Search

Children's right to play and leisure has historically and currently been violated by the many demands of adults. This is now evident in the widespread structuring of the time of middle-class children in programmed activities, including sports. In a contribution to this special issue on leisure, citizenship and human rights the paper begins with an overview of how participation in sports became so work-like for many children. This is followed by an examination of the struggle to define such work as child labour. And the paper concludes with a consideration of how it may be possible to transform sport, protecting participants under the framework of children's and labour rights – nurturing children accomplished in sport without exploiting or abusing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is generally accepted in the leisure field that leisure has a role, and arguably a key one in wellness and wellbeing, this is largely at odds with the operations and funding frameworks of contemporary healthcare systems. Governments spend much less on leisure which involves social aspects of health than they do on healthcare systems which are focussed on biomedical interventions. Yet, many leisure and healthcare practitioners and academics are aware of the intersections between leisure, health and wellbeing and the aim of this edition was to offer a forum for overtly presenting these intersections. Here we set the scene for the papers in this special edition, summarizing the contribution of each paper to progressing discussions regarding the intersections of leisure and health and suggesting future directions for exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restrictions imposed by COVID-19 lockdown(s) left many feeling trapped at home. One leisure activity that saw a surge in popularity during lockdown was 'home' camping. Camping has long been associated with positive health and well-being outcomes and during lockdown camping at home was documented across social media platforms as people shared experiences of their micro-adventures. This paper will draw on social media (Instagram) and survey (> 260 responses) data gathered from 'regular' campers and those who had never previously camped during the UK lockdowns. Specifically, we explore: (i) what motivated home camping; (ii) the impact of camping activity on physical and mental well-being; (iii) the role it played in fostering and/or nurturing social relationships in isolating circumstances (iv) how digital practices were incorporated into camping as an activity. As such, the paper will provide a valuable contribution to understand the transformative potentials of restricted leisure practices in the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic propelled the arts and leisure into crisis. Public and policy responses have shown positive adaptations and the potential of everyday creativity (EC) in response to restrictions. This is the first qualitative evidence review on EC in home-based arts. We reviewed over 2000 research papers published within the past 10 years. Nine papers met our inclusion criteria. Four domains of EC are identified (i) self-actualization; (ii) time, process and immersion; (iii) relationship building and connection; (iv) learning and development. EC in home-based arts is potentially transformative but also complex and contested. We offer a novel, multidimensional understanding of EC. Our findings are significant for shaping future research and policy in the arts and leisure, including advancing conceptual understandings of EC in leisure, highlighting the relationship between 'elite' and 'everyday' forms of creativity, and examining the role of EC in navigating crisis and restriction, and connections between EC and inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the role and value of the so-called 'balcony performances' – community special events, organized during the first national lockdown in Italy in March-May 2020. Following the constructionist research paradigm, in-depth interviews were collected and analysed to understand how through engaging with special events, residents found ways to deal with uncertainty and distress during the time of lockdown. Balcony events allowed participants to connect with others at a distance, express and share their feelings and emotions and, eventually, transform fear and worry into hope and positivity. The paper reiterates the vital ritualistic role of events in community life and introduces a conceptual framework of the transformative power of events. The framework explains how during times of uncertainty, improvisational creativity within neighbourhoods, expressed in special events, can provide a platform for resilience building and community cohesion. The paper also puts forward a new perspective on residential balconies as event venues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feeling of social isolation can be uncomfortable, painful even, and as modernity continues to shift from a period of 'solidity' into one of 'fluidity' individuals are certain to encounter it more frequently. However, a way of dealing with this circumstance is to view social isolation as something that can be directly embraced and exploited. That is to say, with enough creativity, imagination, and determination social isolation can be reimagined to open up new possibilities of enchantment. With this in mind, this paper focuses on a group of urban explorers who manage to invent themselves through a process of self-creation known as anthropotechnics. What this means is that pursuits such as urban exploration can be used to transform carceral archipelagos of isolation into carceral archipelagos of leisure. In short, these can be understood as occasions where individuals harness an 'inner chaos' that is normally contained and controlled in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the series of papers discussed within the issue is presented including an article on the use and position of alcohol in the leisure environment, and another article on alcohol consumption in the North American spring break phenomenon.

