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.     

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.     

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.     

The sociogenesis of leisure travel

Tourism literature explored tourist-related phenomena from a micro- or individual-level perspective, investigating behavior in the context of one’s preferences and without considering the larger societal forces that shape these tendencies at a macro level. Drawing on Elias’ figurational sociology, Russia’s contemporary history (1955–2016) and biographical-grid interviews with 27 Russian citizens, this research provides a figurational analysis of the meaning and practices of leisure travel. Based on nine identified themes arranged chronologically across three periods (Soviet Russia, transitional period, modern Russia), the sociogenesis of leisure travel is explained. Results provides insights into factors that underlie the reality for tourists, based on which they form their motivations, preferences, and behaviors. Tourism research needs to move beyond sedentarist theories and the West/East dichotomy.     

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.     

The symbolic interaction metaphor and leisure: critical challenges

In 1983, Leisure Identities and Interactions was published in an attempt to provide an alternative to structure-functional sociological premises, theory, and research methods. This symbolic-interaction project focused on situated meanings of behavior, proposed identity as a link between the personal and the social, defined leisure as a constructed process, and gave attention to actual social contexts including role sets and face-to-face interaction. In the decade since, at least three major developments in the study of leisure have challenged the LII project: attention to gender issues, British cultural studies, and social construction approaches. Implications of these challenges are examined and revisions of the project suggested.     

In search of lost leisure: the impact of caregiving on leisure travel

One of the fastest growing market segments of the tourism industry over the last two decades is made up of consumers 55 years of age and older. As we enter the new millennium, over 50 million of these “mature adults” will find themselves on the edge of retirement, equipped with the freedom and financial means to travel, but restricted by a loved one who may become ill or disabled. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of caregiving on the leisure travel behaviors of family caregivers and their care-recipients. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods were employed. In addition to identifying impediments (physical, social, emotional) to pursuing or maintaining leisure travel for caregivers of older adults, the qualitative analysis yielded other emergent themes such as changes in patterns and types of leisure travel, entitlement, resentment, and anger. Implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners are included.     

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.     

The go-along interview: a valuable tool for leisure research

Abstract

The go-along interview, where the researcher and participant visit a predetermined location relevant to the research objective, is a data collection method that aligns with, but is distinct from, ethnographic traditions. This article introduces, critiques, and offers suggestions for the use of the go-along interview in leisure research based on two research projects focused on the leisure experiences of people with mental health challenges. We describe the go-along interview as a means of eliciting rich data situated in specific leisure settings while building rapport and addressing the power imbalances that can characterize traditional interviews. Further, we describe the need for careful consideration of how the researcher is introduced in the research setting and document pertinent ethical and safety considerations. A sample protocol for researcher and participant safety and a list of suggestions for the use of this method are provided.     

The changing regulation of public leisure provision

There is much current international interest in the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of alternative mechanisms of public service delivery. In the UK, research has concentrated on Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), both in terms of its impacts and the wider socio-political project which it represents. It has been argued that CCT has been less about getting the private sector into public leisure provision than it has about commercializing the public sector. However, it is evident that the ‘externalization’ of public leisure management functions has been encouraged by the legislation, meaning that a new marketplace has been created, characterized by the emergence of a number of private sector leisure management companies. With the potential advent of a new Best Value (BV) regime in place of CCT, it is argued that the significance of these companies could increase considerably. Here, this new dynamic of private capital into public leisure provision is analysed, through reviewing its structural nature in the context of the wider social reproduction of capitalism. In locating the analysis within the field of Regulation Theory, the paper makes explicit the exogenous structural nature of the dynamic, particularly in its need for legitimation through the annexation of change through social norms, mechanisms and institutions. The paper consequently argues that while the primary project of CCT may have been about the commercialization of the public sector, the underlying priority of government has been much more associated with the need to find new and acceptable ways of reinforcing the hegemonic message of consumerbased capitalism. It is concluded that the BV regime, far from challenging this orthodoxy, is likely to further legitimate it.     

Paid work,life-work and leisure: a study of wellbeing in the context of academic lives in higher education

Living, working, leisure, and well-being are of increasing concern to educators, policy-makers, governments and people generally. The aim of this research note is to investigate the relationships between paid work, life work and leisure in terms of well-being associated with activity. The research used a modified experience sampling method for a one-week period with a staff group based in an educational institution. The data collection period included a bank holiday (three days holiday and four days work). A mobile phone was used to collect data eight times a day, over seven days, on activity, enjoyment, interest, visual interest, challenge, skill and happiness. Data analysis showed a significant correlation between enjoyment and happiness; enjoyment and interest; and visual interest, which also correlated with happiness. Enjoyment and happiness were experienced more in leisure than in paid work and life work. Level of enjoyment was greatest when skills were greater than moderate challenge in activity, though high enjoyment was more frequent when moderate and high challenge were met with equal skills (satisfying conditions of ‘flow’). High enjoyment came as much from paid work as from leisure. The findings replicate and extend earlier research, and the research note emphasises the importance of measures of enjoyment in the investigation of national wellbeing.     

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.     

Reframing mass participation events as active leisure: Implications for tourism and leisure research

This paper proposes the term ‘active leisure events’ to ameliorate fragmentation of research concerned with ‘mass-participation’ events primarily aimed at non-elite participants. This literature is characterised by semantically diverse terminology despite such events sharing a range of unifying characteristics centring around an ethos of being open to all; fundamentally encouraging participation in physical activity; embodied, self-propelled mobility; use of re-ordered space; and providing a meeting place for nuanced social worlds. Despite their commonalities, active leisure events may also exhibit considerable inter-event variability. This paper presents an integrative review of existing literature, augmented by practice examples, to support more coherent theoretical and applied research efforts in this space. Based on this integrative review, the ‘active leisure events framework’ is proposed as a conceptual reference point to facilitate coherent and informed discourse, allowing tourism and leisure researchers and practitioners to clearly identify key characteristics of the events they engage with.     

The stability of leisure factor structures across time

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of leisure factor structures across seasons. Data were collected regarding subjects’ participation in 58 recreation activities during the fall of 1980 and the summer of 1981. Differences in responses were analyzed on an activity‐by‐activity basis yielding significant differences for 21 of the 58 activities. Further, factor structures for both the fall and summer data were identified. The findings revealed that only three of the seven factors extracted for each structure met the minimum criteria established by the researchers to be considered stable across seasons.     

The dark side of leisure: obsessive passion and its covariates and outcomes

The present paper challenges the notion that engagement in leisure activities is exclusively conducive to well‐being. By applying the Dualistic Model of Passion in a leisure context on 467 participants, the measurement of obsessive passion for a leisure activity was related to indicators of ill‐being and unrelated to general well‐being. In Study 1, obsessive passion for a leisure activity was associated with activity addiction, escapism engagement, and intrapersonal conflicts. In Study 2, obsessive passion was negatively related to basic need satisfaction in activity engagement as well as positively related to negative affective outcomes from activity engagement. We argue that the present findings may lead towards a broader understanding of motivation and outcomes in leisure activities.     

The biochemistry behind human behavior: Implications for leisure sciences and services

Abstract

This research reflection explores the relationship between biochemistry and human behavior. More specifically, it examines the implications associated with two neural pathways in the brain, one leading to pleasure and the other to contentment. After describing how the two pathways work and where they lead, we turn the reader’s attention to the implications for leisure sciences and services, including the way we think about leisure behavior, how we plan for it, and, ultimately, how we might rethink the leisure service profession’s obligation in light of its classical philosophical foundations.