Exploring the Discourse of Sustainable Tourism and Climate Change

Abstract: This thesis studies sustainable tourism and climate change with discourse analysis by addressing two special issues of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, published in 2006 and 2010. Based on social constructionism assumptions, discourse theory assumes knowledge as “power-constructed reality” with the usage of language, that is, discourses. The formation of discourse thereby can be analyzed based on the texts presented. Likewise, the knowledge presented in the papers, namely the content of the special issues, is treated as empirical data containing discourses worthy of identifying and discussing. With the analytical elements proposed by Dryzek (1997), the discourse identified by the thesis suggests that the nature of sustainable tourism and climate change is that of sustaining the tourism industry with concerns for climatic resources change and GHG emission reduction. Moreover, the discourse identified is claimed to contain the features of some mainstream thinking such as neoclassical economics. Lastly, the change of the discourse identified is interpreted as a result of social practices.