European leisure studies at the crossroads? A history of leisure research in Europe

In this contribution, a generalized picture is given of the history of leisure research in Europe. It is based on a comparative study of the history of leisure research in six European countries: Spain, Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (Mommaas, Van der Poel, Bramham, & Henry, 1996a). Across Europe, leisure research has been dominated by sociological perspectives and concerns. Sociology has very much acted as a mediator of collective, public concerns, dealing with issues of enlightenment/civilization and cultural participation/welfare. However, from the late 1970s onward, the collective, educational project of free time has lost much of its former significance. On one side, there is now much more academic attention to issues of time, consumption, play, and pleasure. However, at the same time, these issues have become disconnected from former collective concerns of leisure and/or free time. This leads to two interrelated questions: Are leisure studies still in need of a unifying project of leisure? and If so, what should such a project look like?     

Introduction to the Special Issue: Toward “Digital Leisure Studies”

This introduction as well as this entire special issue begin with the idea that for leisure scholars to stay relevant in our current society, the topic of digital leisure spaces and cultures should become a central rather than periphery focus. We suggest three courses of action for leisure scholars engaging in digital leisure scholarship: 1) We should emphasize what people do with the majority of their leisure time, 2) we should study it in a way that is timely and accessible, and 3) we should do so with a focus on social and environmental justice. This article introduces the special edition by providing a review of the key theorists currently working on digital leisure studies and an introduction of key concepts. We conclude with a Wikipedia page on digital leisure studies and an invitation to you, our reader, to help us write, think, and theorize the future of digital leisure studies.     

Perceived Determinants of Well-Being and Enjoyment Level of Leisure Activities

Two facets of leisure, perceived determinants of well-being and enjoyment of common leisure activities, were investigated in 388 participants. For well-being, a principal components (PCA) analysis yielded five components: competence, relatedness and health, wealth, personal values, and freedom of choice. For the enjoyment of leisure activities, another PCA generated seven components: wellness, sedentary leisure, intellectual leisure, social leisure, routine activities, self-realization, and inner peace. Different leisure enjoyment of young adults (18–30 years old) in contrast to adults and seniors was attributed to social transformations as also predicted by several theories of social change. The relationship between the determinants of well-being and enjoyment of leisure activities was statistically significant but meaningfully debatable.     

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.     

Residents’ Perceptions of the Role of Leisure Satisfaction and Quality of Life in Overall Tourism Development: Case of a Fast-Growing Tourism Destination – Macao

The previous literature has examined leisure satisfaction and quality of life but majority of studies were conducted in Western countries. Policy makers worldwide have struggled to balance residents’ leisure satisfaction and tourism development. This study is conducted in Macao, China, a fast-growing tourism destination in Asia. Results indicated that local residents’ leisure satisfaction is positively related to their perceived quality of life while local residents’ perceived quality of life is positively associated with their evaluation of the perceived benefits of tourism. The results generated from that evaluation positively lead to residents’ support of tourism development. Results indicated that it is worthwhile for the policy makers to invest resources in local residents’ leisure satisfaction and quality of life since this will eventually help to support tourism development. The results of this study provide significant implications for policy makers.     

Understanding the Role of Identity in the Constraint Negotiation Process

Sociological theory related to identity was adapted to explore the influence of identity on respondents’ perceived leisure constraints and constraint negotiation. We hypothesized that perceived constraints to recreational golf and efforts to negotiate constraints would be predicted by the degree to which respondents embraced their leisure-related identity of “golfer.” It was also hypothesized that the perception of constraints and constraint negotiation would depend upon the degree to which respondents perceive that the identities they embrace facilitate or conflict. Findings showed support for the hypothesized model.     

Leisure sciences and leisure studies: Different concept,same crisis?