This paper argues for the necessity of reclaiming the 'right to leisure' from a Lefebvrean perspective. The right to leisure is an under-studied concept in both human rights and leisure studies literature. While the 'reductionist' human rights approaches categorise it as a 'not so essential' human right, leisure studies are primarily interested in how inequalities occur in leisure settings within specific societies. Drawing on a Marxist framework, Lefebvre locates leisure in the centre of a new, radical understanding of citizenship which is substantially outlined in his concept of the 'right to the city'. This article argues that an unalienating form of leisure, which centralises creative agency and qualitative use of time and space, is both a reason and an outcome of the right to the city. In this sense, the emancipatory leisure ideal cannot be separated from an emancipatory notion of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure and health are human rights that apply to both children and adults. Leisure can enhance health and enable people to participate fully in leisure activities. One of children's main opportunities for leisure is during school holidays. Little previous research has focused on this time in children's lives. This paper presents a review of the literature surrounding school holidays, providing a critique of educational and public health approaches that focus narrowly on children's future outcomes that may be associated with how they spend their time during these leisure periods. It argues that a more sociological understanding, rooted within child-centred approaches to leisure, provides the opportunity for children's agency, participation and citizenship to be investigated more fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness, acting out their lives in public spaces can be complicated, as their very existence might be viewed as a transgression of a spaces' conceptualization [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. London: Blackwell.]. Within this paper, through the work of Henri Lefebvre and Don Mitchell, I examine the ways in which representations of public outdoor spaces in cities impact the lived experiences of those who engage with the sites as a means of survival. Through this work, I argue that the right to be is reliant on an individual's ability to acceptably (re)produce spaces as they were conceived, or to otherwise be forced to exist in marginal spaces [Mitchell, D., and N. Heynen. 2009. "The Geography of Survival and the Right to the City: Speculation on Surveillance, Legal Innovation, and the Criminalization of Intervention." Urban Geography 30 (6): 611–632. doi:10.2747/0272-3638.30.6.611; Snow, D., and M. Mulcahy. 2001. "Space, Politics, and the Survival Strategies of the Homeless." American Behavioral Scientist 45 (1): 149–169. doi:10.1177/00027640121956962]. The empirical insights in this work emerged from nine months of field work at Start Me Up Niagara, a community centre in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, which works with people experiencing poverty and homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emotions experienced by two Mexican women as a consequence of street harassment episodes while practising adventure outdoor activities. Leisure and travel often place women in unfamiliar space and places increasing their perception of vulnerability, thus reducing their participation and enjoyment, and also affecting their physical patterns as well as their emotional responses. In order to analyse affectual embodiment and its impacts in the use of public adventure space through coping strategies I rely on Ahmed's interpretations of anger, while Jiménez-Esquina's 'ambivalent fluxes' and Hall's 'sentient and emotional body' contribute to explore the emotion as a 'continuum' of embodied practices that shed light on Wilson and Little's 'geography of women's travel fear'. The analysis indicates the relevance of emotions in the construction of inclusive adventure space in a context of violence and insecurity, as well as the role of socio-cultural influence on the 'vulnerable women' social construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the various ideas, notions and conversations that underpin the leisure/health nexus and focuses on identifying the interrelatedness and synergies between these concepts. There are competing understandings of 'health' that underpin the domains of leisure. Within these disciplines there are contrasting discussions involving biological, economic, environmental, historical, medical, political, psychological and sociological ways of constructing meaning. These occur in the domains of bio-medical treatment and health promotion framed within embodiment and embodiment practice. The bio-medical domain frames 'health' as the prevention of disease/illness/injury and views 'leisure' as a tool through which to reduce risk. While 21st century health promotion posits 'health' more holistically, 'leisure' still often focuses on issues related to individual's physical 'health'. In reality leisure and health are complex concepts that exist within a system of ebbs and flows that impact each other in different ways depending on your point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure has suffered