In order to do this we must journey into the two final quadrants of the philosophic practitioner. The first of these is liberal reflection. The most important mission of education located here is that of unbounded reflection. This takes our reflection beyond the workplace and attaches it to the liberal and critical traditions of searching for the truth and consideration of the good life with a strong emphasis on critique, scepticism and becoming.13 For example, reflection may be supported here by courses in the philosophy of tourism or tourism ethics and involves distancing ourselves from the everyday matters of routine. Such reflection is likely to result in theoretical social engagement and what follows gives examples of issues that might be considered.

It is often stated that we live in a leisure society and the three ‘s’s of tourism—sun, sea and sand—are often used as shorthand for this. But a leisure society surely suggests leisure for all. To illustrate why this is not so Peter Burns has added a fourth ‘s’—subservience. The image of porters struggling to transport the baggage of treckers in Nepal (above) illustrates how leisure for one is a burden for another. The simple juxtaposition of the image of a first-class airline lounge against the poverty of a Peruvian peasant illustrates the continuing gap between rich and poor. In the modern world of division of labour and mass production, this gap is often well hidden as the harsh world of production (e.g. sweatshop labour in Vietnam) is well separated and segregated from the indulgent world of consumption (e.g. a designer clothes shop in Milan). But for tourism the rich and poor rub against each other, particularly at the point-of-service encounter in hotels and in host-guest encounters in destinations.

To the ethics of inequality we may add the issue of competing cultural ethics. At Uluru (Ayers Rock, below) the Western tradition of conquering and of physical effort prompts tourists to climb but this act is in conflict with the traditions of the ancestral keepers of the place for whom the site is sacred. So—to climb or not to climb? Liberal reflection is also likely to raise questions prompted by critical theory. For example critical theory encourages us to uncover the winners and losers in particular social arrangements and the processes by which such power plays operate.14 And in liberal reflection we should be sensitised to the ideological and discursive nature of constructions such as tourism and understand that ‘dominant ideological practices and discourses shape our vision of reality’.[1]

Conclusion

In conclusion, the idea of the philosophic practitioner is a response to the boundedness of Schön’s reflective practice, to an academic division of labour where vocational and liberal interest are rarely synthesised and to the partial ideological framings of the curriculum such as vocationalist,[2] technicist,[3] liberalist [4] and academicist.[5] It attempts to flush out the hidden aims and values in courses and bridge the academic/vocational dualisms.

The philosophic practitioner responds strongly to the question as to what is the purpose of a university and in doing so seeks to reclaim some lost territory. It implores us to live up to our grand university missions. Central to its aim is to provide an efficient and effective labour force but in doing so it seeks to avoid reproduction of what already exists. Rather, after Aristotle, it asks what the good life is in tourism and thus seeks to emphasise ends as well as means in order to understand what kind of a tourism world we want. It similarly focuses on world-making, on encouraging an active role to achieve that world and stewardship for looking after it.

I would like to end with two examples that seem to catch the tone of the philosophic practitioner. The first is again supplied by Luis Buñuel. It is another scene from Un chien andalou in which a human eye is cut with a razor blade. This captures the key aspect of the view we have acquired of the philosophic practice of liberation from our acquired view. It is all too easy to see things as they are—but how might they be? The second is a simple epitaph that is found in the locality of my home. It is in memory of Timothy Bennet, a shoemaker of Hampton Wick (1679–1756), and celebrates the efforts he made to have the adjoining footpath preserved for the use and enjoyment of the public. It reads:

I am unwilling to leave the world worse than I found it.

References

1. J Kincheloe and P McLaren ‘Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research’ in N Denzin and S Lincoln (eds) The Handbook of Qualitative Research (Thousand Oaks CA, Sage 2003) p 437
2. T Tapper and B Salter Education and the Political Order (London, Macmillan Education 1978)
3. M Apple Ideology and the Curriculum (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1990)
4. W Birch The Challenge to Higher Education (Buckingham, Open University Press 1988)
5. S Goodlad The Quest for Quality (Buckingham, Open University Press 1995)
6. Apple op. cit.