SOC 295-02 - Special Topic: Sociology of Tourism

4 credits (Spring)

This course is an examination the relationship between tourism and social life from a sociological perspective. The root idea being that it is natural for human beings to make contact with other human beings and for societies to create leisure institutions to engage in cultural exchange and enjoyment. But what is the consequence of “instiutionalizing” tourism as an industry? This course will examine tourist practices, they are shaped, and how they are made meaningful within a social context. As we investigate why people travel, how they travel, and what they do while they are “on the road”, we will see that tourism is not on the margins of the social world, but rather deeply interconnected with everyday social life, from the personal to the global. Through scholarly readings, discussing and writing, we will explore the ways tourism is a material, symbolic, and political representation of many of the features of contemporary society’s achievements and ills:modernity and post modernity, consumption and cultural commoditization, the aestheticization of everyday life, democratization and social inequalities, questions of authenticity, embodiment and identity, gender relations, technology, social mobility and power, and globalization. We will review the tourist-related discourses and research literatures to instill the directions these conversations are taking in the 21st century. Finally, we will study the tourist practices in each country we visit as a unique case study of global leisure life.

Prerequisite: SOC 111.
Instructor: Scott