Johan R. Edelheim BHRM (VHRO, Fin), PgC.VET (Åbo Akademi, Fin), PgC.HE (MQU), PgDip.Tour (MGSM), MBA (MGSM), PhD (MQU) Johan joined Southern Cross University in 2004, after four years at Macquarie University/ICTHM in Sydney, and before that lecturing in Finland. He lectures currently in a range of hospitality and tourism units at undergraduate level with the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Before turning to academia, Johan worked in the hotel industry in his native Finland, as well as in Sweden, Germany, Spain and the USA for 11 years. While finishing his MBA studies in 2002, Johan grew discontent with general management theory and decided to undertake his PhD study at Macquarie University’s department of Critical and Cultural Studies instead. His thesis, named ‘The Bushranger and the Big Banana – A cultural studies critique of tourism studies’ is critically evaluating the phenomenological experience of - and narratives surrounding - tourist attractions. Johan’s research interests are divided between two separate areas, Post-structural studies of tourism on the one hand and Hotel and resort management practice and education on the other. While the first mentioned is abstract and aims at critically evaluating tourism research and practice from a non-positivist perspective, the other is more practical and involves concrete management actions in the hotel industry and in the field of education.
Journal articles
Australian Kultarannikolta Suomen Lappiin – esittelyssä Johan R. Edelheim, Matkailututkimus - Turismforskning - Finnish Journal of Tourism Research (2012)
"Friday is my research day": chance, time and desire in the search for the teaching-research nexus in the life of a university teacher (with William E. Boyd, Meg O'Reilly, Karyn Rendall, Stephen Rowe, Erica Wilson, Kay Dimmock, Wendy Boyd, Elaine Nuske, Daniel J. Bucher, and Kath Fisher), Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice (2012)
This paper builds on some ideas recently presented by Boyd et al. (2010). In that...
Kultur och turism i Lappland, men inte nödvändigtvis kulturturism, Laboratorium för Folk & Kultur (2012)
The attraction of islands: travellers and tourists in the Cyclades (Greece) in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (with Ina Berg), Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change (2012)
Islands have long acted as projection surfaces of ever-changing desires. Tourism organisations have drawn most...
Developing a taxonomy of 'award-winning' restaurants: what are they actually? (with Y L. Lee, Julia Caldicott, and S H. Lee), Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism (2011)
This article aims to clarify the term 'award-winning restaurants,' by conducting a literature review focussed...
Books
The construction and deconstruction of tourist attractions, The construction and deconstruction of tourist attractions (2011)
Book chapters
Kulttuurimatkailun mahdollisuuksista PKI:n ja MTI:n yhteistyössä, Taidetta, kulttuurien yhteistyötä ja uusia verkostoja – Pohjoisen kulttuuri-instituutti | Arts, Cultur Collaborations and new networks – The Institute for Northern Culture (2012)
The Simpsons 'on strike': what a viewing audience learns about work from a TV series (with Grant Cairncross), Current trends in technology and society (2012)
Occasional papers
Review of 'The meaning and purpose of leisure: Habermas and leisure at the end of modernity' by K Spracklen, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, Annals of Leisure Research (2011)
Destination choice: visitor behaviours in a coastal tourism destination on Australia’s east coast (with Don Fuller, D Bruce Armstrong, Janet Hanlan, Simon J. Wilde, and Stephen Mason), Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (2005)
Theses
The bushranger and the big banana: a cultural studies critique of tourism studies, PhD thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW (2007)
Conference publications
Challenging undergraduate hospitality students: the use of debates as interactive teaching and assessment tools, Tourism and hospitality: challenge the limits. CAUTHE Conference (2010)
Research shows that undergraduate students learn what they expect to be assessed on. It is...
Lighthouses as attractors: following Moominpappa, Arts, Islands and Islomania: 6th International Conference on Small Island Cultures (2010)
Lighthouses are by definition forced to be located at strategic locations at the border between...
Attractions as narratives, narratives as attractions: case study graffiti at Gäddtarmen, Finland, 18th Nordic Symposium in Tourism and Hospitality Research (2009)
This paper introduces the idea that a tourist attraction can fruitfully be regarded as anarrative,...
Sober on the holiday: is it unAustralian? (with Sri Edelheim), International Tourism and Media Conference (2008)
What the bloody hell is a touristic terra nullius?, CAUTHE 2008: Tourism and Hospitality Research, Training and Practice: “Where the 'bloody hell' are we? (2008)
This paper suggests that tourist attractions might act as powerful agents in forming and forging...
Reports
The meaning and purpose of leisure: Habermas and leisure at the end of modernity (Karl Spracklen): Book Review, Annals of Leisure Research (2011)
Scenic spots: chinese tourism, the state and cultural authority (Pal Nyiri): Book Review, Current Issues in Tourism (2009)
Coffs Coast visitor survey (with D Bruce Armstrong, Stephen Mason, Don Fuller, and Simon J. Wilde), Coffs Coast Tourism Association (2005)