Biography

Caroline is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey. Her main research interests lie in the areas of sustainable tourism, ethics, visuals and visualities in tourism, as well as materiality and consumption. Prior to working at the University of Surrey, Caroline obtained her first degree from Aberdeen, and her MSc and PhD from the University of Bristol. She also has experience as a research officer in the field of education. During this time, she led projects focusing on student satisfaction and employability at a range of UK Universities. Caroline is Chair for the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group for the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers.

Research Interests

Visuals and visuality in tourism; sustainability, ethics and responsibility in tourism; materiality and mobility in identity and consumption

Research Collaborations

Advancing Visual Methodologies in Business and Management (ESRC-funded Researcher Development Initiative, 2-year project) (start date: September 2010)

This project will train new and established researchers in the methods needed to investigate the visual dimensions of business and management. These dimensions include the 'look and feel' of products, services, brands and organizations, as they manage their aesthetic appeal to stakeholders; the exploitation of visual Internet technologies, such as online commerce, social-networking sites and YouTube to manage relationships with current and potential customers and staff; increasingly sophisticated strategic visual communication in company documents such as annual reports and advertisements; and the management of information and knowledge in the form of graphical presentation of data. As well as the visual being a subject for study in itself, the ease with which visual data (such as photographs and film) can be captured, stored and shared, opens up new and exciting possibilities for business and management researchers to apply new methods in understanding longstanding issues.

The Effects of Tourist Photography on Host Communities (ESRC-funded, 2-year project) (September 2007-September 2009)
Dr Scarles has successfully secured an ESRC First Grants Award for a 2-year project investigating "The Effects of Tourist Photography on Host Communities". Using the context of Peru, Caroline’s research will explore the socio-cultural impacts of tourism by investigating the effects of tourists’ photographic practice on the social and cultural frameworks of host communities. In particular, she will investigate the complex relationships that emerge between tourists and local residents in the moment of photographing and the potential for both community empowerment and/or dependency that arise through such practice. Her research will also examine the motivations driving tourists’ desire to photograph local residents, the ethical considerations tourists’ experience during this encounter and their awareness of the potential effects of their photographic demands. Finally, with a view to informing future policy, Dr Scarles will explore current management attitudes, awareness and policy in addressing tourist/local photographic engagement.

Further details of Dr Scarles’ work please contact her at: c.scarles@surrey.ac.uk. Further information and project outputs are available at: http://esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-061-25-0016/read 

inVISIO ESRC Seminar Series (October 2008 - January 2010)

Caroline is a founding member of inVISIO - The International Network for Visual Studies in Organisations. inINVISIO brings together researchers, educators, practitioners and artists exploring the visual dimensions of business, management and organisational life. Contemporary organisations and their stakeholders exist in a mass-mediated, image-saturated society where aesthetic appeal is an increasingly important arbiter of economic value. Visual matters are significant in contemporary corporate life and the lives of organisational members in work and everyday settings, whether directors, employees, bankers, lawyers, accountants, fund managers, policy developers or consultants. The list is endless. Yet, organisation studies remains strangely 'blind' to the potential of visuality. inVISIO therefore aims to become a thirving, global research and teaching community as well as the focal point for a rich source of visual and image-based scholarly material. The seminar series therefore aims to explore methodological issues relating to the visual dimensions of business, management and organisational life.

For further details, to join inVISIO please visit our website at: http://www.in-visio.org

Public Understanding of Sustainable Tourism and Leisure (DEFRA-funded) (March 2007-November 2007)
Dr Scarles has recently worked on research commissioned by DEFRA on Public Understanding of Sustainable Leisure and Tourism. Research findings can be found below:

• Final Report
  
  
• Appendices

PhD Supervision

Current Students 

Tadashi Yamagata: Actor networks, performativity and materiality in letterboxing

Jan Betts: The place of objects in identity and resistance in organizations

Matina Terdizou: Pilgrimage and Religiousness as Tourist Practice

Patricia Pupek: Fairtrade and tourism

PhD Completions

2011    Maltika Siripis        The Role of Film in Mediating Destination Image and Tourist Practices: The Beach and 
                                          Thailand

2010    Yeong Gug Kim    An Evaluation of the Influences on Consumption of Local Food in Tourist Destinations

Publications

Teaching

Undergraduate

Level 1 Business Environment

Level 2 Sustainable Tourism

Level 2 Tourism Theory in Practice (Overseas Fieldtrip)

Level 3 International Tourism Destinations

Postgraduate

MSc Sustainable Tourism 

MSc Tourism Social Sciences

PhD Research Methods

DBA Research Methods

Other

Applied Dissertation Coordinator

Professional Training tutor

Departmental Duties

Programme Leader for HKUSpace Tourism and Hospitality Programmes

Professional & External Activities

Professional Bodies

Chair for Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group with the Royal Geographical Society and Institute for British Geographers

Member of Executive Committee for BESTen 

Member of Board of Directors for Recreation, Tourism and Sport Research Group for the Association of American Geographers

External Examining

Anglia Ruskin University

University of Lincoln