Examining the Use of Leisure for the Sociopolitical Development of Black Youth in Out-of-School Time Programs

Abstract

The current social and political climate in the U.S. requires a reexaminationof how marginalized groups shape their leisure around political identity development and resistance. This paper will first provide a brief introduction to the concept of sociopolitical development (SPD) and its role in culture specific out-of-school time programs that serve Black youth. Next, using a multiple case study approach, the authors examined how leisure informs the SPD of Black youth. Results identify SPD as a critical component of these recreational program’s theoretical approaches, leadership structure, staff selection and training, and curriculum design. Study results inform the ways recreational agencies can serve as sites for SPD and activism for marginalized groups like Black youth.     

Locating leisure as the route to well-being: challenges of researching women’s leisure in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This article interrogates the relation of leisure to subjective well-being by focusing on the language-based challenges during empirical research, which deeply impact upon both the substance of the data collected and its interpretation, thereby the knowledge that is produced on leisure. Drawing upon the empirical data collected via qualitative methods, the article seizes on the relationship between women’s free-time, labour, leisure and subjective well-being. The findings of the research suggest that the translation of leisure as ‘free time activities’ in Turkish creates serious challenges in researching women’s leisure. Women in this research understand leisure in multiple ways, such as an escape from boredom, a sphere of recuperation, pleasure and self-fulfilment which altogether represent their understanding of leisure as a route to their subjective well-being. Building on these findings, the article aims to highlight the importance of ethnographically guided qualitative research in uncovering both the meanings of and the interdependence between leisure and subjective well-being in both Turkey, the focus of the study, and other comparable societies around the world.     

Factors associated with hunter retrieval of deer hit by arrows and shotgun slugs

Abstract

Hunter retrieval of wounded deer was used as a case study to examine applications and limitations of leisure research for the management of recreational behavior. All hunters receiving permits to hunt in the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge during November 1–20, 1983, were sent mail questionnaires. A total of 457 (93 percent) of the archery and 143 (95 percent) of the firearm permittees responded after 3 mailings. Archery deer hunters were estimated to have retrieved 29 (43 percent) of the 68 different deer hit by arrows. Shotgun hunters were estimated to have retrieved 42 (81 percent) of 52 different deer hit. Discriminant analysis showed that the retrieval of deer hit with arrows was most likely when the shooter had tagged a large number of deer during former archery hunts, when the deer was hit in a position other than broadside, and when the range of the shot was short. Deer hit with slugs were more likely to be retrieved when hit by hunters with little experience in tagging deer during former firearm hunts, when the shooter also hunted deer with a bow and arrow, and when the shot was taken at deer that were not running. These data were interpreted to suggest how retrieval rates might be increased through regulation, education, and management of the recreational environment. The role of leisure research and theory in providing techniques and a rationale for modifying the behavior of recreationists is discussed.     

A People’s History of Leisure Studies: Leisure,the Tool of Racecraft

Abstract

The pernicious existence of race serves as the underlying force in modern societies. As such, the aim of this discussion is to postulate that leisure is a tool of racecraft: 1) the articulation of power, 2) the erection of places of demarcation, and 3) reification of the racial order. What is presented here is in one part a re-examination of seminal texts on Race in leisure studies and another part a case study of the 1919 Chicago race riots and the Biloxi wade-ins from 1959 to 1963. Both of these historical cases illustrate the simple act of recreational swimming in legally or socially segregated waters and pools outraged the White social order in the United States. This history is mirrored in the present day, not as another isolated horrible aside that arises from time-to-time in leisure but rather as the seemingly perpetual role of leisure to maintain the proper racial order, racecraft.     

Commitment and leisure behavior: A theoretical perspective

Abstract

The concept of commitment has been indirectly linked to a variety of topical areas in leisure research. The purpose of this paper is to identify and critique links between commitment and leisure behavior and to identify and discuss the attributes of committed behavior. The contribution of integrating the concept of commitment into research regarding conflict, substitution, recreation specialization, and leisure social worlds is identified and discussed. Tentative propositions linking commitment to leisure behavior are identified. Recommendations are made for the future operationalization of commitment, and its potential contribution to integrating leisure is discussed.     

Stated preference and choice models applied to recreation research: A review

Abstract

This article discusses the use and usefulness of stated preference and choice models in recreation/leisure research. Stated preference and choice models require one to design decision experiments to study recreational and leisure decisions made in hypothetical or simulated markets. Historically, such experiments were uncommon in recreation and leisure research; therefore we pay particular attention to comparisons of the stated preference modeling approaches with modeling approaches based on observations of choices made in real markets, such as the analysis of discrete choices using conditional and nested multinomial logit models. The conceptual and theoretical bases of stated preference and choice models are discussed; and procedures for developing such models, including different design strategies, are outlined. Potential uses of these models in recreation research are illustrated with reference to several recent empirical applications.     

