Description
An emerging hospitality studies focus amongst British academics prioritizes the study of
host and guest transactions as a key feature of hospitality research and publications. This short paper
introduces the papers in the special issue.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Studying hospitality: beyond the envelope
Conrad Lashley
Article information:
To cite this document:
Conrad Lashley, (2007),"Studying hospitality: beyond the envelope", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 185 - 188
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817710
Downloaded on: 24 January 2016, At: 22:03 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.
To copy this document: [email protected]
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 2350 times since 2007*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Conrad Lashley, (2007),"Discovering hospitality: observations from recent research",
International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 214-226 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817747
Kevin D. O'Gorman, (2007),"The hospitality phenomenon: philosophical enlightenment?",
International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 189-202 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817729
Hazel Andrews, Les Roberts, Tom Selwyn, (2007),"Hospitality and eroticism", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 247-262 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817774
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:115632 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for
Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines
are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company
manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as
providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
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EDITORIAL
Studying hospitality: beyond
the envelope
Conrad Lashley
Centre for Leisure Retailing, Nottingham Business School,
Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose – An emerging hospitality studies focus amongst British academics prioritizes the study of
host and guest transactions as a key feature of hospitality research and publications. This short paper
introduces the papers in the special issue.
Design/methodology/approach – Provides a brief review of the papers within the issue.
Findings – The study of host and guest transactions extends beyond commercial hospitality
management activities. A large number of human interactions can be better understood through host
and guest transactions. Commercial hospitality management through service quality management,
employee relations, customer and employee transactions as well as the development of customer
loyalty can also be informed by the study of hospitality through the study of host guest transactions.
Originality/value – Outlines how the papers in this special issue provide a ?avor of some of the
research themes that social science perspectives suggest.
Keywords Hospitality management, Hospitality services
Paper type Viewpoint
For want of a better term, hospitality studies describes research themes and avenues of
enquiry that the social sciences and arts inform, as distinct from research activities
relating to the management of hospitality industry business activities. The studies
agenda tends to focus on hospitality as a human phenomenon dealing with guest and
host transactions. Taking this perspective to the study of hospitality allows for an
understanding of the obligations required of guests and hosts in different communities
and over different historical periods. Many mature industrial economies, for example,
have lost the binding obligations to be hospitable that were previously under pinned
by strong social and religious norms in earlier times. However, these obligations can
still be found in contemporary agricultural and less-developed societies. Studying
these characteristics of hospitableness is interesting in itself but is particularly
valuable for individuals destined to work in the provision of commercial hospitality
and tourism services. Those following careers in hospitality need to be informed
about the emotional dimensions of guest experiences and the hosting behaviors
most likely to meet guests’ needs. The papers in this ?rst volume of the International
Journal of Culture Tourism and Hospitality Research (IJCTHR) are all written from
this hospitality studies perspective, and they offer unique insights into the study
of hospitality.
The earlier drafts of the papers in this special issue of the IJCTHR were presented
at the Fifteenth Annual Research Conference of the UK Council of Hospitality
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Editorial
185
Received December 2006
Revised January 2007
Accepted April 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 3, 2007
pp. 185-188
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710817710
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Management Education. The Centre for Leisure Retailing in Nottingham, the UK
hosted the conference. For the ?rst time, the conference received a substantial streamof
research papers dealing with a hospitality studies theme. Revised versions of some
of these papers appear in this issue of the IJCTHR.
Although most authors in this special edition are academics working, to a varying
extent, in research and teaching associated with commercial hospitality enterprise,
many social science academics have begun to explore dimensions of society and
community engagement through the prism of hospitality. Interactions between
migrants, asylum seekers or tourists and host communities are obvious examples of
host and guest transactions on a social level. The changing values that communities
may hold about their openness or hostility to people who are not community members
is essentially concerned with the value placed on duties to offer hospitality to outsiders.
Most of the academics writing about social obligations to offer hospitality as a means
of studying a variety of social phenomena are informed by the work of French
Philosopher Derrida, who put hospitality at the heart of all human societies.
