Leisure lifestyle courses in old age

This paper examines representations of English identity in the popular press through a review of the tabloids' coverage of the 2002 Football World Cup. Utilizing a qualitative discourse analysis approach, the paper assesses the content, style and tone of reports of the England team during the tournament and places these within the context of contemporaneous news and current affairs. It is argued that much of the coverage of England's matches was flavoured with the kind of military metaphors and xenophobic cliche;aa evident in previous reporting of football tournaments. The coincidence of England's progress in the World Cup with the Golden Jubilee celebrations afforded the opportunity for the tabloids to declare that a ‘new kind of national confidence and patriotism’ had been born. However, whilst a new, more inclusive Englishness was evolving amongst England supporters, this was not reflected in associated tabloid coverage, where a narrower and more nostalgic Englishness was commonly observed.     

Kicking against tradition: women’s football,negotiating friendships and social spaces

This article examines friendships and social networks in the context of amateur women’s football. Studies of intimacies and friendships tend to situate women’s same-sex friendships around emotional support. The aim of this research seeks to account for more depth in understanding diversity in female friendships. The traditionally masculine (football) environment is peculiarly distinctive because it contrasts with traditional spaces found in private, domestic context that have traditionally associated with the formation and negotiation of ‘feminine’ friendship identities. Utilising 10 narrative interviews, the paper examines social and friendship networks in two main areas. Firstly, although non-traditional social groupings were evident, it was apparent that some participants had to negotiate a dual private/public role. Secondly, there were friendships based on sociability and these were integral to the connectedness of groups not defined by conventionally gendered roles, defined by emotional ties, but instead on collective interest focused around playing sport. These groupings are of interest because they are contrary to conventionality that frame emotional femininity, and foreground social activities that accentuate cultural complexities rather than confine friendship groups in terms of either masculine or feminine cultural practices. Drawing on the grounded experiences of female football players, we found that female friendships are much more layered and complex than represented in broader cultural discourse.     

Watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 in England: the sojourner perspective

Recent years have seen an emergence of a varied academic literature focused on the football fan, with a wealth of studies exploring issues such as hooliganism, fan behaviour and fan identification. No research, however, has documented the experiences and perspectives of the international sojourner, who follows the televised tournament far away from the home country. This paper offers a contribution to the literature on fandom by focusing on the experiences of becoming a temporary fan among a sample of nine international students in England during the period of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It shows the importance of the tournament for students away from their home nation, acting as a point of celebration and as a means of bringing sojourners of the same nationality together to support their team. It reveals how the tournament offered escape from stress, became a focal point for social interaction, provided the opportunity for recreation of home, and for the reinforcement of feelings of national identity.     

Football tourist trips: a new analytic for tourism studies

This article explores the significance of touristic trips by European football fans. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with supporters of the Turkish team Beşiktaş, I argue that journeys to watch sides play constitute an ‘exceptional habit’, a ritualised shot of unorthodoxy that provides structure for other practices of football support. These trips are characterized by bodily practices less common in everyday life, such as mass imitation, fighting and drinking to excess. Yet examining fans' home lives also shows how they draw on exceptional practices to prepare for and memorialise the away match experience. Tracking both everyday and exceptional aspects of football support helps rebalance tourism studies: away from disproportionate focus on the touristic moment to considering its interpolation with everyday life.     

Keeping it liminal. The Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup) as a multifocal interaction ritual

This paper examines how social mixing and celebration of diversity can be enabled through sports festivals marked by their carnivalesque atmosphere. Our analysis draws on a longitudinal ethnographic study of the Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup), a non-competitive football tournament and intercultural festival featuring the yearly participation of hardcore football fans (ultras), migrant groups, third-sector associations and other informal groups. We consider how the multifocal ritual form of the event helps to create a liminal space in which discrimination and stereotypes can be temporarily challenged. The sources of collective effervescence are multiplied by placing sport games within a wider range of other leisure and cultural activities, thus promoting internal diversity and the inclusion of outsiders. Additionally, social boundaries are also blurred by not emphasising the competitive dimension of the sporting activities, making sporting categorisations more fluid, and breaking down the separation between protagonists and spectators. Nonetheless, considering the transient character of liminality, we also investigate problems and limitations implied by the pursuit of these objectives. It is concluded that, despite a certain degree of self-referentiality, the festival fosters the spreading of anti-discriminatory cultures by enhancing the participants’ reflexivity and feeding their commitment in generating spin-off activities in different local contexts.     

