Tourism and Social Anthropology
MA PGCert PGDip (PGCert PGDip)
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Course summary and entry requirements
Course duration
Full-time: 1 year
Part-time: 2-6 years
About the course
The synergies between tourism and social anthropology are clear since social anthropology aims to understand the social processes that underpin what it means to be human. As an activity, tourism moves people from the familiar world of the everyday to the unfamiliar world of other places, people, and cultures. An anthropological perspective is crucial for understanding the role of tourism in shaping the social and cultural dynamics of human activity. Through tourism individuals may become strangers or exotic outsiders in their own land. This matters because the choices made about the places to visit, the activities engaged in, the postcards, souvenirs and photographs acquired along the way can reveal much about the ways in which people relate to and make sense of the world in which they live. An understanding of the social science perspectives on tourism will help manage social impacts of tourism and ensure beneficial relations between hosts and guests.
The programme is delivered through the Centre for Tourism Policy Studies (CENTOPS), an accredited member of the UN World Tourism Organisation.
Typical entry requirements
Individual offers may vary.
For non-native speakers of English:
IELTS 6.5 overall and 6.0 in writing.Degree and/or experience:
Honours degree with a minimum 2:2 equivalent from a NARIC-recognised institution, or an HND equivalent plus at least 5 years of relevant industry experience. Other applicants with extensive industry experience will be considered on an individual basis.For equivalent international qualifications
We can help you meet our English language entry requirements
For help meeting English language requirements contact our
Language Institute.We can help you meet our academic entry requirements
For help meeting academic entry requirements contact our
International College.If you cannot find your country listed, please email admissions@brighton.ac.uk
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Course content
Course structure
Full-time students attend workshops on two days per week with the part-time route usually requiring one day per week. Some modules may require attendance on several consecutive days. Teaching methods include group work, case studies, presentations, and live projects. The course is delivered through a variety of approaches including lectures, presentations, tutorials and case studies, with an emphasis on interactive learning.
Areas of study
The course draws upon the school's long standing research and teaching excellence in the areas of tourism and social anthropology. The content of the course is strongly underpinned by the tourism team's expertise and research activities.
Key themes in the course encompass:
- the paradox of being local in a global world
- tourism and rituals of mobilities and social interaction
- tourism and mythologies of adventure, paradise and pilgrimage
- tourism and social change: the host-guest encounter
- material culture, landscape and identity.
Syllabus
Tourism and Anthropology: Critical Perspectives
Tourism, Landscape and Materiality
Travel and Visual Culture
Globalisation, Society and Culture
Final projectOptions: two from
Tourism and Development: Critical Perspectives
Consultancy
Tourism and International Cooperation for Development
Ethical and Social Responsibility: Theory and Application -
Fees and costs
The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2013-14. Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.
The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.
What's included in the fee?
When costs such as health or criminal record checks, field trips or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.
You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply please check with the school that provides your course using the contact details on the left of this page for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.
Our website www.brighton.ac.uk/money provides advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee paying status.
Tourism and Social Anthropology (MA) (Full time) [J2BD026] UK/EU (Full Time) 6,390 GBP Island Students (Full Time) 8,100 GBP International (Full Time) 11,500 GBP -
Location
Location
Eastbourne Eastbourne is a thriving town which offers traditional seaside attractions, modern nightlife, good shopping and a wide range of sporting activities. It’s one of the sunniest places in the UK.
Our Eastbourne campus is located at the foot of the South Downs National Park, about ten minutes walk from the seafront and 20 minutes from the pier and Eastbourne town centre. Almost 3,000 students are based here.
View campus maps and directions
Living in Eastbourne
Eastbourne’s buzzing university community and compact town gives it a laid back and friendly feel. The town combines the traditional seaside attractions with modern nightlife, a wide range of sporting activities and an exciting arts scene.
Social scene
The student community in Eastbourne ensures it has a thriving social scene, with dedicated student nights at many of the town’s pubs and clubs. Eastbourne’s expanding nightlife includes trendy cocktail bars, laid-back country pubs and modern nightclubs.
Arts
The striking Towner contemporary art museum in Eastbourne features international exhibitions as well as a permanent art collection. Eastbourne's six theatres give you a chance to see West End musicals, touring shows, live music and comedy.
