Q method and ethnography in tourism research: enhancing insights, comparability and reflexivity

Identifying stakeholder perspectives and worldviews on sustainable urban tourism development using a Q-sort methodology

“…Even though it is used regularly to appreciate beliefs and values in relation to governance issues (Addams & Proops, 2000;Durning, 1999), Q methodology is little used in tourism studies with some notable exceptions (e.g. Huang, Qu, & Montgomery, 2017;Phi et al, 2014;Wijngaarden, 2017). The value of Q methodology is that it combines the mathematical rigour of quantitative approaches with the interpretative component that is common in qualitative research (Robbins & Krueger, 2000).…”

The Meanings of Destination: A Q Method Approach

“…Q method bridges qualitative and quantitative research by combining the mathematical rigor of quantitative method with the interpretive component of qualitative method (Robbins and Krueger 2000). The role of the researcher is different in Q method and traditional qualitative methods used in human–place studies (Wijngaarden 2016). Traditional qualitative research may suffer from the bias of researcher’s subjectivity, because the researcher plays the primary role in examining the participant’s narrative.…”

“…Interest in Q method in the field of tourism and leisure research has grown recently. Researchers have used it to investigate outdoor leaders’ feeling of connectedness to nature places (Hutson, Montgomery, and Caneday 2010), stakeholder views of place meanings of natural environment (Hutson and Montgomery 2010), student and teacher’s opinions of tourism teaching (Stergiou, Airey, and Riley 2008), performer’s subjectivity in a tourism culture park (Hunter 2014), resident’s perception related to cultural identity and tourism (Hunter 2011, 2013), actors’ subjectivity on problems of event planning (Phi, Dredge, and Whitford 2014), creative tourism experiences (Tan, Luh, and Kung 2014), destination image (Fairweather and Swaffield 2001), and tourist–host interaction (Griffiths and Sharpley 2012; Wijngaarden 2016). A large number of Q studies investigate the perspectives of residents, community stakeholders, or industry professionals (Lee and Son 2015; Phi, Dredge, and Whitford 2014; Rilling and Jordan 2007), while only a few Q studies focus on the tourist’s perception (Correia, Kozak, and Reis 2014; Tan, Luh, and Kung 2014).…”

“…It has the advantage of systematically exploring the construction and sharing of representative viewpoints among individuals (Hutson and Montgomery 2010). Yet, only a few tourism researchers have taken advantage of Q method (Wijngaarden 2016; Stergiou and Airey 2011).…”

Qualitative interpretive mobile ethnography

“…Self-reflexivity encompasses the researcher's reflections of the data's multiple meanings and consideration of multi-faceted perspectives to improve data analysis (Wijngaarden, 2016). Generated data need to be reflected in the broader context of society, their actions, and culture (Hall, 2004).…”