A Post-disciplinary Perspective on e-Tourism

Abstract

Disciplines have traditionally been the building blocks of knowledge production, especially in higher education. In recent times though, more flexible approaches to production of knowledge beyond disciplines, in the context of application, and with the subject or topic as the starting point have become more popular and no less impactful. Such post-disciplinary approaches to tourism studies have been advocated and in evidence for over a decade. Set against this backdrop, this chapter argues that e-tourism is a field of study that has emerged from, and is best understood in its own right as, post-disciplinary enquiry. The differences between inter-, multi-, and post-disciplinary approaches are explained in the chapter which also examines three ways in which post-disciplinary approaches may be recognized in, and contribute to, the e-tourism body of knowledge. Far from just another esoteric concept, viewing e-tourism in this manner suggests that its emergence is a story of synthesis and eschewing disciplines, it cannot and will not advance as far and as quickly if more restrictive approaches are taken, and that e-tourism is one of the few fields in tourism studies to turn towards the physical sciences for new knowledge production.