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5
A RADICAL DEPARTURE
A critique of the critical turn in Tourism Studies
Raoul V. Bianchi
Introduction
Tourism Studies appears to be increasingly divided between the unquestioning embrace of
the market, on the one hand, and questions of discourse, culture, and representation on the
other. The emergence and prominence of cultural analyses in tourism is the result of the
'cultural turn' in the social sciences (in particular, human geography and sociology) and
greater engagement with poststructuralist theory in Leisure and Tourism Studies (see
Aitchison et al. , 2000; Aitchison, 2006; Ateljevic et al. , 2005, 2007b; Crouch, 1999; Rojek
and Urry, 1997; Rojek, 2000; also Gale in Chapter 4 o f this volume), which in turn has
stimulated the emergence of a new 'sub-discipline of Critical Tourism Studies' (CTS)
(Aitchison, 2001). The 'critical turn' seeks to address both leisure and tourism as 'predomi-
nantly cultural phenomena' (Aitchison, 2006: 419), through critical interrogation of the
myriad discourses, images and representations embedded within contemporary tourism
practices.
Accordingly, it is heralded by its proponents as a 'quiet revolution' in tourism enquiry
which seeks to 'challenge the fi eld's dominant discourses' and inspire a series of critical
'dialogues, conversations and entanglements' into the nature of power, discourses and repre-
sentations in tourism (Ateljevic et al. , 2007a: 1-2). The 'critical turn' is said to present a chal-
lenge to both the business-dominated research agendas and the structuralism which are said
to be inherent in tourism research, and thereby to bring about a paradigmatic shift in tourism
thinking which embraces multiple worldviews and cultural differences (Pritchard and
Morgan, 2007: 11). It is thus an explicitly political project which, according to its chief
proponents, embodies 'more than simply a way of knowing , an ontology, it is a way of being , a
commitment to tourism enquiry which is pro-social justice, equality and anti-oppression: it
is an academy of hope' (Ateljevic et al. , 2007a: 3).
Whilst the 'critical turn' has perhaps led to a nuanced appreciation of the social and cultural
dimensions of power in tourism, the emphasis on tourism discourses in the absence of polit-
ical economy has meant that tourism often appears detached from the structural alignments
of power which are shaping twenty-fi rst-century capitalism and globalisation. Accordingly,
this chapter draws on Marxist theories of political economy in order to critique the under-
lying premises of the 'critical turn' and to refl ect upon the relevance of political economy in
 
 
 
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