decontextualised" skill that they can acquire. Despite the similarity of salsa classes and salsa dancing in many major cities of the world, there are differences in meaning and intent for the participants. This article examines salsa dancing in several major cities and shows that the city is reflected in the salsa as-respectively-segregated (Belfast), multicultural (Hamburg), and cosmopolitan (Sacramento). In other words, the globalization of salsa has not resulted in its homogenization. Local particularities and individual reactions, particularly in terms of dancers' emotions, are how this global export is being received.

Anne Sigfrid Grønseth, Jonathan Skinner (2021)Introduction, In: Mobilities of wellbeing Carolina Academic Press

"What new varieties of wellbeing and misfortune are emerging in this post-9/11, postmodern, neoliberal era of travel and mobility? What is the future of movement for leisure and medical necessity, for human dignity and mutuality, for wellbeing and suffering in its many dimensions? This volume examines the relationship between movement and wellbeing from patient mobility to asylum seeker wellbeing, from public health care provision for marginalized peoples to arts care festivals for all. It demonstrates how knowledge is created between and within social relations, imaginations and persons, and uses detailed ethnographic examples from around the world to explore how citizens, migrants and nation states calculate and act upon issues of health and wellbeing. The goal is to show just how diverse and mobile experiences of misfortune, suffering and wellbeing can be"--

Jonathan Skinner (2021)Let the Dance Begin - Strabane: a cross-border, cross-generational, cross-community creative intervention, In: Mobilities of wellbeing Carolina Academic Press

Chapter about arts health evaluation and wellbeing of Strabane town

Anne Sigfrid Grønseth, Jonathan Skinner (2021)Mobilities of wellbeing, In: Let the Dance Begin - Strabane: a cross-border, cross-generational, cross-community creative intervention Carolina Academic Press

"What new varieties of wellbeing and misfortune are emerging in this post-9/11, postmodern, neoliberal era of travel and mobility? What is the future of movement for leisure and medical necessity, for human dignity and mutuality, for wellbeing and suffering in its many dimensions? This volume examines the relationship between movement and wellbeing from patient mobility to asylum seeker wellbeing, from public health care provision for marginalized peoples to arts care festivals for all. It demonstrates how knowledge is created between and within social relations, imaginations and persons, and uses detailed ethnographic examples from around the world to explore how citizens, migrants and nation states calculate and act upon issues of health and wellbeing. The goal is to show just how diverse and mobile experiences of misfortune, suffering and wellbeing can be"--

Jonathan Skinner, Magdalena Banaszkiewicz (2024)The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat, In: Critical Theories in Dark Tourismpp. 129-146 De Gruyter

AbstractThis chapter advances work on the exclusion zone as a dark tourism attraction. 1 It examines the mobile nature of these traumascapes, concentrating on the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) and the Montserrat Volcano Exclusion Zone (MEZ). Both zones have been attraction points that move: they expand and they contract; their influence and significance, impact and riskiness vary according to politics, conflict, science and social scales of tolerance. Drawing upon first-hand, long-term ethnographic research at both very topical sites, these two case studies are used to examine “exclusion” as a dark tourism concept associated with Apocalyptic separation from everyday living. Rather than spaces empty of signification, Chornobyl and Montserrat are represented as places of creativity, and treated as spaces of containment and honoured by artists as Apocascapes linked to revelation - self-destructive, anti-capitalist, exclusive to the wealthy indulging in the post-Anthropocene eco-nightmare. With their ruins and ghost towns, their radioactive and pyroclastic threatenings, and their heavily restricted and policed rules for brief visitings, the sites are more than toxic tourism layovers. These exclusion zones relate to natural and man-made disaster phenomena with the principles of attraction tethered by restraint.

Jonathan Skinner (2025)Haunted by Horace? Twilight tours, guides and the revival of the Gothic, In: Tourism Geographies Routledge

This paper uses a hauntological approach to examine the extent to which the present is haunted by the past. Specifically, it looks at playful indeterminate referentiality and the relationship between the tour guide and their revived subjects and subject matter. Tour guides of Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham daily and nightly volunteer to introduce visitors to an extra-ordinary pseudo-gothic castle built by rakish socialite, writer, politician, and architect Sir Horace Walpole (1717–1797). Walpole’s building works and textual writings prefigured the Gothic Revival and mass appeal of the technological phantasmagoria. Through this louche inter-textuality, Walpole is animated by the guides of his house, some of whom present an open-ended queer reading of place and person. This paper argues that this haunting by Horace is a theatricalization on the aura of materialism, a ‘phantomime’ afterlife from an enlightened Gothic revival.

