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This paper is a critical autoethnographic exploration of the racial inequalities in leisure and tourism studies by taking the case of the peer review process and the place of scholars of colour within it. Precisely, I challenge the White logic in the peer review process in leisure and tourism studies. While furthering recent scholars' efforts in attempting to challenge positivist epistemologies on mainstream leisure and tourism studies, I ask pertinent questions. Why does academia have to still allow/accept Euro-Amero-centric dogmas to dictate the peer review process? When will academia's enthralment with the 'White supremacy' (i.e. preaching the Others about scientific orthodoxy) come to an end, if at all? I explore how despite all the glorifying talks of diversity, inclusiveness, end of inequality, and sustainable development in academia, 'we still live in a wholly racialized world' where 'privileged whites are supposed to [and in reality] protect and perpetuate not only white myths but also raciology itself'. What if I were a White scholar? Would the reviewers then have made similar comments? This paper is an attempt to resist the hegemonic White logic so that the scholars of colour can theorise about their academic lives with dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual environments as spaces for leisure are rapidly emerging within the zeitgeist of 21st century leisure practices. One such environment is the Zwift cycling and running app which provides a series of virtual worlds where cyclists and runners can train, race, and socialise with a global community from their own home. As four authors, we are all in some way curious or engaged with Zwift as a platform for our own leisure. We therefore developed a 'community of inquiry' to provide an initial foray into Zwift as a virtual leisure space. We each produced a section of the paper which focused respectively on assemblage theory, micro-sociology, gender, and morality. Through critique and the spirit of collegiality, these texts were refined and are presented in the paper as separate yet interlinked narratives. Our community of inquiry then reconvened to consider the mechanics of game design and to present Zwift as exhibiting the components of an interreality. The paper concludes with implications for further research which includes considering Zwift as a third space and as a panopticon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to bring into the light of academic debate the position and experiences of disabled animals within leisure, to encourage academics, the leisure industry, and society in general to consider these animals and their needs from their perspective. It is based on the recognition of animals as sentient beings and that disabled individuals may have distinct needs regarding leisure and access to the leisure environment. To date, disabled animals represent an under-studied population, both in and beyond the leisure experience. This lack of attention parallels the discrimination disabled people have long experienced. The paper highlights how even data on the number of disabled animals and the range of disabilities they face is lacking. It further considers how disabled animals are marginalised, both by society and academics in relation to the leisure experience and why this is the case. The potential of overturning this marginalisation for the benefit of both animals and humans is considered before the paper turns to address future research related to disabled animals and leisure. In doing so, the paper notes the need to engage with the animal 'other' in a critical animal-centric approach to understand their needs, wants, and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure has the potential to contribute to processes of colonization and decolonization. In this paper, we propose using trauma-informed practice as part of a decolonizing process in leisure service provision. While trauma-informed practice continues to have it critiques and limitations from a decolonizing perspective, its recognition of the widespread impact of trauma, the role colonization plays in this trauma, and the value it places on safety, trust, empowerment, collaboration, and practitioner humility and responsiveness may provide leisure professional guidance in decolonizing their practice. This paper presents a project involving Indigenous women, which incorporated aspects of TIP into the facilitation of an arts-based leisure workshop. Using poetic-representation—a method purposefully used to evoke and awaken emotions, the paper highlights experiences of challenge, discovery and release, and collective responsibility. Implications emphasize engaging in a conscious and deliberate process that incorporates arts-based leisure, aims to address colonization (e.g., trauma and oppressive systemic structures), and works towards social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sociology, rituals are considered a social practice with powerful effects, and a prerequisite for functioning and sustainment of society itself. It was Durkheim who first identified the need for repeated ritual encounters among humans, in the sense of providing recurrent and cohesive emotions of joy, ecstasy, comfort, shame, pride, etc. However, the theory of rituals which took human emotions into account was proposed much later. This paper will argue for the social importance of everyday, mundane, or leisure rituals such as sports matches, music concerts, and routine conversations, gossip, or meetings over a drink or coffee, as ritual interactions strongly mediated by social emotions. These leisure interaction rituals create important personal experiences and meaningful personal histories, while having significant effects for the society as a whole. The paper claims that societies are not being "held