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546 sociology
political perspectives and interests �Bruner 1996).
Dovetailing with, and partly drawing upon semiotics,
is Urry's �1990) Foucaultian study of the tourist
`gaze'. Stressing the primacy of the visual in
tourism, he analyses the social organisation and
authorisation of the tourist's `gaze' and of its
consequences for the constitution of its object.
Though his empirical material is drawn primarily
from British resorts, it appears that his argument
applies primarily to sightseeing rather than
vacationing tourism, where a total sensual emersion
rather than a dominant visual experience
appears to be the rule.
The prevailing contemporary theoretical concern
with touristic images and representations
contrasts sharply with the more practical concerns
of sociologists with the ecological, social and
cultural impacts of tourism upon that very
reality which postmodernists tend to `problematise'.
The rapid growth of tourism and its
progressive penetration into more remote and
less developed regions of the world is perceived as
a serious threat to the survival of those natural
environments and ethnic cultures and lifestyles
which became popular destinations of mass
tourism. The concern with this threat engendered
a variety of ideas and proposals to soften
the impacts of tourism, under such headings as
alternative tourism, sustainable tourism �see
sustainable development), green tourism and
ecotourism. Sociologists engage in both the
promotion of such concepts as well as in their
critical examination.
The sociology of tourism thus presently moves in
contrasting, but in some sense complementary,
directions. On the one hand, it engages in a
theoretical analysis of tourism in terms of signs and
representations, accompanied by a marked lack of
concern with its concrete consequences. On the
other hand, it manifests a growing practical
concern with the impact of tourism on destinations
`marked' by those very signs and representations.
The growing theoretical sophistication of the field,
even though involving a `critique' of tourism on an
abstract level, however, appears to contribute little
to the resolution of the practical problems
engendered by the accelerated growth and expansion
of mass tourism.
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