Opening up new spaces in the sustainable tourism debate

Conceptualizations of sustainable tourism have broadened over recent years so that its coverage is often far more comprehensive. Despite that increase in scope, at times the subject area is confined within a relatively self-contained discursive space that is too firmly embedded in the tourism field. This paper argues that sustainable tourism research could be stronger if it engaged more fully in wider debates about social theory that occur in the social sciences. Consideration is given to selected social theory debates that are thought to have much potential value for the field. These relate to political ecology, the dialectics of agency and structure, and the constitution of time-space relations. Sustainable tourism's wider engagement in the social sciences could enrich it, assist it to more clearly understand the roles and impacts of tourism, and - importantly - allow it to contribute more to general social theory.