ABSTRACT
Watson and Kopachevsky, however, argue that the result of carrying capacity measurements will always depend on the context of the situation being measured and that this context will vary not just with the physical and social environments, but also with the values of those asking the questions and establishing the conditions for measurement: ‘carrying capacities cannot be determined in the absence of value judgements that specify the type of experience a given area is attempting to provide . . . the establishment of target levels is fundamentally an exercise in human value judgement’ (1996: 175). They identify different types of carrying capacity (see Box 8.5) and are adamant in their belief that values ‘influence all phases and elements of social research’ (177) and ‘play a critical role in the choice and application of science’ (177). Referring to the work of Thomas Kuhn (1962), they state that ‘conceptual frameworks and paradigms rise and fall . . . as much on political grounds as on scientific ones’ (177). In other words, human judgement will always be required in assessing appropriate threshold levels for a given activity, in this case tourism.