British Spectators’ Perceptions of the Values and Norms in Selected Professional Sports: a Comparative Ethical Survey

Abstract

In recent years the British media have made much of the apparent decline of standards in British sports. In order to interrogate the veracity of media assumptions regarding the standards of conduct in major British sports, a selection of British sports spectators were interviewed in order to examine: (i) their perceptions of the values and norms of sport; (ii) whether they thought that sporting conduct as currently demonstrated by UK sportsmen and women was positive and related to some ideal notion of the ‘ethos of sport’ and the ‘spirit of the game’; (iii) whether they thought that there had been an improvement, a decline or no change in the ethical standards of conduct in those sports; and (iv) views on the impact of new technologies on the values and norms of sport. At least 200 questionnaires were collected from spectators at each of the following major sporting events: (a) the English Nationwide Football League Divisions 2 and 3 play‐offs, Cardiff, May 2001; (b) the All England Tennis Championships, Wimbledon, July 2001; (c) the England vs Australia Cricket Test match, Edgbaston Birmingham, July 2001; and (iv) the British Open Golf Championships, Royal Lytham and St Annes, Lancashire, July 2001. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in what sports spectators thought about British professional sportspersons acting in a fair and sporting way and also that standards of conduct had generally declined over the last 10 years. A general pattern of distribution emerged where the team sports (cricket and football) were less favourably perceived than the individual sports (golf and tennis).     

Internal migration,sport and the Scottish diaspora in England

Sport has been argued to play an important role for members of diasporic groups of various origins and in various locations. However, little attention has been paid to the role sport plays for ‘internal migrants’ who migrate to contrasting locations within a nation-state, despite the potential for significant contrasts in the prevailing sporting cultures found in different regions of the same nation-state. This article therefore aims to make a contribution towards understanding this relationship by reflecting upon the role sport plays for members of the Scottish diaspora living in England, drawing upon interviews and personal reflections from a number of Scottish ‘internal migrants’ located within the United Kingdom. In particular, discussion attempts to draw attention to the central role sport plays for these individuals in order to maintain a cultural attachment with their Scottish birthplace, given the relative lack of other cultural practices or associations which could be used to achieve this goal. Comparisons are also drawn with studies of the Scottish diaspora in more distant geographic contexts, as well as similar diasporic groups in the English context such as the Irish diaspora. These comparisons allow for a consideration of the impact of geographic proximity and cultural proximity on the relative importance of sport and other cultural practices for Scots living in England, identifying a number of important issues for those studying the role played by sport in the maintenance of a cultural attachment with ‘home’ for various diasporic groups.     

Tourism and nostalgia for the pastoral on the island of Fyn,Denmark

Constructions of home are powerful from both heritage and tourism perspectives, as ‘home’ suggests a certain type of heritage precedence while also providing a competitive tourism advantage over rival locations. Sport tourism sites also disseminate notions of home as part of their narrative, both to create and solidify particular heritage claims as well as to enhance the tourism potential of a location. Home narratives are used, in particular, during stadium tours, where tourists go ‘behind the scenes’ at a famous sports venue. Tour narratives at Twickenham Stadium were examined in this study. At Twickenham, it was found that the stadium was represented as ‘home’ during tours in three different ways: as the literal home of the English National Rugby team; as the spiritual home of the sport of rugby; and as the home of particular notions of English identity. These representations were created as a means of claiming cultural propriety, particularly with regard to the sport and its heritage, as well as in recognition of the venue's role as an international tourism destination. However, the employment of home narratives, which espouse notions of stability and continuity, also mask wider heritage and tourism anxieties, in particular competition from rival sites.     

Some sceptical comments on the relationship between social support and well‐being

There appears to be widespread acceptance that there is a general positive correlation between ‘social support’ and well‐being. Individuals' health may remain better and their recovery from certain diseases more likely when potential, if not actual, social support is available. This paper addresses two specific methodological problems. Firstly, the definition of ‘social support’ varies very widely in the literature. Furthermore, whilst other variables may be rigorously controlled, the ‘social support’ variable may still be a proxy for other factors. The lack of international agreement on a common meaning for social support vitiates comparative analysis. Secondly, in an attempt to explain why some societies are ‘healthier’ than others, Wilkinson points to an association between more egalitarian societies, ‘better’ micro‐social relationships and better health. This attempt to explain societal differences in terms of micro‐social processes is problematic. First, individuals with good social support may still be healthier in ‘unhealthy’ societies than those without such support in ‘healthy’ societies. Extrapolation of individual outcomes may not be the best way to explain societal differences. Secondly, it is not demonstrated that specific micro‐social processes either cause or are caused by the institutional, organizational and political contexts, which variously characterize more healthy or less healthy societies amongst the most developed nations.     