Emma Heffernan, Fiona Murphy, Jonathan Skinner (2020)Collaborations Routledge

Collaborations responds to the growing pressure on the humanities and social sciences to justify their impact and utility after cuts in public spending, and the introduction of neoliberal values into academia. Arguing in defense of' anthropology, the editors demonstrate the continued importance of the discipline and reveal how it contributes towards solving major problems in contemporary society. They also illustrate how anthropology can not only survive but thrive under these conditions. Moreover, Collaborations shows that collaboration with other disciplines is the key to anthropology's long-term sustainability and survival, and explores the challenges that interdisciplinary work presents. The book is divided into two parts: Anthropology and Academia, and Anthropology in Practice. The first part features examples from anthropologists working in academic settings which range from the life, behavioural and social sciences to the humanities, arts and business. The second part highlights detailed ethnographic contributions on topics such as peace negotiations, asylum seekers, prostitution and autism. Collaborations is an important read for students, scholars and professional and applied anthropologists as it explores how anthropology can remain relevant in the contemporary world and how to prevent it from becoming an increasingly isolated and marginalized discipline.

Jonathan Skinner, Dimitrios Theodossopoulos (2011)Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: THE PLAY OF EXPECTATION IN TOURISM, In: Crossrefpp. 1-26 Berghahn Books

Great Expectationsis one of those classic English texts set for reading on schoolsyllabi, watched on television or on stage as a period drama, or heard on the radio.It is the tale of Pip, his adventures and, critically for us, how Pip’s expectationsguide him through life.1Dickens presents Pip’s journey as a secular pilgrimage,one dependent upon the imagination and consumption of desire – foracceptance, love, wealth, status and, eventually, happiness. Each time Pip’sexpectations are dashed new ones rise up, as though Dickens were offering us atale of the human condition: we think therefore we desire. This disappointmentis bred from a deep-seated capitalist-driven reproduction of expectation anddesire which we believe to be intrinsic in society; both real and apparent, it runsfrom colonialism and Orientalism through to tourism, operating upon desire, aplay of the imagination and, ultimately, conquest – visual and/or embodied (cf.Young 1995; Campbell 1987).

Jonathan Skinner (2012)Chapter 1 Globalization and the Dance Import–Export Business: The Jive Story, In: Dancing Culturespp. 29-45 Berghahn Books

Jive is a living history. It is a language and a movement – both bodily and counter-cultural – which spans the centuries and crosses the continents, and takes us from the Middle Passage to the D-Day landings, from swing and Lindy hop ‘joints a jumpin’’ in Harlem, New York, to zoot-suit retro swing revivals in Herrang, Sweden. In his history of jive, Bill Milkowski refers to jive as a language, ‘like cussing ... a language of emotion: a means of describing how one is affected by certain experiences or situations’ (Milkowski 2001: 20). Like soul and hiphop, jive can be a slang of inclusion, a cockney ebonics, an idiolect marking out a group, fraternal and black – ‘African-American bohemianism’ (Saul 2003: 7) in this case. It is a term said to have been invented in the 1920s by the Chicago-based musician Louis Armstrong, and popularized in the 1930s by Cab Calloway, the ‘Professor of Jive’. ‘Are You Hep to the Jive’ (1940) is – besides ‘Minnie the Moocher’ (1931) and ‘Take the “A” Train’ (1941) – one of Calloway’s signature numbers, one which asks the listener if they are up to date, ‘hip with’ the jive, the dance as well as the latest trends and fashions.1 ‘Jive’ was also a codeword for marijuana on the streets and in the lyrics of many big-band anthems. Calloway published his own Hepster’s Dictionary (Calloway 1944) that defined jive as Harlemese speech for ‘stuff’, as in ‘did you bring the jive’, or as blarney as in ‘He can jive his way into any hep cat’s heart’. Postwar, jive lost this meaning and ‘hep’ fell out of favour as a popular term.

