The work of this thesis is positioned within a social constructivist paradigm. Thus the principle guiding the selection of methods is that social meaning is constructed. It is produced through the subject’s interrelationship with the world (see Schwandt, 2003 for further discussion). An interpretive research approach is consistent with a social constructivist world-view in that it “assumes that reality is socially constructed and the researcher becomes the vehicle by which this reality is revealed” (Diaz Andrade, 2009, p. 43).
A primary objective of the thesis is to conduct an exploratory interpretive case study of archival brochures publicising the Tongariro National Park and the Chateau Hotel. The case study was selected as method to facilitate a depth of analysis and interpretation to reveal the complex rhetorical processes of emplacement at work in the representations. The ‘how’ focus of the research questions and the selected data set as a specific instance of a wider phenomenon all pointed to case study method as the best fit for the study. As Yin (2012) argues, the case study approach is an appropriate method for analyses that seek “ to explain … how and why some social phenomenon work” (p. 4). An exploratory case study, with the purpose as Yin notes “to identify research questions or procedures to be used in a subsequent study”, well serves the research aims and objectives of this project. In particular, an exploratory case study is recommended when the thesis objective is to build a theory (Yin 2012). It enables theory to be inductively developed out of the data generated. Moreover, a case study approach allows for a depth of analysis that can adequately unpack the full complexity of the brochure as textual object. This follows Yin’s determination that “the distinctive need for case study research arises out of the desire to understand complex
The exploratory case study method selected for this thesis proposes interpretive methods of analysis. The selection of interpretive methods of analysis responds to the specific complexities of the research question. The case study method developed by Yin and others includes criteria such as validity (construct, internal and external) and reliability as strategies to address the criticism for lack of rigour that case study method has commonly received from positivist directions (Diaz Andrade, 2009, p. 42). When the research is interpretive however, Andrade argues that adopting criteria developed to overcome criticisms from a positivist direction may not be appropriate and that “Interpretive researchers aiming at theory building need to adapt the case study guidelines” (ibid). His proposal is not to abandon these criteria but to loosen their rigidity and modify them with principles drawn from grounded theory that recognise the inductive nature of theory building. Thus, these adaptions for the interpretive case study see the criteria redefined as follows: construct validity is established through the corroboration of multiple sources of evidence; internal validity is established through theoretical coding; and external validity is established through theoretical/analytic generalisation.
As it is a given in interpretive research that another researcher may produce a different interpretation from the same set of data, reliability depends on the presentation of a chain of evidence and on the quality of argument in order to produce an interpretation that can be trusted, as opposed to repeatable (2009, pp. 47-50). Further as Sandberg (2005) notes, another important criterion for reliability is the researcher’s interpretive awareness. He states, “To maintain an interpretive awareness means to acknowledge and explicitly deal with our subjectivity throughout the research process instead of overlooking it” (p. 59). When interpretive awareness is recognised, “…interpretation then becomes a strength rather than a threat to reliable results” (ibid). In this thesis, the criteria of validity (construct, internal and external) and reliability laid out in the case study method defined by Yin are adapted following Diaz Andrade’s (2009) outline. This allows the exploratory case study method to function appropriately within an interpretive paradigm.
The rhetorical configuration of emplacement in representations is an intricate process. The interpretive case study offers a method than can attend in depth to the multiple layers of visual, textual and material rhetoric alongside the historical and economic circumstances in which these texts operate. The outcomes of the study can then provide a platform for meaningful theory building and analytic generalisations. As Yin notes, “case studies are generalizable as theoretical propositions” (p. 21). This thesis builds a theory of emplacement
in the case study representations that has validity for wider generalisation to comparable sites. The theory of emplacement can provide a platform for considering how tourism publicity has contributed to historical formations of tourist places and subjects, specifically in relation to their meaning as local New Zealand places.
In this study the analytical focus is on the specific rhetorical strategies used in the selected data. In general terms, these rhetorical strategies are treated as examples of discourse. Gillian Rose’s definition (following Foucault) is used in this thesis. Rose defines discourse as:
… groups of statements that structure the way a thing is thought and the way we act on the basis of that thinking. In other words discourse is a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it (Rose, 2012, p. 190).
Both visual and textual ‘groups of statements’ (Rose, 2012, p. 190) are considered as discursive elements in the visual and textual work of the thesis. That these statements are rhetorically configured underpins the use of the concept of discourse. The discourses unravelled in the thesis together articulate a particular kind of social formation. Each of the publicity brochures discussed in this study has been investigated in these terms as a way of knowing about the park through groups of visual and textual statements. These groups of statements rhetorically configure specific kinds of subject positions.
Following Foucault (1982) the term subjectivation is used to describe the array of processes related to subject formation or the discursive production of subject positions within a social constructionist theory of subjectivity. The position that representational processes come before the formation of the subject is embedded in the operational use of this term in the thesis. In the thesis subjectivation therefore is closely linked to the performance of the subject in representations, and the rhetorical construction of discourse. The use of the term social formation in the thesis follows Barker’s (2004) definition where he states that “rather than grasping the social as a ‘whole’ or totality” the term social formation allows the social to be conceived “as a concrete historically produced complex assemblage composed of different practices (ideological, political, economic)” (Barker, 2004). The term is used to support theorization of subjectivation in the thesis and its usage follows Hall (1985, p. 106) when he argues are that subjects are “positioned by the discursive formations of specific social formations”. As Barker notes, “A social formation is said to consist of levels of practice, each of which has its own specificity, that are articulated together in particular
conjunctures where there is no necessary or automatic correspondence or relationship to each other” (ibid). This relationship is rhetorically configured by the discourse shaping the social formation. In this thesis therefore the term offers a way of encasing the particular social world of the set of hotel/park relationships discussed at the case study site. The social formation of the park is organized by a specific set of discursively configured relationships and practices. These relationships and practices are temporary and shifting and it is the work of the interpretive case study to show the specific discursive terrain of the park as social formation in the time periods selected for study.
While institutional histories provide an additional source of evidence, the brochures as designed communication artefacts are the primary evidence. An in-depth analysis focused on the rhetorical organisation of brochure discourses is necessary to reveal how these discourses construct and co-constitute place and subject.38 The interpretive case study
method developed here thus elects to work closely with a select set of brochure data.
Developing a comprehensive conceptual framework offers higher value in this instance than a study based on multiple kinds of data.
Yin (2014) recommends that for case studies, “some theory development as part of the design phase is highly desired” (p. 37). The first phase of theoretical work undertaken in the previous chapter isolated the need to develop a theory of emplacement in representations that accounts for the rhetorical co-constitution of place and subject. This theoretical goal has guided the development of methodological resources. The positioning of brochures as material objects supports their interpretation and theorisation as placing devices.