The Impact of a Sport Mega-Event on Destination Image

Abstract

There is intense competition to host sports mega-events as cities and countries perceive that doing so will enhance their global image and make the destination more attractive to future tourists. Is there empirical evidence to prove that hosting a mega sport event really does stimulate international visitation and enhance the destination's image? In this paper we investigate this question in relation to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. To this end, 412 foreign tourists were surveyed during the World Cup about their image of South Korea. Differences in demographics, motive and perceptions between tourists travelling specifically for the World Cup, and those coming to South Korea for non-World Cup-related reasons, are noted. The study provides a baseline dataset from which future research on megasports events can build.     

“Grandma never knit like this”: reclaiming older women’s knitting practices from discourses of new craft in Britain

ABSTRACT

New discourses of craft construct knitting as young, hip, socially networked and politically conscious and the experiences of knitters who do not fit into this formulation are marginalised. 7.3 million people in Britain knit; the vast majority are women in their mid-thirties and older. Yet popular media accounts of ‘new knitting’ mobilise the derogatory figure of the ‘grandma’ to repudiate knitters who are seen not to properly instantiate contemporary femininity. Although this derision accrues particularly to older women, knitters of all ages can be similarly dismissed. Knitting is thus a site of struggle around new formations of gender in post-feminist culture in which some women fall short. This study uses original qualitative data from focus groups with 15 adult knitters in North-west England and North Wales to give voice to women who do not identify with ‘new knitting’ practices and primarily pursue their hobby in more conventional contexts. The article finds that traditional domestic craft practices continue to play a significant role, particularly in older women’s leisure, and that ‘new knitting’ is alienating for some practitioners. While the article concludes that twenty-first century discourses of craft have devalued established knitting practices, it also indicates that these are useful sources of critique of hipster capitalist post-feminist culture.     

Fiaca and Veron‐ismo: Race and Silence in Argentine Football

This paper explores the relationship between race and post‐coloniality in Argentina through the prism of football. More specifically, it does so through a reading of the personage and physiognomy of Juan Sebastian Veron, one of Argentina's most renowned players. The paper uses the metaphor of fiaca, the cultural practice of ‘relaxation’, to discourse about football, and the celebrity that attains to Veron, and the ways in which sport functions as a loaded political intersection. The rendering of Veron as a black footballer facilitates a discussion about race, an anachronistic modernity, the complicated disjuncture between ideology and geography, and resistance to post‐coloniality as it obtains in contemporary Argentine society. Because of the signal role that football plays in Argentina, this paper argues that Veron – and his footballing predecessors and contemporaries – enables a complex engagement with the racial politics of this Latin American country – and its relationship to its neighbours.     

Peak event: the rise,crisis and potential decline of the Olympic Games and the World Cup

This paper tracks the growth of two of the largest tourist events: the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup, drawing on a dataset containing all events between 1964 and 2018. Overall, the size of the three events has grown about 60-fold over the past 50 years, thirteen times faster than world GDP. We identify an S-shaped growth curve and four different growth periods, with an emergent crisis phase in the late 2010s that may have brought us to ‘peak event’ – the point at which these events have reached their largest size. Outlining three different scenarios, we argue that the Olympics and the World Cup are at a critical bifurcation point, which also requires new bidding and hosting policies.     

Music festival motivation in China: free the mind

This paper explores the extent to which music festival attendance is ‘universally’ motivated or determined by the Chinese cultural and socio-political context. A novel qualitative approach was employed comprising observation of social media conversations and ‘chat room’ interviews with members of a festival online community. Seven motivators were identified, some similar to those in Western studies but others more specific to festival-goers in Mainland China. The culturally specific motivators were identified as ‘spiritual escape’ and ‘spiritual pursuit’ and the universal motivators as ‘togetherness’, ‘love of the music’, ‘novel experience’, ‘music sharing’ and ‘educational enrichment’. This paper focuses on the two culturally embedded motivators only. The implications of the study are that, although, growing, there are still very few music festivals featuring ‘pop’ or ‘western’ style music and these few are relatively new to Chinese people. Their attendance at them is, therefore, motivated differently to attendees at similar festivals in western countries. These motivating factors are mediated by the particular social, political and cultural factors at work in this complex country. The findings indicate that although many of the motivational factors for attending a music festival appear to be universal, there are clearly factors which are culturally bound and therefore unique to the cultural context. These differences appear to be created by the social constraints, rapidly changing economy and the many contradictions inherent in modern Mainland China. These conditions create a greater contrast between everyday life in Mainland China and the liminal hedonistic space provided by the festival. Further research is needed to validate theses initial findings within China and to explore how rock music festival motivations differ in other non-western cultures.     

