Of Revolutions and Resistance: A Response to Philosophical Criticisms of Social Scientific Leisure Research

Abstract

In a response to the criticisms presented in the preceeding group of papers, Kuhn's (1970) metaphor of intellectual revolutions is utilized to provide a framework for the dialogue between social scientists and the scholars who challenge social science. It is suggested that the revolution in leisure studies has two components: criticism of the philosophical and methodological limitations of social science, and criticism of the dominance of social scientific research in the leisure studies literature. These two aspects of the dialogue are examined in the context of their implications for enhancing both the depth of social scientific investigations of leisure, and the breadth of understanding produced by pluralistic methods.

KEYWORDS:

• intellectual revolution
• methodological pluralism
• validity