Leisure and antileisure in game play

Abstract

Leisure is often described as being intrinsically motivated and offering the element of choice. Although games are normally considered recreational or leisure activities, there are certain circumstances in which they take on qualities that are not only nonleisurelike (i.e., lacking in intrinsic motivation and choice) but are actually destructive to the leisure experience. It is suggested that certain aspects of game‐playing situations can destroy the leisurelike qualities of participation and result in abandonment of the activity. These aspects, which include social pressures to participate and conflicts that develop in the social and psychological environment of play, appear to erode intrinsic motivation and perceived freedom of choice.     

Governing Working Bodies Through Leisure

This paper focuses on what appears to represent the consummate extension and blurring of distinctions between work and leisure, with employers providing some form of leisure opportunities for their employees at, or associated with, the workplace. Empirically, the paper draws upon investigations undertaken with three Scottish-based case study organizations conducted from 1999 to 2001. The results showed that healthy leisure forms are central to contemporary active leisure initiatives at work, but that the docile assimilation of these messages is neither universal nor without contestation.     

Social differences in leisure behavior: Measurement and interpretation

This article examines how three major dimensions of leisure behavior, i.e., rates of leisure participation, money expenditure for leisure goods and services and discretionary time available for leisure pursuits, are distributed across various socio‐demographic and socio‐occupational groups. The money expenditures for leisure, it is argued, follow traditional class lines most closely; the rates of leisure participation are characterized by a more egalitarian distribution; and the amounts of leisure time are often inversely related to social centrality and social status. The article interprets these varying patterns of leisure inequalities as a function of the cumulative nature of leisure participation as opposed to the “finite” nature of leisure time, and as a reflection of the complex relationship between leisure, work, income, leisure class, and leisure status.     

Recreation and Leisure Research from an Active Living Perspective: Taking a Second Look at Urban Trail Use Data

This paper examines recreation and leisure research within the context of active living, and highlights an apparent gap between the current involvement of recreation and leisure researchers and the potential they could offer to this important and expanding area of inquiry. To illustrate this potential, I looked at two previous studies that focused on the recreational use of urban trails and reanalyzed the data from an active living perspective. In Study 1, individual, social and environmental factors helped distinguish between low, moderate, and high activity level trail uses. In Study 2, use patterns helped distinguish between health-motivated trail users and individuals using trails for recreation and other purposes, but perceptual and demographic data were similar among groups. Findings from similar studies can help inform active living research, and recreation and leisure studies can provide leadership and contributions to a transdisciplinary understanding of active living.     

The role of cultural context in the development of low‐capital ocean leisure activities

Abstract

The ocean beaches of the United States are an economically important resource. As American culture has become increasingly more preoccupied with leisure activities, however, traditional commercial interests along the beach have been replaced by expressive activities. In terms of the number of participants, the vast majority of beach users have performed their leisure activities without the benefit of sophisticated equipment or infrastructure, and without high‐capital expenditure; that is, they have been engaged in low‐capital beach uses. With particular reference to these low‐capital beach uses, this paper examines the role of culture in determining leisure beach activities using the example of the differential development of marine recreational fishing and surfing on the East and West Coasts of the United States. Based on participant observation, legal histories, and popular and academic literature one location on each coast was chosen, and the development of these two leisure activities compared and contrasted. Variations and changes in cultural contexts at the local and national levels were found to be important factors in explaining the observed differential development of these activities in the two locations.     

Relation between intrinsic motivation and boredom in leisure time

Abstract

The present investigation replicated and extended an earlier finding of the negative relation between intrinsic motivation in leisure behavior and boredom in leisure time (Iso‐Ahola & Weissinger, 1987). Secondary analysis of data from 474 college undergraduates was used to construct a regression model of boredom. Results indicate that the self‐determination component of intrinsic leisure motivation explained the greatest portion of boredom variance (R = .38). Other variables entering the regression equation, in descending order of variance explained: competence, leisure ethic, age, and leisure repertoire (total R² = .52). Gender was not a significant predictor of boredom in leisure time. Results suggest that boredom in leisure time is usefully conceptualized as a disruption of the intrinsic motivation process.     

Role of positive emotions in the constraint process: the case of Taiwanese college students

This study adopts the partial least squares (PLS) method to analyse the relationships among positive emotions, leisure constraints, leisure negotiation strategy, and participation frequency in outdoor recreational activities using stratified proportional sampling of Taiwanese students (N = 569) and SmartPLS 2.0 statistical software to perform statistical analyses. This study determined that positive emotions not only directly affected the level of involvement in outdoor recreational activities but also indirectly increased involvement by improving negotiation ability. While leisure constraints have a direct, positive and significant impact on the leisure negotiation strategy, they do not significantly influence the level of participation in outdoor recreational activities. This article observed that the level of participation did not depend on constraints but instead depended on the process of ‘leisure negotiation’ based on the constraints. In the future, different samples can be used to test the stability and adaptability of this model; alternatively, other variables can be added to better understand college students’ participation in outdoor recreational activities.     

