The ethnographic knowledge production in tourism research:A perspective of mobility
Mobility is a typical feature of tourism activities.Under the new mobility paradigm,mobility has become the core of tourism,and therefore the study of tourism phenomena requires the use of mobility research methods.Unlike traditional static qualitative research methods,the role of ethnography as a new method of mobility study in the production of acculturating knowledge makes it an increasingly important methodological choice for conducting tourism research from the perspective of mobility.However,most of the existing studies have only used ethnography,lacking a detailed explanation of the specific processes,what to pay attention to,and the intrinsic links between ethnographic application and knowledge production at the theoretical and methodological levels.Based on this,our study focused on the perspective of mobility,beginning with a review of mobility and ethnography at the theoretical level.It then explored the relationship and implications between tourism research and ethnography.Second,this study examined the development of core issues,methodological choices,and attention in the application of ethnography to tourism research.The study showed that:1)Ethnography offers new methods and possibilities for tourism research from a mobility perspective compared with quantitative methods,traditional qualitative methods,and traditional ethnography.2)The limitations and shortcomings of ethnography have also led to some controversy,and the debate has concentrated on two aspects:the researchers'ability to maintain value-neutral objectivity,and the privacy or ethical implications of the research.3)As a new method for tourism research under the perspective of mobility,although ethnography is controversial,in terms of the method itself,ethnography still has great potential for further development and promotion.In the future,we should continue to expand the content of ethnography's themes and the direction of its application,overcome ethnography's methodological limitations,and apply ethnography to a wider range of tourism research.
mobilitythe new mobility paradigmethnographytourism researchresearch methods