Original scientific paper
Mapping a history and development of tourism studies field
Irena Ateljević
; Institute for Tourism, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper provides a chronological evolution of the interdisciplinary Tourism Studies (TS) field from its formation origins in the late 1960s until recently. By using the framework of the 'Knowledge force-field' developed by Tribe (2006) this socio-historical mapping of the field aims to provide a kind of 'navigating lens' to understand the origins of TS field, its burgeoning visibility, and its current complexity and challenges. This task is perceived as an important endeavour for two key reasons. Firstly, as the growth of the field has been truly sensational, particularly in the past 10-15 years, that does require an important historical reflecting point of asking 'what, how and who' questions in terms of key contributions and developments up to date. Secondly, and consequently the field has grown so much that it now appears to be fairly fragmented between different disciplinary perspectives, institutional and political agendas, over different networks and journals. These fragmentations and immense proliferations do require some general pointers, if one is to make any sense of the field. This is the case especially for younger scholars who come to the field of tourism studies from different schools and disciplines, hence often find themselves 'lost' in the plethora of audiences differentiated by their paradigms, approaches and perspectives.
Keywords
historical mapping; tourism studies field; knowledge-force field; business and non-business studies approaches
Hrčak ID:
120560
URI
Publication date:
21.4.2014.
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