Black Spaces/White Spaces: Black Lives,Leisure, and Life Politics

Racial neutrality does not exist within digital and virtual spaces. Our racialized identities are imported into these spaces, as are the ideologies of our respective societies. This reality begs the question, how do Black people situate themselves in digital White leisure spaces, especially when these spaces maintain and replicate off-line spaces of racial discrimination and overt racism? This article presents a background on Black Internet users and highlights how Black people have used digital spaces to counter and disrupt messages that perpetuate inaccurate stereotypes and social inequalities. Examples are offered to support this claim. This article underlines how behaviors of Black people in digital spaces can demonstrate the presence of Black leisure and highlight the realities of Black life. Finally, critical technocultural discourse analysis will be introduced as a technique for advancing this discussion within the context of race and leisure.     

A decade of compulsory competitive tendering in UK sport and leisure services: some feminist reflections

The last decade has witnessed the transformation of public policy in the UK following an extensive programme of privatization across a range of public services. When compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in sport and leisure services was first proposed in 1987 there was widespread opposition from feminists and also from the Labour party who had been out of government for eight years. This period out of office was to continue for a further ten years until New Labour was elected to government on 1st May 1997 with a landslide majority and a manifesto which embraced, rather than rejected, many of the policies of the four previous Conservative administrations. Instead of the widespread failure and subsequent abandonment of CCT predicted a decade ago by feminists, national labour politicians and local labour authorities, CCT is now widely accepted as here to stay. Following ten years of private sector involvement in local authority sport and leisure provision, and the apparent likelihood that such provision is set to continue, it is timely to reflect on CCT in sport and leisure from a feminist perspective. What have been the successes and failures of this policy transformation for women's sport and leisure; how can these successes and failures be explained; and what are the challenges facing research on women and leisure in local government in the future? This paper attempts to offer a state-of-the-art review of CCT and local government sport and leisure provision for women by providing a comprehensive review of CCT literature and surveys, supported by primary research in the form of a regional case study of CCT and its impact on policy, provision and participation for women. The findings demonstrate that, whilst CCT has led to some significant improvements in service levels in sport and leisure generally, there are many areas related to access and opportunity for women participants which still provide cause for concern. Moreover, the findings illustrate that sex-segregation within sport and leisure management continues to be combined with women's marginalization from many aspects of power and decisionmaking in sport and leisure provision. Analysis of the author's survey findings, qualitative interview data and policy analysis illustrates the need for a new research agenda to advise on future policy developments. Such a research agenda, it is argued, needs to take account of, and develop further, research within three areas if the nature of CCT and its implications for gender relations are to be more fully documented and understood: feminist sport and leisure studies, service sector management, and local government studies.     

Inner city leisure resources

Research into urban leisure is a response to various developments: more free time, the revaluation of urban areas, changing characteristics of the urban population and awareness of unused leisure resources. Dutch leisure policy features both sector planning and facet planning. Leisure opportunities in inner cities are based on a variety of facilities: the catering sector, shopping, tourist facilities and historical elements. In recent tourist overall recreational plans the inner city is treated as a leisure product. A further evaluation of inner-city leisure resources is required, especially in historic smaller towns. Several case studies indicate the line of research to be pursued, although a theoretical framework is lacking.     

‘All in a day's leisure’: gender and the concept of leisure

This paper suggests that leisure conceptualized as time or activity alone poses problems for gender. The underlying idea of leisure as freely-chosen, self-actualizing experience is presented as a basis for broadening the concept. Both the limitations and the freedoms inherent in the leisure experience of women and men may be explained through such a concept of leisure.

This concept leads us to explore new areas of literature, in particular feminist analyses of power. Women's lack of autonomy in comparison with men is highlighted. Finally, further research and future policy can be enhanced by this broader concept of leisure.     

