Theorizing hospitality: A reprise

Abstract

This was the editorial for the first issue of Hospitality & Society, published in 2011. It has been reprinted to help contextualize the reflections in this 10-year anniversary issue, which consider how the journal has evolved, how its contributions have advanced the study of hospitality and society, and the future for the journal and the field. The editorial provides a narrative review of the disparate ways that hospitality has been conceptualized and studied by different disciplines. It explores hospitality as social control, as social and economic exchange and as metaphor. The piece proposes an inter- and multi-disciplinary research agenda for hospitality studies, which encompasses diverse intellectual, philosophical, methodological, ethical and political perspectives. It concludes by outlining the journal’s ambitions in fostering critical debate.