The work of O’Gorman’s “The hospitality phenomenon: philosophical
enlightenment” explores Derrida’s writings on hospitality. Kevin O’Gorman’s
chapter discusses Derrida’s contribution to the philosophy of hospitality, picking up
on some other writers in philosophy and postcolonial theory who are either writing in
the ?eld, or have developed his writing and contextualise this within the wider study of
the phenomenon of hospitality. He suggests that Derrida’s contribution is valuable in
setting hospitality, and cultural obligations to be hospitable at the centre of studies of
social and cultural matters. The study of hospitality is of fundamental interest to those
who study society, not just concerned with a particular vocation set require of
commercial hospitality organisations. O’Gorman’s paper also suggests that valuable
though the contribution has been, Derrida’s work is ?awed. Derrida’s background and
experiences distort his analysis and his work also lacks reference to historical and
religious texts. Studies of ancient Greek, Roman and Christian sources all con?rm
obligations to offer hospitality as tenets of both citizenship and religious observance.
Barry O’Mahony takes this social dimension of hospitality to explore the
relationship between English colonial hosts and Irish migrant guests in nineteenth
century Australia. Using Irish migration to Melbourne and Victoria as a case study, he
shows that Irish migrants were excluded by the English elite from key colonial roles
and land ownership. Irish migrants discovered opportunities serving food and drink to
the colonialists, subsequently, many became bar keepers, hoteliers, and brewers.
The formers migrant guests become hosts to the colonialists. In fact, this case study
reveals other dimensions concerning the English as both guests and hosts. When the
British explorers arrived in Australia, they were generally treated as honoured guests
by their aboriginal hosts. The aboriginal population had inhabited Australia for 30,000
years, and like most hunter and gather populations, had cultural obligations to be good
hosts to their guests. Under normal rules of hospitality obligations as hosts are
matched to obligations as guests. Guests are expected to treat their hosts with respect,
not overstay their welcome, nor do harm to their hosts. In this case the colonial
guests not only took possession of aboriginal lands, but also even denied their hosts’
very existence. Many contemporary reports back to London described Australia
as an empty land without people. The case study, therefore, provides a unique
example of host guest transactions at both social and commercial levels and reinforces
IJCTHR
1,3
186
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the experience of many migrants. They are frequently drawn to work in commercial
hospitality businesses, but then go on to own and pro?t from commercial hospitality
provision.
Lashley’s is the third paper dealing with hospitality as a social phenomenon.
Lashley shares insights from a number of research projects and recent publications.
The paper develops a case for studying hospitality through critical perspectives. These
perspectives allow more insights into the realities of hospitality from the perspectives
and meaning of the participants in the hospitality transaction. Fundamentally, the
paper argues that much research from hospitality management perspectives tends to
be uncritical and normative. Like Derrida, the paper accepts that there are social and
cultural dimensions to hospitality which allow comparisons of the obligations on hosts
and guest to act in certain ways prescribed by societies through norms and
expectations. However, unlike Derrida, the paper suggests that hospitality needs to be
studied in private/domestic and commercial, as well as the social/cultural domains
because it is in these settings that obligations are learnt and practiced in detail. In some
cases, commercial homes involve private dwellings doubling up as commercial venues
in which paying guests share the same premises as the private accommodation of the
commercial hosts. Small hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation, guesthouses and
farm stay properties are all examples of micro businesses which engage in host
and guest transactions for both private and commercial activities. The paper re?ects
upon a number of tensions and debates in current explorations of hospitality in
the cultural/social; private/domestic; and commercial domains. A key issue for the
commercial sector has been the extent to which commercial hospitality represents
authentic hospitality, driven as it is by ulterior motives and intention to extract money
for the provision of hospitality to guests. The authenticity of the guest experience in
the commercial hospitality setting is the subject of the following two papers.
