ABSTRACT
In this chapter I have suggested a number of benefits of qualitative methodology for revealing the political dimension of tourism research. Indeed, I think it helps to bring us closer to a critical perspective on tourism. By ‘critical’ I am referring not only to the standard political economic concerns of critical theory, but to critiques of Western (positivistic) science that it serves largely to legitimate the assumptions and projects of Western scholars and development workers rather than to accurately record and communicate the concerns of historically marginalised groups of people (Smith 1999). Critical indigenous researchers draw from Freire’s (1970) work to further challenge a culture of silence among politically marginalised groups, arguing for a research methodology that involves listening to, affirmation of, reflecting on, and analysis of personal stories and experiences ‘from the ground up’. They have raised the metaphor of ‘voice’ as a response to silence, secrets, lies, talking back, talking in a different voice, and contesting the voice of authority, and a preoccupation if you will with women and other marginalised peoples speaking from and about their own experiences (Maguire 2001).
