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Heritage is a cultural process that is constantly exposed to contestation and therefore to reconstruction, resignification and repositioning. This paper goes beyond anthropocentric interpretations and recognises that heritage often involves other species in human-defined heritage practices. Based on an ethnographic approach, this study examines how contemporary practitioners of Charrería – a Mexican equestrian sport – embrace their intangible cultural heritage and problematise some of the interactions between the species involved. It evidences how Charrería participants navigate tensions between national identity and pride in their cultural heritage, on the one hand, and the ethics of involving other animals in sport and human heritage, on the other. The animal ethics issues involved threaten not only the social licence to operate of Charrería as a sport, but also the status and preservation of Charrería as heritage. This paper concludes that international and national organisations that institutionalise heritage play important roles in guiding efforts to protect and maintain intangible cultural heritage while addressing the changing ethical demands of interspecies relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global South has been largely excluded from equestrian sport and leisure debates. In particular, the equestrian experiences of children in developing countries have remained silent since most of the studies on equestrian sport and leisure have focused on the experiences of adults in the Global North. Despite the fact that equestrian sport and leisure are part of children's practices in countries of the Global South, very little is known about the benefits of equestrian sport and leisure in early childhood education in developing countries. This research explores the contribution of equestrian sport and leisure to children's informal learning. From an ethnographic approach to children's equestrian practice in Mexico, the study reveals that equestrian sport and leisure contribute to developing socialization, teamwork, discipline, and interspecies communication skills in children. This paper contributes to incorporating countries from the Global South into the global debates on equestrian sport in general, and on children in sport and leisure in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgender people experience intersecting forms of social marginalisation in different spheres of their lives. Both structural and interpersonal difficulties limit transgender individuals' opportunities for positive experiences that increase their health and well-being, such as tourism activities. The scarce research on the transgender population's tourism experiences has not focused exclusively on transgender men's experiences. Informed by an intersectional stigma perspective, this study sought to explore these men's perspective on tourism in two Latin American countries. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of transgender males, which revealed that, due to structural and interpersonal constraints, these men tend to experience stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion and heightened anxiety, fear and risk while travelling. However, tourism also provides transgender men with opportunities to construct their gender identity and perform selected aspects of their masculinity. Specific practical recommendations are offered to promote the creation of equitable, dignified tourism environments that reduce these men's experiences of stigmatisation during leisure trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unisex sport – where males and females compete directly against each other with no form of differentiation – offers a radical challenge to the norms of sex segregation that contribute to ongoing gender inequality in sport. This article presents findings from an ethnographic study of horseracing events in rural Mexico as an example of the unisex model operating within a wider sociocultural context still characterised by machismo and traditional gender relations. Findings indicate that although horseracing remains a male-dominated sporting space, the presence of women as jockeys, spectators and veterinary professionals is beginning to challenge this. Women's acceptance is contingent on male support and authorisation, and women are often marginalised symbolically and physically, yet their presence illustrates that the unisex model may be an important way of beginning to challenge the masculinisation of horseracing. The study highlights the importance of considering how the wider sociocultural context influences acceptance and experience of the unisex model and steps towards greater gender equality in horseracing and other unisex sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on equestrian sports, including horseracing, has been developed in contexts in the Global North. This has led to a narrow perspective of what horseracing is and means in different historical and sociocultural contexts. This paper extends this reach through considering informal horseracing events in Mexico. Based on understanding gender as a 'doing' rather than a 'being', and as an integral part of all social practices and identities, the races are examined as leisure events that function as sites through which masculinities are performed and (re)produced. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the horseracing events are identified as spaces in which male-male interactions provide opportunity for men to perform culturally hegemonic norms of masculinity, against a backdrop of shifting economic and social practices that are affecting wider gender relations in Mexico. Although women also have a presence in horseracing, they play a marginal role within the events which celebrate and foreground male homosociality. Masculinities are performed and validated predominantly through male-male interactions and expressions of male dominance over the horses. This paper thus illustrates the importance of gender to understanding different leisure practices and the significance of social and cultural context to examining leisure generally and equestrian sports specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the challenges that gender-dissident individuals represent for traditional binary gender norms, people