While tourism is one of the defining features of contemporary society and an important source of economic growth, its study has remained relatively marginalized within the social sciences. However, since the 1980s a substantial body of literature crossing the disciplines of tourism studies, sociology, social psychology and geography has developed (p. 2), leading to insights regarding the form and function of tourism as an industry and a social practice. In drawing upon this interdisciplinary body of work, Tourist Cultures highlights the main debates and different theoretical approaches which have been applied to tourism. In bringing sometimes opposing perspectives together, the authors argue for an approach to tourism which is subject and space centred. In so doing, they offer a theoretical perspective which is capable of dealing with tourism’s complexity and which reaffirms tourism as an important area of sociological study.
