Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
• Do you have the right skill set for the job?
• Do you have relevant experience and expertise supported by track records in similar
activities (i.e. commercial reports and consultancies rather than academic publications
on the topic)?
• Can you deliver a solution on time? (This is where most academics fall down as they
overrun, cannot manage time well and so provide a bad image for others.)
• Is the solution cost-effective and value for money?
• Will the outcomes be capable of being used and solutions implemented in a direct and
effective manner?
If the answer is
yes
to these questions, then it is apparent that individual geographers or
groups of geographers rather than geography per se can be relevant to society, to the
needs of policy-makers, planners, communities, individuals and to the future of the
planet. In the tourism-recreation context, the skills of the geographers are increasingly
being harnessed, recognised and utilised within academia, frequently in the field of
market surveys, position papers and data analysis rather than in the more skilled area of
feasibility studies, though examples of the latter do exist. Ironically, it is often when
geographers drop the label of 'geography' and move to an applied academic environment
such as a business school or planning department, that their skills gain a greater
acceptance, legitimacy and validity with political decision-makers. Introspection, the
idiosyncratic nature of much of the cultural turn in recent human geography and much of
the discipline's detachment from the real world of politics, decision-making and problem-
solving to improve the human condition has not gained the subject widespread societal
support.
To the discipline's ideologues, the gatekeepers of knowledge, its leaders and scholars,
tourism and recreation will continue to remain a fringe activity—amorphous and
seemingly didactic in its conception of space, place and environment. Yet in a changing
postmodern society where consumption is a basic element associated with the growth of
tourism, leisure and recreation, a discipline which does not embrace this new domain of
study is regulating itself to a 'non-relevant', esoteric and increasingly distant position.
Recreational activity and tourism per se are now culturally embedded in the lifestyles of
much of the world's population. This may be a function of globalisation, westernisation
or other socially contingent processes; if they wish to pursue them it is a reality. It
exists—and poses new research agendas and opportunities for a generation of
geographers. The area is exciting, ever-changing, socially, economically, politically and
environmentally challenging. Understanding the dynamics, processes, elements of change
(e.g. see the Insight below) and wider meaning and value of recreation and tourism in
society has opened so many avenues for spatial and multidisciplinary research. For the
main discipline, these opportunities should be fostered, nurtured and encouraged since
the area has the potential to engage not only students, but the wider public decision-
makers and politicians. Geographers can make a difference, even if it is in a neo-liberal
market-driven economy, making gradual changes to the status quo. Geography is
relevant, intellectually challenging and capable of developing the wider context of leisure
studies, so that recreation and tourism are respectable areas of study within the discipline,
and increasingly outside of the discipline, with geographers working in business schools,
public and private sector contexts in the development of this area of study.