a neglect in the palliative care literature, with clinically driven narratives often overlooking the pivotal role leisure plays within this landscape. A problem inherent in much of the existing literature is that although scholars agree about the blending of hedonia and eudaimonia, the lines between them are blurred. Therefore, this paper contributes to the existing literature by fleshing out the middle ground of the hedonia and eudaimonia continuum. Here, the authors' term this point of equilibrium transitional leisure, which projects a liminal state of well-being. Interview data is collected from in/day/outpatients, families, and the bereaved (n = 140) associated with multiple hospices (n = 5). Findings detail the contribution of therapeutic services, therapeutic spaces, and therapeutic places to well-being. Conclusions add a further dimension to the well-being literature, an appreciation of 'dying-well' and the middle ground of transitional leisure. Practical implications for enhancing service delivery are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between community gallery spaces as (a) places for pursuing leisure and (b) a means of health promotion through connectedness. We argue that art experience in the community space is an interesting and particular form of leisure which links individuals with communities, cultures and histories. We provide a philosophical reflection on the ways that leisure and health intersect using the experience of art through community galleries as a case example. The community gallery experience as leisure raises interesting questions about the nature of leisure and the role that community spaces and resources can play in connecting individuals to the world in ways that promote their well-being. This paper is not a detailed empirical analysis, but rather a broad survey of the theoretical relationship between art, leisure and health with the aim of motivating a research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflexivity has become a standard practice in qualitative research to improve the trustworthiness of the results and offer a critical perspective on the researcher's role in the study. Qualitative researchers typically position themselves in their studies, acknowledging their identity, and the ways it may have influenced the study. I argue that reflexivity should be a part of quantitative survey research as well. The imperfect nature of social science, especially leisure research, makes purely positivist research difficult, despite the emphasis on this tradition and the outward appearance of 'objectivity' found in quantitative research in our field. Conducting quantitative survey research with surfers can be especially 'messy,' because they have long been thought to have their own antiestablishment, nonconformist culture. My pragmatist-grounded research with this user group provides compelling evidence for the importance of incorporating reflexivity into survey research. The paper concludes with recommendations for quantitative leisure researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events industry is facing rapid societal change. Issues such as professionalization of the industry, competing funding streams, a crowded market, and decreasing access to volunteer labour are creating an environment of need for solutions. This paper proposes the application of lean thinking as a platform for simplification and continuous improvement in the event industry as a case example of potential broader relevance to the leisure industry. It scopes the event industry context, discusses the concept of lean, and proposes the testing of lean as a philosophy and methodology to assist event organizers and their volunteers navigate the changing event industry context. This paper also examines the potential benefits of lean to time poor volunteers to maximize the value of their participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential of leisure to shape the sexual behaviour of young people with disability, there is limited knowledge on the subject. This paper explores the influence of leisure on the sexual behaviour of young people with hearing and vision loss, using data from 2127 young people aged 10–24 years from all the 16 special schools for the deaf and the blind in Ghana. The findings revealed that young people with hearing and vision loss who engaged in leisure have a higher likelihood of engaging in kissing and casual sex with the odds being higher for those with vision loss. Young people with hearing loss who engaged in leisure were, however, more inclined towards sex with a regular partner. The findings illuminate the influence of informal spaces on the sexual behaviour of young people with disability, hence the need to consider such spaces in the provision of reproductive health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in Canada, leisure activities and spaces became major sites of public debate and emotional expression about the efficacy, ethics, and social impacts of restrictive public health measures, as well as sites for the support or defiance of pandemic-related restrictions. In this paper, we analyze the ways that news media understood and represented public health measures and their relation to recreation, and participation therein. We focus on: 1) how media contributed to public understandings of social control and diffusion of surveillance; 2) how recreation became something of a 'flashpoint' as restrictions were imposed and, conversely, a symbol of freedom, liberty from governmental control, and return to so-called 'normalcy' as public health measures were lifted; and 3) how leisure was constructed in ways that privilege affluent consumers