1. Safety, Security, Health and Social Responsibility

Academic researchers have common interests, such as cruise research, however they approach their work with different perspectives—from different standpoints. This chapter explores the issue of perspective and how this is related to the research undertaken or the research valued. It also looks at factors that may influence an academic researcher’s perspective. These include institutional constraints such as those related to promotion and tenure and expectations for funded research, and discipline-specific factors such as sufficient journals for publication and the nature of research that will be funded versus non-funded. The chapter concludes with a call for an academic journal devoted to cruise research, and encourages research from diverse perspectives.

This essay is based on a keynote address at the Fifth International Cruise Conference in Bremerhaven, January 2014. The goal was to frame a series of papers focused on safety, security, health and social responsibility. Given the different perspectives from which scholars approach their work, the essay first focuses on definition of terms with consideration of how perspective influences both the definition of a research question or and ways to ameliorate a problem. It then illustrates with examples the influence of perspective, and concludes with a discussion of factors influencing academics and the perspectives they take. The goal of the essay is to raise to the forefront issues that underlie the work that cruise researchers undertake.