Paternalism,professionalism and public sector leisure provision: the boundaries of a leisure profession

A significant body of research has emerged concerning issues of the professionalization of, and professionalism in, leisure. Much of this literature has focused on the political and/or technical dimensions of the leisure professional and the customers or citizens they purport to serve. In this paper we offer a moral philosophical account of the relations between the paradigmatic leisure profession, leisure management, and its clientele. An account of the varieties of paternalism is developed and a more specific picture of professional paternalism in the context of leisure professions is articulated, while stopping short of providing a justification for the autonomy – respectful and disrespectful forms that they can take. We characterize the relations as necessarily involving moral authority, and not merely technical expertise, as is commonly supposed.     

Characterizing constraints of leisure: a Foucaultian analysis of leisure constraints

Leisure constraint literature has typically assumed that constraints prevent or modify participation in leisure. In this paper, I take up the work of Michel Foucault (1926–1984) to show that social constraints are not merely restricting of leisure practices. When constraints are characterized as enabling as well as restricting, it is possible to explore when and how constraints enable and to plan to intervene with enabling constraints to improve the opportunities for participation. In order to show both the enabling and restricting effects of social constraints, the focus of the paper is first on how structural constraints of a leisure activity may restrict or enable participants. Next, as another way to emphasize that social constraints are enabling of leisure experience, Michel Foucault's work is taken up to demonstrate how constraints enable skill within a structure. Finally, structural constraints of identity are shown to impact on participation prior to engagement with a leisure experience.     

Women,shopping and leisure

This paper examines the social antecedents, occupational experiences and problems currently challenging executive managers within the public leisure services in Britain. It describes those processes involved in an historic development which has seen leisure managers moving from the margin to occupy a more central role in local government, and explores the major dificulties currently challenging senior managers who have experienced this process of status transition, including: power conflicts with established professional groups, difficulties associated with one's role, mission, occupational identity and philosophy. All of these problems are addressed by different types of managers in different ways. The paper identifies four characteristic types of managerial executive in leisure: ‘The Traditionalist’, ‘The Sports Centred’. ‘The Generalist Graduate’ and ‘The Second Chance Careerist’, and relates each of these to different class, cultural, gender and occupational experiences. It suggests that, whereas in the past, work in leisure management was conventionally perceived to be a low status and marginal occupational largely colonized by the aspirant working class, this pattern is now rapidly changing. A new type of confident middle class generalist graduate who extols the virtues of ‘the amateur’ and ‘the good all-rounder’ is rapidly colonizing elite roles in leisure management. These people provide a new cohort of leadership which will face both the professional and social problems challenging the public leisure services in the 1990s.     

Creativity,self-expression and leisure

The links between creativity, self-expression and leisure practices are underexplored within leisure literature. Despite research that documents the centrality of leisure as a worked-at process of self-actualisation and self-identity, the practice of leisure is still predominately viewed as one of consumption rather than production and of passivity rather than creativity. This paper, supported by empirical evidence through qualitative research into the lives of users of the leisure spaces of the ‘provincial bohemia’ of the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, argues that there is a strong component of creativity in this group’s leisure activity. This component, we argue, has, in recent years, become more important for ‘aesthetic-reflexive’ social actors in particular, as acts of self-authored and individual-expressive creativity have become more central to economic production, and to social identity. The rise in creative leisure is strongly linked to the valorisation of the romantic-artistic ethic of inalienable creative self-expression and the rejection of mass and putatively passive forms of leisure consumption common within previous Fordist modes of economic production and social ordering.     

Editorial: leisure and wellbeing

A ‘new’ system of accrediting outdoor programmes, which is similar to regimes in the USA, Australia and England, has been developed in New Zealand. The accreditation system is based on the audit and accreditation of instructors and operators in the outdoors and has grown out of increasing concerns about safety. Initially, the system appears to be appealing, encouraging operators to be ‘transparent’ in their safety operations. Yet the discourses that underpin accreditation are complex and problematic. They are indicative of power relations that undermine operators' and instructors' experiences and abilities in the face of a socially constructed ‘need’ for audit. In this paper, we analyse the discourses that inform the creation and development of the audit and accreditation system, outlining some of its shortcomings and offering some alternatives to the dominant discourses that underpin it.     

Race,gender, and leisure benefits

This study investigated the relationship between race, gender, and 7 leisure benefits that are based on a Benefits Approach to Leisure (BAL) framework. A random sample of 47 blocks from a southern metropolitan census tract composed of racially integrated middle‐class neighborhoods yielded 99 African American and 107 European American households who rated statements representing 7 leisure benefits on a Likert‐type scale. Using 2‐tailed t tests, with an F (folded) statistic to test for equality of the 2 variances, significant differences (p < .05) between middle‐class African Americans and middle‐class European Americans were found on 4 of 7 leisure benefit scales (57%): relaxation, diversion, self‐expression, and social interaction. When gender was considered, African American and European American middle‐class men differed significantly (p < .05) on relaxation and self‐expression scales, whereas middle‐class women differed significantly (p < .05) on social interaction and self‐esteem scales. The 7 leisure benefit areas were ranked according to perceived importance; a strong association (R = .86, p < .05) was shown between the racial groups. Gender showed considerable effect on the ranking of preferred leisure benefits among middle‐class African Americans but was of limited value when comparing middle‐class European American rankings.     

