Ontology, 1-3 Epistemology and Methodology

¶ … Ontology, 1-3

Epistemology and Methodology

Definition of Positivist Paradigm, 4-6

Interpretive Paradigm and Feminist Paradigm

For the study of tourism to work best and to succeed, it proceeds as all other fields must, namely by research. Research, however, is never homogeneous. It is comprised of various methodologies, ranging from the hard, empirical quantitative type of study, t o the soft, more subjective, qualitative interpretations.

Not only are there different methodologies, but research often, or, rather, invariably, operates against a specific theory and this theory depends on the author's inclinations. Some for instance may be inclined to use a positive theory, whilst other a feminist or grounded theory, or phenomenological approach amongst many others. These are all different perspective -- or ways of looking at the data. The same piece of data -- or situation -- can be perceived and interpreted from various ways resulting in a multi-faceted study.

The fantastic, and fascinating aspect of this is that one situation can be seen in diverse ways with the same phenomena discussed and approached in a contradictory manner. This leads us to different ways of interpreting the outcome and may, indeed lead to different outcomes. The fact that research can be interpreted in so many diverse ways depending one one's subjective weltecnshcung is the stuff of philosophy of science.

In the following essay, we take 3 articles that are on the subject of tourism and show how each adopted a different approach on the same subject and how each, ipso facto, discussed the matter in a different style, and voice and used different methodological tools. The 3 different epistemological, ontological and methodological world views were in turn: feminism, positivism, and interpretative.

Definition of Paradigm, Ontology and Epistemology and Methodology

Paradigm

Paradigm refers to the way that we perceive the world. It first came into popularity with Kuhn (1963) who argued that scientific paradigms are contingent on time and depend on the popular way if thinking for fixation. It is only when this popular thinking on the subject gets into irreversible difficulties and unsolvable problems that they are forced to look for a solution that may involve differences to a prior way of thinking. Hence a paradigm shift is created followed by a new period of conformist thought. Examples in kind are Copernicus's revolutionary model of the universe, and Einstein's physic that supplanted Newtonian perspective .

The greatest impediment to paradigmatic shift is a paradigm paralysis which tends to occur and to impede people from progressing to a new thought. This is similar to confirmation bias where people are simply disinclined to change their way of thinking and to view the science in a different manner (Nickles, 2002, pp. 1- 4. 9).

The word originates from the Greek roots of (paradeigma), "pattern, example, sample "from the verb "exhibit, represent, expose "and from the verb "to show, to point out" ( Liddell & Scott, a Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpara%2Fdeigma )

The term 'paradigm' has actually had various meanings throughout history abut has currently assumed the philosophical / scientific connotations of the particular way that one epistemologically interprets the world matters. The Merriam-Webster for instance defines it as:

"a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly: a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paradigm)

returning to Kuhn and a fact that we will notice from our essay, Kuhn comments that paradigms are generally incommensurate one with the other, meaning that each has different standards of principles and that, therefore, their different treatments of the same subject cannot be merged becayuse very often they may be contradictory. Each, in other words, has a different way of looking at the factor. Sometimes this different way may be utterly contradictory in kind. Taking this into consideration, it is difficult to come to any conclusive decision since ultimately, the approach to the subject has been subjective rather than objective and scientific though its methodology may be, it is still based on the particular interpretation of the individual. No paradigm is therefore necessarily better than another because each exists of a particular, unique way of perceiving the world (Slattery, 2003. 151-155. )

Ontology

Ontology refers to the overall way that one sees the world. It is the philosophical terms used for 'being' or 'reality' or 'existence' and, a s such, refers to the way that a particular person philosophically views existence / reality / being.

Questions of ontology include whether Time is a concept and can be seen; whether we exist or live in a dream (Descartes); whether reality, in effect, exists (Berkeley); how existence is related to time and space; what is 'self' and what constitutes the identity of an object; and so forth.

At one time, and still in many quarters, there was a greater certainty about the world and about our cognitive ability as being a tool to discover certainty. With the postmodernist trend of believing in relativity of knowledge and erroneousness of science as methodology to prove 'reality' / 'truth' there is far less of an inclination to espouse any particular way as being 'true'. Rather, each possesses its own validity and truth based upon the social reality of its observer. According to Mead, for instance: "we do not assume there is a self to begin with. Self is not presupposed as a stuff out of which the world arises. Rather the self arises in the world" (Mead, 1982. 107). )

others such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein see ontological constructs as contingent on communication. It is our words that construct 'reality' and words are created from the particular world that we live in.

