Social/Culture Geography cultures of natures, tourism, festivals, travellers, sexuality and gender
Gordon Waitt is a member of the GeoQuEST Research Centre in the Faculty of Science and associate member of the Identity and Cultural Transformations Research Group in the Faculty of Arts. He is a human geographer, with an international research focus on the geographies of gender and sexuality as well as tourism geographies. These research interests come together in his recently co-authored book with Kevin Markwell (University of Newcastle), Understanding gay tourism: culture and context (Howarth, 2006). Gordon has research projects in the following areas:
Travelling through the Kimberley
Gordon Waitt, in collaboration with Ruth Lane (RMIT) and Lesley Head, pursue research interests in the Kimberley, Western Australia. Focusing on the tourism industry, this team of researchers has explored different ways in which ideas about the Kimberley as the ‘last frontier’ are circulated by tourism industry. They have examined the potential contradictions of the Kimberley positioned as site for expanding irrigated agriculture, Aboriginal land claims and tourism marketing.
Waitt, G Lane, R and Head, L. (2003) The boundaries of nature tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(1) pp. 523-545.
Waitt, G and Head, L. (2002) Postcards and Frontier Mythologies. Sustaining 'views' of the Kimberley as 'timeless'. Environment and Planning D, 20, 319-344
Lane, R, and Waitt G R (2001) Place, time and authenticity: Tourism, native title and spatial politics in East Kimberley, Social and Cultural Geography
The Uluru Project
Gordon Waitt, in collaboration with Robert Figueroa (Colgate University), examines the intersections between: joint management policies, tourism and reconciliation. Since 1985, as part of policies of self-determination, Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park has been jointly managed by a Board of Management. Since 1999, joint management policies have been advocated as a mechanism of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people. Claimed outcomes of joint management policies suggest reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people operates through a deeper understanding by visitors of traditional owners’ culture. Reconciliation is assumed to be enhanced through the development of mutual respect, and common goals and aspirations between traditional owners (the Anangu) and visitors. The aim of the Uluru – Kata Tjuta Project is to explore the merits of such claims by investigating changes in the understanding of non-indigenous people of Aboriginality and Uluru – Kata Tjuta from their experiences of touring the Park.
The Surfing Project
The Surfing Project is being developed as an example of the teaching/research nexus. The surf is an integral part of local cultural practices and identity, but has been ignored by geographers. Third year students enrolled in the subject EESC 307 Space, place and identities address this limitation by conducting research to examine the surfing spaces of the Illawarra. The project has three aims. First the project seeks to investigate surfers’ experience of surfing, particularly through their relationships with the ocean and their boards. Second the project seeks to explore the gender through surfing: why is surfing a predominantly male sport? How do they interact in the ocean with women who surf? How do they interact with other men? Finally, the project seeks to explore how important a surfing identity is their everyday lives. Do surfers maintain this identity out of the ocean? If so, how do they express their surfingness?
Festival Projects
Gordon Waitt has conducted two projects on sports festivals, including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the Sydney 2002 Gay Games. These projects examine their social impacts. For the 2000 Olympic Games the central questions explored who shared the spirit of these Games. Analysis was conducted to explore the spatial and temporal variations of these Games as a mechanism to sustain a sense of belonging to the Australian nation. For the 2002 Sydney Gay Games attention was given to: the role of these Games in challenging heteronormativity of sports in constituting the Australian nation and to questions of social exclusion and inclusion operates through such a festival.
Gordon Waitt, in collaboration with Chris Gibson (University of Wollongong), John Connell (Sydney University) and Jim Walmsley (University of New England), is investigating the social and economic impacts of rural festivals in Australia.
Waitt, G (2005) Sydney 2002 Gay Games and Querying Australian National Space, Environment and Planning D, Society and Space
Waitt, G (2003) Gay Games. Performing ‘community’ out from the closet of the locker room, Social and Cultural Geography 4(2) pp. 167-184
Waitt, G (2003) Social Impacts of the Sydney Olympics, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(1) pp. 194-215
Waitt, G. R. (2001) The Olympic spirit and civic boosterism: the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Tourism Geographies 3(3) pp. 249-278.
Waitt, G R and Furrer, P (2000) Sharing The Spirit? Socio-spatial polarization and expressed enthusiasm for the Olympic Games. Pacific Tourism Review, pp. 173-184
Home and Away
Gordon Waitt, in collaboration with Andrew Gorman Murray (Macquarie University), is exploring the importance for sexual minorities of the idea of home. Where is home for Australian lesbians, gays and queers? What is home? This particular project investigates how is home maintained through travel. This project recognises the value of home in sexual minorities lives and seeks to explore the importance of travel in maintaining ideas of home. The project seeks to gather ideas about home and travel through recorded interviews. The focus of this project is on collecting travel stories about the experiences of gay men who live in regional Australia that have travelled to Sydney during the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Rather than discarding the home, this project examines the idea of home as a site of empowerment and resistance for many sexual minorities.
Waitt, G.R, McGurik, P. M., Dunn K., Hartig, K and Burnley, I (2000) Globalisation, Difference and Inequality. Introducing Human Geography, Pearson Education: Sydney.
Waitt, G R, (2001) Marketing Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, in Holmes, D. Virtual Globalisation: Virtual Spaces/Tourist Spaces, Routledge: New York and London pp. 220-243
Waitt, G R, Sant, M (2000) All day, all night long – Sydney as a tourist city. In Connell, J. (ed.) Sydney a Geography, Oxford University Press: Sydney pp.189-221
Waitt, G. Lane, R. and Head, L. (2003) The boundaries of nature tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(2) 523-545
Mee, K. and Waiit, G. (2003) Editorial: Culture Matter, Social and Cultural Geography, 4(2) pp. 130-38.
Waitt, G (2003) Gay Games. Performing ‘community’ out from the closet of the locker room, Social and Cultural Geography 4(2) pp. 167-183.
Waitt, G (2003) Social Impacts of the Sydney Olympics, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(1) pp. 194-215
Waitt, G and Head, L. (2002) Postcards and Frontier Mythologies. Sustaining 'views' of the Kimberley as 'timeless'. Environment and Planning D, 20 pp. 319-344
Waitt, G. R. (2001) The Olympic spirit and civic boosterism: the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Tourism Geographies, 3(3) pp. 249-278.
Lane, R, and Waitt G R (2001) Place, time and authenticity: Tourism, native title and spatial politics in East Kimberley, Social and Cultural Geography, 2(4) pp 281-405.
