Activating Critical Thinking to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Tourism Systems

Karla A. Boluk, Christina T. Cavaliere, Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Karla A. Boluk, Christina T. Cavaliere, Freya Higgins-Desbiolles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000390278
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

Activating Critical Thinking to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Tourism Systems focuses on the role of critical thinking and inquiry in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in tourism systems. The impetus for the development of this book emerged from the declaration by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This declaration purposely positions tourism as a tool to advance the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 SDGs, thus mutually serving as an opportunity and responsibility to appraise from a critical lens what the SDGs signify and how they can be understood from multiple perspectives.

The chapters in the book foster the next phase of sustainable tourism scholarship that actively considers the interconnections of the UN's SDGs to tourism theory and praxis, and activates critical thinking to analyze and advance sustainability in tourism systems. It articulates the need for the academy to be more intrinsically involved in ongoing iterations of multilateral accords and decrees, to ensure they embody more critical and inclusive transitions toward sustainability, as opposed to market-driven, neoliberal directives. The contributions in this book encourage various worldviews challenging, shaping, and more critically reflecting the realities of global communities as related to, and impacted by, sustainable tourism development.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

A critical framework for interrogating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda in tourism

Karla A. Boluk, Christina T. Cavaliere and Freya Higgins-Desbiolles

ABSTRACT

Research in the area of sustainable tourism continues to grow, however a lack of understanding regarding necessary action inhibits progress. McCloskey’s (2015) critique regarding the failure of the MDGs, as a direct result of a lack of critical consciousness, and understanding of the structural contexts of poverty and under-development, provided the impetus for our work. McCloskey (2015) signals the important role of education in fostering transitions to sustainability. As such, we have applied our critical lens to the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Our paper offers tools for critically thinking through the potential for the SDGs to help shape the tourism industry for more sustainable, equitable, and just futures. We positioned six themes to serve as a conceptual framework for interrogating the SDG agenda in tourism; arising from our considerations of both reformist and radical pathways to sustainable transitions in tourism: critical tourism scholarship, gender in the sustainable development agenda, engaging with Indigenous perspectives and other paradigms, degrowth and the circular economy, governance and planning, and ethical consumption. We address these core themes as essential platforms to critique the SDGs in the context of sustainable tourism development, and highlight the cutting edge research carried out by our contributors in this special issue.

Introduction

Balancing socio-economic interests with the planet’s finite ecological systems is a fundamental goal of sustainability. While significant environmental damage continues (e.g. Klein, 2010), there has been momentum and progress towards sustainability pathways in tourism (e.g. sustainability initiatives in hotels see Sloan, Legrand, & Chen, 2013). Tourism is multifaceted and highly impactful despite claims that it is a benign industry (e.g. Hall, 2008). As humanity transitions from the Holocene to the Anthropocene (Gren & Huijbens, 2014), the need to re-examine and re-enact systems thinking to transition socio-economic paradigms has become increasingly urgent due to habitat loss, threats to biodiversity and climate change. The conservation of our cultural and environmental diversity is indispensable for continued livelihood development and well-being and is fundamental to tourism.

The inherent relationship between sustainability and tourism has received increasing scholarly attention, since concerns about carrying capacity were expressed by O’Reilly (1986). Bramwell and Lane (1993) were the first to define sustainable tourism as

[ … ] a positive approach intended to reduce the tensions and friction created by the complex interactions between the tourism industry, visitors, the environment and the communities which are host to holidaymakers. It is an approach which involves working for the long-term viability and quality of both natural and human resources. It is not anti-growth, but it acknowledges that there are limits to growth.

