Questioning the Assessment of Research Impact: Illusions, Myths and Marginal Sectors
by Rhodri Thomas (Author)

About the Author
Rhodri Thomas is Professor of Tourism and Events Policy and Dean of the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Beckett University, UK.

About this book
This book provides the first comprehensive assessment of non-academic research impact in relation to a marginal field of study, namely tourism studies. Informed by interviews with key informants, ethnographic reflections on the author’s extensive work with trade and professional associations, and various secondary data, it paints a picture of inevitable research policy failure. This conclusion is justified by reference to ill-founded official conceptualisations of practitioner and organisational behaviour, and the orientation and quality of tourism research. The author calls for a more serious consideration of research-informed teaching as a means of creating knowledge flows from universities. Research with greater social and economic impact might then be achievable.  This radical assessment will be of interest and value to policy makers, university research managers and tourism scholars.

Brief contents
1 Setting the Scene: Markets, Competition and Research Impact at the Margins 1
2 Knowledge Flows and Innovation in Marginal Sectors: Do Universities Matter? 21
3 Professional Associations as Conduits of Knowledge: Ethnographic Reflections 47
4 The Impact of Academics on Policy and Practice 67
5 Reacting to the Impact Agenda: Performativity and a ‘New Collegiality’ 103
6 Conclusion: A Return to Education 123
Index 131

Series: Palgrave Critical University Studies
Length: 132 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot; 1st ed. 2018 edition (August 14, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3319957228
ISBN-13: 978-3319957227