together" by some abstract entity, such as social system or culture, but only through the pockets of micro-solidarity occurring when individuals ritually meet in emotionally charged interactions. It is the social interaction in leisure that generates essential social emotions, social ties, and group solidarity, thus representing the actual glue that holds society together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to highlight new insights on the social and political dimensions of emotions experienced within leisure through a specific focus on the everyday lives of people seeking asylum in the UK. In doing so, we draw on and expand inter-disciplinary perspectives that have underlined how the affective intensities and (in)capacities of bodies, and the conditions through which these emerge in everyday lives, are central in the workings of power. Leisure scholars have advanced important analyses on the politics of affects and emotions at the intersection of gendered, sexual and racialised axis of difference. Yet, the relevance of these perspectives has yet to be fully explored in articulating leisure, forced migration and the (necro)politics of asylum. Drawing on two ethnographic studies with people seeking asylum and their allies in Bristol and Leeds, UK, this paper contributes to address this gap by looking at two different leisure domains, music-making and football, as sites of intensity: not just discursive or symbolic, but lived, embodied and felt domains where the gradual wounding produced by the asylum regime is both made manifest and negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on equestrian sports, including horseracing, has been developed in contexts in the Global North. This has led to a narrow perspective of what horseracing is and means in different historical and sociocultural contexts. This paper extends this reach through considering informal horseracing events in Mexico. Based on understanding gender as a 'doing' rather than a 'being', and as an integral part of all social practices and identities, the races are examined as leisure events that function as sites through which masculinities are performed and (re)produced. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the horseracing events are identified as spaces in which male-male interactions provide opportunity for men to perform culturally hegemonic norms of masculinity, against a backdrop of shifting economic and social practices that are affecting wider gender relations in Mexico. Although women also have a presence in horseracing, they play a marginal role within the events which celebrate and foreground male homosociality. Masculinities are performed and validated predominantly through male-male interactions and expressions of male dominance over the horses. This paper thus illustrates the importance of gender to understanding different leisure practices and the significance of social and cultural context to examining leisure generally and equestrian sports specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working children and adolescents face diverse problems, including long working hours, low pay, lack of quality education/training, unrealistic expectations, workplace hierarchies, and bullying, all of which cause them to be bereaved of leisure opportunities. However, there is a lack of study on this topic. The dominant perception of child labour being mainly an issue of the Global South, a geographically and socially under-represented context, is a significant reason behind the lack of thorough exploration of the leisure capabilities of working children and adolescents. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Turkey, this paper explores the everyday realities of working children and adolescents in terms of their leisure preferences and capabilities. The study is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups with working children and adolescents aged between 11 and 17. Using the Capabilities Approach as an analytical lens, the paper discusses the ways in which work shrinks the already limited leisure capabilities of the participants. In the face of fatigue and time scarcity, children adapt their leisure preferences to the available leisure cultures. Simultaneously, however, they display agency in various ways so as to gain time and protect their leisure rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family leisure activities have been gaining increasing attention in recent years. This study aims to identify the characteristics of family leisure involvement among adult workers in urban China, explore the relationship between family leisure and leisure satisfaction, and further analyse the possible interrelationship between core and balance family leisure activities. Paper-and-pencil questionnaire surveys of activity diaries were collected from 519 residents of Zhongshan, a prefecture-level city in China. Linear regression analysis suggested that balance family leisure activities were not associated with individual leisure satisfaction, while core family leisure had a negative impact. Core family leisure also moderated the relationship between balance family leisure and personal leisure satisfaction. A moderate amount of core family leisure combined with balance family leisure increased leisure satisfaction. This study contributes to the core and balance theory of family leisure functioning by exploring the interrelationship between the two types of family leisure activities in a non-Western context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angling is an immensely significant leisure practice that provides an important window onto the variable and selective ways humans value animals, and on how humans and animals variously affect each other's lives. Through a novel ethnography of coarse angling practice, this paper focuses on the simultaneity of coarse