A Study Based on the Theories of Kurt Lewin and John Tribe)
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ISSN 0867-5856 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/0867-5856.29.2.01 e-ISSN 2080-6922 Tourism 2019, 29/2 Wiesław Alejziak https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0604-7577 University of Physical Education in Cracow Faculty of Tourism and Recreation Department of Tourism Policy [email protected] A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES IN TOURISM RESEARCH (A STUDY BASED ON THE THEORIES OF KURT LEWIN AND JOHN TRIBE) Abstract: The article presents the essence as well as various models of academic explanation and the explanatory value of understand- ing, indicating their usability and limitations as regards understanding why and how tourism functions. Particular attention has been paid to the epistemological dimension of tourism research, as well as its new directions. The author has referred to two models con- cerning the epistemological aspects of tourism research where the focal point is the category of ‘truth about tourism’. These have been presented in two articles by John Tribe. Keywords: tourism, tourism research, theory, typology, explanation, understanding, prediction, epistemology. 1. INTRODUCTION One of the foundations of knowledge is the assumption as well as in the specific way in which other academic that there is a recognizable regularity and a specific or- functions (understanding and predicting) are performed. der in the real world which makes it possible to sort out For these reasons, the analysis and evaluation of tour- and ‘structure’ different areas of social and economic ism research is not simple, especially from an epistemo- reality (Frankfurt-Nachmias, Nachmias, 2001). Following logical perspective. this assumption, regardless of the intensity of changes By performing three basic functions: descriptive, ex- taking place on the contemporary tourism market, aca- planatory and prognostic (Brzeziński, 2005), science aims demic research tries to explain various facts, processes, to provide verifiable knowledge which helps to explain, phenomena, etc. In the case of such a multi-faceted and predict and understand empirical phenomena as well as dynamic phenomenon as tourism however, it is not easy, the features and/or performance of processes, ideas, etc. especially as tourism research, regardless of the progress which are dealt with in a given discipline. In tourism achieved in recent years (Alejziak, 2005; Butler, 2015; research, we deal with an exceptionally broad range of re- Butowski, 2014; Dann, Nash, Pearce, 1988; Jafari, 2001; search problems and issues, including the spheres of cul- Liburd, 2012; Oviedo-Garcia, 2016; Ritchie, Burns, Palmer, ture (society, economy) and nature (environment). It is 2005), is still at an early stage of development (Alejziak, vital for the discussion presented later in the article that 2008a; Ballantyne, Packer, Axelsen, 2009; Benckendorff, all three functions, though characteristic of all disciplines, Zehrer, 2013; Pearce, Butler, 1993; Tribe, 1997, 2006, are performed differently in natural sciences than in the 2010). As for an evaluation of tourism research, it is also social sciences and humanities. This particularly con- very important to remember that it is currently an ob- cerns explanation, frequently considered to perform the ject of interest for representatives of many academic superior function.1 disciplines who use varying approaches and take dif- Scientific explanation is widely discussed in vari- ferent methodological perspectives in their work (Alej- ous academic disciplines. An important issue (espe- ziak, 2008b; Hall, Williams, Lew, 2004; Theuns, 1986; cially from the epistemological perspective) is whether Winiarski, 2003, 2004; Xiao, Smith, 2004). This is clearly explanation is more about explaining what is unknown visible in the wide range of academic explanation types, by what is visually known, as postulated by Aristotle, © 2019 Wiesław Alejziak. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://cre- ativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Cover date: December 2019 2 Tourism 2019, 29/2 or is it about explaining what is visually known by is an instance’ (John Stuart Mill). According to the what is unknown, i.e. about enhancing our knowledge other approach, to explain a phenomenon means in- about the world, as postulated by Karl Popper (cf. Bo- dicating the law revealing its nature; to understand gucka, 1991). Simply put, it can be assumed that, in a phenomenon is as much as ‘express its essence in the form of a concept’ (Georg Hegel, after: Filozofia terms of science, explanation involves analysing and a nauka…, 1987, p. 741). locating what we explain in the context of its current state, as well as trying to find a proper place for a given It should be remembered that the laws of science object, fact or regularity among issues and explana- may reflect substantial, attributive, cause-and-effect, tions already known and accepted by science. Explaining functional and structural relationships of what is