SOAN 323 | The Political, Economic, and Social Context of International Tourism

In the contemporary world, tourism is often the foremost process that brings together people from different parts of the world, allowing those from vastly different societies to interact on a face-to-face basis under peaceful, if not always equal, circumstances. As such, tourism as a phenomenon and as a process raises questions about global interconnections and global movements of finance, cultural and material artifacts, ideas, and people across national and cultural boundaries. The two questions this course addresses throughout the semester are 1) what are the economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism in low and middle income countries? and 2) what are the tradeoffs associated with tourism? In tackling these two questions the course examines a wide range of issues, including the political, economic, social, and cultural implications of tourism, the impact of global tourism on environmental and global conservation efforts, and tourism as a vehicle of social change and as a facilitator of cultural and material globalization. Crosslisted as IPE/SOAN 323.