Jonathan Skinner, Magdalena Banaszkiewicz (2022)Exclusion Tourism: Sci- Fi Stalkers and Subjunctive Plays in Apocalyptic Destinations from Chernobyl to Plymouth, Montserrat, In: Science Fiction, Disruption and Tourismpp. 213-233 Channel View Publications

Highlights: Exclusion tourism is a form of niche tourism where the tourist visits Exclusion Zones; these exclusion zones are places where the tourist projects utopic or dystopic futures from films and books; there is an apocalyptic dimension to this tourism found in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Montserrat volcano exclusion zone examined in this chapter.Overview - This chapter examines venues that had been destroyed or abandoned but in their apocalyptic ruin have emerged as conflicted tourist attractions associated with science fiction. There is no doubt that post-apocalyptic landscapes are particularly attractive for science fiction texts (books, films and video games). As tourist destinations, they elicit reactions of emptiness, unevenness, loss and desolation that are counterbalanced by awe, fascination and a sublime enjoyment that Manjikian (2012) refers to as ‘the romance of the end’. The apocalyptic – whether ‘man-made’ or ‘natural’ – are dystopic locations where the future subjunctive can be played out by temporary visitors who court the uniqueness of their exclusion.

Jonathan Skinner (2018)Techniques and Technologies in the Tribune: Stewarding at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, In: Ethnologia Europaea48(2)pp. 96-110 Open Library of Humanities

This article examines heritage-making first-hand through the techniques of the imagination visiting Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, the Summer house and Gothic castle of Horace Walpole. Walpole developed Strawberry Hill as an architectural experiment in visitor emotions. In a now seemingly empty historic house, Walpole’s sleights of hand are being carefully and authentically conserved to fulfil the imaginations and expectations of the tourist as though a tour guide from beyond the grave. A detailed exploration of this staged encounter in the Tribune Room during a temporary exhibition highlights the workings of the tourist imaginary and the techniques and technologies of the visit, in particular the use of a 1774 guidebook as a resource for self-guided tourists, in conservation work, and the virtual development of the house as an award-winning heritage destination.

The interview is an uncertain art or skill, sometimes productive and sometimes counter productive. This chapter presents an overview of the interview and its use in other disciplines, most notably sociology—once referred to as ‘the science of the interview’—before turning to its place and use in anthropology. The interview is not just a popular qualitative research method and means for knowledge coproduction. The interview has become both research trajectory and contemporary trend, particularly as expressed through the discipline of sociology. Person-centred interviews require a high degree of reflexivity and reflection in the counsellor. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book features a variety of examples of interview use highlighting issues ranging from creativity to rapport, silence to subversion and apology. It considers the interview an instance of inspiration, a rebounding or zigzagging of creativity.

L. M. Soanes, J. Johnson, K. Eckert, K. Gumbs, L. G. Halsey, G. Hughes, K. Levasseur, J. Quattro, R. Richardson, J. P. Skinner, S. Wynne, F. Mukhida (2022)Saving the sea turtles of Anguilla: Combining scientific data with community perspectives to inform policy decisions, In: Biological Conservation268109493 Elsevier

Historic over-exploitation and the more recent threats caused by fisheries by-catch, disease and climate change have left sea turtle populations in the Wider Caribbean at risk of extinction. In 1995, following regional declines in nesting and foraging populations, the island of Anguilla implemented a moratorium on the hunting of turtles. At the request of the Government of Anguilla for scientific data to either support or remove the moratorium, comprehensive population estimates were obtained, and foraging, nesting and migratory movements were examined. In addition, community perspectives on turtles and their protection were assessed. Between 2015 and 18 surveys of 30 nesting beaches estimated low nesting activity with a maximum of 41 hawksbill, 15 green, and 1–2 leatherback turtles nesting in Anguilla annually. The inter-nesting range of hawksbills exhibited high levels of geographic overlap and occurred within 1.5 km of nesting beaches. Migratory tracks of hawksbill turtles traversed through seven exclusive economic zones, two of which allow a legal turtle fishery. Site fidelity was observed in foraging areas of green turtles and genetic analysis revealed population differentiation between green turtle foraging sites in Anguilla and between hawksbill rookeries in Anguilla compared to other Leeward Islands, indicating the individual importance of each foraging and nesting site. The Anguillan public (n = 302) overwhelmingly agreed with the current ban on harvesting sea turtles and considered turtles important for ecotourism. Our work provides a case-study, that can be applied globally, of how scientific research combined with community perspectives can effectively inform policy and ultimately protect endangered species, and highlights that local Governments provided with high quality data in a timely fashion for their policy making timetable are more likely to integrate findings into their decision-making process.