Street Corner Society: Leisure Careers,Youth (Sub)culture and Social Exclusion

Abstract

This paper draws upon qualitative research with ‘socially excluded’ young people in the North East of England. It proposes that the concept and study of ‘leisure careers’ is useful in understanding the transitions, (sub)cultural experiences and identities of social groups like this. The empirical focus is upon the significance of leisure careers in the neighbourhood‐based, social networks of some criminally involved, socially excluded young adults. Theoretically, we argue that a focus on leisure careers, as part of a broad, holistic approach to youth transitions, can help overcome some of the problems that currently affect youth studies. In particular, fuller examination of shifting, leisure‐based activities and identities within studies of youth transition may help bridge the analytical divide between that tradition of youth research and that which focuses primarily on youth culture and identity.     

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.     

Socio‐demographic variables,recreational resource use,and attitudes toward development in Camrose,Alberta

The paper examines relationships between socio‐demographic variables, recreational behavior, and attitudes toward development of a natural recreational resource among a city‐wide sample of residents of the city of Camrose, Alberta. Three aspects of recreation behavior, namely participation in recreation in general, participation in selected activities, and use of the resource were found to be associated with four socio‐demographic variables. The relationship with age was the strongest and most consistent, but income, education, and family size were also important. None of the aspects of recreation behavior was related to sex and marital status, nor was it possible to use any of the variables as predictors of the frequency of recreational activity. Respondents additionally differed with regard to the perceived importance of future decisions about the resource, and it was found that variations in preferences for future activities and proposals were consistent with these perceptions and with current use patterns. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to research on socio‐demographic variables arid recreation behavior, notably with reference to opportunity theory, and with reference to their role in choosing strategies of recreational management.     

Anatomy is not destiny: A feminist analysis of the scholarship on women's leisure

Abstract

The extent of the scholarship on women has accelerated over the past 20 years, yet many questions remain unanswered concerning what is known about women and their leisure behavior. Social science research about women and leisure that analyzes the interaction between the environment and biological sex has aided in understanding leisure behavior more completely and has enabled researchers to conclude that anatomy is not destiny. An analysis focusing on the critical corrective, and transformative aspects of feminist research provides a way to examine the trends in research on women specifically concerning women and leisure. The purpose of this article is to examine the foundations of the emerging scholarship on women and leisure, especially the research on gender differences, from a feminist perspective. The emerging trends in feminist research and the “state of the art” concerning scholarship on women as it is occurring in other disciplines is examined in light of how research in other fields may offer guidance for leisure research.     

Bleisure: motivations and typologies

ABSTRACT

The theme of motivation in travel and tourism research has been largely dominated by a leisure focus and has consequently failed to reflect the changing landscape of business travel. This paper focuses on exploring the motivations of different types of “bleisure travelers”: individuals who combine leisure with professional business obligations when abroad. We employ a multi-disciplinary mixed-methods approach, using photo-elicitation to identify and describe five types of bleisure. As existing theories of tourist motivations have mainly been developed in a leisure context, they fail to fully capture the nuanced scope and subtle context of business and leisure motives. We therefore draw upon experiential learning, boundary-less career theory, expectancy theory, and social capital theory in order to put forward contemporary insights on the nexus between business and leisure tourism.     

Hard-Core Leisure: A Conceptualization

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research reflection is to describe a slice of serious leisure that we call hard-core leisure, which we define as a form of serious leisure that involves extraordinary commitment that is directed toward an “authentic” style of social world activity. Using examples from birdwatching, Civil War reenacting, and climbing, we explain how hard-core participants separate themselves from other participants in terms of what they believe are superior styles of participation and unusual degrees of effort, perseverance, and conduct. Too often, serious participants in any given leisure activity are seen as homogeneous in their attitudes and behavior. The concept of hard-core leisure makes problematic this assumption by bringing to light an extreme form of leisure participation.     

Advancing Theory for Understanding Travelers' Own Explanations of Discretionary Travel Behavior

Abstract

This article uses narrative, case study analysis to examine consumer leisure and travel behavior. Adopting an interpretive research paradigm, the article examines travel behavior using face-to-face interviews of traveler informants, applies the folk theory of the mind, ecological systems theory, and the fits-like-a-glove model. Findings from the investigation indicate that most individual and household leisure and travel-relating behavior results from a “causal historical wave” in which an array of events come together, interact, and cause individuals to participate in certain behaviors and that most travel behavior is the result of automatic thinking rather than a rational or constructive process.