‘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.     

‘I can’t be very sad’: constraint and adaptation in the leisure of a ‘learning in retirement’ group

The purpose of this paper is to consider adaptive processes in relation to the constraints that limit leisure in late life. Interview data gathered from a purposive sample of 20 male and female retirees involved in a ‘Learning in Retirement’ programme were used to identify constraints, responses to constraints and the personal meanings of both. Results indicated a variety of emotional and behavioural responses to constraints suggesting five prominent behavioural themes and three emotional themes. Behavioural responses were grouped into: (1) reducing and eliminating; (2) persistence with commitment; (3) constraint as ‘project’; (4) substitution; and (5) exploration and self‐discovery. Emotional reactions ranged from the initial frustration to acceptance and even gratitude for the possibilities that remain. Findings are discussed in terms of the models of constraint negotiation and selective optimisation reported in the literature; but they also indicate that constraints may lead to responses that are not only personally beneficial but are also novel and transformative to some extent.     

‘These are the voyages …’: interaction in real and virtual space environments in leisure

This paper examines the impact of new technologies, computer‐mediated communication and information and communication technologies, on traditional, ‘face‐to‐face’ live social interaction within leisure environments. Initially recounting the factors involved in the closure of two science fiction/Star Trek fan clubs, the paper considers impacts in other leisure settings. The nature of the impact of new technologies is examined through drawing upon the cyber‐optimist versus cyber‐pessimist debate, prominent in the somewhat complex cyber zone literature. Much of the cyberspace literature is, however, both theoretical and speculative, with an acknowledgement of uncertainty over the nature of the impacts of new technologies. The paper thus concludes by proposing an agenda for research in this subject field. This is informed by earlier work by Kelly (1983) who advocated that, in addition to examining its form and environment, research on interactions should also investigate the quality of such interactions.     

The changing world of women and leisure: Feminism, ‘postfeminism’ and leisure

Since sport is accorded such a significant position within national popular culture, it assumes corresponding importance in producing, reproducing and challenging racial myths. This paper explores how dominant notions of black physicality are embedded in sports practice and how such assumptions may be challenged. To do this we shall offer a critique of existing literature and, importantly, draw on empirical evidence from a recent study of the nature and extent of racism in rugby league. Together these allow us to explore tacit racism, that which is hidden and normalized by language and culture. At the heart of this are stereotypes of 'race' and racial qualities, created by white hegemonic culture with their significance perpetuated by society, including the people who experience the stereotyping. These cultural productions maintain inequalities even after the caricatures they portray may have changed. We examine how these historically specific images are formed and justified (and thereby normalized) and how they have material effects through the actions of coaches, managers, chairmen and players. Finally, we shall review how the sports arena can be used to challenge racist stereotypes to offer necessary, though not sufficient, conditions to begin to change social relations more generally.     

Health club use and ‘lifestyle’: exploring the boundaries between work and leisure

In this article I investigate the relationship between work and leisure for professional employees. Drawing on qualitative research I explore the motivation behind premier club use – a sector within the wider health club industry – to show that rather than being an activity firmly located within the domain of ‘leisure’, it is a complex activity, influenced by a person's occupation and experience within the workplace. Through the empirical discussion I show that professionals working within the city are often committed to a ‘project of the self’, fuelled by a desire to create a professional identity whereby the development and maintenance of a fit and healthy body symbolises characteristics that are valued within the professional workplace. Accordingly I propose the concept of a ‘workstyle’ as opposed to ‘lifestyle’, to suggest that the motivation behind premier club use is defined according to the social and cultural experience of working in the city and in turn, certain individuals may be consuming premier club membership for the benefit of their overall career. To this end, premier club use is portrayed as an activity defined according to the principles of work rather than as a definitive ‘leisure’ pursuit, thus blurring and mediating the boundaries between work and leisure.     

‘Hike your own hike’: equipment and serious leisure along the Appalachian Trail

We use qualitative methods to extend the understanding of serious leisure among hikers, specifically by examining the processes of acquiring and adapting equipment during an Appalachian Trail (AT) thru-hike. By studying the process of preparing for and embarking on this 2000-mile long, 4–6 month hike, we examine how learning about equipment takes place in close physical and social proximity to other hikers. We find that as experience is gained, hikers use less equipment and adapt equipment they use to more closely meet their needs. Our results suggest that experienced thru-hikers use their knowledge and experience to substitute for equipment in a way that transcends their awareness of equipment.     

Understanding tourists’ leisure expenditure at the destination: a social network analysis

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to identify spending patterns of tourists in relation to the leisure activities performed throughout their day-by-day stay at the destination. Using the methodology of social network analysis (SNA), a tourists–activities bipartite network was identified following a pattern known as core–periphery. The effect of this structure (including typology, number, and timing of performing the activities) on tourism expenditure is analysed using a multiple regression model, to which were added different sociodemographic variables and other variables related to travel. In order to better understand the portfolio of activities, four examples of networks are studied and visually represented. This study reveals that through SNA between tourists and activities, we can study the behaviour of tourists in a novel way.     