and citizens, with relatively little concern expressed for the implications of the pandemic on marginalized or vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geocaching is a sport-recreation activity considered as a post-modern treasure hunting game. The aim of this study was to group geocachers by how they consumed leisure and tourism services during COVID restrictions and at a time of economic uncertainty in Poland. An empirical research was conducted with Polish geocachers (n = 389) to identify their types based on their 'staying home' and 'getting out' attitudes. Moreover, the research identified some predictor variables that significantly distinguish between the geocachers' preferences regarding 'staying home' and 'getting out.' The Principal Component Analysis allowed to reduce the 26 motivation items into 5 dimensions: Sociability and Self-Expression; Nature Desires; Solitude Seeking; Challenge; and Routine-Breaker. Nature Desires was the only type of motivation found to be a significant predictor. This paper offers a unique perspective on how Polish geocachers behaved during the COVID threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understandings of leisure have progressed into a deep comprehension of the importance of intrinsic qualities that leisure creates for an individual choice and expression of self through food support the 'modern' paramount of personal choice and individuality. Food and dietary choices connecting to leisure and lifestyle mirror the conceptual framework of liquid modernity. The clarification of lifestyle offers an approach to explore veganism as a leisure lifestyle providing the foundation for this paper where veganism is explored using the dimensions of serious leisure. In this exploratory paper, the serious leisure perspective will be critiqued as a framework to explore veganism, as it moves from a diet and lifestyle to a form of individual expression of identity and self, culture and leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grime music represents a much-maligned leisure culture within contemporary British society, a point exposed by calls for the genre to be banned. This paper puts forward a perspective that challenges such a rigid interpretation by revealing how certain forms of Grime can be read as moral, exposing the manner in which such music encourages listeners into education, diverting them from the perils of gang violence and drugs. However, the paper narrates how this more ‘respectable’ form of Grime finds itself confined to the annals of dark leisure, through examining the contours of power that run through contemporary society, explored through the auspices of synoptic control. Here, the paper calls for a more contextual analysis of Grime that focusses on defining the moral messages that individual artists express rather than relying on the essentialist principle of categorising the whole genre in a negative manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern leisure spaces, nothing typifies dark leisure as a normative rule better than the supposed alternative, counter-cultural space of pop-rock-metal music. In the first half of this paper, I explore dark leisure theory: first, through an analysis of Rojek’s framework for abnormal leisure; then through and exploration of modifications to dark leisure theory in and from leisure studies and cultural studies. I show that the concept remains sadly neglected in both subject fields. Then in the second half of the paper, I construct a new theory of dark leisure for our times, out of a case study of the norms and values associated with the idea of the alternative in pop-rock-metal music. After this mapping of dark leisure through pop-rock-metal music I set out the challenge for leisure studies to embrace the dark side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bauman's terminology, leisure under liquid modernity is characterized by our enslavement to the consuming life. Consumption has replaced work as the backbone of fulfilment, and consumers are becoming 'de-skilled' because consumption is presented as the only way to achieve desired certainty (Bauman, 1988). This paper enrols the practices of food fermentation, materially and metaphorically, to complement and extend current understandings of leisure under liquid modernity. The paper offers a sequence of vignettes to propose that leisure might be re-imagined as a skilled performance which acknowledges the comfort of certainty as it embraces the hospitable possibilities of uncertainty. The argument is made that to realize these transformative possibilities there is a need to attend to the consequential role 'naming' plays in fixing meanings and expectations of leisure, together with a commitment to disrupting leisure's consumerist, positivist and humanist heart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food can be considered a substance that brings people together through its material and sensuous qualities, through affecting shared memories of people and place, and through traditions of hospitality. It is a human necessity with multiple levels of communal understanding, and conviviality. Currently, much of the UK faces the fragmentation of communities based on closely divided political views. In this case, conflicting feelings related to Brexit, migration and refugees. This paper offers a qualitative analysis of a series of 'multicultural lunches' – named and organized by a local equality advocacy charity and partner volunteer organizations. The multicultural lunches took place in 2017. Drawing from 13 semi-structured interviews and 6 participant observations we provide detailed discussion that links food with leisure and