Jonathan Skinner, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Ahuvia Kahane, SIMON GEORGE KING, Esther Leslie (2024)Meditation on a Night Walk, In: Walking in Cities: Navigating Post-Pandemic Urban Environments Routledge

This chapter is a meditation on everynight walks in south west London during the COVID-19 lockdowns. These night walks are examined through careful reflection and distillation to present the chaos of the inner monologue crowding in on the walker as they pursue the ostensibly simple action of putting one foot in front of the other. The suggestion is that no two walks are the same whether it be external gait, or internal conversation with the self interrupted by reactions to external stimulii. More explicitly, sections of the chapter engage with superficial visual stereotypes of walking projected upon subjects as place-making dispositions of the body, illustrations of an urban or peasant habitus, and examples of allegedly socially-sedimented practices in the body. The night walks are compromised by context and the (evolutionary) history of the body but remain unique, creative and distinct. A street at night, illuminated by streetlights. The surrounding area is dark, with silhouettes of trees and buildings faintly visible against the night sky. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="colour" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003357056/9f152ace-7226-429c-908e-ba2d659f94c6/content/fig289_1_C.jpg"/>

Jonathan Skinner, Gerard J. Gormley (2016)Point of view filming and the elicitation interview, In: Perspectives on medical education5(4)pp. 235-239 Springer Nature

Face-to-face interviews are a fundamental research tool in qualitative research. Whilst this form of data collection can provide many valuable insights, it can often fall short of providing a complete picture of a research subject's experiences. Point of view (PoV) interviewing is an elicitation technique used in the social sciences as a means of enriching data obtained from research interviews. Recording research subjects' first person perspectives, for example by wearing digital video glasses, can afford deeper insights into their experiences. PoV interviewing can promote making visible the unverbalizable and does not rely as much on memory as the traditional interview. The use of such relatively inexpensive technology is gaining interest in health profession educational research and pedagogy, such as dynamic simulation-based learning and research activities. In this interview, Dr Gerry Gormley (a medical education researcher) talks to Dr Jonathan Skinner (an anthropologist with an interest in PoV interviewing), exploring some of the many crossover implications with PoV interviewing for medical education research and practice.

Jonathan Skinner (2006)Trading On and Off Risk, In: Anthropology in action (London, England : 1994)13(1-2)pp. 99-103 Berghahn Journals
Jonathan Skinner (2020)Intimacy, Zoom Tango and the COVID-19 Pandemic, In: Anthropology in action (London, England : 1994)27(2)pp. 87-92 Berghahn Journals

This is a personal reflection reacting and responding to the COVID-19 global pandemic and the domestication and on-lining of physical leisure pursuit. In Anthony Giddens 'The Transformation of Intimacy, there is the suggestion that the condition of the plastic is one 'decentred' and 'freed from the needs of reproduction'. Giddens was writing generally about sexuality and the physical labour of reproduction, but this suggestion warrants wider exploration, particularly when Giddens concludes his argument with the suggestion that intimacy and democracy are ideally implicated in each other: autonomy of the self and open conditions of association as preconditions for establishing his reflexive project of the self. This personal reflection develops this suggestion by looking at two creative responses to the pandemic lockdown as socially distanced tennis and Zoom tango become tactics for living with the unexpected, for coping with isolation, for retaining and returning to an everyday.

This article uses the personalised political tour of the Falls Road as a case study with which to unpack the debate on political tourism in Northern Ireland. It shows how significant the walking mode of tourist transport is to the tourist experience and how integrated and effective it is in the context of explaining the Troubles and extending the Republican ideology. Within this contentious narrative of movement, the tour guide develops an ambivalence that intrigues, repulses and propels the tourist through the tour.

