Accusations have been made that tourism studies lacks a theoretical base. Such assertions are often based upon a lack of understanding of the relationship between the academic study of tourism and theories from the social sciences.

Tourism Studies and the Social Sciences provides students with a wider understanding of and grounding in the theories of the social sciences that tourism studies have been built upon. Specifically it will examine how the disciplines of economics, politics, geography, sociology, psychology and anthropology have contributed to our understanding of tourism. Extensive cross-referencing between chapters highlights the multidisciplinary nature of much tourism research. The book concludes by describing how the fields of environmental studies, development studies, feminism and ethics that transcend the boundaries of social science disciplines can be applied to tourism.

Each chapter includes:

* an introductory international case study to illustrate the application of a particular discipline to the study of tourism

* a brief introductory summary of the discipline

* a critique of its main theories and concepts which have relevance to tourism

* a discussion of how the theories and concepts have been applied to tourism using cases and examples