EXPLORATORY RESEARCH AS AN ANTIDOTE TO THEORETICAL STAGNATION IN LEISURE STUDIES

The purpose of this article is to give leisure studies a new lease on its conceptual life by showing how exploratory research can help elimi nate theoretical stagnation there, which is now admitted by many speci alists to be a main problem. First, social science exploration is defi ned and distinguished from the related processes of serendipity, confi rmation, and qualitative research. Then, after considering the general character of exploratory research, the discussion shifts to the quest ion of why there has been so little of it in the leisure sciences. Fin ally, the ideas presented to this point about theory and methodology a nd the observations of John Lofland about analytic ethnography, when c onsidered together, suggest that exploration can be understood as fall ing within the positivist tradition in both leisure studies in particu lar and the social sciences in general.