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This study aims to contribute to social identity theory in tourism by exploring the reflections of Chinese tourists visiting North Korea and how they negotiate their intergroup identity in this similar-others destination.

Data were collected via online platforms and in-depth interviews. A qualitative approach, i.e. thematic analysis, was used to analyse the two sets of data.

Results showed that when encountering North Koreans perceived as similar others amid the social, economic and political environments in which they were embedded, Chinese tourists often categorised themselves as ordinary tourists, preferentially treated tourists and vicarious tourists based on intergroup similarities to North Koreans. They also performed intergroup comparison to boost their self-esteem at group and collective levels and developed corresponding strategies to generate distinct emotional group commitments.

It is recommended that destinations reinforce the friendly and unique relationship with their similar-others source markets to improve their attractiveness. Destinations should also strive to enhance the experience of tourists from their similar-others markets by arousing their positive collective-level affection, emotional resonance and nostalgic memories and avoiding negative emotions.

This study offers a theoretical framework analysing the features of tourists’ social identities while visiting a similar-others destination, contributing to our understanding of the interactive and contingency nature of social identity in tourism, and responding to the call for addressing the broader social contexts in which tourists’ group identity is embedded.

本文致力于探索赴朝中国游客的反思以及他们在这个“类似他者”目的地如何协商群际身份, 以对旅游领域的身份认同理论做出贡献。

本文运用主题分析方法; 资料来源于网络文本和深度访谈。

当中国游客面对被视为“类似他者”的朝鲜人时（具有相似的社会、经济和政治环境）, 他们会根据与朝鲜人的群际相似性, 将自我分类为“普通游客”、“受优待者”和“过来人”三类。此外, 他们还会通过群际比较来提高群体层面和集体层面的自尊, 并且采取对应策略以产生不同的群体承诺。

本文提出了一个分析游客访问“类似他者”目的地时的社会认同的理论框架, 对理解旅游中的社会认同的互动性和偶然性做出了贡献, 并响应了在考察游客群体认同时关注其所处的更广泛的社会背景的呼吁。

目的地应该强化它们与“类似他者”客源市场之间友好且独特的关系, 以提升自身吸引力。目的地还应该唤醒游客积极的集体情感和怀旧, 产生主客情感共鸣, 并避免负面情绪, 以尽力提升来自“类似他者”客源地的游客的体验。

Este estudio pretende contribuir a la teoría de la identidad social en turismo mediante la exploración de las reflexiones de los turistas chinos que visitan Corea del Norte y cómo negocian su identidad intergrupal en este destino similar a otros.

Los datos se recogieron mediante plataformas en línea y entrevistas en profundidad. Se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo a través de análisis temático para analizar los dos conjuntos de datos.

Los resultados mostraron que, al encontrarse con norcoreanos percibidos como otros similares en el entorno social, económico y político en el que estaban integrados, los turistas chinos a menudo se categorizaban a sí mismos como turistas ordinarios, turistas con trato preferente y turistas vicarios basándose en las similitudes intergrupales con los norcoreanos. También, realizaban comparaciones intergrupales para aumentar su autoestima a nivel grupal y colectivo, y desarrollaban las estrategias correspondientes para generar distintos compromisos emocionales grupales.

Se presenta un marco teórico en el que se analizan las características de las identidades sociales de los turistas que visitan un destino similar a otro, lo que contribuye a nuestra comprensión de la naturaleza interactiva y contingente de la identidad social en turismo y responde a la necesidad de abordar los contextos sociales más amplios en los que se inserta la identidad de grupo de los turistas.

Se recomienda que los destinos refuercen las relaciones amistosas y únicas con sus mercados emisores similares para mejorar su atractividad. Los destinos deberían esforzarse por mejorar la experiencia de los turistas de sus mercados emisores similares, estimulando su afecto positivo a nivel colectivo, su resonancia emocional y sus recuerdos nostálgicos, y evitando las emociones negativas.