Lugosis’ paper provides insights into consumer experiences of hospitality in a
British pub. The customer base draws largely from gay, lesbian as well as bisexual,
transvestite and transgender individuals. A longitudinal ethnographic study of the
customers and the culture of the pub reinforced and reproduced by the customers
inform the paper. Lugosi shows that the boundaries between customers, staff and
owners are frequently blurred. The paper suggests that three myths were evident in
consumer behaviour: commonality, mutual safety, and the opportunities for liberated,
playful consumption. Focusing on two particular aspects of participation: performative
display and frontline labour, it discusses the ways in which these myths in?uenced
consumer behaviour. It suggests that research into customers is frequently
misinformed by an overly managerial preoccupation with exchange in service
settings. The paper suggests that research needs to be more focused on usage
and customer control of personal space and consumption. In this exploration of
consumer control of the consumption of hospitality it shows that commercial settings
can allow customers to be more than mere recipients of services, they can be much
more active in the creation of the experience. Hence, they create a hospitality
authenticity for themselves. The experience is a by-product of the guests as a
community, rather a product of management actions or service culture.
By contrast Robinson and Lynch’s paper applies techniques of literary criticism to
analyse the control of the hospitality experience in a restaurant setting. Coffee with the
Meal by Ogden Nash provides an insight into what can be the inhospitable nature of
Editorial
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hospitality in commercial settings. In the Ogden Nash poem the writer/customer
comments on the experience of being a guest where the host’s behaviour is decidedly
inhospitable. Rather than seeking to satisfy the guest’s needs and the ensure comfort
and entertainment, the waiter is providing service in a controlled form designed to
meet the needs of the host not the guest. The customer wants coffee throughout the
meal and the waiter simply ignores his many requests for “coffee, coffee with the meal”.
The real strength of this paper is its use of literary criticism to analyse writing which
reveal insights into hospitality in the commercial context. The poem, as an artistic
endeavour, provides an imaginary account of a service relationship which has
resonance with reader experiences of commercial hospitality and hosting behaviour
that cannot be called hospitable by any stretch of the imagination.
Andrews, Roberts and Selwyn adopt theoretical, philosophical and ethnographical
perspectives to explore the continuities between hospitality and eroticism. The paper
draws on classic and traditional texts and later refers to recent sociological and
ethnographic studies to comment on eroticism and hospitality in contemporary
societies. Both eroticism and hospitality seem have become detached from traditional
and classical meanings in commercial market-oriented societies, where eroticism has
been reduced to sex and hospitality has been reduced to a set of consumption events in
bars, hotels and restaurants. In both cases, however it is possible to encounter
examples, as in Lugosi’s paper, of the social and human expressions of eroticism and
hospitality which appear too resisted to in?uences of modern commercialism.
The paper makes a considerable contribution of our understanding of hospitality
and eroticism. It shows how both are deep rooted aspects of human societies,
fundamentally located is social interactions. In both cases, dominant market forces
attempt to commodify these human transactions by enmeshing them in the market as
elements of commercial exchange. The paper shows, for example, that guests at the
tourist venue of Magaluf engage in commercial hospitality as commercial guests in
bars, restaurants and hotels, whilst at the same time being offered the promise of the
commercialised erotic through the potential for quick sexual exchange as part of
tourist/guest experience. That said, both hospitality and eroticism continue to be
human phenomena and the paper provides examples of the continuities across time
and context. Like Lugosi’s paper, this piece suggests that guest can sometimes take
back control of hospitality and eroticism.
The paper selections from those presented at the Council for Hospitality
Management Education’s 15th Annual Research Conference represent a growing
strand of research and publications amongst hospitality academics. A social science or
arts ?elds of study informs this hospitality studies agenda. Although super?cially
diverse and eclectic these papers suggest that hospitality needs to be studied
principally as a human phenomenon worthy of study in its own right. However, even
those studies for careers hospitality management need to be informed by the study of
hospitality in its broadest sense. No dichotomy exists between hospitality studies
and hospitality management both are essential strands in intellectual endeavour,
informing and reinforcing each other.