fish as victims of human play and as biosocial actors with considerable affective power above and below water. We posit that paying close attention to the embodied and performative contexts of catching and caring for fish for leisure reveals deeply rooted passions and paradoxes that raise questions not only about angling but about the stark injustices within the spectrum of human-fish encounters. We conclude by asking whether angling should be consigned to history or whether anglers are important socio-ecological practitioners that could and should do more to challenge the cruelties and injustices within human-fish relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reveal what is the current position of gardening as a leisure activity for urbanites, in general and in competition with other hobbies, and how the space of the urban domestic garden is perceived in this regard. To gather data, a questionnaire survey of 302 urban domestic garden keepers was conducted. The survey took place between April 2019 and November 2019 in the capital city of Prague, Czechia, and in 8 locations in other Czech cities and towns as a control sample. The results show that the importance of outdoor relaxation in evaluating one's garden prevails, but the possibility of creating something with one's own hands, to produce own food, or to form a more beautiful place are also highly appreciated. In the perception of Czech gardeners, work and leisure often intertwine. Similarly, gardens act as a multifunctional environment, which can be changed in particular phases of the human life cycle. Since gardens were often declared as vital components for many people, it is probable that there is a future for gardening as a leisure activity, although it may be construed rather as a 'light' version of gardening, adapted to one's busy schedule and other hobbies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s questions began to be raised about whether leisure studies were a dying field of study. Departments and programmes were closing, and attendance at leisure studies conferences appeared to be declining. Yet in the twenty-first century we have seen the emergence of a new leisure studies journal and multiple book series' being commissioned that are dedicated to leisure. The question therefore arises of whether leisure studies is dead, dying, or alive and well. Through an analysis of the departmental affiliations of all the authors who have published in all the leisure studies double-blind peer-reviewed journals this paper examines the health of leisure studies. It suggests that in terms of the number of authors publishing in leisure studies journals, the field is healthy. Furthermore, the departmental homes of the authors indicate leisure studies is a healthy multidisciplinary meeting ground that has never been dominated by those based in departments explicitly linked to leisure through their title. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular media and some aspects of social science research view computer gaming either in disruptive pathological terms or through one-dimensional notions, such as violence inducing or as simple escapism. These singular perspectives create gaps in the research and skew our understanding of computer games as a social phenomenon. To address this, we examine computer gaming as a leisure experience in the context of contemporary western consumer culture. The paper presents a conceptual investigation which critically analyses selected themes on gaming, designed to offer an interpretation of the adolescent gaming experience and its links with self–identity. Outcomes indicate that gaming has the potential to create resistance to commodifying processes and adult modes of the self but can be convalesced by the market to attract the purchase of and engagement with games. Adolescent self-identities, analysed through the lens of leisure experience in consumer culture and within the ambivalent experiential consciousness and leisure spaces of everyday life, may provide alternative perspectives on gaming. In this view, gaming can create experiences that lead to the formation of self-identity through social interactions and relations that have the potential to build social and cultural capacities for adolescents while also enabling resistance to social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the use of Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people (CYP) in an educational setting. It investigates how best to manage anxiety and facilitate a better understanding of the transition process whereby pupils move either between year groups, or to new schools. The study adopts a creative multi-sensory methodology whereby the focus is upon the Lego® and not the child. Data were collected in a UK junior school from four workshops, comprising sixty-four children, ranging between seven and eleven years old. Using the Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) method, preliminary results highlight four key overarching themes associated with child anxiety surrounding the school transition process. These are (i) places, (ii) pathways, (iii) programming and (iv) people. Wider implications for other age groups and other transition scenarios are explored. A series of remedies and solutions are proposed, and recommendations for further development of the method within an educational context are highlighted. In the leisure context, this study contributes to knowledge through a playful lens by using Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) as a creative methodology to highlight the unique interaction between leisure, education and mental health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the other hand, we also sought to identify not only some of the leisure inequalities in the Global South, but also inequalities in leisure research between researchers based in the Global South and those in the Global North. The concept of inequalities has been widely explored in academia and in the leisure literature. It contextualises the debate and focuses on two key points: (1) research on leisure inequalities; and (2) the Global South and inequalities in leisure research. The digital inequality during COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns led to differences in leisure opportunities, and such disparities were felt more deeply in the Global South where the gap between social classes is wider compared with the Global North (Clemente & Stoppa, [9]). [Extracted from the article]