with gender dissidence constitute a highly vulnerable social group. In leisure, travel, and tourism studies, the experiences of gender-dissident people have been practically ignored. Based on a necropraxis-necroresistance conceptual framework, this research aimed to explore gender-dissident people's leisure and travel experiences and the resistance strategies they adopt in Latin America. Based on twelve interviews, it revealed that while necropolitics (e.g. State policies) and necropraxis (e.g. interpersonal interactions) in the region negatively determine the everyday social experiences of gender dissidents, necroresistance strategies are adopted by gender dissidents to exist within the leisure and travel arena. The main contribution of this study lies in the adoption of a novel conceptual framework as well as the incorporation of gender dissidence and a particular socio-cultural context largely excluded from leisure and travel studies in the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great majority of people in developing countries depend on the informal economy for their livelihoods. In countries that rely heavily on tourism, pandemics and related confinements make these individual even more socioeconomically vulnerable. This paper critically explores the immediate socioeconomic effects on the informal tourism economy of confinement measures associated with the corona virus-19 pandemic, as seen from a social vulnerability perspective. Mexico is one of the countries that depends the most on tourism and the informal economy, so this nation was selected for an exploratory case study. The results suggest that many workers in the informal tourism sector were affected immediately by – and their vulnerability increased because of – pandemic-related confinements. These restrictive measures' imposition on the entire population highlighted Mexico's deep social inequalities. Recommendations are offered of how to protect vulnerable individuals involved in the informal tourism economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgender or trans people are deeply affected by social stigma in a wide range of forms and contexts including family, school, neighbourhood, work and clinical settings. Studies have rarely focused on how stigmatisation affects trans individuals' experiences of travel and tourism. This research sought to critically explore the constraints that prevent trans people from engaging in tourism in Mexico. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 trans participants. Experiences related to intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural constraints on tourism were explored during interviews. The findings include that trans men and women do not experience tourism constraints equally, and interpersonal constraints are closely related to social stigma that in turn influence these individuals' fear of being discriminated against, abused or killed while travelling or engaging in leisure activities. The results are discussed in light of leisure and tourism constraints theory. Managerial implications include ways that the tourism industry can contribute to reducing constraints for trans travellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horses currently play a leading role in many leisure events worldwide. However, their involvement in leisure activities raises various ethical questions. Based on a posthumanist approach, this study sought to explore the use and treatment of horses in a leisure event in Mexico. A participant observation method was adopted to conduct the research, revealing that horses become quite instrumental and commodified for humans, fulfilling intersecting entertainment, economic and cultural purposes. These results thus provide evidence of the prevailing anthropocentric and speciesist nature of horse-human interactions in leisure events. The findings include that, when horse-human relations become highly commercialised and are institutionally recognised as cultural heritage, a complete embracement of posthumanism is needed to dissolve basic horse-human dichotomies, but this remains a utopian ideal in tourism and leisure practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stigma may result in tense social interactions and discrimination between stigmatisers and stigmatised individuals. Despite its social relevance, stigma has been largely neglected in tourism sociocultural studies. Framed by Goffman's and Falk's theoretical propositions of social stigma, this paper aimed to explore local's stigmatisation of tourists' behaviour. This study revealed that locals' stigmatisation of tourists' behaviours can be spatially negotiated and deconstructed through social interactions. The data analysis also found that not all tourists are equally stigmatised and that tourists' conduct can be highly stigmatised if adopted by locals. Based on in-depth interviews, these findings were drawn from an examination of locals' perceptions of tourists' nudist behaviours in a Mexican destination. This research's results contribute to a fuller understanding of how locals (de)construct their stigmas of tourists' behaviours through local-tourist sociocultural interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local attitudes towards tourism comprise one of the most researched topics in tourism. However, researchers still need to examine attitudes of specific local groups, acknowledge tourist stereotypes as an influential factor and test different theoretical approaches, to develop a broader understanding and explanation of attitudes. Based on an emic perspective, this study analysed servers’ stereotypes of a specific group of tourists – locally known aschilangos– and associated attitudes in a Mexican resort. By adopting a combined theoretical approach drawn from social exchange theory and integrated threat theory, this study’s results reveal that individuals who depend economically on tourism do not always have positive attitudes and that negative stereotypes on their own are not the strongest predictors of attitudes. By combining both theories’ postulations, the findings show that perceived economic benefits and personal positive contact together account for positive attitudes but that these factors are significantly counterbalanced by negative tourist stereotypes. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]