Acting the part: ‘living history’ as a serious leisure pursuit

This paper explores the increasingly popular research area of ‘living history’ – the presentation of an historical period by live actors who portray and ‘live out’ the conditions of a particular time and place, largely through public events and other forms of staged reconstruction. While the topic might be analysed from various approaches, the paper endeavours to focus upon ‘living history’ largely as a ‘serious leisure’ pursuit, enquiring as to who participates and why. The paper is founded upon a survey of one re‐enactment society in the UK which depicts the Civil War in the USA. As one of the largest of such societies, the American Civil War Society (ACWS) not only provides a fine example of ‘living history’, but one largely outside of its immediate historical and cultural context. The paper argues that re‐enacted events, certainly in the case of a male‐dominated ‘living history’ society, are not primarily an educational exercise. Rather, they are meaningful for the individuals involved, sustaining and enhancing their life‐style interests and a ‘serious’ hobby through camaraderie, collective involvement, and a subjective understanding of authenticity.     

‘Dutch don’t dance’ – leisure experiences and sense of belonging among Polish migrants in the Netherlands

The influx of migrants in Western Europe raises questions about the potential of leisure spaces and activities to support processes of social inclusion and to allow migrants to develop a sense of belonging. Discussions are ongoing about how this potential is realised or not. In this paper, I propose that the perspective of leisure activities as ritual may help to untangle how leisure spaces and practices build solidarity and a sense of belonging. The paper draws on interviews with Polish migrants to the Netherlands about leisure activities they undertake. Specifically, the paper will examine dance clubs as spaces and going out as activity in which migrants enter into contact with locals. It will show how these spaces and activities ultimately fail as potential sites for developing a sense of belonging.     

‘Time-out’ with the family: the shaping of family leisure in the new urban consumption spaces of cafes,bars and restaurants

In many north-western European countries, the family practices of drinking and eating used to be largely located in the private domain of the home. This situation has recently begun to change, particularly in gentrified urban areas where middle-class families are growing in number and family outings in bars and restaurants are becoming more widespread. This paper examines the new practices of family consumption from two perspectives: the providers and the consumers. Entrepreneurs shape family-friendly spaces by reducing boundaries between eating, drinking and playing and by offering out-of-home pleasures in home-like environments for both parents and children. They balance between accommodating the families and retaining their childless clients. Families that consume in the food and drink spaces are primarily local middle-class families, and fathers and mothers equally participate. This study further reveals that leisure time spent with the family cannot always be classified as leisure time as a family. Parental involvement with the children differs. We distinguish leisured caring time with high parental involvement, own leisure time mainly directed at parents’ personal activities and social leisure time mainly directed at maintaining social relationships beyond the family. We discuss earlier research on the complicated character of family leisure related to the caring duties of parents. Empirical evidence comes from an exploratory study of ten consumption spaces in the inner city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.     

Exploring the viability of a new ‘pay-as-you-use’ energy management model in budget hotels

Hotels consume significant amounts of energy, especially in guest rooms. Financial incentives can be given to hotel guests for conserving energy during their stay while financial penalties can be applied for excessive energy use. This can be achieved by deploying the smart energy meters (SEMs) in guest rooms that enable accurate energy monitoring and billing. This study explored the viability of a new business model for energy management in hotels underpinned by SEMs. Semi-structured interviews with managers of UK budget hotels revealed the determinants of industrial adoption of this new model. Despite positive appeal, the chances for the model’s immediate commercialisation were found slim due to its novelty and the market disruption potential held. To enhance the business viability of the proposed model, close integration of energy conservation targets into the corporate agenda of budget hotels is necessary coupled with dedicated policy support.     

‘Race’, sport and leisure: lessons from critical race theory

This paper presents and explores critical race theory (CRT) as an ontological starting point for the study of sport and leisure. CRT is based on five precepts outlined by Solorzano and Yosso that centre ‘race’ and racism, social justice, plurivocality, transdisciplinarity and challenge orthodoxies. There have been a number of recent criticisms and debates amongst leisure and sports studies writers that challenge their general focus of study as narrow and myopic. The five precepts have been fundamental to radical shifts in critical legal studies over the past fifteen years and have significance for the development of critical sport and leisure theory. CRT and ‘race’ critical perspectives are drawn out, clarified and their mutual agendas focussed. It is argued here that researchers and writers need urgently to centralize ‘race’ and racism as core factors in the study of social relations in sport if Birrell's optimism in the development of sport (and leisure) theory is to be realised.     

