Question

advantage and disadvantages of post-disciplinary in tourism

Answer 1

Answer:

Part 2: Truth: Reality, Knowledge and Disciplines

Postdisciplinary Tourism

Chapter 5

Postdisciplinary Tourism

Tim Coles, C. Michael Hall and David Timothy Duval

Introduction: Knowledge Production and Disciplines

Scholars interested in tourism have been criticised for a lack of interest in the ontological

and epistemological (and hence methodological) foundations of their work, including the

notion that some tourism knowledges are created for tourism knowledges’ sake in a

fragmented, incoherent and unsystematic manner (Tribe, 2006; Weed, 2006). But the

indictment reads further: as a consequence, research on tourism has been limited in its

ability to contribute substantively to the development of social theory, concept and hence

deeper understanding (Franklin & Crang, 2001; Ioannides, 2007).

Such allegations form part of a debate about how knowledges of tourism can and indeed

should be produced (cf. Coles et al., 2006). A more prominent feature of this discussion

is whether there is a coherent and clearly identifiable academic discipline centred on, and

defined by its interest in, tourism; or, alternatively, is knowledge about tourism as a field

of study generated by scholars within and across (other established) academic

disciplines? An impasse has been reached and the conflicting positions are characterised

by their contrasting approaches towards defining academic disciplines (e.g. Tribe, 1997,

2000; Leiper, 2000; Hall et al., 2004). Fundamentally, though, the need for and existence

of disciplines is taken as read when they should not be (Klein, 1996). In this chapter, we

explore the opportunities and possibilities for the study of tourism ‘beyond disciplines’;

that is, postdisciplinary studies of tourism (see also Coles et al., 2005, 2006). We

consider the relevance of recent discussions, particularly in the social sciences, on

knowledge production characterised by more reasonableness, flexibility and freedom

from the constraints of established and orthodox disciplinary boundaries and dogmas

(Sayer, 1999; Massey, 1999; Toulmin, 2001; Hellström et al., 2003). Several academic ko