The 'critical turn' and its implications for sustainable tourism research

摘要

In recent years, tourism research has been affected by a "critical turn", as part of a wider trend across the social sciences (Ateljevic, Harris, Wilson, & Collins, 2005; Bianchi, 2009; Tribe, 2008). The new approaches to studying tourism associated with this trend often focus on challenging established thinking. For these critically oriented perspectives, the contexts of tourism are not assumed to be "given" or "natural"; rather, they are seen to be socially constructed, and as tending to produce unequal power relationships and to restrict human potential (Mair & Reid, 2007; Pritchard, Morgan, & Ateljevic, 2011). In general, the new critical studies often seek to undertake theoretically and conceptually informed critical analysis, reveal power relations, understand different world views, develop political insights, and encourage progressive change and emancipation.