Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Political sociology, nations and nationalism, globalization and development, contemporary China, tourism, environmental sociology, mobilities, and social media
Biography
My work centers on the politics of mobility, specifically how transportation and travel shape our perceptions of the world and our collective behavior. Transportation systems not only build off outstanding power structures but affect how social boundaries are drawn and maintained. Broadly conceived, my goals are to bring studies of automobiles, highways, streets, railways, bicycling, and traffic regulation into mainstream sociology. Exploring geographic mobility is especially important in a world marked by climate change, where transportation constitutes over ¼ of global greenhouse gas emissions, and has been the fastest growing category of emissions.
My current research focus is exploring the politics of mobility in contemporary China. I demonstrate how highways are integral to state building, how tourists help stabilize and normalize ethnic differences in China, how traffic accidents are processed as moral crises, the use of roadside tourism for economic development in Tibet, and how techno-policing of streets is used as an instrument of building Chinese soft power. My most recent papers on this topic have been published in China Quarterly and Social Problems.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Situational nationalism: National framings among Chinese travelers using data mining of online travelogues
FAYARD, G. M. (PI)
1/01/24 → 31/12/26
Project: Research project
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Journeys of the nation: Investigating the use of flags in Chinese travel
FAYARD, G. M. (PI), TSANG, S. J. (CoI) & SAKAMOTO, A. (CoI)
1/01/26 → 31/12/28
Project: Research project
Research Output
- 10 Journal article
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Toward a Sociology of Transportation
Fayard, G., 3 Jul 2025, In: Sociological Quarterly. 66, 3, p. 448-471 24 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review
Open Access -
Politics as a Vacation: Tourist Practices and the Building of the Nation-State
Fayard, G., Feb 2024, In: Social Problems. 71, 1, p. 237–253 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review
3 Citations (Scopus) -
Revisiting cultural approaches to Chinese tourists
Fayard, G., Sept 2024, In: Annals of Tourism Research. 108, 13 p., 103803.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review
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The geopolitics of outbound travel: Theorizing outgoing tourism as state strategy
Fayard, G., Aug 2024, In: Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 42, 5, p. 881-900 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review
Open Access3 Citations (Scopus) -
Theorising the Politics of Tourism: Global Travel and the Nation-State
Fayard, G. M., Feb 2023, In: Millennium: Journal of International Studies. 51, 2, p. 489-518 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review
7 Citations (Scopus)