Tourist Capital and the Social Theories of Marx, Bourdieu and Putnam

Abstract

The purpose of this analysis is to promote theoretical and methodological debate on the conceptual bases of the construction of a new concept in tourist know of the field, called the tourist capital. This subject has as objective the empirical and theoretical study of this concept, whose inspiration was given from the social theories of Karl Marx (economic capital), Pierre Bourdieu (symbolic capital) and Robert Putnam (social capital). From this perspective, it is understood that the tourist capital this sense, the tourist capital is the economic, social and symbolic legacy provided by technical, scientific, informational, corporate and public factors with participation of governmental and nongovernmental organizations and communities, materialized and developed in appropriate places for tourism with articulated elsewhere. However, it was necessary to use the methodological approach of qualitative and critical analysis for the reflective process of discussion here put. Thus, the concept of tourist capital presents itself as another theoretical contribution to the study and research for a better understanding of the tourism phenomenon in the contemporary scene