The language of sustainable tourism as a proxy indicator of research quality

Brauer, ReneLund University,Lunds universitet,Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Department of Human Geography,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences,Lund University, Sweden;University of Eastern Finland, Sweden (author)

Sustainable tourism (ST) has recently become the mainstream of the tourism industry and, accordingly, has influenced contemporary tourism research. However, ST is not just theories about indications and contraindications of global travel, but also a specific language that needs mastering to take sustainability work forward. In other words, what research receives recognition depends on the proficiency in how the articulation in research proposals and within assessment under the heading of “research impact”. The aim of this paper is to investigate how tourism research gains recognition within research evaluation, by investigating the national research appraisal in the United Kingdom (Research Excellence Framework). By using content analysis, we disentangle the rhetorical choices and narrative constructions within researchers’ impact claims. Our findings suggest that researchers adopt a rhetorical style that implies causality and promotes good outcomes facilitating ST. However, the structure of the assessment format enforces an articulation of sustainable research impact without stating the methodological limitations of that such claim. Therefore, the rhetorical choices of ST researchers merely represent a proxy indicator of the claimed impact. We conclude that the lack of rigor in accounting for the impact of ST research may inadvertently restrict attaining ST.

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Social och ekonomisk geografi Kulturgeografi hsv//swe
SOCIAL SCIENCES Social and Economic Geography Human Geography hsv//eng
HUMANIORA Filosofi, etik och religion Filosofi hsv//swe
HUMANITIES Philosophy, Ethics and Religion Philosophy hsv//eng
SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Annan samhällsvetenskap Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap hsv//swe
SOCIAL SCIENCES Other Social Sciences Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified hsv//eng
SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Ekonomi och näringsliv hsv//swe
SOCIAL SCIENCES Economics and Business hsv//eng
sustainable tourism
language
assessment culture
research impact
rigor
research quality
proxy indicators
Turismvetenskap
Tourism
Human Geography
Kulturgeografi
sustainable tourism
language
assessment culture
research impact
rigor
research quality
proxy indicators
sustainable tourism; language; assessment culture; research impact; rigor; research quality; proxy indicators

Dymitrow, MirekGothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Lund University,Lunds universitet,Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Department of Human Geography,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences,Institutionen för ekonomi och samhälle, Kulturgeografi,Department of Economy and Society, Unit for Human Geography,University of Gothenburg, Sweden(Swepub:gu)xdymmi (author)
Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografiSamhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar (creator_code:org_t)

About the subject

SOCIAL SCIENCES: SOCIAL SCIENCES; and Social and Econo ...; and Human Geography

SOCIAL SCIENCES: SOCIAL SCIENCES; and Other Social Sci ...; and Other Social Sci ...

By the university: Linnaeus University; Lund University; University of Gothenburg

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