community. Analysis of the findings illustrates the nature of local response to broader societal fragmentation and conflict, and offers discussion of the value of food to community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper results from an investigation aiming to map possible relations between women and leisure on the agendas defending Brazilian women's rights inside Brazilian social movements. Using Deleuze and Guattari's terms, we establish connections between literature review, document analysis, and narratives provided by Brazilian social movements' leaders, which pointed to macro and micropolitical aspects that generate difficulties and possibilities for women's leisure to be part of the Brazilian social movements' agendas. Some of those difficulties are the place and the role of women in society, the breadth of women's identity markers, women's working hours, public spaces not equally perceived between men and women, subjectivity surrounding the definition of leisure, and commercialization of leisure, interfering in the possibilities of access and the non-recognition of leisure as a right. The findings also provide lines of escape as directions about the future of feminist leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although identified in the definition of leisure constraints, leisure enjoyment has been rarely studied as an outcome of constraints and constraint negotiation. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine the associations among leisure constraints, constraint negotiation, and enjoyment, within the context of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA). Cross-sectional online survey data from 618 Japanese and Euro-Canadian adults were used. Regression results suggested that across different levels of LTPA, enjoyment was negatively associated with constraints and positively with constraint negotiation. Follow-up regression analyses at sub-category level identified specific types of leisure constraints and negotiation strategies particularly pertinent to enjoyment. We conclude that leisure enjoyment is a direct outcome of constraints and constraint negotiation, which supports the call to extend the leisure constraints theory beyond participation as the outcome. Moreover, we suggest that facilitating leisure enjoyment requires awareness of different types of constraints and negotiation strategies depending on activity contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the perceived importance of leisure among seniors living in Spain in 2014. A representative sample of 1239 people aged between 65 and 74 years completed a telephonically administered survey, the findings of which are discussed in this paper. Our analysis contrasts people who considered leisure as important or very important with those who considered it unimportant or of little importance. Much research has been conducted on the attitudes about leisure and their relationship with leisure benefits or well-being while none has directly tackled the question of the importance that individuals attach to leisure. This paper thus contributes to the understanding of leisure and ageing by concluding that there is a significant relationship between the importance assigned to leisure by people and their perceived leisure benefits and subjective and psychological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the key messages from a keynote address I delivered to the 2017 Australia and New Zealand Association of Leisure Studies conference held in Hobart Tasmania, December 2017. In this paper, I reflect on the heuristic learnings from the role of research in addressing critical social issues in leisure and 'cultural life'. I do so by examining my very deliberate choice to undertake industry-linked research addressing issues involving human rights, social inclusion and giving voice to marginalized groups. As an insider to these voices, I know that research itself does little to address social inequality unless there is a deliberate action by academics to translate research into outcomes through political engagement, challenging organizational practice and communicating the results publicly beyond the paywall of refereed journals. Yet, this type of academic research advocate does not fit easily within neoliberal performance-based metrics that are narrowly defined within disciplinary boundaries of contemporary higher education. As I will explain there are other rich rewards in stepping outside of these boundaries while still doing trustworthy, rigorous, theoretical investigations with high-quality traditional academic outputs. The paper presents a case study of research examining the participation and non-participation of people with disability in sport and active recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend Duerden, Ward, and Freeman's [2015. "Conceptualizing Structured Experiences." Journal of Leisure Research 47 (5): 601-620] 'structured experience' framework by proposing a formal theory of structured experiences. The theory advances propositions about how leisure service providers may structure environments and interactions to facilitate specific subjective experiences for guests and participants. Following the Duerden, Ward, and Freeman (2015) paper, the theory of structured experience is an integration of literature from leisure studies, tourism, and marketing. Formal definitions are provided for four co-created subjective experiences: immersion, absorption, engagement, and deep structured experience. Propositions about specific strategies providers can use to facilitate these experiences and to promote perceived value, positive affective responses, and delight are also provided. The paper