Qualitative Research in Tourism

Ontologies, Epistemologies and Methodologies

Lisa Goodson, Jenny Phillimore, Lisa Goodson, Jenny Phillimore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780415280860
• eBook ISBN: 9781134462452
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

The first to focus solely upon qualitative research in tourism, this book combines discussions of the philosophies underpinning qualitative research, with reflexive chapters that demonstrate how these techniques can be used.

Incorporating a range of case studies written by leading international scholars, this book makes clear the ways in which these pieces of research have been informed by the authors' epistemological, ontological and methodological standpoint. Based on a range of empirical tourism studies set in the context of theoretical discussion, it demonstrates the benefits of using a range of qualitative approaches to research tourism, exploring the ways in which a number of techniques, including participants observation, memory work, biographical diaries, focus groups and visual exercises, have been adopted by researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds to undertake empirical research in tourism.

An indispensable text for final year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students embarking on research in the field, it also will be a valuable title for academics with an interest in either tourism research or qualitative methodology. Linking theory with research practice, it offers a holistic account of qualitative research in tourism.

Part I
Key ontological, epistemological and methodological issues in social science

1 Progress in qualitative research in tourism
Epistemology, ontology and methodology


Jenny Phillimore and Lisa Goodson

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Aims of the chapter

• To provide an introductory discussion on qualitative research and how thinking about research and the way we view the social world has evolved in the social sciences.
• To review progress made in qualitative tourism research by considering the nature of research in the field, the range of approaches commonly adopted and areas for future development.
• To highlight the main themes and issues addressed in the remainder of the book.

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Introduction

The term ‘qualitative research’ is something of an enigma. For some time, the issue of what exactly qualitative research is has been at the centre of a great deal of debate within social science, most notably in the disciplines of sociology and anthropology (see May 1993). More recently, these debates have gained greater prominence in the field of tourism research (Hollinshead 1996, 1999; Jamal and Hollinshead 2001; Riley 1996; Riley and Love 2000; Walle 1997; Dann 1996). Traditionally, qualitative research has been viewed somewhat simplistically as a set of different research methods that have certain features in common. In this respect, qualitative methods are employed to collect data about activities, events, occurrences and behaviours and to seek an understanding of actions, problems and processes in their social context. From this perspective, qualitative research is perceived as distinct from quantitative research as it does not produce quantified findings or have measurement and hypothesis-testing as an integral part of the research process. When qualitative research is thought of as a series of methods, it is often considered to be an approach to research that is ‘other’ to quantitative research because quantitative data are not collected (Bryman and Burgess 1994). As such, qualitative research has been prone to criticisms that it is a ‘soft’, ‘non-scientific’ and inferior approach to studying social life, and one that is often seen as useful only when accompanied by, or as a precursor to, quantitative techniques (Guba and Lincoln 1998: 196). This attitude to qualitative research was observed by Riley and Love (2000) in their review of the methodological approaches employed in the study of tourism. However, the labelling of qualitative research as a poor alternative to ‘real’, rigorous, ‘scientific’, quantitative studies has been questioned over the past 25 years in many social science disciplines. Those who viewed qualitative research merely as a set of methods have been accused of having an oversimplified view that fails to acknowledge the multiplicity of forms and functions of qualitative research (Silverman 2000). Indeed, over the past few decades, using qualitative approaches to study social life has been considered more acceptable within the mainstream, rather than being viewed as an adjunct to quantitative work. In fact, qualitative research has become increasingly valued as thinking about research developed and research began to be viewed as more of a process than an activity, with discussions about the appropriateness of method being superseded by concerns with methodology (Bryman and Burgess 1994). While this mind shift has been under way in the social sciences generally, it is fair to say that tourism scholars have generally been more hesitant in their adoption and acceptance of qualitative research, and more specifically in developing their understanding of the philosophical and theoretical process that underpins knowledge production and practices.

