Exploring synergies: Hopeful tourism and citizen science

The strength of the tourism academic field is arguably its capacity to facilitate investigations that span business as well as the physical and social sciences. While this does not mean that disciplines are irrelevant in tourism, it has been argued that an inter-disciplinary scholarship could lead to post-disciplinary contributions—perspectives that are more problem-focused, based on more flexible modes of knowledge production, plurality, synthesis and greater synergy (Coles, Hall, & Duval, 2006, p. 293). We situate this note within this fluid, inter-disciplinary context, with the intent to critically review the recent conceptual development of hopeful tourism, and citizen science—a scientific field
in which ordinary citizens collect data for scientific purposes and greater public good (Dickinson & Bonney, 2012). We suggest there are conceptual similarities between the social science of hopeful tourism and citizen science and argue that the similarities between the two fields could lead to common research agendas.