(p. 2)

The authors refer to the work of Inskeep (1991) and Krippendorf (1987) as scholars offering tangible ways in which stakeholders involved in tourism may reduce the impacts of tourism operations. However, contemporary scholars have pointed out that this is not yet fully realised in tourism despite increased public awareness of sustainability issues (Moscardo & Hughes, 2018), drawing attention to the elusiveness of the goal of sustainability (e.g. Higgins-Desbiolles, 2010). Such intangibility seems to inhibit behavioural change and action among both the tourism industry and tourists.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) declared 2017 a “watershed moment” with its official International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development which proposed “making tourism a catalyst for positive change” (UNWTO, 2017a, p. i). This declaration positions tourism as a tool to advance the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030) (SDGs) and 169 targets (UN, 2019). Such a claim needs to be met with considered critical thinking and analysed from a diversity of approaches and perspectives. It is important to understand that it was the failure of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with their 2015 deadline that necessitated the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). McCloskey explained that:

One of the reasons that new goals are necessary and the MDGs failed to meet all of their targets was the absence of a critical consciousness that considered the structural causes of poverty [ … ] Above all, we have failed to relate the dominant neoliberal economic model to persistent levels of poverty and climate change.

(2015, p. 186)

In response to this declaration, the papers presented in this special issue (SI) consider through a critical lens how the SDGs may be understood and realised from multiple worldviews and disciplinary perspectives. The UN’s 17 SDGs have received limited specific attention from tourism sustainability scholars (Bramwell, Higham, Lane, & Miller, 2017) which is surprising given the international applicability of the SDGs and their origin from a globally recognised intergovern-mental organisation. Clearly, the academy must work more critically to reflect the realities of global communities, as related to, and impacted by, sustainable tourism development. Through this SI we seek to foster the next phase of sustainable tourism scholarship that actively considers the interconnections of the UN’s SDGs to tourism theory and praxis, and to activate critical thinking to analyse and advance sustainability in tourism systems. We also seek to articulate the need for the academy to be more intrinsically involved in ongoing iterations of multilateral accords and decrees to ensure they embody more critical and inclusive transitions toward sustainability as opposed to market-driven, neoliberal directives. This SI focuses on the functions that tourism systems serve in furthering sustainable livelihoods specifically through an examination of the essential role that critical thinking must play in education and multilateral directives and initiatives.

Critical thinking can be emancipatory. It lies at the heart of democracy (Giroux, 2011) and embodies a process of discovering, acknowledging, and checking implicit assumptions to ensure inclusive and informed decision-making (Brookfield, 1987). Sustainable tourism necessitates critical thinking; requiring deeper explorations of the dynamics of power, privilege, hegemony, and hierarchical structures (Mowforth & Munt, 1998). Barriers to sustainability are increasingly identified with inequitable distribution of resources, privatisation of the commons, and wealth accumulating to a small elite (Büscher & Fletcher, 2017). This realisation demonstrates that it is particularly important for all stakeholders to be involved in tourism planning and decision-making, including travellers, the industry, governments, communities, workers and the academy (Beaumont & Dredge, 2010). Neglecting adequate stakeholder involvement may lead to irreparable harm such as tourism conflicts and public opposition; ultimately risking an unsustainable future (Hall, 2008). Jamal and Stronza (2009) stress the importance of nature as a key stakeholder in sustainability that requires a voice.

Throughout the SI authors have positioned examples of ways to deconstruct power and to view tourism systems from multiple worldviews (e.g. marginalised and under-represented populations) through mobilising critical interrogation. Accordingly, contributions provide evidence for the need to work to build critical understandings of the processes and dynamics of tourism and the vital necessity for training, learning, and action, aiming for goals ranging from reform of current practices to alternatives and agendas that are more radical. We can imagine alternatives through engagement with underused paradigms such as Indigenous perspectives, ethics of care, feminist ecology, and radical eco-socialism, which may serve as vital entry points into alternate ways of being, knowing, and doing. The tourism academy has more to offer in this vital work and the analysis of the UN SDGs agenda towards 2030 is an optimum opportunity to apply critical thinking to move past the status quo to more radical and transformative approaches. Seizing tourism as a platform for imaginative and transformative action is the unfinished work we take up here.