concludes with a discussion of select research topics that follow from the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-market valuation (NMV) is recognized as an important tool in environmental policy decision-making worldwide. In this paper, we investigate the history of NMV, specifically in relation to New Zealand, by compiling and reviewing all available published NMV studies prior to the year 2006. The results illustrate a significant increase in the number of studies, specifically those requested by government agencies, following the passage of the New Zealand Resource Management Act of 1991. Studies were found to be concentrated in three major areas: outdoor recreation, environmental conservation/management, and travel time savings. These three areas covered eight environmental commodities, the value of which totalled 70 billion New Zealand dollars (2007 NZD) per annum, or 50% of the country's gross domestic product, with the highest valued commodity being biodiversity services. While our analysis yielded many positive results, we did discover a lack of studies in areas such as pest protection, cultural resources, and popular outdoor recreational activities (e.g., black water rafting, bungee jumping, and surfing). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many claims are made about the emergence of a 'leisure society', some focusing on the so-called 'leisure shock' and others on the 'end of work'. In much of this writing, definition of the core concept of 'leisure' is problematical. Many see leisure as 'time left over' after obligatory commitments have been met. From this perspective, leisure, recreation and tourism are viewed as components of 'leisure time', defined on the basis of the location of the activity in question (home, day trip, overnight stay). This actor-based approach to defining leisure is widely used but has drawbacks. The paper explores an alternative approach. It focuses on how leisure is socially constructed in the media. This is an enormous topic and the paper limits attention to a quantitative content analysis of the coverage of 'leisure' in the main 'news' section of a quality broadsheet (the Sydney Morning Herald) in 2004. Adopting the agenda-setting approach to media impact, the paper gives an insight into the aspects of leisure covered by Australia's largest selling broadsheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thousands upon thousands of travellers have visited the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe (Spain) in leisure time since 1389. They might have experienced moral feelings along the picturesque paths that lead the way to this well-known pilgrimage destination – a combination of gratitude, awe and admiration for the beauty of creation and yet compassion for the gradual degradation of the environment. This paper analyses the influence of these transcendental feelings on travellers' attitudes and intentions towards nature. A total of 518 travellers were surveyed in 2018. The sample was divided into three groups: religious travellers, secular travellers and environmental travellers. Using Smart PLS modelling, results have been reported. The model has a moderate and robust effect on environmental travellers (R2 = 0.712) and religious visitors (R2 = 0.533), respectively. Theoretical and practical findings were drawn from empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial fitness sector in Denmark has boomed over the last decades. The number of for-profit fitness centres has risen from around 350 in the 2000s to more than 800 in 2018. This development indicates that many Danes are now customers of commercial sport for all fitness programmes. In response to this, the non-profit sector in Denmark has started its own fitness activities, giving rise to debates about fair competition. In this paper, we aim to identify the determinants for the provision of for-profit fitness and potential substitution effects between non-profit and for-profit providers of sport for all leisure activities. By deploying regression modelling on cross-sectional data, we find that the presence of non-profit fitness centres does not seem to affect the provision of commercial ones. This indicates that non-profit and commercial sport for all leisure organisations in Denmark have supplemented each other to the benefit of overall sport participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany's traditional health resorts and spas have undergone far reaching transformation processes, triggered mainly by health care system reforms that started in the 1990s and resulted in significant cuts to the public funding of traditional restorative 'Kur' treatments in these destinations. Consequently, there has been a significant shift towards Germany's so-called 'second health care market', which captures all privately funded health-related products and services. This paper provides an insight into these highly complex transformation processes using three Bavarian health resorts and spas (Bad Birnbach, Bad Füssing and Bad Griesbach) as case examples. Semi-structured interviews with experts from the three destinations offer insight into the structural transition towards the second health care market, including its manifold challenges and opportunities in an emerging health-leisure nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of family leisure and holidays reveal that an important goal of these experiences is the fostering of family togetherness and social connectedness away from usual work/life pressures. As outlined by [Schänzel, H. A., and K. A. Smith. 