Admission and Unit Information - Bachelor of Social Science (Heritage and Tourism)

Examines the nexus between culture and place. Contemporary cultural planning issues include; local community relations, social planning, place management, place redefinitions, selling place, ethnic concentration, cultural precincts, and the spatial politics of gender and sexuality. The roles of cultural products in carrying spatial information and reinforcing identity are examined. Introduction to cultural and social geography, and developments in cognate fields of cultural studies and anthropology. Key theories of identity. Case studies range across religion, gender, sexuality, class and nationalism. The analysis and assessment advances a politics of difference, anti-racist, social justice perspective.

This unit examines the relationship between heritage (both cultural and natural) resources and tourism. It firstly provides an introduction to contemporary issues in heritage and tourism management. Secondly, it investigates the phenomenon of heritage and tourism – its nature, the market, visitors, the issues in planning and management – in the context of sustainable tourism praxis in Australia (and globally) as well as in the context of local communities.

This unit replaces 101281 - Heritage Interpretation from 2010. This unit examines the theory and practice of heritage interpretation for visitors at natural and cultural heritage sites. It examines the development of heritage interpretation within national parks and museums and explores the various issues facing contemporary interpretation in the context of multicultural and postcolonial societies and the advent of digital media.

This unit critically examines the 'developed' and 'developing' world paradigm. Students will be introduced to theories and practicum examining development and underdevelopment within a contemporary political, economic and social framework.

In this unit students study tourism as a cultural and social phenomenon and places tourism in its socio-cultural and geographic context. Various relationships are explored: the leisure society; the sociology of mobility; modernity, post-modernity and rapid change; desire, difference and the ‘other’; commodity culture and tourism; visual culture and tourism; tourism and developing countries; tourism and the media; tourism and geo-politics (the effects of war, terrorism, natural disasters and climate change).

With reference to examples from around the world, this unit of study aims to introduce students to the complexity of indigenous tourism policy and planning. The Unit is underpinned by an understanding that successful indigenous tourism is informed by and supportive of the needs, cultures and priorities of indigenous peoples. To this end, students are introduced to examples of indigenous tourism as it operates in a range of national and regional contexts and, through this case material, the Unit explores the shifting relationship between indigenous cultural tourism development and social, environmental, economic and cultural sustainability.

The aim of this unit is to get students thinking critically about heritage. To do so, it examines two main questions: “What is heritage?” and “Why does it matter?”. While the answers to both may appear fairly straightforward, this unit is designed to make students question and problematise their own assumptions, rethink what is and is not heritage, and consider why, in fact, we even care at all. The unit will introduce concepts such as national identity, ethics, memorialisation, belonging, nostalgia, heritage values, status, control and repatriation. It will also introduce and examine heritage legislation, theory and practice.

It is intended that this unit will give students a common understanding in the theory, practice, policy and planning framework of recreation development activities and facilities towards sustainable tourism. This will impart an empirical research project of the case study (Sydney Olympic Park) to practice various planning techniques for opportunity spectrum, conflict assessment and potential impact analysis. Students will learn how to present their ideas through integrated use of the quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques, both as teamwork and individual project.