Professional paper
The Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies and the construction of a unified field of tourism research
Michael A. Di Giovine
orcid.org/0000-0001-5348-8597
; Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
Abstract
The academic study of tourism has long suffered from deep inter and intra-disciplinary divides, which has often impeded its development, despite certain efforts by a few interdisciplinary publications to bridge these boundaries and constraints. The publication of the sweeping new Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies (2009), edited by Tazim Jamal and Mike Robinson, represents a step closer to the construction of a more unified, interdisciplinary genre of "tourism studies". In addition to serving as a reference text for tourism researchers of many disciplines, the reviewer argues that it explicitly helps establish a new field of research that transcends disciplinary boundaries in a way may be more effective than in the past. It does this first by thoroughly presenting the current state of tourism research from both the perspective of various disciplines (i.e., "the anthropology of tourism," "development studies and tourism") as well as through thematic, interdisciplinary perspectives. Second, more importantly than simply indexing the current state of affairs, the reviewer argues, it actually constructs this new "discipline" or field by bringing top and emerging scholars engaged in tourism research into meaningful engagement with each other under the marked title of "tourism studies" ‒ a conscious effort, it seems, to processually create a more cohesive, interactive community of tourism scholars who may build on the contributions of their colleagues from across disciplinary divides.
Keywords
tourism studies; tourism handbook; disciplinary boundaries; interdisciplinarity: sustainable tourism
Hrčak ID:
110918
URI
Publication date:
19.11.2013.
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