Epistemology

Epistemology refers to the science of knowledge or the philosophy o f the nature and scope of knowledge. Its subject matter includes the following:

What is knowledge

How can we know that we have acquired true and certain knowledge

How is knowledge acquired

There is a difference between the 3 categories of knowledge, namely 'knowledge that" (i.e. knowledge of something / a subject); knowledge how (i.e. how to do something);a nd knowledge by acquaintance (eg. Of a friend, place one lives in etc.). This essay deals with the first category of knowledge, namely " knowing that" (Knorr-Cetina, 1999 p.1. )

Epidemiologists are divided into two camps: externalists and internalists. Externalists argue that knowledge comes mainly form extraneous elements. Aristotle, Locke or Hume are an example in kind. They argued that our building blocks of knowledge come form our acquaintance and experience e with the outside world. Descartes and Kant (as well as Plato) are internalists who argued that knowledge is built (emerges) from internal categories and internal apparatus / mental heuristic. Chomsky is a latter example of someone who came to similar conclusions albeit about grammar.

Epistemology contains at least 4 different branches. These are:

Empiricism -- otherwise known as positivism or realism, where knowledge comes form careful testing and verification of extraneous material.

Idealism -- knowledge is a priori and innate; already existed before our birth and lodges in our reason.

Rationalism -- merges empiricism with idealism and asserts that we can use our cognitive abilities to arrive at a certain construct of knowledge

Constructivism -- is the branch of knowledge that asserts that there is no one sure way of knowing things, rather all is relative depending on the person's particular culture, way of thinking, and perspective (Raskin, 2002, 4)

Methodology

Methodology refers to the set of tools and method that the person uses to test his/her ideas / philosophical perspective on the subject that he/she wishes to investigate.

There are two main and overlapping categories of methodology: Quantitative and Qualitative. Quantitative refers to laboratory-based, empirically-minded, statistically-calculated, mathematically- conducted studies that attempt to eliminate subjectivity as much as possible. These kind of studies are currently more accepted than qualitative. Its advantage lies in that it is generally more objective (or, a t least, tries to be). Its disadvantages consists of the fact that they preclude possibility of gaining rich detail.

This possibility of acquiring rich and exploratory details of a study is acquired through the qualitative trend (that include interviews, observation, text analysis and so forth). Sometimes the qualitative is used in order to formulate a theory that would then lead to a quantitative testing of the hypothesis. Other times, the researcher conducts a triangulated study where qualitative and quantitative are merged in the attempt to arrive at conclusions (Creswell, 2000).

There are many different theoretical paradigms. The articles featured in this essay present 3 approaches: feminist, positivist, and interpretive.

Definition of Positivist Paradigm, Interpretive Paradigm and Feminist Paradigm

Positivist Paradigm

The positivest paradigm believes that certain knowledge can only come about through the senses (Carr & Kemmis, 1986) and can be demonstrated to be causal in kind (Tribe, 2009 ). Its approach is purely scientific where conclusions are calculated on strict, mathematical principles and where its tools have to conform to certain scientific cannons that have been tested and re-tested and have almost unanimously been accepted by the relevant scientific community. The research too has to be reliable and valid cohering to an internal and external scientific definition of reality that is more physical and eschews the metaphysical and the abstract.

Ontological Basis

Positivism accepts a certain reality of existence and insists that this reality can be discovered by universal and immutable scientific / mathematical principles (Tribe, 2009) .

Epistemological Basis

The researcher has to distance himself as much as possible from his research in order to come to verifiable attempts. The scientific approach can help hims distance himself.

Interpretive Paradigm

An alternate rendering of this can be the constructionist paradigm where the approach depends upon the researcher in question and is often inductively created. It is subjective and avowedly so and the meaning / conclusions / perspective is generated from one's particular experiences, way of thinking, and origin (Oakes & Minca 2004, p. 30).

Ontological Basis

The researcher acknowledge existence of multiple realities

Epistemological Basis

The researcher sees himself as one of the actors who possesses his own 'take' on the subject. None is particularly more true / false than the other.

Feminist Paradigm

Feminism may be more of a political perspective than philosophical, although it combines both. Feminists see man as having dominated females and attempting to oppress them. This mode of masculine conduct is existent in overt and covert ways in many (if not all) cultures. Feminism, therefore, tries to bring these issues out into the open in order that they may be addressed (Letherby, 2003).

Ontological Basis

Men dominate women in a an unequally gendered world

Epistemological Basis

There is the relationship between the knower, the known, and the issue. The knower (researcher) is studying the female in this issue in order to point out existent injustice and to prompt reflection and, when necessary, retroactive action.

Article 1

Ranjan Bandyopadhyay & Karina Nascimento (2010): "Where fantasy becomes reality": how tourism forces made Brazil a sexual playground, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18:8,

933-949

This article uses a feminist approach as is evident in the tenor of the study.

The paper examines the political economy of tourism representations and destination imaging in Brazil and its effect on tourism in the country. The central argument is that the way that Brazil and its women are represented in tourist images has an important effect on how they tourists relate to Brazil and to its women, and that tourist paraphernalia uses the female to sell Brazil to the tourist. . The study investigates the representation of Brazil and its women during colonial times by Europeans, by the Brazilian Government and by the contemporary Western media, and concludes that these representations have made Brazil a sexual playground for tourists. In other words, the researchers conclude that Brazil's image is not a direct outcome of tourism representations alone; but rather its tourist image is strongly connected with complex historical, political and cultural processes.

