Society, History & Globalisation

Note: This course is part of the BSc Tourism, a joint degree programme of Wageningen University and Breda University of Applied Sciences. This course is open to students from other programmes. The course is not delivered at Wageningen University, however, but at Breda University of Applied Sciences. You can register for the course by contacting the course coordinator before the start of the course. The schedule for the academic year at Breda University of Applied Sciences differs from the schedule of Wageningen University. The periods mentioned are the periods of Wageningen University.
This course combines knowledge of the social, economic and environmental sciences in explaining temporal differences in the organization of international tourism and the relationships between international tourism and its social, cultural, political, economic, technological and ecological environments. The lectures will provide the students with an introduction to the main global historical transitions since ancient times, with an emphasis on the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries as far as they are relevant for tourism. Each lecture will focus on a specific period of tourism development in its historical context and will link these tourism developments with economic, demographic, political, social, cultural and spatial transitions. During workshops students will discuss and critique relevant literature and will be invited to assess and explain how specific transformations in international tourism relate to historical transitions and to evaluate recent tourism developments against the background of historical processes of change.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• recall the main historical transitions since ancient times, with an emphasis on the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries;
• appraise the general mechanisms of change in these transitions;
• assess and explain how specific transformations in international tourism relate to these historical transitions;
• evaluate recent tourism developments against the background of historical, social, economic, environmental, political and cultural change;
• analyse how history and cultural heritage have become objects of international tourism development;
• gather, evaluate and account for academic information;
• distinguish different types of scientific texts and reproduce the academic standards for these different types of scientific texts.