Issues in diversity in recreation and leisure studies: perspectives from US educators at a public institution of higher education

The value of academic and professional role models cannot be overestimated for today's college and university students of all races. Students are the generational link in the perpetuation of the leisure services profession and 'belong' to the profession via their initial enculturation in educational encounters. Accredited programmes in leisure studies at comprehensive US public colleges have missions that mandate attention to diversity. The following article integrates and synthesizes thought from the most contemporary literature on diversity in higher education, and writings in the discipline of recreation and leisure studies. The authors describe how the instruction of students in leisure studies programmes can benefit from faculty/staff who either represent, or deliberately emphasize, diversity. Positive potential outcomes are presented as they enhance the act of teaching and the process of learning for recreation and leisure studies majors in an increasingly complex, multicultural world.     

Lifelong learning as serious leisure: policy,practice and potential

This paper seeks to examine the extent to which post-compulsory education can be viewed as a serious leisure activity. Such links between the fields of leisure studies and adult education have yet to be fully explored, especially from a UK perspective. Although Stebbins (1998) has explored the concept of learning serious leisure through adult education, the concept of adult education as serious leisure has yet to be examined. Since 1995 successive UK Governments have engaged in high profile policy initiatives to encourage ‘lifelong learning’, a somewhat controversial concept which has attracted criticism as well as a significant bandwagon. The principal impetus behind the policy is the perceived need to skill the workforce so that industry can operate in an increasingly competitive global market. Emphasized to a much lesser extent, however, is the wish to create a ‘learning society’ in which continual learning, (including that for non-vocational purposes) becomes integral within society, with a subsequent enhancement of social capital. It is argued that it is through learning as ‘serious leisure’, rather than as vocationally oriented that will be most appropriate for such a policy. In this paper the authors have sought to concentrate on this non-vocational dimension of lifelong learning and to explore the links between the concept of serious leisure and lifelong learning. The paper then draws upon literature from the fields of leisure studies and education policy to examine the implications of ‘lifelong learning as leisure’ for the individual, the community and society as a whole.     

Serious Leisure and Recreation Specialization: An Uneasy Marriage

A case is made to wed research on serious leisure and recreation specialization. Before such a marriage can occur, the strengths and differences of the two perspectives must be examined. In this article, four important contributions of the recreation specialization are put forward that will further our understanding of serious leisure and intense forms of leisure. These are (1) there is diversity among participants involved in the same leisure activity, (2) we can quantify recreation specialization and serious leisure, (3) there are gradations of seriousness and specialization, and (4) there are practical applications of understanding that participants vary along a specialization continuum.     

Poststructural feminist theories of representing Others: a response to the ‘crisis’ in leisure studies' discourse

References made to a contemporary theoretical ‘crisis’ in leisure studies discourse have been made by a number of scholars in the field (Scraton, 1994; Coalter, 1997; Mommaas, 1997). This article examines the origins and nature of such a ‘crisis’ and attempts to map one possible route through the current academic impasse. It is argued that leisure studies’ reluctance to embrace recent theoretical advances in cognate disciplines and subject fields, together with a reticence to engage with poststructural discourse, has rendered culture marginal to leisure studies research. Increasing cultural analyses in sociology, geography and gender studies have been accompanied by widespread engagement with postmodernism and a concomitant disengagement with social and material analyses of power. This article discusses the role of the subaltern discourses of poststructural and postcolonial feminism as theoretical and political projects capable of addressing cultural and material power. The false dichotomy of social and cultural analyses in leisure, tourism and culture is then addressed in a dicussion of Othering. This discussion reveals the significance of the social-cultural nexus of leisure relations and the potential for research that engages with poststructuralism whilst continuing to further leisure studies' welldeveloped social policy discourse. In summary, poststructural feminist analyses are cited as one means of enhancing the theoretical sophistication of the subject field and of addresssing the current ‘crisis’.     

Material Cultures of Tourism

Abstract

Despite the fact that tourists constantly interact corporeally with things and physical places, tourist studies have failed to understand the significance of materiality and objects in modern tourism. Like much theory and research influenced by the ‘cultural turn’, tourist (and leisure) studies have melted everything solid into signs. This article is inspired by current calls for a renewed engagement with the ‘material’ in social and cultural geography and sociology. It introduces questions of materiality and material culture into cultural accounts of contemporary leisure and tourism, in particular in relation to space and ‘human’ performances. In doing so it stresses the inescapable hybridity of human and ‘nonhuman’ worlds. It is shown that leisure and tourist practices are much more tied up with material objects and physical sensations than traditionally assumed and that emblematic tourist performances involve, and are made possible and pleasurable by, objects, machines and technologies. Thus we suggest that further engagement with the ‘material’ would be the constructive path to follow for future leisure and tourist studies.     