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected]
Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints
IJCTHR
1,3
188
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This article has been cited by:
1. Richard Tresidder. 2015. Experiences Marketing: A Cultural Philosophy for Contemporary Hospitality
Marketing Studies. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management 24, 708-726. [CrossRef]
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doc_586076013.pdf
An emerging hospitality studies focus amongst British academics prioritizes the study of
host and guest transactions as a key feature of hospitality research and publications. This short paper
introduces the papers in the special issue.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Studying hospitality: beyond the envelope
Conrad Lashley
Article information:
To cite this document:
Conrad Lashley, (2007),"Studying hospitality: beyond the envelope", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 185 - 188
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817710
Downloaded on: 24 January 2016, At: 22:03 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.
To copy this document: [email protected]
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 2350 times since 2007*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Conrad Lashley, (2007),"Discovering hospitality: observations from recent research",
International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 214-226 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817747
Kevin D. O'Gorman, (2007),"The hospitality phenomenon: philosophical enlightenment?",
International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 189-202 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817729
Hazel Andrews, Les Roberts, Tom Selwyn, (2007),"Hospitality and eroticism", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 247-262 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710817774
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:115632 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for
Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines
are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company
manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as
providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
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EDITORIAL
Studying hospitality: beyond
the envelope
Conrad Lashley
Centre for Leisure Retailing, Nottingham Business School,
Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose – An emerging hospitality studies focus amongst British academics prioritizes the study of
host and guest transactions as a key feature of hospitality research and publications. This short paper
introduces the papers in the special issue.
Design/methodology/approach – Provides a brief review of the papers within the issue.
Findings – The study of host and guest transactions extends beyond commercial hospitality
management activities. A large number of human interactions can be better understood through host
and guest transactions. Commercial hospitality management through service quality management,
employee relations, customer and employee transactions as well as the development of customer
loyalty can also be informed by the study of hospitality through the study of host guest transactions.
Originality/value – Outlines how the papers in this special issue provide a ?avor of some of the
research themes that social science perspectives suggest.
Keywords Hospitality management, Hospitality services
Paper type Viewpoint
For want of a better term, hospitality studies describes research themes and avenues of
enquiry that the social sciences and arts inform, as distinct from research activities
relating to the management of hospitality industry business activities. The studies
agenda tends to focus on hospitality as a human phenomenon dealing with guest and
host transactions. Taking this perspective to the study of hospitality allows for an
understanding of the obligations required of guests and hosts in different communities
and over different historical periods. Many mature industrial economies, for example,
have lost the binding obligations to be hospitable that were previously under pinned
by strong social and religious norms in earlier times. However, these obligations can
still be found in contemporary agricultural and less-developed societies. Studying
these characteristics of hospitableness is interesting in itself but is particularly
valuable for individuals destined to work in the provision of commercial hospitality
and tourism services. Those following careers in hospitality need to be informed
about the emotional dimensions of guest experiences and the hosting behaviors
most likely to meet guests’ needs. The papers in this ?rst volume of the International
Journal of Culture Tourism and Hospitality Research (IJCTHR) are all written from
this hospitality studies perspective, and they offer unique insights into the study
of hospitality.
The earlier drafts of the papers in this special issue of the IJCTHR were presented
at the Fifteenth Annual Research Conference of the UK Council of Hospitality
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Editorial
185
Received December 2006
Revised January 2007
Accepted April 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 3, 2007
pp. 185-188
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710817710
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Management Education. The Centre for Leisure Retailing in Nottingham, the UK
hosted the conference. For the ?rst time, the conference received a substantial streamof
research papers dealing with a hospitality studies theme. Revised versions of some
of these papers appear in this issue of the IJCTHR.
Although most authors in this special edition are academics working, to a varying
extent, in research and teaching associated with commercial hospitality enterprise,
many social science academics have begun to explore dimensions of society and
community engagement through the prism of hospitality. Interactions between
migrants, asylum seekers or tourists and host communities are obvious examples of
host and guest transactions on a social level. The changing values that communities
may hold about their openness or hostility to people who are not community members
is essentially concerned with the value placed on duties to offer hospitality to outsiders.
Most of the academics writing about social obligations to offer hospitality as a means
of studying a variety of social phenomena are informed by the work of French
Philosopher Derrida, who put hospitality at the heart of all human societies.
