Research Seminar
Modern tourism nowadays amounts to the largest industry in the world, which trades not only with material capital, but also with images, symbols, identities and social and cultural capitals. This empirical seminar will be dedicated to the study of the basic issues in the research of modern tourism, including gathering material and analyzing it. Special room will be dedicated to the study of Israeli tourism, and particularly to the local fashion of backpacking. We will study the historic background against which backpacking has flourished in Israel. In general, we will develop a critical approach, that views the oppressive and manipulative powers of the tourism industry. While the first part of the seminar, or the first semester, will be dedicated to theoretical and conceptual explorations of tourism, the second semester will be devoted to the through process of studying how to research and write a full length seminar paper.