Gazing from the inside out during ethically heightened moments
This autoethnographic account explores the everyday ethical and emotional issues that arise throughout the research process. Represented through creative analytic practice (CAP), I examine issues related to researcher safety, encountering the unexpected and sensitive topics, empathetic responsibility, role conflict, abandonment and intellectual distance ‐ all issues that shape the type of knowledge constructed as well as the researcher’s and participant’s well‐being. Emphasis is placed on using autoethnography (as a methodology) and CAP (as a form of representation) to deepen our understanding of the complexity of leisure experiences and meanings, while confronting how we come to know and write about ‘others’.