Sports
Eastbourne has long been the home of pre-Wimbledon tennis tournaments at Devonshire Park. Eastbourne also hosts an extreme sports festival and the Beachy Head Marathon that takes place across the South Downs National Park.
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Student views
Andriani Manoli
Tourism and Social Anthropology MA
I have an educational background in hotel and catering management and international hospitality management and a professional background as the public relations manager of a five star hotel. Therefore this MA which looks at tourism through an anthropological lens seemed ideal for embarking on an alternative journey within tourism.
Unique and creative course
The MA looks at tourism more as a phenomenon rather than an industry, taking students back to the roots and the fundamentals that characterize tourism. It is a unique and creative course that stimulates one’s thinking and understanding of past and modern tourism.
It has interesting modules and brilliant lecturers who are just as excited about their subject as the students themselves.
Supporting your future career
Overall, it has been an inspirational course and an overwhelming experience. It is has been valuable and constructive for following my desired future career in academic teaching and public relations.
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Career opportunities
Graduates from this course will develop a range of skills for example intellectual development, the ability to synthesise and critically evaluate information, analytical skills, research and interpretation of data, organisation and communication. A student studying this course will develop in the areas of cultural and self-awareness and comparative perspectives. In terms of careers the course will be useful for employment generally because of the skills developed and specifically: tour operators/ travel companies, tourism consultant, museum sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Anthropologists are also employed by retail/market research organisations so graduates from this course will be able to offer such organisations a specialist focus in the tourism and travel sector. -
More...
Core Modules:
Tourism and Anthropology: Critical Perspectives
Tourism, Landscape and Materiality
Travel and Visual Culture
Globalisation, Culture and Society
Option Modules (two from):
Tourism and Development: Critical Perspectives
Tourism and International Cooperation
Consultancy
Ethical and Social Responsibility: Theory and Application
Plus the Final Project
Tourism and Anthropology: Critical Perspectives: Through this module you will develop a critically informed understanding of the relationship between tourism and social anthropology.
The activity of tourism creates opportunities for encounters between people, cultures and places, and anthropology provides a rich and stimulating lens through which to explore and debate how such encounters influence our understanding of the world in which we live.
You will explore what we mean by culture and how it is employed through tourism to represent ways of seeing, being and behaving. The work of anthropologists such as Malinowski, Levi-Strauss, Douglas and Ingold will be examined, together with key concepts, theories and perspectives, such as pilgrimage, kinship, ritual and myth.
You will learn about fieldwork and the ethnographic imagination and be provided with opportunities to use theory to investigate tourism encounters.
By the end of the module you will have acquired an in depth understanding of the social and cultural dynamics of tourist ‘society’.
Tourism, Landscape and Materiality: Central to the experience of tourism are the spaces and places to be visited, travelled on, over or around and the buildings, monuments, objects and ‘things’ encountered in getting and being ‘there’.
This module explores how the material world of tourism is constructed and in turn constructs what we think and ‘know’ about self and other.
Your journey through this world will touch down at airports, on cruise ships, in museums, castles and souvenir shops. It will traverse a range of landscapes constructed by and through, such as literature and the heritage and the natural world. For example, parks, gardens, beaches and the ‘seaside’.
A range of theories and ethnographies will provide the analytical context for understanding how these places and spaces are ‘used’ - imagined, remembered, appropriated and contested.
Key themes and concepts include the social and symbolic construction of identity and of social value, of gift-giving and reciprocity, of collecting and display, gender and power.
Travel and Visual Culture: Individuals experience the world through the senses. The sense of sight or ‘the visual’ is particularly significant for travel and tourism, influencing perceptions of people and places and thereby travel choices and travel behaviour.
This core module examines the discourse of visual culture in the context of travel and tourism. It explores the rich seam of visual ‘evidence’, in all its various forms, to inform our understanding of travel and tourism as social constructs.
Key theoretical concepts such as image, identity and semiotics are drawn upon to critically explore the relationship between visuality, travel and tourism. You will work with a variety of cultural artefacts to examine particular aspects of travel and tourism. These artefacts include postcards, photographs, brochures and TV documentaries.
