Power and Politics at the Seaside: The Development of Devon's Resorts in the Twentieth Century(Exeter Maritime Studies)

The seaside is the 20th century's pre-eminent global tourism site and this work examines political and power relations in modern seaside resort development. As an historical study of seaside tourism in Devon - England's most popular domestic holiday desitination - it reveals the complex interplay between ideology, class and power and the comsumption of landscape and place. Drawing on local, regional and national sources and bringing together approaches from history, sociology, geography and cultural studies, the book addresses the seaside holiday as an historical and sociological phenomenon. It locates seaside tourism within the wider leisure experience and suggests that the seaside manifests and reinforces the wider social, economic and political power relations which shape society.

Table of Contents:
Contents Tourism, power and the historical perspective the British seaside in the 20th century resorts, communities and social tone in Devon creating the seaside image planning resort entertainment power and politics at the seaside.

About the Author :
Annette Pritchard is Senior Lecturer in the School of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism at the University of Wales Cardiff. She was previously Senior Research Officer for the Wales Tourist Board and is editor of The Leisure Monitor. She is a co-author of Tourism, Promotion and Power: creating images, creating identities (John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Nigel Morgan is Principal Lecturer and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism at the University of Wales Cardiff. He was previously Tourism Development Officer for Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council. He is a co-author of Tourism, Promotion and Power: creating images, creating identities (John Wiley & Sons, 1998).

Review :
This book is carefully and well researched, making good use of local tourism reports and the press, and is especially strong in following the promotional literature of the Devon resorts ... A useful reminder of the importance of the sea coast in the development of tourism in the last century. Those unfamiliar with the current issues in tourism studies will also find the book a good introduction to the field. To an unusual extent, this book shows awareness of the parallel literatures both of the social history of tourism and leisure, and of the mix of economics, anthropology, geography and cultural studies (including the new cultural geography) which provides the dominant influences on tourism studies. An important part of the authors' agenda involves making tourism studies aware of the importance of history ... But the ideas should also travel in the opposite direction, making historians more aware of the importance of tourism and the issues it raises. The themes Morgan and Pritchard choose to emphasize are of particular interest to urban historians ... This is a well-constructed, original and sustained analysis which should interest a wide range of readerships across several disciplines ... A very good book whose efforts to pull together disparate constituencies merit high praise. [The book] is particularly to be welcomed for opening up a number of twentieth century themes in tourism in an historically aware manner. Reading overall as a cultural and political analysis, it usefully complements and refreshes a field which will welcome this contribution to the debate. The politics of tourism development is a neglected field and this book provides a detailed and, at times, painful analysis of important themes in this context which will be of value to readers without a specific interest in Devon as a location ... The authors provide excellent illustrative archival material to support their analysis ... Their work is fascinating in its insights. The place of the British seaside in academic study is strengthening, and this study is a splendid addition, with some nice illustrations ... The focus on power and politics is central and of immense interest. It is not unique to the Devon resorts, or indeed to seaside resorts in Britain, but parallels and echoes are to be found in the experience of any tourist destination. Students of the history of tourism are recommended to it as much as those studying tourism policy-making. A technically well-researched account ... this book provides a useful addition to an important niche within the tourism literature and will, undoubtedly, be well referenced by writers addressing the much-studied theme of coastal resort decline and potential for revival. ... a welcome contribution to the field ...