This research note discusses why and how the conventional description of leisure makes positioning Halal leisure difficult for researchers and practitioners and then identifies four leisure zones based on the overall consensus of Islamic teachings, cultural tolerance of Islamic societies, and localized/regionalised interpretations of Islamic scriptures. In doing so, this paper contributes to enhancing the nascent understanding of the position of leisure in Islam, considering religious and socio-political factors. For practitioners, this research note alludes to the emergence of Halal-hybrid leisure spaces where Muslims' religious and cultural identities continuously evolve to accommodate traditionally Westernised leisure habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gould et al.'s (2008) Serious Leisure Inventory and Measure (SLIM) and its short version were widely used to quantify dimensions of serious leisure for more than a decade. The purpose of this paper is to inform future research directions by reviewing studies employed SLIM to identify diverse SLIM practices and summarise present research findings. A total of 34 journal articles published in English between 2008 and 2019 were reviewed. Results revealed a large variety of applications of SLIM. Of the 34 studies examined, ten studies used SLIM scores to classify participants into groups using researcher-determined criteria or cluster-related analytical approaches; 24 studies explored individual characteristics, activity experiences, or life outcomes associated with variables derived from SLIM. The results provided insights of selecting between original and short SLIM. Additionally, while studies employed SLIM have supported how serious leisure contributes to leisure experience and life outcomes, some other areas would benefit from future research, including more efforts on understanding individual characteristics associated with the process of becoming serious, negative aspects of serious leisure and its impact on participants' activity engagement, and overall life experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current campaigns for a four-day, 32-hour standard working week to replace the five-day, 40-hour model have attracted the attention of employers, trade unions, political parties, governments and the communications media but, seemingly, not of leisure scholars. This is in contrast to the leisure society concept of the 1960s/1970s, some versions of which anticipated a 30-hour working week. This paper examines the 4-day work-week proposition from a leisure point of view. It summarises: some of the antecedent twentieth century calls for shorter working weeks; the twenty-first-century advocacy literature for the 4-day week; and the growing list of live trials of the concept. An analysis is offered of the goals of the 4-day week proposition and its proponents' response to anticipated opposition. It is concluded that, in the interests of social relevance, there is a role for leisure scholars to play in critically evaluating the 4-day work-week proposition, in general and in regard to its implications for leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2020/1 coronavirus pandemic, leisure scholars in lockdown have found their research activities restricted to desk-based strategies. In this situation, one possible strategy is the existing data found via archival research, a method that has received limited attention from leisure scholars to date. This paper explains archival research obstacles during a coronavirus induced lockdown whilst also showcasing the possibilities archive collections can offer. During the discussion, the potential that archival research has as an alternative data source for leisure studies becomes evident. This research note aims to showcase this potential and call on leisure scholars to engage with archives as a data source for future studies. It concludes by reflecting on why this engagement is important for leisure scholarship and potentially leisure scholars whose research and careers have been stymied during the ongoing pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by a social inequality perspective that combines Bourdieu's conception of socially shaped tastes and lifestyles with Peterson's notion of omnivorous consumption, this paper addresses the link between social inequality and participation in specific subfields of sport. Ten popular sports and adjacent activity subfields are analysed and compared. Based on representative data from Germany, the paper points out that participation in different fields of sport is socially structured, however to different degrees and in different ways. Almost all fields of sport appeal to individuals with above-average levels of cultural capital, whereas lower social classes dominate the group of inactive individuals. Football is least structured by cultural and economic capital, while racket sports, nature-related activities, yoga, fitness and water sports are socially most selective. Beyond social class, gender is also key for structuring participation. Finally, findings show that cultural capital is closely associated with multiple engagements in a broader range of different sports, thus buttressing the notion