Jonathan Skinner (2007)When "Big Men" Don't See Eye-to-Eye: Consequences for Natives and Tourists on Montserrat, In: Practicing anthropology29(3)pp. 40-42

Traditionally, when North American tourists arrive to celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Montserrat, they find an island bedecked in shamrock green colors. Traces of Irishry appear in various symbols and are deployed about the island; these include Irish names, Irish music, and even Irish patois, generally known as "the brogue."

Jonathan Skinner (2007)Leading Questions, In: Anthropology news (Arlington, Va.)48(2)pp. 17-18 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Jonathan Skinner (2018)Plymouth, Montserrat: apocalyptic dark tourism at the Pompeii of the Caribbean, In: International journal of tourism cities4(1)pp. 123-139 Emerald Group Publishing

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and burying - the supply and demand - of apocalyptic dark tourism on the island. Design/methodology/approach - A case study mixed-methods methodology is adopted, and findings are derived from tour guiding fieldwork, guide and tourist interviews, and an analysis of travel writing and tourism marketing campaigns. Findings - Dark tourism is viewed as a contentious and problematic concept: it attracts and repels tourism to the former capital Plymouth, Montserrat. After 20 years of the volcano crisis, the islanders, government and Tourist Board are commemorating resilience living with the volcano and regeneration in a disaster scenario. Marketing and consumption approaches to dark tourism elucidate different facets to the case study of "the buried city" of Plymouth, Montserrat, and the Montserrat Springs Hotel overlooking Plymouth. The disjunct between these two types of approach to dark tourism, as well as the different criteria attached to working definitions of dark tourism - and the range of interests in apocalyptic dark tourism into the city and its surrounds - show some of the problems and limitations with theoretical and scalar discussions on dark tourism. Research limitations/implications - The paper's implications are that both supply and demand approaches to dark tourism are needed to fully understand a dark tourism destination and to reconcile the disjunct between these two approaches and the perspectives of tourist industry and tourism users. Originality/value - This is a descriptive dark tourism case study of a former capital city examined from both supply and demand perspectives. It introduces the apocalyptic to dark tourism destination analysis.

Jonathan Skinner (2023)Bear Grylls in Belfast Integrating digital fieldwork in the international event management fieldtrip to post conflict post Covid Belfast, In: Cases For Event Management and Event Tourism Goodfellow Publishers

This case narrative examines the integration of the fieldtrip into the student’s international event management degree experience. It concentrates upon visits to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where students have an immersive experience into event management, placemaking and regeneration in a post-conflict environment. The fieldtrip constitutes a deep learning pedagogy of real-world scenario and authentic dynamics that complement and enliven classroom activities and module readings. The digital artifacts developed by students, and their presentations on the last day of the fieldtrip, focus their studies whilst in the field.

This article assesses the experimental teaching and learning of an anthropology module on 'modem dance'. It reviews the teaching and learning of the modem dances (lecture, observation, embodied practice, guest interview), paying attention to the triangulation of investigation methods (learning journal, examination, self-esteem survey, focus group interview). Our findings suggest that-in keeping with contemporary participatory educational approaches-students prefer guest interviews and 'performances of understanding' for teaching and learning, and that focus groups and learning journals were the preferred research methods for illuminating the students' teaching and learning experience.

Jonathan Skinner (2008)The text and the tale: differences between scientific reports and scientists' reportings on the eruption of Mount Chance, Montserrat, In: Journal of risk research11(1-2)pp. 255-267 Taylor & Francis

This article looks at the difference between scientists' written reports and their oral accounts, explanations and stories. The subject of these discourses is the eruption of Mount Chance on Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Eastern Caribbean, and its continued monitoring and reporting. Scientific notions of risk and uncertainty which feature in these texts and tales will subsequently be examined and critiqued. Further to this, this article will end by pointing out that, ironically, the latter - the tale - can in some cases be a more effective and approximate mode of communication with the public than the former - the text.

Jonathan Skinner (2010)Suffering Syndromes and the (Anti-)Social Body, In: Anthropology in action (London, England : 1994)17(1)pp. 66-72

Additional publications