Leisure studies,leisure policy and social citizenship: a response to Rosemary Deem

An under-researched, controversial and complex leisure event is examined in the light of orthodox research that documents the beneficial effects leisure has on the psyche. This involves drawing on contemporary theorizing in leisure studies while at the same time using grounded knowledge of a particular locality and synthesizing the material to identify areas for future theorizing and research. In Northern Ireland, the July summer holiday period was traditionally used to celebrate Protestant culture and religion and Unionist supporters marked these events by holding religious and political rallies. However, this celebration of Protestantism has not (recently) been shared with the Nationalist community and various skirmishes and civil disorder offences have been recorded over this holiday period during the last 5 years. The paper notes the change in emphasis from celebration to confrontation and considers the effects this has on individuals already living in an armed conflict situation. It is contended that during this particular holiday period in the Province, leisure is used as a vehicle for social mobilization as Unionists and Nationalists pursue group interests and engage in collective action for their respective ideologies. Leisure, in Northern Ireland, does not function in a manner that orthodox research would initially suggest but is used to reinforce political and sectarian divisions. The paper concludes by commenting that the political, social and economic indices that shape our experiences of leisure need to be considered and/or incorporated into theoretical understandings of leisure.     

Labour,leisure and liminality: disciplinary work at play

Academics rank high among those groups of people who derive their sense of personal identity and meaning from their particular form of employment. Yet, part of what being a university academic means – and part of the satisfaction that academics obtain from their jobs – lies in being paid to engage in ‘absorbing play.’ This essay explores some ways in which concepts of work and play, labour and leisure, are at issue in the organisation, imagination and experience of professorial employment in general, and how, in particular, such concepts informed and were negotiated in the interdisciplinary space of the 2006‐7 Humanities Institute seminar at the University of Texas at Austin out of which the papers collected in this special issue emerged.     

Veblen,leisure and human need

Although Veblen's theory of leisure is widely referenced today it is rarely discussed at length. This paper explores the continuing relevance of the theory. In particular it concentrates on the relation of the theory to consumer culture and the concept of leisure as a basic human need. The evolutionary aspects of Veblen's discussion, which are often neglected in secondary accounts, are given prominence. Veblen's theory is described as a contribution to the productivist tradition in leisure studies. The main features of this tradition and Veblen's place in it are examined. The productivist case is compared and contrasted with Huizinga's theory of play. Veblen's theory emerges as a flawed but vital instrument in exploring contemporary leisure forms.     

Women,work, and leisure: The days of our lives

Abstract

Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, this study attempts to identify and understand the experience of enjoyment (or lack thereof) within the work and nonwork (i.e., family, leisure) spheres of working women. Specifically, the study attempts to identify the contexts in which professional and blue‐collar women experience flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1975) or its antithesis (i.e., anti‐flow) which can be characterized by boredom, frustration, and anxiety. In addition, the study examines the nature and the meanings of these experiences within the work/nonwork lives of these women.

Findings of this study suggest that professional women tended to experience flow in both work and nonworking settings, while the blue‐collar women tended to experience flow only in their nonwork (i.e., home, leisure) spheres. Both groups experienced some degree of anti‐flow when they performed tasks which were repetitious, tedious, and simplistic, regardless of the setting. While such tasks constituted a very small part of the professional women's jobs, they formed the major part of the blue‐collar women's jobs.     

Gender,leisure and sport: a case-study of young people of South Asian descent

Questions of embodiment are to be crucial in shaping the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion. To explore the way that these dynamics shape the use of leisure spaces, this paper examines the mediation of Carnage UK events, organised mass student excursions around spaces of nightlife that have proved controversial in many British towns and cities. It is suggested in this paper that the discursive framing of Carnage UK events reflects specific social anxieties about disorderly bodies, invoking distinctions based on classed, sexed and gendered notions of respectability and desirability. Highlighting themes relating to carnivalesque and excessive bodies, it is concluded that conflicts over the use of leisure spaces need to be understood in relation to representations of specific social groups as figures of both desire and disgust. In making this argument, the paper alights on the student as a key figure in contemporary debates concerning nightlife, leisure and consumption.     

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).     

Education for leisure: a suggested approach for schools

This paper examines the notion of education for leisure in schools. The present move towards a liberalization of school curricula affords an opportunity for leisure education to occupy a significant role in schools. Although evidence is sparse, it would seem that most schools spurn this opportunity and simply offer pupils simulated ‘taster’ experiences. Thus, it is argued that schools might focus more upon ‘education’ with regard to leisure and a framework is suggested within which such an education could take place.     

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.     

Continuity as a basis for change: leisure and male retirement

The images, attitudes and activities associated with retirement are changing, but it still represents an important threshold in people's lives. This paper argues that men commonly deal with the changes precipitated by retirement by emphasizing those aspects of their lives that represent continuity. Far from taking-up a set of new activities, it is most usual for retirement to be characterized by more of the same. Much of this continuity is provided by leisure pursuits which may, however, change their significance in retirement. The paper appraises the psychological values, use of time and social contact associated with leisure in this period of transition and concludes that many of those who adapt best to retirement are those who in fact have to make the least changes.     

Location of leisure: the New Economic Geography of leisure services

Understanding more about the geographic location of leisure services is an important quest for research. For a long time now in developed economies, almost all employment growth is occurring within the service sector. In this sector, leisure services are fast growers. This means that the location of these services is important for economic growth and for employment opportunities of local market areas. Regional policy-makers time and again highlight these sectors as future engines of growth. This paper investigates the role of local demand in determining the availability and the scale of various types of leisure services. The analysis is motivated by observed regularities that indicate large and persistent interregional differences in the location and growth of leisure services. Based on a New Economic Geography framework, we investigate the role of local and regional demand for the size of leisure services in geographically separate markets in Sweden. We use data for 290 Swedish municipalities for the period 2002–2013 and run year-municipality fixed-effects regressions. Our main findings suggest a strong dependency on local demand, and less on the demand originating from other regions.