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180 education, multidisciplinary
tourism education, this is the usual policy. Its aims
are to help students gain knowledge of tourism's
many facets and a broad general education, by
drawing on the multiple perspectives provided by a
range of disciplines. Despite these benefits, multidisciplinary
education if focused on an applied field
can be problematical. A remedy to such a situation
does not replace the multidisciplinary approach but
adds something to its centre. Multidisciplinarity
refers to the practice of bringing several academic
disciplines to focus on a study. A discipline can be
thought of as a body of knowledge, for study
focused on a particular field, which has been
organised to some extent. This process includes
assumptions, definitions, jargon, and methods for
research and teaching.
Early research on tourism, some ninety years
ago, was done by economists. Later, academics
from other disciplines identified tourism issues to
which they could relate. When educational programmes
began, curriculum planners formed a
well-founded belief that students would gain wider
knowledge by exposure to several disciplines. No
single discipline can provide more than partial
understanding of the complexity of tourism and its
issues. All university education has �or develops)
foundations in research, now observable in a range
of disciplines used to investigate tourism. Opinions
differ as to what constitutes a genuine discipline
and certain inclusions are likely to be criticised.
Several entries in this encyclopedia represent
disciplines and research areas relevant to tourism.
These include accounting, anthropology, archaeology,
demography, ecology, economics,
ethnography, game theory, geography, history,
leisure, management, marketing,
myth, planning, political science, psychology,
recreation, semiotics, sociolinguistics,
sociology, statistics and systems theory, to
name but a few. Another list can be prepared by
noting the disciplines alongside names of editors of
tourism journals. For example, an examination of
the 1996 list of editors of Annals of Tourism
Research revealed the following mix of disciplines:
economics �13 editors), geography �11),
anthropology �7), sociology �9), business and
management �5), political science �4), leisure and
recreation �4), psychology �2) and one for each of
another ten categories. This pattern of disciplines
was reflected in an analysis of Ph.D. research. Jafari
and Asher �1988) reviewed 157 doctoral theses on
tourism presented in American universities over a
thirty-year period. Their analysis found fifteen
prominent disciplines. The most common dissertations
were in economics �40), then anthropology
�25), geography �24), recreation �23) and business
�11).
Important developments in multidisciplinary
education for tourism occurred between 1981
and 1996. Earlier, tourism education and research
were developing `largely independent of each
other' �Jafari and Ritchie 1981: 28). Fifteen years
later, there are definite signs of closer links. One is
an increase in the number of individual academics
who are active as researchers and educators.
Another sign is that many educators are now
making more use of research on tourism in their
syllabus design and teaching, by bringing in articles
from tourism research journals and by referring to
the growing body of knowledge in this field.
Universities are structured by fields, so scholars
cluster in departments where they develop particular
disciplines. When a new applied field of
education is required, normally it is accommodated,
for a while at least, within established
departments with their established disciplines. In
that context, four strategies exist for organising
multidisciplinary education in applied fields. Each
has advantages and disadvantages, some of which
seem intrinsic in multidisciplinarity �Bodewes 1981;
Jafari and Ritchie 1981; Leiper 1981).
First, if few students are enrolled, insufficient for
sustaining special classes, they can be directed to
classes in scattered departments, taking courses in
economics, psychology, management and more,
along with students taking those subjects for
reasons other than application to tourism. One
problem here is that nothing is provided to help
students relate each discipline to tourism. Another
is that nothing is provided to help link up the
disciplines in order to form an integrated understanding
of the applied field, tourism. A second
strategy has instructors from independent departments
conducting special classes for tourism
students. Thus many tourism courses are visited
by professors from statistics, geography, marketing
and the like, each relating her or his discipline to
aspects of tourism. But not all of them have the