This article suggests that although United Kingdom leisure studies and North American leisure sciences are characterized by different epistemological, methodological, and theoretical perspectives, they have both arrived at a similar recognition: their relative failure to develop an understanding of the societal, cultural, and individual meanings associated with leisure. The predominantly sociological leisure studies has adopted a society in leisure approach, exploring how broader sociocultural structures are reflected in leisure and largely ignoring issues of individual meaning. The predominantly sociopsychological leisure sciences, with its stress on positivist methodology, has often produced analyses of leisure without society and failed to address issues of the social and cultural meanings associated with leisure. Assertions about a “postmodern condition”; have highlighted the gaps in leisure studies’ understanding of leisure meanings, and critics within leisure sciences have argued that the predominance of one methodology mitigates against adoption of the qualitative methodologies necessary to address the increasingly important issues of leisure diversity and meaning.     

Prediction of leisure participation from behavioral,normative, and control beliefs: An application of the theory of planned behavior

Abstract

The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen 1985, 1987) is offered as a comprehensive framework for understanding of leisure participation. Salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, theoretically the basic determinants of behavior, were assessed with respect to five leisure activities: spending time at the beach, jogging or running, mountain climbing, boating, and biking. College students completed a questionnaire containing measures of these beliefs and of global expressions of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. One year later the participants reported how often they had performed each behavior in the preceding 12 months. Behavioral beliefs were found to partition into beliefs about affective reactions and beliefs about costs and benefits. Participation in leisure activities was influenced by these affective and instrumental beliefs, as well as by normative beliefs about the expectations of important others and by control beliefs about required resources and other factors that impede or facilitate leisure participation.     

德语国家休闲与旅游地理研究的回顾与进展

德语国家的旅游地理学研究发端于汉斯·波塞尔(Hans Poser)1939年对利森山区(Riesengebirge)旅游景区的分析研究.他将景观看作旅游的背景,认为地理学研究旅游要从分析景观和度假之间的关系入手.二战后形成的以休闲行为研究为主的慕尼黑学派,更重视游客及其休闲行为.目前的旅游地理学研究主要以应用为主,如可持续旅游发展、空间承载力以及社会变迁对旅游供求市场的影响等.另一个趋势是地理多元空间(如物理空间、行为空间、虚拟空间等)对休闲和旅游的影响研究.另外,休闲旅游发展的整体性研究方法又重新复活.     

Research note: religious doctrine and its influence on the choice to gamble as a leisure pastime among African American Methodists

This research note examines the relationship between adherence to religious doctrine and participation in gambling as a leisure pastime. In the United States, recreational gambling is a common leisure pastime for many African Americans. Our ideals about the value of gambling are often shaped within families, based on their lived experience with recreational gambling and also within religious communities. Two doctrinal statements from the Methodist strand of Protestantism provide critical assessment of gambling as a leisure pastime. This case study examined African American Methodists’ perceptions about religious doctrine that addresses gambling; their choice to gamble despite their familiarity with the doctrinal position of the Church; and the perception of gambling as a sinful leisure pursuit. Religious doctrine may deter some adherents from participating in gambling as a leisure pursuit but not everyone. Many can be familiar with religious doctrine, may not agree with it and will proceed to gamble. Finally, even if gambling is perceived as a sinful leisure activity, it concurrently can be viewed as a ‘harmless’ vice.     

Older women’s identity reconstruction in leisure spaces: a case of Guangzhou,China

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the social interactions and social relations generated by older women in the urban public leisure spaces of Guangzhou, China. The intent is to explore the identity of older women in daily leisure spaces. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and non-participatory observation and then were analysed to explore the relation among identification, leisure spaces, and interaction. The study shows the older women’s need for self-fulfilment and social interaction, as well as the need to fill emptiness are generally unfulfilled because of the alienation of urban life – the citizens share a common sense of loneliness and senselessness. Nevertheless, the inclusiveness, openness, and group honour of urban public spaces offers a good complement to the sense of isolation. In the specific socio-cultural background of Guangzhou, older women reshape or strengthen their identities through multiple factors to achieve a strong sense of belonging in daily leisure spaces.     

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.     

