WHEN IS A DISCIPLINE NOT A DISCIPLINE? EXPLORATIONS INTO THE INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TOURISM UNDERSTANDING

This paper revisits the whole question of whether the study of tourism is a science, a discipline or a field. The argument is developed in seven stages. First, the notion of the science of tourism is explored, because, if tourism as a meta-discipline can be substantiated, then a fortiori it is no longer necessary to examine tourism as a discipline. However, as the former is demonstrably not the case, attention needs to focus on the latter. Accordingly, and second, the etymology of a discipline is briefly outlined. Third, there is the contextual advent of tourism as a discipline debate. Fourth, by inspecting the offerings of two leading faculties of social sciences, and an encyclopedia with a similar focus, it is possible to identify the core disciplines in the social sciences and to distinguish them from intersecting fields and applications. Fifth, the issue of "tourism social science" is investigated. Sixth, the ideas of intradisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and, more recently, postdisciplinarity are analysed. Where more than one social science discipline is involved in obtaining a cumulative knowledge of tourism, this pluralistic form of capturing the phenomenon is referred to as interdisciplinarity.