- About postgraduate study
- Part-time study
- Courses
- Order a Prospectus
- Faculties & Departments
- UK students
- EU students
- International Students
- How to apply for your course
- Handy Hints
- Open Events
- Student Recruitment
- Money Matters
- About Us
By telephone
During office hours
(Monday-Friday 08:30-17:00)
+44 (0)1234 400 400
Outside office hours
(Campus Watch)
+44 (0)1582 74 39 89
By email
admission@beds.ac.uk (admissions)
international@beds.ac.uk (international)
sid@beds.ac.uk (student support)
help@beds.ac.uk (registration)
By post
University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
UK, LU1 3JU
To apply for a research degree, please make sure you fulfill the entry requirements and then complete the online research degree application form and upload your supporting documents.
You should have a good honours degree (2:1 or above) or masters degree or equivalent in the relevant subject area.
International applicants should be aware of our research degree English language requirements
What is ‘cultural gene bank’? The author of the Intelligent Tourist, Donald Horne (1992), probably can give us some understanding of what the concept is. Focusing on representation, legitimacy, and politics, this emergent study builds on his concept and will explore thoroughly the aspects of the cultural gene bank of Cambodia, which have the potential for tourism or which are being used in the projection of Cambodia and its identity in/via tourism.
A country in Southeast Asia, Cambodia has emerged as a potential, and increasingly more important, destination both in the region and in world. The magnificent temples of Angkor and Preah Vihear were registered as the UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in 1992 and 2008 respectively, and the former has become an epicentre of tourism consumption. The images of Angkor have also been used as the national symbol of Cambodia and they are found omnipresent in all sectors, not just in the tourism industry. In its 2010 tourist guide, the royal government claimed that Angkor was the best representation of Cambodia’s culture, arts, civilisation, identity, and politics. What has led to such claim? What do other groups of populations think? What matters of normalisation and contestation exist in the politics of the cultural production, selection, and projection of Cambodia and its identity? What else constitutes the representation of Cambodia?
An outcome the researcher expects from this emergent study is to be able to identify areas of (under-/mis-)representation as a result of matters of normalisation and representational discourse and praxis. This outcome will help raise awareness among the agencies involved in the cultural production, selection, and projection about the impacts of their conscious and unconscious signifying practices.
The study aims to critique the current projection of Cambodia and its identity in terms of the normalisation and the suppression/silencing in its representation.
A constructivist bricolage is the broad methodological philosophy employed in this emergent study of the cultural gene bank of Cambodia. Various perspectives on and interpretations of the cultural production, selection, and projection will be gathered first for three months, commencing in February 2012, from the stakeholding groups of populations, such as the public sector, the private sector, development and conservation partners, academic and training institutions, and the projected hosts through the employment of bricolage.
The researcher will make another field visit, possibly collecting extra data or doing extra interviews, and confirming data, emerging concepts and interpretations with the members of the stakeholding groups from whom the data were originally collected. A constructivist bricolage together with other operational approaches within the same philosophical domain, such as reflexivity, crystallisation, prior ethnography, para-ethnography, parallel ethnography, embeddedness, member-checks, and iteration will be utilised to seek to obtain trustworthy understandings through demonstrability, supportability, and confirmability.
