Naked Truths: Towards a Reflexive Methodology in Leisure Research

In this article, I critically reexamine what it means to be a qualitative leisure researcher. Specifically, I discuss three areas in which I believe the influence of positivism has distanced and detached us, thereby threatening the quality of our work. I address our failure to recognize and account for the role that our human ''selves'' play throughout the research process and how those selves subsequently shape our products; our failure to recognize and account for the role our emotions and personal experiences play in our research endeavors; and our specific data-collection and writing styles, which tend to adhere more to positivist ideals regarding how research should be conducted and reported. I argue that those things that are thought to be problematic in science need not be, and I propose that we adopt a reflexive methodology in leisure studies, a qualitative methodology more in keeping with the theoretical orientations with which we profess to be working.