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/lp/sage/a-realist-agenda-for-tourist-studies-or-why-destination-areas-really-tlPFRhWe0B
- Publisher
- SAGE
- Copyright
- Copyright © by SAGE Publications
- ISSN
- 1468-7976
- eISSN
- 1741-3206
- DOI
- 10.1177/1468797605066925
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This article proposes a (critical) realist agenda for tourist studies, centred aroundthe question, ‘What makes tourism possible?’. In assertingrealism as the philosophy of social science most likely to advance tourism theory,it offers a critique of prevailing epistemologies, notably positivism andconstructivism (and critical theory), with a view to provoking engagement by thetourism research community with ontological and epistemological arguments, which wewould contend is the hallmark of a mature subject area that is not derivative ofdisciplines. In the furtherance of this cause a critical assessment is made of theontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions underpinning an idea orassemblage of ideas within tourist studies that might be construed as‘orthodox’, here represented by the tourist-area life cycle andsubsequent applications, and also of radical reactions to that orthodoxy. We followthis with a case study of seaside resort decline (Rhyl, North Wales), whichdemonstrates how a realist philosophy of social science may permit a moresatisfactory understanding of, in this instance, tourism destination developmentthan that afforded by actualism or non-realism.
Journal
Tourist Studies: An International Journal – SAGE
Published: Aug 1, 2005