The thesis and dissertation production on cultural centers

At the intersection of the notions of culture and tourism, cultural centers increasingly stand out in large and medium cities, making geographic reference and prestige for locals and tourists. This article aims at examining the production of literature on cultural centers and as specific, discuss and criticize the notion of culture embedded in their action and systematize the production on the topic, highlighting the interface between the concepts and practices of culture and tourism. The methodology used was descriptive and interpretive.. The database used was the Bank Theses CAPES, 1987-2010, in which is the exact expression cultural center in the title and / or keyword and / or short, resulting in 116 theses / dissertations. Theoretical frameworks are authors of the areas of culture and tourism. The results show that production is growing academic programs in both public and private universities, but that in general, choose to approaches that do not question the concepts of culture used and embedded in the planning and action of these centers. Register equally the little interest in the topic in tourism studies, for which the cultural centers are considered only within the cultural tourism offer, forgetting their educational dimension