Knowledge Economies, Knowledge Making, Complexity Theory, and Networks: A Balinese Experience of Participating in Sustainable Micro Tourism Developments

This paper narrates processes associated with the development of microtourism enterprises as one part of a broader organically determined sustainable development agenda in a north eastern coastal village in Bali. The paper’s narrative is constructed from a grounded theory interpretation of various “lived experiences” (van Manen, 1990) of two Australians, and their related “autoethnographies” (Schwandt, 2001; Cloke, Crang & Goodwin, 1999; Pratt, 1992), who over time have shifted from being tourists to residents in the village. Hence forth, they will be referred to as the lived experience-ers/authethnographers. Lived experiences and autoethnography Both lived experiences and autoethnography are associated with interpretive approaches and so the paper contributes to understanding development, particularly, tourism development beyond post/positivistic, critical theory and participatory paradigmatic lenses. Use of “lived experience[s]” enables “a reflexive re-living and a reflective appropriation of something meaningful” (van Manen, 1990, p. 36), in this case, a shift from tourist to one of a number of social agents associated with self-organising sustainable micro-developments including tourism micro-developments. Complementing the use of lived experiences, is autoethnography, which is “the process by which the researcher chooses to make explicit... use of [her or his] own positionality, involvements and experiences as an integral part of ethnographic research” (Cloke, Crang & Goodwin (1999, p.333). Specifically, by focussing on lived experiences and autoethnographic experiences, the paper offers indepth understanding of how sustainable micro-development can spontaneously occur. The lived experiences and autoethnographies that inform this paper were longitudinally generated with the village from 2000 to the present. BEST EN Think Tank X Networking for Sustainable Tourism 175 Lived experiences, autoethnography and grounded theory Consistent with the use of lived experiences and autoethnographies is the methodological tool of grounded theory. This tool is particularly germane because: “... we are part of the world we study and the data we collect. We construct our grounded theories through our past and present involvements and interactions with people, perspectives, and the research practices.” (Charmaz, 2006, p. 10). Grounded theory was used as the interpretive method for making sense of the lived experiences and autoethnographies. Key concepts arising from this interpretive process are identified in italics in the final section of the paper. Social situatedness of lived experience-ers/autoethnographers The two lived experience-ers/autoethnographers have consumed multiple tourism experiences on the island of Bali over a period of some twenty five years. These experiences include independently organised touristic experiences, independent adventure ocean cruising experiences and more recently second home ownership. In the course of their experiences, their emphasis shifted from the consumption of tourism experiences to lifestyle pursuit. Through a variety of networks, this pursuit involved them in spontaneous and organic sustainable development opportunities in the north eastern village. Their shift of focus was further precipitated by the events in Bali in October 12, 2002 and October 1, 2005, whereafter inbound tourism to Bali slumped and flow on consequences for the Balinese economy and Balinese family livelihoods plummeted. More recently, Balinese tourism has surpassed the patterns prior to 2002.