XTO-10306 Sociology of Tourism

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Contents:

For the course sociology of tourism a historical and evolutionary approach is adopted. The evolutionary approach offers a lot of advantages to other sociological traditions as it fits well into the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective students will develop throughout the BSc programme. Using the historical evolutionary approach, students will become familiar with the social and economic effects of changes in production technology, which allows you to put information in a historical context. This knowledge will help to see links to other social scientific disciplines such as economics.
Societies change over time and space. This contextual awareness is crucial if you analyze and discuss topics such as structure, culture, gender, work, inequality, the family, etc. This course will incorporate the tourism aspect by reading and discussing a number of articles that emphasize the sociological study of tourism. Topics such as the role of tourism and leisure in our societies, how tourism consumption and identity are related, how we can study sociological topics such as 'social cohesion' in the context of tourism, etc. are addressed.

Learning outcomes:

After the course the student is able to:
- compare and classify the work of classical and contemporary sociologists and social-psychologists as far as they are relevant to the explanation of tourism practices;
- summarize contemporary debates in sociology and explain the relevance of these debates for the field of tourism;
- recognize and apply sociological concepts and theories on social structure, culture and structuration, power and freedom, social inclusion and exclusion, social interactions, moral values and social positions;
- recall trends in the global culture and society that affect or are affected by tourism.

Activities:

- lectures;
- tutorials
. In addition an introduction to practical use of library facilities is provided within the context of this disciplinary course.

Examination:

- written examination (60%);
- individual assignment (40%).

Literature:

- P. Nolan and H. Lenski (2009), Human Societies, An Introduction to Macrosociology, 11th Edition, Paradigm.
- Reader with research publications.