Scott Allen Cohen
PhD Candidate
email: scohen@business.otago.ac.nz
PhD Title
Searching for 'Self' Through Lifestyle Travel
Supervisors
Associate Professor Neil Carr and Professor James Higham
Research Abstract
An increasing number of individuals have elected to leave the comforts and security of their ‘home’ societies in exchange for the experience of long-term travel. For some individuals, travel has become a lifestyle which is no longer a time-out from ‘normality’, but has instead become a preferred way of life that the individual has returned to repeatedly. This thesis investigates the role of ‘searching for self’ for individuals that travel as a lifestyle, using the author’s interpretive findings from interviews and participant observation with ‘lifestyle travellers’ in northern India and southern Thailand in 2007.
As identity has become increasingly problematic in late modernity, a paradox may exist for individuals that seek the Romantic notions of a unified sense of ‘self’, escape, freedom and authenticity within a post-traditional context of lifestyle travel that can instead be characterised by a disarray of cultural praxes. Hence, this research goes beyond the promise of ‘finding one’s self’ through travel as part of opening up the complexities of identity constitution in a fragmented world.
Education
2004 Master of Business – International Tourism Management,
School of Tourism & Leisure Management.
The University of Queensland – Brisbane, Australia
1999 Bachelor of Science – Biology,
The University of Georgia – Athens, Georgia USA
Publications
Cohen, S. (in preparation), “Escapism, authenticity and identity constitution: experiences of ‘lifestyle travellers’” in M. Morgan, P. Lugosi & B. Ritchie, The Experience of Tourism and Leisure: Consumer and Management Perspectives, Channel View Publications
Cohen, S. 2008, ‘Know Thyself? Assimilating the Classical Leisure Ideal, Self-actualisation, Flow Experience, and Existential Authenticity’, pp. 165-180 in P. Gilchrist & B. Wheaton Whatever happened to the Leisure Society? Theory, Debate and Policy, LSA Publications, Eastbourne
Presentations
Cohen, S. 2008, Self-identity (de)formation among lifestyle travelers in northern India and southern Thailand: a double-edged sword in late modernity, Contact: An Interdisciplinary Challenge in Cultural Studies Conference, University of Western Sydney, Australia
Cohen, S. 2007, Invited guest seminar, Dissolving Theoretical Boundaries: A Conceptual Analysis of the Search for Self in the Long-Term Travel Lifestyle, New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology
Cohen, S. 2007, Know Thyself? Assimilating the Classical Leisure Ideal, Self-actualisation, Flow Experience, and Existential Authenticity, Leisure Studies Association Conference, Eastbourne, UK
Cohen, S. 2006, Flowing Through Life: Long-term Travel as a Lifestyle Alternative, ATLAS Asia Pacific Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand
Scholarships and Awards:
2006 – 2009 University of Otago Prestigious PhD Scholarship. This was one of only ten university-wide competitive scholarships provided by the University of Otago in 2006, which are awarded on the basis of sustained excellent academic performance to the top echelon of students from the postgraduate scholarships application. The award paid an annual emolument of NZ$ 25,000 plus tuition fees for a period of three years.
2008 AUS$ 500 Travel Scholarship awarded by the University of Western Sydney, Australia, to attend Contact: An Interdisciplinary Challenge in Cultural Studies Conference
Teaching Experience:
The University of Otago
2008 Guest lecturer for three lectures in Tourism Behaviour – second year undergraduate, class size 65. Topics covered: In search of authenticity, Freedom or control in the holiday environment, Tourist behaviour and the life cycle.
2008 Guest lecturer for three lectures in Global Tourism – first year undergraduate, class size 45. Topics covered: The changing face of tourism in Asia, The Silk Road and the ‘Hippie trail’; an historic case study, The Himalayas, Tourism, and Sustainability?
2007 Guest lecturer for two lectures in Leisure Dimensions – third year undergraduate, class size 20. Topics covered: Risk taking and thrill seeking: adventures in the leisure domain, Leisure and lifestyle: incorporating issues of alternative lifestyles
2007 Teaching assistant. Principles and Business of Tourism Management – first year undergraduate, distance delivery mode. Global Tourism – first year undergraduate, distance delivery mode
2006 Teaching assistant. Tourism Behaviour – second year undergraduate, Tourism Impacts and Evaluation – second year undergraduate
Hobbies:
Snowboarding, Iyengar yoga, surfing, tramping (hiking), fly fishing and scuba diving