Formation and Conceptualisation of Socio-Cultural Discourse in Foreign Tourism Studies

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to research the processes of formation and conceptualisation of socio-cultural discourse in foreign tourism studies and find out its influence on the formation of “tourism science”. The research methodology includes common science principles of systematisation and generalisation as a branch of scientific knowledge through a prism of cooperation between different discourses and schools. The purpose and task of the article have predetermined the applying of socio-cultural approach that gave the opportunity to outline the wider context of the representation of the branch in comparison to common “economic-geographically” approach. The usage of the method of historical-scientific analysis helped to identify the knowledge dynamics and discussions in foreign tourism studies. Scientific novelty lies in the context consideration and the problematic field in the frames of which took place the formation and conceptualisation of socio-cultural discourse in foreign tourism studies and also was found out that it had played one of the constitutive roles in the formation of the “tourism science”. Conclusions. The formation of socio-cultural discourse in western tourism studies connected with two factors: firstly, the expansion the differentiation of sociological knowledge about different branch directions that provoked an interest in tourism as a kind of activity on the level of theoretical understanding phenomenon and concept, and, secondly, appearing in the 1960s the sociology of tourism as an alternative “classical” tourism direction as a complex and multifaceted socio-cultural phenomenon. Thanks to socio-cultural approach in foreign tourism studies were firstly focused on and considered a number of important topics: tourism as a “democratic travelling”; tourism as a modern variation of a traditional pilgrimage; tourism as a process of acculturation; tourism as a type of ethnic relationships; tourism as a form of neo-colonisation; socio-psychological aspects of tourism; touristic branding through a prism of signs and symbols’ system connected with the social construction of identity.

Keywords: foreign tourism studies; socio-cultural discourse; history of science; tourism as a reflection of cultural questions and topics; tourism sociology; tourism schools.