Questions for Postqualitative Inquiry: Conversations to Come

ABSTRACT

The past 40 years of leisure sciences affirms not only the urgency of diversely informed investigations of leisure phenomena but also the field's commitment to forward contributions of social relevance, methodological innovation, and insightful critique. This legacy owes a considerable debt to qualitative researchers who reimagined the paradigmatic purview and methodological possibilities for leisure scholarship. At the threshold of the next 40 years, we leverage postqualitative inquiry to pry a modest space for continued intellectual and methodological diversity. Specifically, we revisit Berbary and Boles's (2014) proposed scaffolding sous erasure (Derrida, 1974) for humanist, qualitative research to explore points of departure for postqualitative inquiry. We question the implications such a departure may hold for “data,” “theory,” “analysis,” and “representation” within non-humanist onto-epistemologies of post-qualitative research. Ultimately, we argue for postqualitative research as a promising, humane, and hopeful trajectory for our future, adding to our already rich legacy.

KEYWORDS:

• becoming
• leisure
• postqualitative inquiry
• qualitative research
• Qual 4.0

Notes

1 For broader discussion of humanist social science, please see St. Pierre (2000); Braidotti (2013), and Bennett (2010). Specific to leisure studies, we suggest Kumm and Johnson (2017) and Berbary (2017). Although not necessarily “bad,” humanism is necessarily problematic. The most noble humanist projects tend to erect hierarchical, binary divisions, structures with unintended, adverse consequences. Humanism sustains man/woman, adult/child, human/nonhuman power disparities via vertically structured chains of being (ontology), positioning standardized man as apex. These authors go to considerable lengths to demonstrate these problematics, offering insights for developing posthumanist alternatives.

2 Following Derrida (1974), Berbary and Boles (2014) put “scaffolding” under erasure, or sous rature, to “retain the structure of qualitative research methodology—its structuring concepts and categories—because it appears necessary and, at the same time, [to] cross it out because it is inaccurate” or too limiting (St. Pierre, 2011, p. 613).

3 Postqualitative research is gaining greater visibility in various disciplines; however, much of this work is quite recent. Examples of published research is scarce. An insightful example of postqualitative inquiry within the field of leisure studies is Kumm's (2015) dissertation, Modest Experiments in Living: Intensities of Life.