2014. “The Socialization of Families Away from Home: Group Dynamics and Family Functioning on Holiday.”Leisure Sciences36 (2): 126–143], however, family experiences of leisure include opportunities for both ‘family time’ and ‘own time’. Family time incorporates opportunities for strengthening family bonds by creating family memories and allowing learning to occur. By contrast, own time encapsulates freedom from those family commitments to pursue one's own interests and to seek respite from the obligatory commitments of family life. Using data collected in face-to-face questionnaires completed with 221 New Zealand family groups, this paper seeks to explore the extent to which family time and own time experiences are differently perceived by parents accompanying their children to three family-friendly visitor attractions in Christchurch, New Zealand. In particular, the paper explores the motivations and experiences sought by fathers visiting with their child/ren at these attractions and compares these with mothers’ motivations and experiences. Findings show that fathers have differing motivations and seek different experiences than mothers at these attractions, and that these motivations vary based on whether they are attending visitor attractions as sole parents or accompanied by a co-parent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a conversation between an academic and his 14-year-old son and investigates the links between leisure and computer games. It focuses specifically on the son as an adolescent in the context of Western consumer society. It is interested in how he explores his leisure in relation to the computer game ‘League of Legends’ and how this indicates his adolescent self, which is a self that is increasingly targeted, marketed, packaged and purchased. This analysis illustrates how the consumer packaging of the adolescent self through commodified leisure creates in a neoliberal society the negotiated realities of youth experience and social identity. The paper argues that consumer culture manufactures a world of escape, particularly for adolescent boys. It allows him (J) to transform his world into one he has more control over, separate from his parents' imposed regime and in a way that resists other forms of market-based influence. This is achieved through the adoption of identities that are offered in the games (a choice) that appear to challenge authority, albeit produced within youth culture and marketing, purchased and consumed in the belief that it is resistance. There is also a sense of friendship and shared identity with others in forming teams online to play the game. In these games, forms of adolescent deviance, resistance and control are normalised as challenging, exciting and risky while providing associations with power, self-fulfilment and a degree of online celebrity and identity exchange. In the final analysis, the paper explores some possibilities for parents to enter this world and understand the children and their constructions of self-identity in Western consumer society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism organizations are dependent on volunteers to deliver visitor services. Evidence suggests that volunteering is changing with a decline in volunteer hours per head and a rise in episodic forms of volunteering. This paper uses data from interviews with both regular and episodic volunteers in tourism-related roles to examine how volunteering fits within their working and leisure lives and how and why they make time for volunteering. The findings reveal that episodic volunteers are still passionate about the activity, but have different motives from regular volunteers who are seeking an ongoing activity with social benefits. Episodic volunteers often make a bigger time commitment in the short term and these intense roles would be difficult to sustain regularly. However, the interviews also identify that episodic volunteers are regular volunteers at other organizations and vice versa. This paper concludes by calling for a portfolio approach to researching volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Phenomenology offers an appropriate philosophical orientation to investigate people's lived experiences. It is an approach that is now widely acknowledged and applied in the social sciences. Despite its increasing adaptation in diverse contexts, the use of phenomenology in leisure studies remains limited and presents many conceptual, theoretical and applied challenges to researchers. A significant challenge is presenting research findings in ways that faithfully present people's experiences. This paper provides reflexive insights into Laura's (the lead author's) attempts as a current Ph.D. candidate to embrace Heideggerian phenomenology to investigate the experiences of being a surfer. The paper is derived from Laura's thesis process, where she took part in 37 unstructured conversations with women surfers (‘Surfer Girls’), and incorporated her own experiences as a woman surfer into the study. In her thesis, Laura presents her findings in the form of ‘postcards’ to promote women surfer's individuality, and to make their words come to life. Text, visual and other aids are incorporated in ways that enrich the written word, and that set a ‘surfing scene’ and create a surfing life-world for the reader. This paper examines and explains the importance of integrating phenomenological method and analysis to give faithful voice to people's lived experiences, and suggests tools for presenting phenomenological findings. Finally, this paper justifies and promotes the use of phenomenology as an under-utilized means of deepening our understandings of people's leisure experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper was to explore the lived experiences of people with substance