Women,gender, leisure and place: towards a more ‘humanistic’ geography of women's leisure

A growing interest in the role of place in social processes has led to a recognition of the need to incorporate these ideas into the study of leisure and recreation. A critique of the traditional geographical approach to the study of leisure and recreation is followed by a brief review of the geography of gender and humanistic geography literature, indicating the possible contribution that some of the perspectives contained in this material can make to our understanding of women's leisure. In conclusion, it is argued that it is only through developing a deeper understanding of the way individuals and groups perceive different places, with their complex mosaics of gender and class relations, that a more complete, more contextual representation of women's leisure can emerge.     

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’.     

If it weren‘t for my hobby,I'd have a life: dog sports,serious leisure,and boundary negotiations

In the social sciences, work, family and religion - but not leisure - are commonly thought to shape the meanings people give their lives. But increasingly leisure research reports that under modernism, leisure practice and cultural consumption are at least as essential. What happens when leisure and ‘real world’ institutions pose different, even conflicting expectations? We focus on ‘serious leisure’ as elaborated through Tomlinson's ‘culture of commitment’. Our case study is people who participate in serious leisure involving dogs. The data comes from 61 interviews plus field notes based on our own involvement in dog sports. We ask how as an alternative world often perceived by self and others as marginal, this passionate avocation interfaces with the ‘real world’ of work, family, religion, and other social institutions. We find that dog sports indeed represent a ‘culture of commitment’. For hobbyists, involvement shapes such life realms as how time is used, how money is spent, how kin are defined, and how profit is viewed. Sometimes it generates strong behavioural expectations for participants, expectations that clash with those of the ‘real world’. Examples include gender identity and religious and work obligations. When these clashes occur, respondents neither simply succumb to nor resist either set of demands. Rather, they negotiate between the two, reproducing and reshaping each simultaneously. Meanwhile, they also deal with the intrinsic tensions that a serious leisure pursuit brings.     

Saturdays of leisure and memories … : The Mexican market ‘La Pulga’ in the San Joaquin Valley (California)

This research note aims to explore the links between food, memory, nostalgia and leisure through a series of weekly visits to an itinerant Mexican market in the United States. Taking an ethnographic approach to the market of La Pulga held in the city of Merced in California’s San Joaquin Valley, we consider how, in the Mexican–American transnational context, this market provides an opportunity for Mexican migrants to interact with other Mexican people, recreating similar social dynamics displayed in traditional food markets in Mexico. We argue that as well as being a food supply centre, this market may be viewed as a space in which Mexican migrants seek to recreate their homeland and to enjoy an alternative leisure experience. Thus, the visit to the market may be observed as a complex activity in which the senses, the social interactions between Mexican migrants and the consumption of food in a festive setting play a central role in enabling these migrants to break with their everyday lives. Likewise, we suggest that the visit to the market every Saturday not only constitutes a leisure activity, but also serves to construct the ethnic and collective migratory identity that links Mexican migrants with their homeland.     

‘I never promised you a rose garden’: gender,leisure and home-making

This paper explores the importance of contemporary gardens as leisure sites and argues that leisure in general, and the garden in particular, play an important role in the process of homemaking. We also consider how the contemporary garden reflects wider social relations by examining how gender relations imbue gardens and gardening. The gendered meanings of gardens and the garden as a place where gender power relations are played out, are highly significant in the social construction of ‘home’. Using primary research data, the paper looks at what it is about the domestic garden that is important to both men and women, and how it contributes to homemaking. The findings show that there are conflicting uses and meanings of gardens which help to reveal the changing nature of gender relations in late modernity.     

‘The town dictates what I do’: the leisure,health and well-being of women in a small Australian country town

The contribution of leisure to individual health and well-being is well documented. It is also clear that patterns of leisure activity are differentiated by gender and regional differences, as well as those of age, class and ethnicity. This paper explores the leisure and well-being of mid aged rural women in a small Australian country town in the late 1990s, focusing on issues which have been identified in the Canadian literature as being significant for women in isolated areas. These issues, which constrain the choices women make about their lives, include poor job opportunities, a lack of public transport and other facilities, family transience, community designs that isolate women in their homes, and the politics of being ‘different’ in a small community. Commonalities in the lives of rural women in North America, New Zealand and Australia indicate that these issues may more broadly characterise the lives of women in isolated towns in western post-industrial societies. Data are drawn from focus group interviews, augmented with observation, and the study is contextualized in findings from the Women's Health Australia longitudinal study (WHA).     

‘I just hope people can forgive me’: Australian women athletes,apologies and image restoration at the Rio Olympic Games

Prior to the 2016 Olympic Games, Australia’s Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller predicted that the Australian team could win as many as 16 Olympic gold medals. Australia’s Olympic team won a total of eight gold medals and the sports media reacted by suggesting the team had ‘failed’. At the 2016 Olympic Games, three high-profile Australian female athletes apologised to the Australian public for their performances. This study examines these three interconnecting cases and how such behaviour is linked to research that examines sports media and gender (including female agency), ‘image restoration’ and third-wave feminism. Additionally, this work identifies how the culture of third-wave feminism is conceptually troubled by the notion of the ‘female apologetic’ and calls for a re-examination and modification of such a notion.