Meet Jim Macbeth

Associate Professor of Tourism

"What is my field? Interdisciplinary social science with a sociology and tourism focus.

"Sociology questions our world, asks how it works, how societies work, how our groups and families work. We ask questions of the taken-for-granted; there are no ‘of course’ answers.

"My approach to tourism is the same; it is not taken for granted. As a social phenomenon, tourism is not new but is as vibrant and interesting as ever. Just think of all the different types of tourists and where they go, from backpackers in Asia to 4WDers in the Australian desert, not to forget the shoppers in London, Paris, New York and Singapore. Tourist all!

"But, tourism is also an industry and a popular development strategy for governments, big and small. Tourism is also an important site of environmental damage and human rights abuse, from building golf courses to sex tourism and human trafficking; yes, it is all part of tourism.

"What gives me greatest satisfaction in teaching is students who want to learn, who ask themselves hard questions.

"That is what we are here for."

Education

BComm (UBC), MA (Leeds), PhD (Murdoch)

Publications

Narayanan, Yamini and Jim Macbeth. 2009. Merging the Desert and the Divine Through 4WD Tourism. Tourism Geographies. Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 369–389
Chok, Stephanie, Jim Macbeth & Carol Warren. 2007. Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation: A Critical Analysis of ‘Pro-Poor Tourism’ and Implications for Sustainability. Current Issues in Tourism, Vol. 10, Nos 2-3, Pp. 144–165 (see Book chapter listed above)
Randall, Martin, Jim Macbeth and David Newsome. 2006. Investigating the Impacts of Off-road Vehicle Activity in Broome, North-Western Australia: a preliminary appraisal. Annals of Leisure Research, Vol 9, Nos 1& 2, pp. 17-42.
Macbeth, Jim. 2005. Towards an ethics platform for tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. Vol. 32(4), pp. 962-984
Westerhausen, Klaus and Jim Macbeth. 2003. Backpackers and Empowered Local Communities. Natural Allies in the Struggle for Sustainability and Local Control? Tourism Geographies Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 71-86.
Macbeth, Jim 1992. Ocean cruising: a sailing subculture. The Sociological Review. Vol. 40, #2, May, pp319-343.

Online communities

TRINET (Tourism Research Information Network) - TTRINET is an (closed) electronic bulletin board which serves as a means to connect the international tourism research and education community.

Its purpose is to promote an exchange of information relevant to tourism research and to create a place for open debate on issues related to tourism research and education. There are approximately 1,000 subscribers to TRINET spanning over 50 countries around the world. Though the majority of subscribers are in academia, active researchers in the government and private sectors are also represented.”

Quoted from http://www.tim.hawaii.edu/timlistserv/about_trinet.aspx

I contribute a few times a year to debates on this forum and ‘know’ people world-wide from this process.

Research

My research informs my teaching fundamentally, from everyday research examples to the development of new theoretical perspectives and approaches. My theorizing of tourism scholarship, especially ethics in sustainable tourism, features directly in lectures here and offshore.
As a sociologist, research is formal and informal, is both from books and interviews and the everyday. As a tourism teacher and researcher, I’m always researching, especially when I travel and when I’m in a tourist hot-spot such as Fremantle, Rottnest, Alice Springs, Vancouver or Singapore. It all comes back into teaching, along with too many photos.

Tourism is great for student projects and, besides Honours and postgrad projects, two of the units I designed do upt to 30 research projects a year. Some of these are with local government, some with businesses and some with documentary sources in libraries, archives and in public.

Great fun!

Other interests and research

Foundation staff member in 1975
Ocean sailor, including STS Leeuwin II.
Sailing research, 4wd desert research
Published in sociology, leisure studies, backpacker tourism, tourism planning, regional tourism, nuclear testing tourism, utopian tourism, 4wd desert tourism.