In recent times, textbooks concerned with the nature of social research are more likely to refer to qualitative research as a distinctive research strategy than simply a set of methods (Bryman 2001: 264). As a strategy, qualitative inquiry can generate theory out of research, should place emphasis on understanding the world from the perspective of its participants, and should view social life as being the result of interaction and interpretations. Rather than aping the study of natural phenomenon using a ‘natural science’ approach, which is the stated aim of quantitative research, qualitative studies are said to be ‘located at the meeting place between art and science’ (Sandelowski 1994: 312). This is not to say there is no place for quantification in research. In tourism research there is an ongoing need for statistical insights into aspects such as market and migration trends, income generation, and so forth. However, qualitative approaches offer a great deal of potential, much of which remains largely untapped, for helping us understand the human dimensions of society, which in tourism include its social and cultural implications. With qualitative approaches, the emphasis is placed upon studying things in their natural settings, interpreting phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them, humanising problems and gaining an ‘emic’, or insider’s, perspective. Going further still to thinking of qualitative research as a different way of looking at social life from that of the ‘etic’, or outsider’s approach, which formerly dominated social studies, Denzin and Lincoln (1998: 5) have argued that qualitative research is a critique of the traditional positivistic approaches to researching. In this context it is not so much a distinct set of methods as a new way of approaching and undertaking research, an approach which seeks to highlight, and then remedy, the so-called deficiencies of ‘natural science’ methods which underpin quantitative research.

There are many different views about what qualitative research is. Is it a set of methods, a strategy, a critique or an approach? This book will consider some of the main arguments but does not seek to promote one particular approach or ‘solution’. What this book does seek to demonstrate is that qualitative research is as much a way of conceptualising and approaching social inquiry as it is a way of doing research. It is argued that, to date, tourism research has, in the main, used qualitative research as a set of methods rather than as a set of thinking tools which enable researchers to consider different ways of approaching research and uncovering new ways of knowing. The main rationale behind the development of this book is to encourage tourism researchers to adopt a more sophisticated attitude to thinking about and using qualitative research. By viewing qualitative research as more than a simple set of methods, tourism researchers can begin to consider different ways of thinking about, and undertaking, research, and take a new look at the ways in which knowledge is produced in the field. This book introduces some of the debates that exist in social science research texts into discourses about tourism research. It then explores what might be gained from adopting different approaches to the more traditional natural science approaches.

This chapter provides an introductory context to the 17 contributions that follow. It includes a brief discussion about the ways in which thinking about research in the social sciences has developed and how these developments relate to debates about how we think about the social world more generally. It then utilises Denzin and Lincoln’s (1998) five moments of qualitative research as a framework to introduce a number of key concepts and paradigmatic issues that have gained increasing recognition in social science research practice and discourse. The chapter then deliberates over the extent to which these paradigmatic issues have been incorporated into tourism research by exploring the research paradigms adopted, both explicitly and implicitly, in some of the main tourism journals. In so doing, it highlights dominant themes, ways of doing research and emerging ideas in tourism research. The chapter concludes by outlining the main issues that the contributors cover in the remainder of the book. Emphasis in Part I, is on issues around research paradigm and tourism. This is followed, in Part II, by a series of chapters which look in an open and reflexive way at tourism research processes and the ways in which qualitative research in tourism can be approached with a view to learning from these examples.

Thinking about researching the social world

Social science has been defined as ‘the attempt to explain social phenomena within the limits of available evidence’ (Lewins 1992: 41). The definition of what counts as ‘evidence’ is problematic, as is the question of how evidence is collected. Evidence has traditionally been understood as data collected through the counting of responses or observations. In circumstances where sociological concepts were not directly observable, they were instead grasped indirectly through the testing of hypotheses where ideas could be viewed as ‘facts’ if they were verifiable by certain observations. Society was seen as rule governed, with there being one ‘true’ reality, and research was based upon the idea of there being one universal knowledge which was created through the application of objective thinking and empirical research. Emphasis was placed on a reasoned, scientific approach to knowledge production, wherein any researcher operating under the same conditions would reach the same conclusion (Code 1993). However, attitudes about what constitutes valid and reliable knowledge, research and evidence have changed as social research has developed.