abuse disorders over the course of their lengthy participation in a music scene. When the use of drugs and alcohol either begins or is enabled in a leisure context and progresses to a state of dependency, the leisure activity often becomes secondary to the use of those substances. As will be displayed, the participants of this study maintained a high level of participation during their period of indulgence and then sustained that high level of participation after overcoming their addiction. This paper challenges a commonly held assertion that the type of leisure people with substance abuse disorders engage in is different from those of people without drug or alcohol dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Happiness can be understood as an internal condition achieved when an individual reflects on his or her life experience and judges it as good. The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was designed to assess happiness based on a similarly understood subjective life appraisal. Using a random sample of college students (N = 507) and a paper survey, this study assessed the relationship between the SWLS and the four domains of the leisure experience battery (challenge, boredom, awareness, and distress). Pearson correlations and analysis of variance with Bonferroni’spost hoccomparisons were used to examine the relationships. Results reveal a significant relationship between the leisure experience battery and the SWLS (i.e. happiness). Specifically, preference for leisure challenge and leisure awareness were significantly and positively related to SWLS score. Leisure boredom and leisure distress were significantly and negatively related to SWLS score. Implications are discussed within the context of leisure education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social values are thought to play an important role in determining our behaviour towards animals and other entities. In this paper, intrinsic and instrumental values for natural entities are used as the basis for discussion about the use of thoroughbred racehorses in leisure activities. Humans have divided animals into two broad, artificial groups (wild and domestic) and the entities contained within these categories are attributed with certain values. Different ethical standards for human behaviour towards animals are also applied to these two groups, which permit or inhibit the way in which they can be used. Wild animals tend to be attributed with higher intrinsic values and lower instrumental values, and they are often the subject of debates over conservation. Domestic animals are given higher instrumental value but lower intrinsic value and in recent years activist groups have exposed the horrific ways in which some of these animals have been treated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a rapidly growing movement responding to the global economic crisis. The concept of CSA is thought to have originated simultaneously in Japan and Europe in the 1960s and then spread throughout the USA. In its essence, a CSA involves a direct connection between a farmer and the people who share the risks and rewards of growing and distributing food. The benefits, according to widespread international research, are plentiful: economic, environmental and social. In Hungary, CSA is a relatively new idea and in the last few years there have been not more than five or six so-called share CSAs established, one in the author's hometown. The paper presents how the French variation of CSA (AMAP) was adopted in Szeged, Hungary and how this vegetable community works and what are some of its leisure and health impacts on the author. The paper also attempts to interpret the author's CSA membership from a health and leisure perspective connecting this idea to health promotion and to Blackshaw's ‘liquid leisure’ concept. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to clarify how summering was introduced to Japan by foreigners and accepted by the Japanese, this paper traces the evolution of the hill station in Karuizawa through an analysis of the social characteristics of the region's landowners as well as their land acquisitions. Since European diplomats led by the British had founded hill stations in Japan before the recognition of Karuizawa, summering was accepted by North American missionaries in Karuizawa first, and then was accepted by the Japanese. This paper argues that economic superiority and imbalance between nations changed the primary function of the hill station; the sense of inferiority that led Japanese people to yearn for the rich material and cultural life of the foreigners was one of the driving forces of hill station formation in Japan. This paper thus contributes to research on colonialism and the international development of leisure activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In contemporary western society connections with others have become more fluid. This fluidity, in turn, impacts how people think about, understand, and engage in leisure. For instance, more people are choosing to partake in leisure practices that have traditionally been done in the company of others, alone. Yet people who choose to engage in solo leisure may face stigmatization for doing so. With these ideas in mind, the purpose of this paper is to examine representations of dining out alone on Instagram associated with #tableforone. Our findings illustrate how people use #tableforone to represent the importance of valuing alone time and treating oneself. Our findings also demonstrate the ways #tableforone can be used to confront the stigma tied to engaging in public leisure practices alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]