In an era of neoliberalism and conservatism, engaging in critical thinking is essential (Giroux, 2014). Critical thinking aids us in illuminating the environmental, social and economic injustices that are perpetuated by and within the tourism industry. In this paper, we present six general themes which arise from our considerations of both reformist and radical pathways to sustainable transitions in tourism: critical tourism scholarship, gender in the sustainable development agenda, engaging with Indigenous perspectives and other paradigms, degrowth and the circular economy, governance and planning, and ethical consumption. We address these core themes as essential platforms to critique the SDGs in the context of sustainable tourism development. Our six themes, present a conceptual framework for interrogating transformed futures in tourism. Critical tourism scholarship provides the skill for deep critical thinking that supports open and emancipatory approaches. These innovative approaches can be supported through the open-mindedness that comes from engaging with diverse views and voices from women, Indigenous peoples, and others that will underscore there are many ways of being, knowing and doing in tourism. The final three core themes confront neoliberal capitalism as it prevents achieving sustainability and the SDG agenda. The six themes provide entry ways into thinking through both the problematic nature of the current tourism industry, as well as possible alternatives already evident. As we address each of these six core themes we take the opportunity to briefly highlight key contributions from authors of this SI.

While this SI is focused on the SDGs, it does so from a critical positioning. Elsewhere, the UN SDGs have been critiqued for their universalising tendencies, a concern that the agenda remains set in the neoliberal mould, the development role assigned to the private sector and a concern that it will allow for little more than “business as usual” (see Scheyvens, Banks, & Hughes, 2016). Perhaps the most critical question of all is: who will drive sustainability forward as choices get more difficult in a resource-constrained world and as climate change impacts compound? The roles of the multiple stakeholders in tourism are vital but as the body of this article will demonstrate there are power struggles and power vacuums that impact their capacity to support and to secure the SDG agenda.

Critical tourism scholarship

Critical tourism scholars have expressed concerns regarding the socio-cultural impacts of tourism, generated by the tourist gaze (Urry, 1990). Hollinshead (1992, p. 43) referred to such encounters as an “objectifying” gaze, thus raising questions about the ability of the industry to promote equality (Turner & Ash, 1975), concerns about power (Bianchi, 2009), and apprehensions regarding the lack of morality demonstrated by consumers and producers (Weeden & Boluk, 2014). Furthermore, concerns regarding the lack of local representation in tourism decision-making (Freire-Mederios, 2013), apprehensions regarding gender equality (e.g. Ferguson & Alarcon, 2015), environmental fears challenging the notion of sustainability (e.g. Higgins-Desbiolles, 2018), environmental justice (Higgins-Desbiolles & Powys Whyte, 2013), the postcolonial nature of the industry (e.g. Hall & Tucker, 2004), and aid in poverty alleviation (Scheyvens, 2011) have been articulated. The real and various impacts generated by tourism urge critical scholars and practitioners to reimagine a sector that can give back to the communities in which tourism takes place.

Concerns, regarding the impacts of neoliberalism on academic spheres are evidenced in the literature, in the themes that run through international conferences, university campuses, and in tourism practices. Therefore, critically reflecting on the ways in which neoliberalism affects our work, teaching and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 A critical framework for interrogating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda in tourism
• 2 A pedagogical framework for the development of the critical tourism citizen
• 3 Overcommitted to tourism and under committed to sustainability: The urgency of teaching “strong sustainability” in tourism courses
• 4 No sustainability for tourism without gender equality
• 5 Assessing gender representation in knowledge production: A critical analysis of UNWTO’s planned events
• 6 Gender and sustainability – exploring ways of knowing – an ecohumanities perspective
• 7 The land has voice: Understanding the land tenure – sustainable tourism development nexus in Micronesia
• 8 Critical discourse analysis and the questioning of dominant, hegemonic discourses of sustainable tourism in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, South Africa
• 9 Rethinking the ideology of responsible tourism
• 10 Sustaining precarity: Critically examining tourism and employment
• 11 Rethinking decent work: The value of dignity in tourism employment
• 12 Constructing sustainable tourism development: The 2030 agenda and the managerial ecology of sustainable tourism
• 13 Can tourism help to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere”? The challenge of tourism addressing SDG1
• 14 The critical capacities of restaurants as facilitators for transformations to sustainability
• Index