Five ‘moments’ of qualitative research

Denzin and Lincoln (1998: 13) divide the history of social research into five phases which they refer to as the ‘moments of qualitative research’. Riley and Love (2000) have used this conceptual framework to explore paradigmatic influences and consequent use of qualitative methods within tourism research. They focused their evaluation upon articles published within four tourism journals: Annals of Tourism Research (ATR), Journal of Travel Research (JTR), Tourism Management (TM) and Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing (JTTM). These have been published since 1973, 1970, 1980 and 1992 respectively.

Riley and Love’s (2000) review concluded that the greatest concentration of qualitative tourism research was located in the first two moments, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modernist’ phases. In order to aid consideration of qualitative research in tourism in this book, Riley and Love’s (2000) commentary of tourism research was updated using a selection of tourism journals which were analysed from papers published from 1996 onwards, or from the journal’s inception if publication commenced later than 1996 (see Table 1.1). This review enabled us to consider the most recent body of research to have emerged over the past seven years, review trends, and identify the use of new techniques and ways of approaching research in tourism. It also provided insight into the extent to which qualitative tourism research has developed in recent times. For ease of reference we refer to this analysis as the ‘post-1996 review’.

When examining the articles for the post-1996 review, we considered it important to view each contribution holistically, rather than adopt a mono-dimensional approach by looking solely at the research methods employed. This entailed viewing each piece of research from a number of different perspectives and asking a series of questions to take into account the complexity of various elements that shaped the nature of the final articles. These questions related to the traits which Denzin and Lincoln ascribed to each ‘moment’. For example, in the first moment, the traditional period, the researcher’s voice is heard as giving an expert and objective interpretation of the ‘facts’, while in other moments less authority is given to the researcher, and their voice is heard to consider a variety of possible interpretations mediated by interaction with the researched. The range of questions considered is outlined in Table 1.2.

Table 1.1 Tourism and leisure journals included in the post-1996 review

The relationship between the research questions listed above, the traits and the five moments is described in Table 1.3.

First-moment research: the predominance of positivism in the traditional period

Denzin and Lincoln (1998) refer to the first moment in qualitative research as the ‘traditional period’. Though emphasis in this time was upon quantitative research, not all research undertaken employed quantitative methods. Empirical research in this era was, however, exclusively informed by a positivistic, natural science approach in which the researcher was viewed an independent, objective expert whose judgement determined the validity of findings (Black 1993; Ryan 1979; Stern 1979). In this context came the development of evolutionary ethnography, a positivistic approach which employed qualitative methods as its main data collection tool. The discovery of the Other by Western explorers and missionaries was followed by the urge to record Other societies, as researchers/explorers collected data to support the assertion that all peoples were natives somewhere on an evolutionary chain with West Europeans at the top (Vidich and Lyman 1998: 48).

Table 1.2 Framework for the post-1996 review

This first stage in the development of qualitative research is attributed with the provision of ‘objective colonising accounts of field experiences’ (Denzin and Lincoln 1998: 15), whereby researchers co-operated with nineteenth-century imperial governments in the suppression and exploitation of natives (sic) (Vidich and Lyman 1998: 52). Researchers recorded through the use of observation, interview and analysis of documents how such ‘primitive’ societies operated. They issued their interpretation of what was going on as the truth about evolution and native peoples. The tradition continued into the new century, and in the 1920s folk psychologists began to look inwards to their own societies, undertaking qualitative research often underpinned by a moralistic aim of uplifting the poor (Vidich and Lyman 1998; Flick 1998). First-moment studies in tourism are characterised by those which adopt a colonialist perspective, privilege the observer as ‘knowing’, ‘museumify’ cultures of the Other, and reports timeless and unchanging accounts of ‘reality’ (Riley and Love 2000). Examples cited by Riley and Love (2000) include Cohen’s (1982) research in Thailand, Towner’s (1985) study of the Grand Tour and Gree...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: Key Ontological, Epistemological and Methodological Issues In Social Science
• Part II: From Research Theory to Practice