that omnivorous participation signifies a higher social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect leisure mobilities globally. In Australia, the pandemic has radically influenced the mobilities of domestic tourists, with travellers subjected to dynamic and intermittent restrictions on both intrastate and interstate movement since March, 2020. This paper reports on the findings of a study conducted between June and July 2020 that explored Australians' intentions to participate in tourism as COVID-19 leisure travel restrictions eased. It reveals that the participants sought to shift from modes of transport that involve high risks of exposure to other tourists, including cruise ships and air travel, to private, smaller-scale forms of leisure mobility such as cars and campervans. The paper draws from this trend to offer recommendations that champion both the experiential qualities of tourist automobilities and the positioning of private vehicles as temporary facilitators of safer mobilities that may also support wellbeing. These recommendations are afforded additional significance by the opportunities they imply for the stimulation of regional tourism economies severely affected by the unstable and volatile mobilities of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from time-use surveys in the UK, which were conducted prior to, during and following the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. These findings are set against the background of evidence from similar surveys in the UK and globally from 1920s onwards. Movements into and out of successive lockdowns between 2020 and 2021 disrupted former temporary routines with consequences that endured in 2022. There has been no return to the old normal, or even towards that normal. The new normal was a population with more leisure time than pre-pandemics but which was also spending more time doing paid work. There were differences in sex, age and income, but overall time had been released for other uses by people doing less travelling, less studying and less unpaid child care. Extra leisure time was being filled mainly by the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If researchers are to understand the impacts of lockdown on children and young people, then the experiences of lockdown need to be explored from the perspective of the child. Young people participate in leisure for a multitude of reasons, yet, within the UK, children were largely unable to access their regular leisure activities for a six-month period during the first national lockdown. Within the context of this paper, leisure includes outdoor sports and physical activities within blue spaces. Following interviews with parents and young people (aged 11–16) focused on experiences of leisure during the Covid-19 pandemic, this qualitative study identified that children felt an intense sense of missing out on opportunities and found day-to-day life without leisure monotonous. However, there were some positive impacts of reduced leisure, such as a greater appreciation for what was once a regular activity. This research empowered the voice of children, so their distinct experiences were made visible to those who aim to support their wellbeing. Findings suggest that the promotion of leisure activities in the current climate could mitigate poor wellbeing among children associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on mobile positioning big data, this study analyzes the quantity of visitation changes of leisure tourism facilities under the impact of COVID-19, which is a direct way to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the leisure tourism industry. The quantity of visitation to the four types of leisure facilities (scenic spots, shopping services, sports services, science and cultural education services) in the three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao) decreased by 63.06% and 44.74% respectively on the Tomb Sweeping Day and the Labor Day in 2020 compared with 2019. The biggest decreasing was in science and cultural education services, followed by scenic spots and sports services, and finally shopping services. The curve of hourly visitations to leisure facilities in 2020 shows a smooth feature, indicating that the public has reduced the risk of pandemic through peak shifting leisure. The analysis of influencing factors shows that the influence of the floor area on visitation is different in different phases. From Tomb Sweeping Day to Labour Day in 2020, the influence of area on leisure behaviour changes from negative to positive. This paper provides a technical framework for assessing the impact of crisis event, and expands the protection motivation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way time is allocated towards market and non-market activities. This paper looks at the effect of the pandemic on a key category of non-market activity – leisure. We use micro-data from the American Time Use Survey to see how the pandemic affected leisure in the United States. A seemingly unrelated regression system is deployed to examine how the pandemic affects various leisure activities such as television viewing, socialising, reading/writing, active sports, games, and computer use. Apart from socialising, which was actively discouraged during the pandemic, all major leisure activities saw an increase, which resulted in overall leisure going up in the Covid year 2020 by 5%, compared to 2019. However, the impact is statistically significantly different for different types of leisure activities. Active leisure is being consumed less while passive leisure is being consumed more – pointing towards an increased sedentarization of lifestyles. Since previous studies have shown passive leisure to be negatively associated with health, our result has important implications for the health and well-being of Americans, and