In terms of integrating tourism and social sciences, one of the most
innovative programs in tourism studies is that of the University of
Waikato, New Zealand. Their program is totally inter-disciplinary across
geography, anthropology, and business. Check it out. It is a really nice
curriculum.
Chuck de Burlo
Geography
Univ. Vermont
USA
On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Raoul Bianchi wrote:
> Steve, Certainly the problem goes to the heart of central
> education policy as you suggest, and indeed the prevailing
> ideological climate which to some extent influences
> student choice. If I am not mistaken there are
> tourism-related degree courses in other countries which are
> in humanities and social science faculties. If so it would
> be interesting to hear the thoughts of our colleagues
> outside the UK on this matter. Raoul
>
>
> On Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:22:55 +0000 (GMT) Steve Butts
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >
> > Dear All,
> >
> > This is a bit rambling as I'm marking as well, but I hope relevant.
> > Several folks have raised the issue of whether or not anthro/social
> > science aspects of tourism should be in business schools, the value
> > of them etc. Certainly the value of these kinds of modules/content
> > is undisputed from an academic, personal, and even business point of
> > view. As I'm preaching to the choir I won't say more about that.
> >
> > Nevertheless, I would submit the difficulty in seperating out these
> > kinds of modules and developing them into degree courses is that they
> > are not attractive to prospective students. To illustrate, I would
> > challenge anyone to get a group of students to do a degree called
> > "Anthropology of Tourism" or "Philosophy of Tourism." The
> > traditional student comes to university not even knowing what
> > anthropology or even what philosophy is all about--thus they are not
> > going to sign up to such a course. Yet as has already been said,
> > when they do a "Tourism Management" type degree and get offered these
> > topics as modules, they are without fail some of the most popular
> > ones going.
> >
> > However, to bring this back to what Raoul said, the present
> > education/social/ecomomic structure says that things with
> > "management" in the title are okay, because they somehow refer to
> > "Business." What is amazing is that students are equally as ignorant
> > of what "Business" degrees actually entail as they are of the
> > fictional ones previously mentioned. But they choose them. And they
> > choose them because of the system we live in.
> >
> > What can we do? Not sure. By making sure anthro/social science type
> > modules are built into "Tourism Management" courses we can chip away
> > at the existing structure. And building them in and keeping them may
> > be less of a problem than we think--if students are given a free
> > choice they will keep choosing them, although I recognise this
> > doesn't always happen. From my point of view, the education system
> > in place before students come to university needs to be expose
> > students to a wide range of ideas. But as long as central government
> > is setting the curriculum, and forcing blinders on students, creative
> > thought and informed choice will continue to be lacking in the
> > majority of the population.
> >
> > I'll desist.
> >
> >
> > Steve Butts
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr. Steve Butts
> > Senior Lecturer
> > Univeristy of Plymouth
> > Seale-Hayne Faculty
> > Department of Land Use & Rural Management
> > Newton Abbot
> > Devon TQ12 6NQ
> >
> > tel. 01626 325640
> > messages 01626 325661
> > fax 01626 325657
> > e-mail [log in to unmask]
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Dr. Raoul Bianchi
> Centre for Leisure & Tourism Studies
> Stapleton House
> University of North London
> 277-281 Holloway Road
> London N7 8HN
> ###################
> [log in to unmask]
> ###################
> Tel: +44 (0)20 7607 2789 Ext.3308
> Fax: +44 (0)20 7753 5051
> http://www.unl.ac.uk/celts
> -------------------
>
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