Research note: Functions of privacy in Australian wilderness environments

Evidence suggests that leisure activities can be used as a means for coping with stress, but how leisure is used as an effective way to regulate difficult tasks is still unclear. Self-Determination Theory was used as a theoretical framework to propose two distinct approaches to regulatory leisure coping: the Planned-Breather Leisure Coping Style and the Avoidant Leisure Coping Style. The two proposed dimensions were tested and supported using a new scale with a university student population. Findings obtained in these studies suggested that regulatory orientation in a particular context was distinctively associated with the two proposed leisure coping styles and to different affective consequences following the regulation of a difficult task.     

Rojek,the sociological imagination and leisure

This article traces the historical development of Chris Rojek's writing and documents his distinctive contribution to contemporary debates about postmodern culture. Rojek has consistently sought to develop a coherent sociology of leisure and has sought to apply his sociological imagination to develop leisure studies as a field of study. However, there seems to be an ambivalence or reluctance to engage with Rojek's work on leisure theory. From the outset, his work is both critical and subversive as he challenges ‘conventional wisdom’, which associates leisure with free time and freedom. He argues that both concepts need to be contextualized and any quest for a universal theory of leisure is both illusory and idealistic - one cannot dislocate free time or quality of experience from the social and historical context in which it occurs. Rojek also takes to task critical paradigms of feminism and cultural studies, whilst favouring the contribution that postmodern perspectives can make to understanding leisure practices. The article traces the development of his ideas theorising about leisure by reviewing his seminal texts, Capitalism and Social Theory (1985), Ways of Escape (1993), Decentring Leisure (1995) and most recently, Leisure and Culture (2000).     

Family Leisure and Leisure Service Provision: Making the Case for Including Perspectives from Practice

ABSTRACT

Research over the last 20 years has contributed to the conceptualization and theorizing about family leisure. Missing from this body of knowledge has been research that focuses on the provision of family leisure programs and services that includes the perspectives of practitioners. Also missing from this research are the perspectives of those who engage in programs and services that have been designed for or offered to families. The first purpose of this article is to, through a discussion of the literature, demonstrate the potential value of engaging recreation and leisure agencies in research that advances knowledge about how family leisure is practiced in program and service contexts. The second purpose is to identify potential areas of inquiry that not only will contribute to advancing theory about family leisure but also support practice in delivering recreation and leisure programs and services for families.     

Leisure,recreation, tourism: A geographic view on integration

This review focuses on some geographic perspectives to study the leisure, recreation, and tourism (LRT) integration process in the Netherlands. Research into the spatial impacts and conditions of leisure experience, recreation activities, and tourism behavior has recently been faced with major social and planning changes. The country's planning system is characterized by a sectoral structure. The increasing political interest in leisure implies the need to revise the sectoral structure for an LRT theoretical framework which captures the interaction process between man and his environment. The possible use of time-space concepts in supply-demand studies can be evaluated, and the perspectives of structuration theories questioned. Hence, the LRT integration as a social process and as a planning issue constitutes a major challenge for geographical studies.     

网络时代听力有障碍年轻群体娱乐休闲研究

随着我国休闲产业的蓬勃发展,娱乐休闲活动越来越多,但是,能够提供给残疾人的娱乐休闲活动则很少.而这一弱势群体的娱乐休闲需求长期得不到满足会直接影响其身心健康.文章选取听力有障碍年轻群体为研究对象,以这个弱势群体的沟通方式与沟通障碍、娱乐休闲对他们的作用以及网络对听力有障碍年轻群体娱乐活动的影响作为研究内容,以问卷调查、访谈和QQ聊天为手段,对北京第四聋哑学校和北京联合大学特殊教育学院的100名听力有障碍学生进行了调研.在对调研结果统计分析的基础上,依据深度休闲理论,提出针对这一弱势群体的网络娱乐和网络学习的解决方案,希望能够在满足他们娱乐休闲需求的同时,使其获得更多的就业机会.     

