From Pragmatist Discussion to Pragmatist Projects in Leisure Research

ABSTRACT

Although the paradigmatic discussion has encouraged leisure scholars to critically examine their inquiry assumptions (Parry, Johnson, & Stewart, 2013), Henderson (2011) and Neville (2013) provided critical comments from pragmatist perspectives on the dominance of the paradigmatic framework in the leisure literature. However, it remains unaddressed what it means to adopt pragmatism for leisure researchers who undertake empirical research. The purpose of this article is to offer a starting point to apply pragmatist discussion and pragmatism to empirical leisure research projects. I first describe implications of John Dewey's pragmatism for an empirical inquiry while contrasting them with ontological and epistemological concerns in the paradigmatic schema. Second, I critically reflect upon my previous leisure research project from the Deweyan perspective. I identify several research stages wherein pragmatist leisure scholars should be aware of implications of their inquiry philosophy, including research question formulation, research design and methodological choice, and research outcome report.

KEYWORDS:

• empiricism
• mixed methods research
• paradigm
• philosophy of science
• pragmatism

Notes

1 By “paradigm,” I mean a cohesive set of beliefs and practices shared among some group of researchers.

2 This generalization should be carefully examined as Parry et al. (2013) did not agree with Henderson's labeling their work as post-positivistic.

3 Due to the limited space, I use this somewhat simplistic, binary view that Henderson (2011) and Neville (2013) critiqued as a contrast with Dewey's pragmatism. However, I would like readers to note that researchers' paradigmatic choices are proliferating and nuanced (Lincoln et al., 2011).