Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
national park. The 1970s and early 1980s saw recreational and tourism geographers (e.g.
Coppock, Patmore and Glyptis in the UK) play a vital role in advancing the geographer's
role in policy-making and planning at all levels in the public sector. Yet in the 1990s and
the new millennium, this lead has not been carried out in such a high profile manner by
the new generation of geographers although notable examples of university and
public/private sector partnerships do exist to develop solutions to applied geographical
problems within the wider domain of leisure. While there are exceptions to the rule, the
discipline and subdiscipline of tourism and recreation have not made a major impact with
political decision-makers and this remains a key area of concern, given the role of spatial
analysis in understanding the effects and management needs of tourism and recreation.
THE ROLE OF THE GEOGRAPHER IN THE NEW
MILLENNIUM: WHITHER TOURISM AND RECREATION?
The perceived domain of the geographer—the quest for investigations associated with
environment, humans, place and space—is not necessarily viewed by other social
scientists and non-academics in the same way. Indeed, a multidisciplinary approach to
problems underpinned and informed by a spatial analytical approach often provides an
understanding beyond that achieved by the geographer working in isolation. One
consequence of building multidisciplinary research teams peopled by non-geographers is
a growing disciplinary marginalisation by other geographers and the stated 'gatekeepers'
within the subdiscipline. This can impair the wider assimilation of the research area
within the subdiscipline and within the wider context of geography as a discipline. This is
somewhat ironic at a time when tourism and recreation have experienced rapid growth as
activities within global, national and local space economies. Further, with tourism and
recreation comprising major components of the service economies of many countries and
regions, it is somewhat surprising that the contribution of geographers to understanding
this phenomenon is still constrained by perceptions within the discipline of what is
appropriate to study and research as serious topics of geographical investigation.
Both authors of this topic are probably viewed as 'outsiders' in the wider geographical
domain of consciousness that now besets the discipline, even though there is a growing
strength of interest in tourism and recreation. (If some of Butler's (2004) comments
regarding the relatively peripheral role of geography in tourism studies generally holds
true then they may also be seen as outsiders in that disciplinary context as well.) The
major 'internal' problem facing the discipline of geography is related to the tension
between positivism and humanism/the new cultural geography and the army of
geographers turned social theorists. This fragmentation or internal realignment to develop
careers related to the latest bandwagon (a theme the authors were frequently confronted
with in the 1980s and early 1990s in relation to tourism and recreation) have certainly
made a geographical education a less unified and structured process. Disciplinary
fragmentation and communication within the wider domain of geography creates barriers
and constraints to the wider integration of this exciting, dynamic and fast-changing area
of research. The fundamental difference between the authors as 'outsiders' and the new
social theorists is that the authors utilise applied geographical concepts and analysis to
study tourism and recreation. One of the central messages implicit in this topic is that it is
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