Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3 2
TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES IN A
POST-DISCIPLINARY AGE
Julie Wilson
This fi nal chapter asks what advances can be identifi ed following this critical and refl exive
auto-appraisal of what we do and what else we could be doing as (tourism) geographers.
Personally, I would hope we can say that we've stepped outside of our particular specialisms
(and comfort zones) and considered a wider range of possible theoretical frameworks,
approaches and settings for our research.
In gauging the parameters of any such development, it might be pertinent to return to the
shift noted by Hall and Page in
Chapter 2
from the geography of tourism to 'geographies of
tourism', which heuristically may tell us a lot about our own (and others') research pathways
and processes. They argue that no one paradigmatic approach exists regarding the geography
of tourism, and for this reason they lean towards the phrase 'geographies of tourism' to
capture the proliferation of new theoretical perspectives and research foci that have emerged
in recent years. In other words, the fi eld is diversifying, pluralising and evolving, which are
positive steps in the context of a discipline that has in the past been accused of fragmentation
and insularity ( Johnston, 1993).
Many of the contributions in this volume demonstrate that the paradigmatic shifts in
geography more widely are increasingly refl ected in the study of tourism and, moreover, such
shifts are being adapted and reconfi gured very effectively to have increased applicability
for the tourism domain. This is partly due to the growing interest in spatial and place-based
concerns by social scientists, of course. But I believe it is also due to an increasing willingness
and interest on the part of researchers to transcend disciplinary boundaries, which has led
us to face the prospect of post-disciplinarity with all its inherent possibilities and caveats. I
say caveats in the sense that (as Butler hints in
Chapter 3)
perhaps it is only with the
'security blanket' function of core disciplines that we can truly explore the possibilities
for post-disciplinary working. The re-emergent interest in the once disfavoured 'Time
Geography' (Shoval,
Chapter 22
and Hall,
Chapter 21)
within the recent New Mobilities
Paradigm (Duncan,
Chapter 14)
is a good example of this. In particular, both Hall's and
Shoval's chapters represent an important progression in terms of widening the range of tools
and methodological advances available to us.
While some are unsure whether now is the era for post-disciplinarity, others have engaged
with the notion to a much greater extent and have been working along these lines for some
time already. Gale
(Chapter 4)
points to an increasing refl exivity in scholarship and research
