Paradigms Revisited

Keith Hollinshead's article The Shift to Constructivism in Social Inquiry develops some of the themes explored in the first of these two special issues of Tourism Recreation Research(Vol. 30, No.2, 2005) on the subject of research methods and approaches and presents a timely review of the paradigms debate. It continues a strand of work that he has been developing over a number of years and offers a useful perspective which surfaces the perspectives and qualities of the other articles. Hollinshead argues that the widening of research options in human inquiry is particularly significant for the issues confronted by Tourism Studiesparticularly those that involve 'local and highlycontextualized investigations' and where 'multiple truths (i.e., worldviews) contend against each other.' He reveals and explains ten broad shifts which are representative of a tum towards constructivist / interpretivist thought and practice referencing tourism researchers. However, whilst celebrating and calibrating the benefits of constructivist approaches, Hollinshead warns that it is important that those operating under its banner understand the importance of maintaining a vigil of self -critique in order to better develop and establish its credentials.