Cultural safety: a lens to consider leisure provision in cross-cultural contexts

ABSTRACT

Research Question: The purpose of this paper is to advance the idea of cultural safety as a form of praxis for sport and leisure managers. Cultural safety recognizes intersectionality and the diversity of identities and social structures that influence how sport, recreation, and leisure is perceived, understood, and experienced. Cultural safety also recognizes the power inherent in professional relationships, and requires scholars, managers, and practitioners to critically reflect, and recognize how their own assumptions and understandings impact their professional practice.

Research Methods: Using confessional tales presented as vignettes from our personal experiences in the field, we use an autoethnographic analysis to demonstrate how cultural safety may be used as a form of leisure praxis.

Research Findings: We discuss how cultural safety can be engaged as a form of leisure praxis which includes theory and practice alongside reflection, and action.

Implications: In conclusion, we reflect on how cultural safety can aid leisure professionals in reflecting on and improving their own professional practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural safety
• diversity
• culture
• inclusion
• intersectionality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Advocates of cultural humility advance many similar components to those of cultural safety. However, humility is positioned as a characteristic of the individual or organization and the focus of these discussions has emphasized accountability on their part. This approach remains inward looking and does not emphasize, to the same extent, the explicit role of the participant in determining safety.