Using the feminist approach that uses woman as its subject and makes man's domination of woman that issue to be addressed, the authors see their research and findings as significant in correcting social injustice to women. They point out that:

Sex tourism has not been seen as a subject for serious intellectual investigation, except for a few notable studies ... Despite the considerable body of literature on sex trafficking and HIV / AIDS, scholars have paid little attention to the role of tourism in the transmission of HIV / AIDS in this era of sustainable development....The complex issues emerging from the interface of tourism and AIDS deserve an in-depth ethnographic study, which future scholars can delve into. Thus, this study has profound implications for the concept of sustainable tourism. (945-948)

Paradigm

The study uses a feminist paradigm focusing on the plight of women in Brazil and on tendency of tourist marketing to use women as promotional aspect.

Ontological Basis

The researcher sees women as assuming the perspective reality of tourism (meaning that all centers around the woman).

Epistemological Basis

The researchers examined primary and secondary historical sources and documents -- that included letters, brochures, bo0oks, and other material -- in order to see how Brazil and Brazilians were portrayed and thought of throughout the centuries.

Although their material seems to come from an objective source, nonetheless their perspective is biased since they were selective in the type of material that they accepted. There may conceivably be a quantity of material that shows differing or contradictory perspectives of Brazil that the researchers did not review or that they rejected from their study. This makes their epistemology biased and causes me to define it as one that merged from the specific interests of a feminist agenda and was slanted towards that end.

Methodological

The study is inductive -- it started with data that it analyzed and arrived at conclusion from (although one can as well call it deductive in that authors had presumptions). It is qualitative being an examination of data and text ("Data were collected from several sources to answer the research questions. In order to examine how Brazil is represented in colonial travel writings, textual representations of Brazil and Brazilians were collected from books written during the nineteenth century.. etc. etc. 935).

Article 2

Catarina Marques, Elizabeth Reis & Joao Menezes (2010): Profiling the segments of visitors to Portuguese protected areas, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18:8, 971-996

This study identifies the diversity of domestic visitors to Portuguese protected areas (PPA) based on areas that tourists believe that they can benefit from. The segments of PPA visitors are also compared with other nature-based tourist segments using empirical segmentation literature. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire and multivariate statistics techniques were applied. Five particular segments of visitors were identified based on the motivation for their visit and by the perceived importance of activities, and services, by their frequency of visit and by socio-demographics. Researchers concluded that the reasons for the visit in one segment are unrelated to any of the motivations of nature-based tourism.

Paradigm

This is clearly the positive approach since statistical data are used to conduct and assess outcome of the method (Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire and multivariate statistics techniques were applied.) an d the whole follows pricniples of science as throughly as possible in order to exclude the researcher from the study and let the facts speak for themselves.

As the article says, the study itself was grounded on usage of empirical benefit segmentation literature and the empirical approach was employed throughout.

Ontological Basis

The researchers see science as providing a means to arrive at some certainty of the issue provided that all principles are scrupulously followed. There is, t ehrofre, one way -- rather than multiple ways -- of seeing reality and this is achieved by carefully and throughly following the scientific paradigm: "This study develops a comprehensive analysis of the profile of segments of domestic visitors to PPA, a theme where little empirical research has been conducted to date." (987)

Epistemological Basis

The researchers believe that knowledge can be arrived at form an externalist stance, namely from appealing to the fact and from excluding internalism (i.e subjectivity) as much as possible in order to arrive at clear and hard evidence. Facts are therefore translated in mathematical terms and even the collection and interpretation of facts, including questionnaries used, are all converted into empirical, mathematical mediums.

The researchers note for instance that

With regard to sampling representativeness, the results of the cluster analysis matched the empirical experience almost perfectly, which gives some confidence to the underlying structure and its generalization to the population; and the sample dimension issue is not important because the PPA management agency is only interested in identifying managerially useful segments, i.e. those that represent at least 10% of the population. (993).

Note how all cohered to facts.

Methodological

This is clearly a quantitative study.

Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire and multivariate statistics techniques were applied. Five particular segments of visitors were identified based on the motivation for their visit and by the perceived importance of activities, and services, by their frequency of visit and by socio-demographics. An empirical base was used as literary component and statistics included principal components, hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses

Article 3

Tao (Teresa), Chang-Hung, Eagles, Paul F.J. And Smith, Stephen L.J.(2004) 'Profiling Taiwanese Ecotourists Using a Self-definition Approach', Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 12: 2, 149 -- 168

Numerous studies have profiled ecotourists but these have been done mainly in the context of North American ecotourists. This study examines the rapidly developing Asian ecotourism market in the context of domestic visitation to Taiwan's Taroko National Park. The study uses an innovative self-defined approach to defining an ecotourist. Findings include demographic results, benefits sought, travel motivation, and activities. Comparisons between Taiwanese and North American ecotourists are also made.