This paper aims to conceptually extend the religious aspect of consumption beyond the intrinsic motivation, i.e. religiosity, to a broader consideration of its social and cultural surroundings by highlighting the concept of “religiocentrism”.

The paper is conceptual and qualitative. It explores the concept of religiocentrism in several disciplines, including theology, politics, sociology, marketing and consumption.

The paper introduces the concept of religiocentrism in understanding religious consumption and marketing among consumers within a religious context. This paper further discusses the origin of the term religiocentrism; religiocentrism as looking beyond the intrinsic motivation, i.e. religiosity, religiocentrism from the social identity theory; past research on religiocentrism in theology, politics, sociology, education, marketing and consumption, as well as suggesting potential future research in religiocentrism within marketing and consumption studies.

The lack of research relating to religiocentrism in marketing makes the depth of the discussion rather limited. This paper, however, does not discuss the term religiocentrism from the theology roots but focuses more on the marketing and consumption aspects of religiocentrism.

Several research papers exist within the different disciplines about religiocentrism. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it can be argued that this paper is one of its kind to highlight the concept of “religiocentrism” in consumption and marketing that considers the social and cultural surroundings.

This study focused on Ivorian track and field athletes who were current or former members of the Ivorian national team to understand athletes’ experiences with migration, diaspora and sport.

Participatory action research (PAR) methodology was used in this research study (Lenette and Nesvaderani, 2021). According to Schinke and Blodgett (2016), PAR is a type of qualitative research used to engage the researcher and researched. The researcher and researched work together to understand the issues of a situation and communicate a plan to work toward resolving those issues (Kemmis et al., 2014). Using PAR helped to engage multiple people in the study, and as more research studies explore forced migration and sport, more scholars are starting to lean on the methodology to create a more diverse perspective and to include marginalized populations in the world of scholarly research (Stone, 2018; Robinson et al., 2019).

Key findings illustrate Ivorian athletes’ ability to forge a bond that transcended tribal and political differences through geographical proximity and sport opportunity, allowing them to (re)connect with their Ivorian diaspora by representing the national team.

This research paper expands on past studies in sport and migration by showcasing the fluid nature of how diaspora constructs an athlete’s national identity once they are forced to leave their homeland.

Israel ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and has subsequently worked towards putting disability-empowering policies and facilities in place. This study explores the experiences of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel with disabilities in everyday life including education, employment and accessing disability facilities and services.

This study explores the challenges and experiences of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a disparate group of Arab men and women with various forms of disabilities.

This research indicates that Arabs with disabilities are either unable to access them or do so with great difficulty relative to their Jewish counterparts. The findings suggest that this is due to one of two reasons: first is institutional discrimination by Jewish and Arab staff, and second is structural discrimination as facilities and services are specifically designed for the Jewish majority and their areas of residence as opposed to Arab residential areas.

Guided by intersectional theory, this article explores how the multiple identities of Arabs with disabilities living in Israel are co-constituted and ordered by different social and political structures which inform their daily lived experiences. This research illustrates that in Jewish politics and institutions, Arabs with disabilities in Israel are “otherised” by being flatly identified as Palestinians; yet, within their Arab communities, they are “otherised” by being reduced solely to their disability. This article examines how this variation in ordering and reduction can lead to specific experiences and forms of discrimination that requires multi-dimensional approaches and ways forward.

This article explores the applicability of participatory action research (PAR) on two levels: on the one hand, as a participatory evaluation method for community engagement and community development; on the other hand, as a tool to link ex ante and ex-post evaluation that situated at various stages of the policy cycle.

Through a practice-based case study of the community engagement process of Valletta Design Cluster, this paper aims to illustrate how PAR can offer collaborative and continuous evaluation by facilitating social action through a practical, situative, context-bounded, responsive and transformative framework.

The study explores how PAR can contribute to cultural sustainability by linking community development with participatory evaluation, and it offers new perspectives on the applicability of PAR as a tool to link ex ante and ex-post evaluation, situated at various stages of the policy cycle.