The search for World Heritage brand awareness beyond the iconic heritage: a case study of the Historic Centre of Macao

The Historic Centre of Macao was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in 2005. The question arises regarding the value of the designation ‘WHS’ and what it means to tourists who visit. The researchers used intercept surveys and participant observation to determine brand awareness among visitors. Regardless of how much the tourism industry and UNESCO promote the ‘brand’, if visitors are unaware of it and do not respond, the economic and cultural values may be negatively affected.

The results showed the average visitor had only a vague understanding of WHS and it was not a major motivator for their visit. However, the general theme of culture was of high interest, as was a visit to the must-see icon attraction of St Paul's Ruins (the highlight of the Historic Centre of Macao). That is, there appears to be a good level of cultural and heritage awareness but minimal WHS awareness.     

Local residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 on Barbados: Comparisons of pre- and post-games

This study analysed Barbadians’ perceptions of the impacts on Barbados of jointly hosting the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup 2007. The aim was to investigate the pre- and post-perceptions of Barbadian residents on the impacts (direct and indirect) of hosting the ICC CWC 2007. Statistically significant differences between pre- and post-games perceptions were found for all seven factors: benefits of cultural exchange, social problems, economic benefits, natural resource and cultural development, traffic congestion and pollution, price increases, and construction costs. While pre-games expectations were that the costs of hosting CWC 2007 would outweigh the benefits, after the games Barbadians perceived that the benefits had outweighed the costs. Within this context, it is recommended that there be a greater level of engagement with local residents prior to hosting a mega-event, to maximise benefits, minimise costs, and ensure successful outcomes.     

Mega-sporting events and children’s rights and interests – towards a better future

Abstract

The public subsidy of Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup hosting opportunities is invariably justified on the basis that they will secure a range of public good outcomes. Problematically, the information available inspires less confidence that these ambitions will be met and highlights how social costs and benefits are unevenly distributed. As a result, interest in the social dimension of hosting has grown, yet the knowledge to support responsive and evidence-based events policy remains relatively underdeveloped, particularly in relation to the specific needs and experiences of affected communities. The impact on children as a particularly stakeholder group reflects this context of recognition and knowledge gap. For example, while it is accepted that immovable deadlines and risk of reputational consequences raise a variety of social justice concerns throughout the event lifecycle, the nature and scale of these impacts on children is poorly understood and frequently mismanaged. Findings drawn from research commissioned by Terre des Hommes International Federation which explored the intersections between children’s rights and social justice concerns highlights how such initiatives present risks and opportunities that cannot be managed effectively until children are included within associated planning processes as a specific stakeholder group with distinct needs and interests.     

Perceived barriers faced by Chinese adult children in social support of their elderly parents' outbound travels

This study aimed to investigate the perceived barriers faced by Chinese adult children in supporting their parents' outbound travel. Semi-structured in-depth interviews using thematic analysis were conducted with 21 Chinese adult children. From the perspective of support providers (i.e., Chinese adult children), seven barriers of the perceived support barriers were identified: safety and health concerns, fear of disappointing families, unwillingness to scarify their leisure time and travel needs, perceived negative parental attitudes towards travelling abroad, high cost of raising a child, complicated border exit procedures, and lack of time. Filial piety as an important cultural background plays the role of an ‘enabler’ in realising the social support of adult children for their parents' outbound travel. The findings test the leisure constraint theory in Chinese cultural backgrounds and verify the applicability of the hierarchical constraints model to adult children support providers influenced by Confucian cultural values. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

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.     

Back to literacy

One of the seminal works in the development of British cultural studies was Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy , in which he presents a vision of working class communities in the 40 years since the First World War. To do this he drew particularly on his experiences of Hunslet in South Leeds. In this paper we revisit South Leeds 40 years on to examine continuities and changes in the community as evidenced through people's leisure and compare this with Hoggart's analysis. To do this we have drawn on census and other official statistics and our own observation and interviews in the field. In order to interpret today's communities in South Leeds we make use of theoretical developments in the interim. We suggest that in what Bauman (1997) refers to as ‘two nations society mark two’ people try to reinvent community and it is through leisure in particular that this is evidenced. We therefore conclude that any attempt to understand ‘community’ at the millennium must place leisure centre stage.