Exploring the Influence of Leisure on Adjustment: Development of the Leisure and Spinal Cord Injury Adjustment Model

While recent studies have demonstrated the significance of leisure in the initial phases of spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation, the impact of leisure experience on adjustment and the dynamics of that influence have yet to be adequately clarified. Development of skills to effectively manage leisure becomes critical in the community reintegration process, especially for those who are at risk for poor social and psychological adjustment after injury. Although leisure activities may contribute to well-being among individuals with SCI, the lack of understanding of the dynamics of that influence offers little direction for selection of activity alternatives and design of leisure interventions. This study attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) Does leisure engagement influence the adjustment of individuals with SCI? (2) If leisure engagement does influence adjustment, what influence do variations in leisure activity have on the adjustment of individuals with SCI? (3) Does social support mediate the influence of leisure on adjustment of individuals with SCI? The leisure and SCI adjustment model was constructed to provide one possible explanation of the influence of leisure on the adjustment of individuals with SCI. The model proposed that: (a) leisure engagement has a direct influence on the adjustment of individuals with SCI and (b) leisure engagement has an indirect influence on adjustment to SCI through the promotion of social support. Results from structural equation modeling confirmed that the leisure and SCI adjustment model was an "acceptable" fit to data but left a sufficiently large amount of unexplained variance to suggest the need for further examination of alternative models of SCI adjustment. The use of multiple regression and bivariate correlations suggested that diversity, frequency, and intensity of leisure engagement were associated with the adjustment of individuals with SCI.     

Digital Negotiation: Online Leisure in Coping with Gender Stereotypes

This study aimed at exploring whether cyberspace and the anonymity it provides can be useful in coping with leisure constraints that originate in gender stereotypes. The study was based on a survey that measured perceptions of parallel online and offline forms of masculine, feminine, and gender neutral leisure activities among 240 Internet users belonging to one of two age groups: adolescents and seniors. Findings indicated that offline feminine activities were perceived as more suitable for both genders in their online form. By contrast, the offline leisure activities labeled masculine were still perceived as such in their online form, with older participants even considering them more masculine in that mode. These findings suggest that online leisure plays a dual role, rendering activities more accessible to men of all ages but further discriminating against older women. It seems to broaden age and gender disparities and perpetuates power relations inherent in patriarchal societies.     

Serious leisure among older gardeners in Australia

Activities such as gardening are fast becoming acknowledged as a much desired health management strategy in later life. However, few studies have examined gardening as a serious leisure pursuit. The aim of this study was to apply the concept of serious leisure to the context of leisure gardening by older adults in Australia. Casual, participant and devotee gardeners were compared with respect to the relative importance of the characteristics of serious leisure, using self-administered questionnaires (n = 514). Findings indicated that characteristics of serious leisure varied significantly across the three groups. The most powerful discriminating characteristics were Identity, Unique Ethos and Significant Effort; with Identity particularly important for devotee gardeners. The deeper the level of engagement, the more gardening was perceived as contributing to overall life satisfaction. Findings indicated that gardening could be a serious leisure pursuit that assists in the development of a positive leisure identity and contributes to a more mobile and active life for older adults.     

The Airbnb paradox: Positive employment effects in the hospitality industry

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which Airbnb supply affects employment in the hospitality, tourism, and leisure industries. Accordingly, we analyzed the effects of Airbnb supply on various sectors in the hospitality, tourism, and leisure industries in 12 major metropolitan statistical areas in the United States for the period between July-2008 and February-2018. The results showed that Airbnb supply positively affects employment in all sectors of the hospitality, tourism, and leisure industries. The magnitudes of these effects are not only statistically but also economically significant. Although prior studies have showed that Airbnb has an adverse impact on hotels' financial performance measures, our results show that employment in the hotel sector increases with increased Airbnb listings. While this outcome might be contradictory to the general conjecture, such evidence calls for a comprehensive investigation of Airbnb's overall economic impact. Research and practical implications are further discussed.