The work of O’Gorman’s “The hospitality phenomenon: philosophical
enlightenment” explores Derrida’s writings on hospitality. Kevin O’Gorman’s
chapter discusses Derrida’s contribution to the philosophy of hospitality, picking up
on some other writers in philosophy and postcolonial theory who are either writing in
the ?eld, or have developed his writing and contextualise this within the wider study of
the phenomenon of hospitality. He suggests that Derrida’s contribution is valuable in
setting hospitality, and cultural obligations to be hospitable at the centre of studies of
social and cultural matters. The study of hospitality is of fundamental interest to those
who study society, not just concerned with a particular vocation set require of
commercial hospitality organisations. O’Gorman’s paper also suggests that valuable
though the contribution has been, Derrida’s work is ?awed. Derrida’s background and
experiences distort his analysis and his work also lacks reference to historical and
religious texts. Studies of ancient Greek, Roman and Christian sources all con?rm
obligations to offer hospitality as tenets of both citizenship and religious observance.
Barry O’Mahony takes this social dimension of hospitality to explore the
relationship between English colonial hosts and Irish migrant guests in nineteenth
century Australia. Using Irish migration to Melbourne and Victoria as a case study, he
shows that Irish migrants were excluded by the English elite from key colonial roles
and land ownership. Irish migrants discovered opportunities serving food and drink to
the colonialists, subsequently, many became bar keepers, hoteliers, and brewers.
The formers migrant guests become hosts to the colonialists. In fact, this case study
reveals other dimensions concerning the English as both guests and hosts. When the
British explorers arrived in Australia, they were generally treated as honoured guests
by their aboriginal hosts. The aboriginal population had inhabited Australia for 30,000
years, and like most hunter and gather populations, had cultural obligations to be good
hosts to their guests. Under normal rules of hospitality obligations as hosts are
matched to obligations as guests. Guests are expected to treat their hosts with respect,
not overstay their welcome, nor do harm to their hosts. In this case the colonial
guests not only took possession of aboriginal lands, but also even denied their hosts’
very existence. Many contemporary reports back to London described Australia
as an empty land without people. The case study, therefore, provides a unique
example of host guest transactions at both social and commercial levels and reinforces
IJCTHR
1,3
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the experience of many migrants. They are frequently drawn to work in commercial
hospitality businesses, but then go on to own and pro?t from commercial hospitality
provision.
Lashley’s is the third paper dealing with hospitality as a social phenomenon.
Lashley shares insights from a number of research projects and recent publications.
The paper develops a case for studying hospitality through critical perspectives. These
perspectives allow more insights into the realities of hospitality from the perspectives
and meaning of the participants in the hospitality transaction. Fundamentally, the
paper argues that much research from hospitality management perspectives tends to
be uncritical and normative. Like Derrida, the paper accepts that there are social and
cultural dimensions to hospitality which allow comparisons of the obligations on hosts
and guest to act in certain ways prescribed by societies through norms and
expectations. However, unlike Derrida, the paper suggests that hospitality needs to be
studied in private/domestic and commercial, as well as the social/cultural domains
because it is in these settings that obligations are learnt and practiced in detail. In some
cases, commercial homes involve private dwellings doubling up as commercial venues
in which paying guests share the same premises as the private accommodation of the
commercial hosts. Small hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation, guesthouses and
farm stay properties are all examples of micro businesses which engage in host
and guest transactions for both private and commercial activities. The paper re?ects
upon a number of tensions and debates in current explorations of hospitality in
the cultural/social; private/domestic; and commercial domains. A key issue for the
commercial sector has been the extent to which commercial hospitality represents
authentic hospitality, driven as it is by ulterior motives and intention to extract money
for the provision of hospitality to guests. The authenticity of the guest experience in
the commercial hospitality setting is the subject of the following two papers.
