tourism paradoxes
challenges to scholarship and practice
ISA-RC50 in-between conference
6-9 april 2016, chiang mai, thailand
RC50 Home
©2015 RC50
The International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on International Tourism (RC50) aims to encourage the international dissemination and exchange of information on significant developments in tourism social studies.
Further information:
During its course of nearing four decades tourism studies has covered much disciplinary,
thematic and methodological ground. Whilst the field has forged significant practical and conceptual benchmarks, international tourism is said to be entering something of a ‘new era’, and so scholarship in tourism now stands at a philosophical and ethical crossroads. The “International Tourism” Research Committee (RC50) of the International Sociological Association thus proposes an opportunity to reengage with these salient issues in tourism studies and thereby develop possible pathways for its future. By identifying the often incongruent and paradoxical dyads in tourism studies, the conference aims to consider what is needed, conceptually and methodologically, in order to equip tourism studies to interpret this new era.
Conference Themes
We invite papers that engage a social / cultural studies approach to tourism
in the following subfields:
Dyads identified (but not limited to):
(i) Colonization ---- Post-colonization & De-colonization
(ii) Political Prowess ---- Peoples’ Empowerment
(iii) Production ---- Consumption (Continuum )
(iv) Symbolism ---- Signification Dynamics
(v) Formal Sector ---- Informal Economies (incl. Entrepreneurs)
(vi) Assimilation ---- Diversity
(vii) Globally Standardized ---- Locally Stylized
(viii) Singular ---- Multiple Identities (Ethnic, National, Trans)
(ix) Borders ---- (De)Militarized Zones
(x) Anglo-Western Centrism ---- Decentering tourism studies
Methodology Matters:
(i) Modes of Knowledge: ontological and epistemological pluralism
(ii) Key turns of social science (constituents, rejections, advances)
(iii) Realist/neo-positivist approaches and methods
(iv) Soft science/Interpretive approaches and methods
(v) Discourse ---- Praxis
Many thanks to all for a successful conference!
Dr. Erik Cohen (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) on
The Paradox of Space Tourism
Featuring Keynote Speakers
Dr. Ana María Munar (Copenhagen Business School) on
Compliance and Dissent in the House of Tourism Studies
Dr. Vincent Platenkamp (NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences) on
The International Tourism Academia: A Paradoxical Challenge