International study at the University of Brighton

Tourism, Society and Culture

Level: 5
Credit rating: 20
Semester offered: 1
Pre-requisites: None
Aims:

To enable students to:

  • Examine tourism as a social and cultural phenomenon and through this, illustrate the contribution that social science can make to tourism management
Learning outcomes:

By the end of the module students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the potential for interplay between tourism management strategies and social science perspectives.
  2. Evaluate and analyse key socio-cultural issues arising from the co-presence of tourists and residents including the construction of identity.
  3. Demonstrate competence in visually analysing film and still images and constructing arguments based on visual material.
Content:
  • Definitions of key terms such as society, culture, visual culture, co-presence, mobilities, and their links with tourism;
  • Key theoretical debates in pilgrimage, anthropology, orientalism, authenticity, semiology, cultural identity, and 'scapes/ space;
  • Fitting theories of cultural analysis (above) with management of destinations and tourism.
Learning and teaching strategies:

Total Learner Hours: 200

Contact Hours: 48 consisting of workshop-style and will include a mix of keynote lectures, group discussion, student presentations and critiques and guest speakers.

Private and Directed study 152 hours, to include guided reading, individual and group tasks, assessment preparation.
Learning support:

Burns, P. (1999) An Introduction to Tourism and Anthropology. London: Routledge

Burns, P. and Figurova, Y. (2005) 'Tribal Tourism in Hidden Places: the case of Cannibal Tours' in M. Novelli, Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issues, Trends and Cases. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.

Burns, P, Lester, J. (2005) 'Using Visual Evidence: the case of Cannibal Tours', in B. Ritchie, P. Burns

Franklin, A. (2003) Tourism: an introduction. London: Sage

Osborne, P. (2000) Travelling Light: photography, travel and visual culture. Manchester: MUP

Palmer Tourism Research Methods: Integrating Theory with Practice. Wallingford: CABI

Pink, S. (2001) Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.

Pritchard, A. (2001) 'Tourism and Representation: a Scale for Measuring Gendered Portrayals', Leisure Studies, 20: 79-94.

Rose, G. (2001) Visual Methodologies. London: Sage.

Selwyn, T. (1996.) (Ed.) The Tourist Image: Myths and Myth Making in Tourism. Chichester: Wiley