Lugosis’ paper provides insights into consumer experiences of hospitality in a
British pub. The customer base draws largely from gay, lesbian as well as bisexual,
transvestite and transgender individuals. A longitudinal ethnographic study of the
customers and the culture of the pub reinforced and reproduced by the customers
inform the paper. Lugosi shows that the boundaries between customers, staff and
owners are frequently blurred. The paper suggests that three myths were evident in
consumer behaviour: commonality, mutual safety, and the opportunities for liberated,
playful consumption. Focusing on two particular aspects of participation: performative
display and frontline labour, it discusses the ways in which these myths in?uenced
consumer behaviour. It suggests that research into customers is frequently
misinformed by an overly managerial preoccupation with exchange in service
settings. The paper suggests that research needs to be more focused on usage
and customer control of personal space and consumption. In this exploration of
consumer control of the consumption of hospitality it shows that commercial settings
can allow customers to be more than mere recipients of services, they can be much
more active in the creation of the experience. Hence, they create a hospitality
authenticity for themselves. The experience is a by-product of the guests as a
community, rather a product of management actions or service culture.
By contrast Robinson and Lynch’s paper applies techniques of literary criticism to
analyse the control of the hospitality experience in a restaurant setting. Coffee with the
Meal by Ogden Nash provides an insight into what can be the inhospitable nature of
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hospitality in commercial settings. In the Ogden Nash poem the writer/customer
comments on the experience of being a guest where the host’s behaviour is decidedly
inhospitable. Rather than seeking to satisfy the guest’s needs and the ensure comfort
and entertainment, the waiter is providing service in a controlled form designed to
meet the needs of the host not the guest. The customer wants coffee throughout the
meal and the waiter simply ignores his many requests for “coffee, coffee with the meal”.
The real strength of this paper is its use of literary criticism to analyse writing which
reveal insights into hospitality in the commercial context. The poem, as an artistic
endeavour, provides an imaginary account of a service relationship which has
resonance with reader experiences of commercial hospitality and hosting behaviour
that cannot be called hospitable by any stretch of the imagination.
Andrews, Roberts and Selwyn adopt theoretical, philosophical and ethnographical
perspectives to explore the continuities between hospitality and eroticism. The paper
draws on classic and traditional texts and later refers to recent sociological and
ethnographic studies to comment on eroticism and hospitality in contemporary
societies. Both eroticism and hospitality seem have become detached from traditional
and classical meanings in commercial market-oriented societies, where eroticism has
been reduced to sex and hospitality has been reduced to a set of consumption events in
bars, hotels and restaurants. In both cases, however it is possible to encounter
examples, as in Lugosi’s paper, of the social and human expressions of eroticism and
hospitality which appear too resisted to in?uences of modern commercialism.
The paper makes a considerable contribution of our understanding of hospitality
and eroticism. It shows how both are deep rooted aspects of human societies,
fundamentally located is social interactions. In both cases, dominant market forces
attempt to commodify these human transactions by enmeshing them in the market as
elements of commercial exchange. The paper shows, for example, that guests at the
tourist venue of Magaluf engage in commercial hospitality as commercial guests in
bars, restaurants and hotels, whilst at the same time being offered the promise of the
commercialised erotic through the potential for quick sexual exchange as part of
tourist/guest experience. That said, both hospitality and eroticism continue to be
human phenomena and the paper provides examples of the continuities across time
and context. Like Lugosi’s paper, this piece suggests that guest can sometimes take
back control of hospitality and eroticism.
The paper selections from those presented at the Council for Hospitality
Management Education’s 15th Annual Research Conference represent a growing
strand of research and publications amongst hospitality academics. A social science or
arts ?elds of study informs this hospitality studies agenda. Although super?cially
diverse and eclectic these papers suggest that hospitality needs to be studied
principally as a human phenomenon worthy of study in its own right. However, even
those studies for careers hospitality management need to be informed by the study of
hospitality in its broadest sense. No dichotomy exists between hospitality studies
and hospitality management both are essential strands in intellectual endeavour,
informing and reinforcing each other.
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected]
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This article has been cited by:
1. Richard Tresidder. 2015. Experiences Marketing: A Cultural Philosophy for Contemporary Hospitality
Marketing Studies. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management 24, 708-726. [CrossRef]
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