Themes of the module include: Visual imagery, media advertising, semiotics and destination marketing, ways of seeing and imagining place, the politics and poetics of visual representation, consumption of images, landscapes and destinations, social construction of cultural identity, travel photography as performance, visual appropriation of place and visual souvenirs.
Globalisation, Culture and Society: Globalisation is on many people’s mind, and a firm and frequent element of private and public debates and discussions. The term describes a process as well as an outcome.
Although many people tend to focus on the economic aspects of globalisation (e.g. international trade, foreign investment, capital flows, migration, etc.) this module will primarily consider the way societies and cultures have become more interdependent and (in some cases integrated) through a globe-spanning network of communication and information technologies.
This module is an attempt to show that there is more to the globalisation phenomenon than meets the eye, i.e. the fundamental aim for this module is to analyse the complexity, relevance and contested nature of the on-going globalisation process and to apply key models, concepts and theories to the critical analysis of the international tourism/hospitality/events industry as well as the respective management environments.
Tourism and Development: Critical Perspectives: The aim of this module is to enable you to develop a critical appreciation of the theoretical and empirical links between international development theories and debates, and tourism.
You will work on developing a critical awareness of the role of tourism in sustainable development by critically assessing ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’ practices in sustainable tourism development (i.e. Mass tourism, Niche Tourism, Eco-tourism, Responsible, Pro-poor and Community-based tourism).
The module will also address issues such as: the major characteristics of the tourist industry at a global level and the factors that have influenced the nature and rate of the industry’s development (i.e. developed world, developing world/majority world/global South, emerging destinations/tourism flows); the nature and implications the sustainable development agenda on tourism and vice versa (social – e.g. power relations, economic – e.g. UNMDGs and poverty alleviation, environmental – e.g. climate change); the stakeholders perspective (i.e. tourists, agents of tourism development, host communities, funding bodies and aid donors).
Tourism and International Cooperation: This module is aimed at developing a critical awareness of the theoretical and empirical links between the international cooperation for development and the tourism debates.
You will contextually analyse international development and cooperation theories, concepts and debates from historical and contemporary perspectives.
You will also evaluate the role of stakeholders (i.e. Government, NGOs, Aid Agencies, Funding Bodies, Sponsors, experts, consultants, volunteers, philanthropists) and partnerships in tourism. In a very practical way you will reflect on key skills and practices required to work in tourism related international cooperation activities (i.e. project development, travel philanthropy, volunteering, consultancy, capacity building).
The module will also address issues such as: sustainability and the quadruple bottom line; philanthropic versus commercial practices; cross-cultural collaboration and knowledge exchange; capacity building and ‘train the trainers’ approach; biodiversity conservation as a concept for economic diversification regeneration; participation and community development; growing importance of niche specialism’s; myths and inequalities; power relations; and field work skills and practices.
Consultancy: This module is aimed at dealing with the complexities, lacunae, ethics and contradictions associated with the business consulting process.
You will work on developing an in depth understanding of the tourism and hospitality consulting process by undertaking critical evaluation of case studies and relevant current trends in tourism and hospitality consulting practices.
By practically assessing the essential phases of the preparation and delivery of various types of consultancy projects (i.e. World Bank, UNESCO, EU, Regional Agencies, Local Authorities), the ability to critically apply concepts and synthesize information will be developed.
The module has two parts, the first, general issues of consultancy practices and processes, the second with the more specific and practical contents such as: the uses of consultants - politics of consultancy - why consultants are called in; the bidding process and the business/project plan development, assessment and effective time management; issues of consultancy management, negotiations and format of final results; legal and ethical issues; field methodology applications and consultancy simulations.
Ethical and Social Responsibility: Theory and Application: This module introduces you to some of the key moral complexities associated with ethics and social responsibility in the tourism, hospitality and events sectors.
It addresses a range of consumer, business and societal responses to the responsibilities associated with the production and consumption of these global products and services.
The module will deal with issues such as corporate social responsibility, ethical and fair trade consumption, ethics and the environment, philanthropy and volunteering, and consumer attitudes, values and motivations.
The module is challenging but also innovative in its approach to the complexities associated with managing and consuming tourism, hospitality and events in a contemporary context.