Although based on a single case, the paper demonstrates that the method has the potential to be applied in various contexts, as it helps to foster local ownership and to develop future cultural strategies, thus providing a base for cultural sustainability.

The novelty of this study is to link evaluation – a majorly top-down and ex ante approach – with participatory planning. PAR-E offers a continuous participatory framework for the whole European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) cycle, as well as serving as a tool for empowerment and community development.

The unprecedented pandemic of COVID-19 is not a typical crisis. This crisis has irrevocably altered human behavior, most notably consumption behavior. The uncertainty caused due to economic insecurity and fears of death have resulted in a paradigm shift away from consumer materialism and toward consumer spiritualism. The present study examines the effect of various dimensions of “spirituality” on consumers’ conspicuous consumption of fashion. The study employs a descriptive empirical research design to determine the impact of multiple dimensions of spirituality on the conspicuous consumption of Generation Z in India. These dimensions include General spirituality belief, Global personal spirituality and reincarnation spirituality. Additionally, the moderating effect of dispositional positive emotion on the relationships mentioned above has been investigated.

The data were accumulated through purposive sampling from 517 Generation Z consumers and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Reincarnation, general personal and global personal spirituality had a direct positive impact on conspicuous consumption of fashion. Dispositional positive emotion had a positive moderation effect between the reincarnation, general personal and global personal spirituality and conspicuous consumption.

The study will assist fashion brands and retailers in better understanding consumer behavior and associated opportunities and threats post COVID-19. For merchants and business owners in emerging countries, this study will help them to apply new techniques for keeping customers. It is useful to evaluate a shopper’s views towards spirituality, disposition and conspicuous consumption.

Municipalities seek new opportunities for co-producing services in rural areas. One potential partner is community-based social enterprises (CBSEs). However, whilst service co-production through CBSEs obscures the traditional roles of actors, it may lead to a legitimation crisis in local service provision. In this paper, the ways CBSEs are legitimised as service providers in rural areas are addressed from the CBSE and municipality perspectives.

Empirical data combine interviews with CBSE representatives and open-ended national survey responses from municipality decision-makers. The data analysis is based on a qualitative content analysis to examine legitimation arguments.

Results show that unestablished legitimacy and un-institutionalised support structures for co-production models build mistrust between CBSEs and municipalities, which prevents the parties from seeing the benefits of cooperation in service production.

The research focusses on the legitimation of CBSEs in service co-production in rural areas. As legitimation seems to be a context-specific process, future research is needed regarding other contexts.

Municipalities interested in the co-production of services might benefit from establishing a collaborative and responsive (rural) service policy forum that would institutionalise new models of co-production and enable better design and governance of service provision.

Results will give new theoretical and practical insights into the importance of legitimacy in the development of service co-production relationships.

The global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of village-owned enterprises (VOEs), which are community-managed enterprises that operate in the hostile rural areas in emerging economies. Thus, considering that a Schumpeterian view of economic downturn sees recessions as times where old products/services decline while new products/services emerge, this paper aims to explore the specific innovation-based diversification strategies that matter for the survival of emerging economy VOEs in recession periods to develop new theoretical insights.

The study is based on multiple-case studies of 13 leading VOEs operating in the rural areas of Java Island in Indonesia, an emerging economy. The data was analysed using within-case and cross-case analyses.

Overall, a number of major novel findings have emerged from the analysis, based on which the authors developed several new propositions. First, from the perspectives of both new product and new service diversification, “unrelated diversification” is the primary resilience strategy that seems to be associated with the survival of VOEs in the COVID-19 recession, over and above “related diversification”. Second, from an industrial sector diversification perspective, the most dominant resilient strategy for surviving the recession is “unrelated diversification into tertiary sectors (service sector)”, over and above diversification into the primary sector (agriculture, fisheries and mining) and secondary sector (manufacturing and construction).

The authors contribute to the literature on entrepreneurship in emerging economies by identifying the resilience diversification strategies that matter for the survival of VOEs in recession.