stud- tourism phenomena encounters numerous difficulties ied. It is assumed then that this can also be characteristic 3 due to the fact that research and academic knowledge of explanation. In the explanation process, we apply about tourism is still at an early stage of development different categories, the most important of which in- and the theories related to it have many faults. Let us clude essence, law, cause, function and structure (Ni- take the example of theories and explanations regard- kitin, 1975, p. 33). Occasionally, these categories are ing exclusion factors as inhibitors of tourist activity. treated as equivalent, but in reality, for instance, the They are usually explained on the grounds of attribu- gnoseological theory of explanation assumes that is has tion theory while their causes are not indicated (Alejziak, a complex structure, consisting of hierarchically or- 2016) and even its researchers are often unaware of dered levels. At the highest level, there is the category them. Generally speaking, there are not many well- of ‘essence’, which makes it possible to discover and grounded theories (let alone laws) in tourism which provide the most general description of the nature of could be the basis of scientific explanation and under- explanation; lower we find a law which reveals the standing of its phenomena. As a result, explanation is basic mechanism of the explanation procedure; while largely based on typologization and simple modelling the lowest level is constituted of categories such as (Alejziak, 2013). cause, function, structure, etc. which provide a more The essence of scientific explanation is often re- specific and fuller description. It is only at the last level ferred to as a process which aims to provide an answer that the transition from explaining in general to identi- to the question ‘why?’.2 Without going into much de- fying its individual type takes place. tail concerning the relativity of this question (the dis- The classic model of academic explanation was pro- cussion of the issue is developed in a number of other posed by Hempel & Oppenheim (1948, 135-175; after academic disciplines), this article focuses on an analy- Nagel, 1985) who first developed the original model of 4 sis of different types and the role of explanation in deductive-nomological explanation (Gr. nomos – law), tourism research, as well as on the epistemological extended later with the hypothetico-deductive explana- problems of the knowledge it provides. These issues tion model. In the deductive-nomological model (D-N), seem to be extremely important for the further devel- the phenomenon which is to be explained (as well as opment of tourism research and knowledge, especially the sentence defining it) is referred to as an explanandum if they involve changes in knowledge acquisition and (Latin – ‘what is to be explained’), while the element transfer. which is used to explain the phenomenon with is called the explanans (Latin – ‘explanation’). Every explanans is composed of two methodologically different parts: sen- tences representing individual facts and sentences rep- 2. EXPLANATION AS A FUNCTION resenting general regularities. The essence of this model OF SCIENCE: ITS ESSENCE AND TYPES of explanation is deductive reasoning, whose conclu- sion is an explanandum sentence E, while the set of OF EXPLANATION premises is the explanans, consisting of general laws L1, L2,…, Lr and sentences C1, C2,…, Ck, adducing certain Academic explanation may be viewed from two per- individual facts, as illustrated in the model below:5 spectives coming from different traditions of approach- ing these issues on the grounds of scientific philosophy, 퐿1, 퐿2, … , 퐿r which was presented in a concise way in Filozofia a na- 퐶1, 퐶2, … , 퐶r 퐸푘푠푝푙푎푛푎푛푠 (퐷 − 푁) uka. Zarys encyklopedyczny (1987): 퐸 퐸푘푠푝푙푎푛푎푛푑푢푚 On the one hand, to explain a fact means as much as to indicate a general regularity, whose particular case The explanandum is usually a sentence (or a set of is the following: ‘An individual fact is said to be ex- sentences) describing a given fact (system, phenome- plained by pointing out its cause, that is, by stating non, process, etc.), though it may also be an empirical the law or laws of causation, of which its production generalization, law or academic theory. The explanans, Articles 3 on the other hand, consists of a set of explanatory sen- with other convictions concerning the present state as tences which state certain individual facts (boundary well as causal relationships between the means and the conditions). With the help of the deductive-nomological goal. Thus, with intentional explanation, we should model, based on research and the knowledge it pro- consider the relationship between desires, convictions vides, we can explain individual facts (e.g. why X is and action (Strawiński, 2011, p. 326). a tourist more often than Y), as well as general regular- Co-existential explanation involves referring to a law ities (e.g. why people living in cities are more active which indicates permanent relationships among the fea- tourism-wise than those who live in the countryside).