Parents' Leisure,LGB Young People and “When We Were Coming Out”

ABSTRACT

This article examines parents' leisure experiences in relation to their child's coming out process and developing lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity. Thirteen heterosexual-identifying parents (seven mothers and six fathers) from Canada and the United States were interviewed about the social context and relational aspects of their leisure experiences (e.g., special events and holidays, friends, co-participants, co-workers). Analysis showed that leisure contexts could be altered in relation to their child's developing LGB identity and cultural norms related to heterosexism and homophobia. Three main themes that best reflected the mothers' and fathers' experiences emerged: (a) grieving heterosexist ideals and reframing familial expectations, (b) encountering homophobia and the loss of community, and (c) coming out of the family home and creating a supportive network.     

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’.     

Personal identity (de)formation among lifestyle travellers: a double‐edged sword

This article explores the personal identity work of lifestyle travellers – individuals for whom extended leisure travel is a preferred lifestyle that they return to repeatedly. Qualitative findings from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with lifestyle travellers in northern India and southern Thailand are interpreted in light of theories on identity formation in late modernity that position identity as problematic. It is suggested that extended leisure travel can provide exposure to varied cultural praxes that may contribute to a sense of social saturation. Whilst a minority of the respondents embraced a saturation of personal identity in the subjective formation of a cosmopolitan cultural identity, several of the respondents were paradoxically left with more identity questions than answers as the result of their travels.     

论休闲之“成为人”的价值意蕴

“成为人”是休闲研究中的一个重要的概念,也是一个永恒的话题.休闲的价值主要表现为休闲的个体价值:使人“成为人”与休闲的社会价值;使人成为“完整的人”两个方面.休闲使人“成为人”的价值意蕴主要体现在休闲使人“成为人”的生存论基础是以“存在”与“成为”为目标的存在的自由;休闲使人“成为人”的本体论奠基是休闲自由使人自由地成长,使人“成为”人,使人全面地恢复活力,使人完整地重新发现生活的意义;休闲使人“成为人”的实践途径是体验“成人”.休闲之“成为人”的价值意蕴的现实指向是当今社会的价值诉求,主要表现在“成为人”对于提高我国民族的素养和促进当今社会发展的意义.     

休闲产业:概念、范围与统计问题

建立我国休闲产业统计学已成为我们面临的一项重要课题.但由于对休闲产业的理解不同,目前国内学术界对休闲产业所应包括的行业范围尚未达成共识.本文在提出界定休闲产业三原则的基础上,结合国民经济三次产业划分法,将休闲产业划分为休闲第一产业、休闲第二产业和休闲第三产业.     

大陆赴台自由行游客地方认同与休闲效益关系研究

台湾是许多大陆游客向往的休闲胜地, 大陆游客赴台自由行热度的持续升温, 这既给台湾带来巨大的旅游经济效益, 更可增进海峡两岸的民间交流和人民情谊。文章通过实证研究探讨大陆赴台自由行游客对台湾的地方认同及其在台从事休闲活动所获得的休闲效益等程度表现的差异性, 并检验地方认同与休闲效益间的相关性。研究表明, 大陆赴台自由行游客对台湾的地方认同以环境认同程度最高, 依恋程度最低, 其在台湾从事休闲活动所获得的休闲效益以社会效益最高, 生理效益最低;不同个人背景与游程规划的大陆赴台自由行游客在地方认同与休闲效益程度方面有显著的差异;地方认同与休闲效益间呈显著正相关且彼此间存在典型相关关系。研究成果可作为海峡两岸旅游职能部门及旅游企业完善休闲法规、环境与产品组合的参考。     

Leisure Constraints in Six Chinese Cities

The purpose of this study is to describe leisure constraints as perceived by residents of the Chinese cities Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. Rather than relying on lists of leisure constraints developed in other contexts, we used the common ethnographic technique of free listing, which allows informants to indicate what they perceive as constraints on their leisure. A second sample of informants rated the importance of 37 constraints determined through the free listing procedure. Constraints in these cities can be categorized, based on their perceived importance, into eight distinct types. These relate to several demographic and sociographic variables.