Initial Research

• Initial training in geography followed by early ethnographic work on local responses to environmental changes (Senegal, Lower Casamance in 2003 / Indonesia, Kangean Archipelago in 2004).
• Doctoral thesis on contemporary China (2004-2009), analysing domestic tourism (practices of tourists and urban/economic development of visited locations in Guangxi and Guizhou).2012: Postdoctoral fellow in Geography (University of Angers)
  2009: PhD in Geography (University of La Rochelle)

Postdoctoral Research

• Analysis of various uses within tourism (cruises, camping), water sports leisure activities (surfing), with a focus on beach spaces (on Hainan Island, in Zhejiang and Shandong).
• Interactionist studies on engagement in stigmatised practices (tanning, sports activities, UV salons in Shanghai), and the challenges of maintaining positions outside the norms deemed legitimate.
• Since 2016, exploration of two research fields in Taiwan to understand the circulation of practices and the influence of gender within surfing activities in the region (notably from Japan).
• Concurrently, research on governance within tourist sites (studies in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guizhou, and on Hainan Island), followed by investigations into the standardisation of narratives within tourist spaces.

PhD supervision degree and New Research Directions

• Empowered to supervise PhD research (2022): reassessment of my scientific position and formulation of new research hypotheses.
• Currently deepening my ethnography of tourism from the perspective of inhabitate (being and dwelling), focusing on gradual familiarisation with mobility, mobilities (mobile / immobile), places (locations / displacements), and cohabitation.
• Continuation of a geo-historical perspective aimed at understanding the transformations in residents’ relationships to tourism since the latter half of the 19th century.
• Finally, following several exploratory works outside China (France, Brazil, Thailand), an attempt to characterise the notion of a “China-World” (“Chine-Monde”: the World as seen and constructed by China): analysis of the roles assumed in situ (in five countries of the so-called “Global South”), the negotiations required for this, as well as forms of global governance and Chinese capitalism.

Selected Publications

• B. Taunay, 2024, « Être un habitant dans le système de contrôle des mobilités en Chine », EspacesTemps.net, https://doi.org/10.26151/sywa-0473
• A. Boucher & B. Taunay, 2022, « Fragmented authoritarianism in action: An analysis of interaction between researcher and archivist in the People’s Republic of China », The Journal of the Archives and Records Association, vol. 43, n°1, p. 75-94.
• B. Taunay & C. Guibert, 2021, Les Chinois à la plage en Chine, L’Harmattan, 174 p.
• B. Taunay, 2019, « Geohistorical Analysis of Coastal Tourism in China (1841-2017), p. 78-90 in I. Yeoman & U. McMahon-Beattie (Dir.), The Future Past of Tourism, Channel View Publications, 336 p.
• V. Coëffé, B. Taunay, C. Guibert, 2019, « Usages sociaux et spatialités du bronzage en Chine. Être dans la norme vs. Être à contre-norme », Espaces Temps.net, DOI : 10.26151/espacestemps.net-9468-vg57
• S. Gaymard, B. Taunay, J-N Amato, 2019, « Social Representations of Suntanning and Conditional Beach Practices in China », Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 10, n°5, p. 24-36.
• B. Taunay, M. L’hostis, P. Johnson, 2018, « Geographical limits of outbound Chinese tourism in France », Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, vol. 12, n°1, p. 66-81.
• B. Taunay & L. Vacher, 2018, « Pratiques et organisation spatiale de la plage chinoise. L’exemple de Dadonghai à Sanya (île de Hainan, Chine) », M@ppemonde, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/mappemonde.389
• I. Sacareau, B. Taunay, E. Peyvel, 2015, La mondialisation du tourisme. Les nouvelles frontières d’une pratique, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 264 p.
• B. Taunay, 2014, « Une mise en tourisme par la société locale. Analyse à partir de l’île de Taohua (province du Zhejiang, Chine) », ESO Travaux et Documents, n° 37, p. 37-44.
• B. Taunay, 2013, « The increasing mobility of Chinese repeat visitors in France », Tourism Planning & Development, vol. 10, n°2, p. 205-216.
• B. Taunay & C. Guibert, 2013, « From political pressure to cultural constraints: The prime dissemination of surfing in Hainan », The Journal of China Tourism Research, vol. 9, n°3, p. 365-380.
• V. Mondou & B. Taunay, 2012 « The adaptation strategies of the cruise lines to the Chinese tourists », avec Véronique Mondou, Tourism, vol. 60, n°1, p. 43-54.
• V. Coëffé, B. Taunay, C. Guibert, 2012, « Émergences et diffusions mondiales du surf : une mise à l’épreuve des normes sociales et culturelles », Géographie et Cultures, 2012 n° 82, p. 61-76.
• B. Taunay, 2011, Le tourisme intérieur chinois, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 255 p.
• C. Cabasset, I. Sacareau, E. Peyvel, B. Taunay, 2010, « De la visibilité à la lisibilité du tourisme domestique en Asie : quelques réflexions à partir des cas chinois, indiens, indonésiens et vietnamiens », Espace Populations Sociétés, 2010 n° 2-3, p. 221-235.
• B. Taunay, 2010, « Regard chinois sur le plus beau paysage sous le ciel », Téoros, vol. 29, n°2, p. 26-34.
• B. Taunay, 2010, « L’émergence d’une culture chinoise de la plage. Les pratiques touristiques intérieures de la plage à Beihai (Guangxi) », Espaces Temps.net, URL : https://www.espacestemps.net/articles/emergence-culture-chinoise-plage/
• B. Taunay, 2006, « Regarder les lumières, le tourisme national chinois dans la province du Guangxi », Monde Chinois, n° 6, p. 49-64.