Li, L (2020) Critical realist approach: a solution to tourism’s most pressing matter. In: International Association for Critical Realism Annual Conference: The Human Person in Times of Civilization Change, 14 - 16 October 2020, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Poland [online].
Abstract
Tourism as a social phenomenon is still in a status of ethicality that we hope can be improved. However, we still do not know how to effectively enhance morally guided tourism. It is argued that this knowledge gap is attributed to the absence of an appropriate philosophical underpinning informing the epistemological approaches adopted in ethical tourism studies. In this paper, the author posits that critical realism is a robust and fruitful underlabourer that will help researchers to uncover the ‘deep’ domain of ethical tourism. It is proposed that future research should investigate 1) what structural, cultural, and agential emergent properties of the systemic components of the ethical tourism system are operant, and 2) how generative mechanisms function to influence, not determine, the moral conduct of tourism stakeholders. By addressing these two areas of knowledge, we will be able to understand how things work in ethical tourism so that we can make changes to enhance its uptake. Some examples are provided to illustrate how to carry out a realist inquiry. It is hoped that the philosophical and epistemological accounts made in this paper would initiate further discussions on theorising ethical tourism so as to, hopefully, contribute to Franlkin’s (2007) call for ‘new theory’ to uncover the unknown in the tourism domain.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | analytical dualism, critical realism, realist social theory, ethical theories, social mechanism, moral agency |
| Divisions: | Bath Business School |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Nov 2021 18:18 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Jun 2022 17:08 |
| URN: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/14428 |
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