Abstract
This article examines the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical integration of postcolonial cinema into critical tourism education. These works help viewers understand the influence of film as a primary source of postcolonial gaze, with the goal of decolonizing tourism studies. Postcolonial cinema reconnects geographic inquiry with the impacts of colonialism and postcolonialism on people and places in specific localities and across regions. Critical pragmatism is presented as synthesizing critical theory’s emphasis on listening, reflecting, and deliberating and traditional pragmatism’s emphasis on practice and place, as well as mixed research methods and multiple realities. Critical reflexivity is explored in critical tourism studies as relocated in pragmatist thought and a basis for abductive methodology and pedagogy. Abductive methodology is identified as a basis for addressing complex tourism issues and researcher positioning, while abductive pedagogy creates transformative learning environments where shared dialogue generates new knowledge. Critical pragmatism, enriched with gaze and reflexivity honed through postcolonial cinema, addresses perceived ontological and ‘realist’ deficiencies in critical tourism studies, while offering an alternative philosophical framework for informing and contrasting popular epistemologies and methodologies.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rich Harrill
Rich Harrill is a Research Professor and Director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. His research interests include resident attitudes toward tourism development, Chinese outbound tourism, critical tourism studies, and travel and tourism in film and literature.
David A. Cardenas
David A. Cardenas is a Professor and Dean at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. His research interests are in sustainable tourism development, resident attitudes, and tourism education.
Leonardo L. A. N. Dioko
Leonardo (Don) A. N. Dioko is a Professor at the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM), and Director of the Tourism Research Centre (ITRC). His research interest includes destination branding, tourism policy, and knowledge disparities between tourism theory and applications.
Alex Arhin
Alex Arhin is a Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, at the University of South Carolina. His research focuses on climate change and organizational resilience.