if the trend continues, policymakers should actively incentivise the consumption of active forms of leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper studies fitness as a leisure activity in the context of Thailand. It considers fitness as the interplay between both consumption and production and globalisation and localisation. I conduct an autoethnography to study the effects of using a global fitness application on training my body and recreating self for fitness. My study thus focuses only on fitness as a form of home workout. I use Jean Baudrillard's concept of the 'consumer society' to critically investigate how the global fitness culture and the quest for the ideal body affect the recreation of body and self, and how body and self in the local context appropriate the global fitness culture and the ideal body. I look only at relevant elements of Baudrillard's theory, including socially created needs, the significations of the body and marginal difference, which I regard as social processes of recreating the body and the self. By drawing upon Baudrillard, I contend that home workouts reproduce the self with marginal difference and that significations of the body respond only to the models of the global fitness culture and the ideal body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although rock climbing is thought of as a quintessential nature sport, much contemporary climbing takes place on indoor walls of plastic and wood – figuratively (and sometimes geographically) far from the outdoor settings where rock faces are found. In this paper, we leverage data from a survey of thousands of indoor climbers in the United States and Canada to examine differences between indoor-only climbers and those who also climb outdoors or intend to in the near future. Among other findings, our results suggest that climbing is less central in indoor-only climbers' routines and tends to be less motivated by the managed risk-taking that was once considered an inseparable element of the sport. Our results also offer insights into possible shifts in the marginalisation of groups and identities other than cisgender white men in outdoor recreation activities and contexts – and the role of indoor facilities in such shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the increasingly popular leisure pursuit of indoor rock climbing amongst young women in the UK. Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective, we draw on the concepts of field, habitus and capital to explore the factors associated with young women's propensities to start, and continue, engaging in this activity. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 12 women (aged 18–25), who had been regularly engaging in indoor climbing for at least six months. Thematic analysis of the transcripts led to the construction of three themes: preconceptions of a masculine field; habitual feelings of intimidation and inferiority; and deploying and accruing 'climbing capital'. The findings indicate that climbing's deep-rooted classification as a 'man's sport' initially facilitated feelings of intimidation and inferiority amongst the women, inhibiting their propensity to participate. However, having been introduced to climbing (often by men, such as their boyfriends or brothers), the women found that the social aspects of the activity, along with the sense of achievement they felt when participating, meant they re-evaluated their preconceptions of the field. Their access to various forms of capital facilitated their continued engagement in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that greater engagement in offline leisure activities before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – such as going to bars, restaurants and meeting friends – protected psychological health during the first lockdown in 2020. This result was obtained using structural equations on longitudinal data from a sample of 4,967 individuals (+14) collected in two waves between September 2019 and June 2020. Based on social capital theory, our model tests two routes for the mobilisation of social support prior to the stay-at-home policies: on the one hand, engagement in face-to-face leisure activities; on the other hand, engagement in activities online, such as chatting, browsing the Internet and being present on social media. According to the structural equation model, engagement in both types of leisure activity before the pandemic was associated with higher perceived levels of social support. However, only offline leisure activities have such a positive effect on social support that they protect (indirectly) mental health during the first lockdown, notably a period when social relationships were not nurtured face-to-face. These findings help to unravel further the ties between leisure and mental health in the historical contingencies of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a symbolic environmental schema of skateboarding through the concept of 'grey spaces'. We provide evidence of how skateboarding demonstrates a greyness – political and environmental ambiguities, contradictions, liminality, nuances and paradoxes – to outdoor urban leisure in the Anthropocene. We build on a chromatic turn in leisure studies which attends to blue and green spaces; however, we shift focus from the therapeutic discussion of nature that tends to underscore that turn to a contested realm of urban grey spaces. A concept of 'greyness' is adopted to connote not simply the urban but also the ambivalence of polluted leisure and the ambiguous position of skateboarding working as pollutant, and a form of alternative sustainability, while acting with complicity in neoliberal processes that contribute to escalating consumption and the proliferation of concrete spaces of play. In framing skateboarding in both the material and symbolic space of greyness, we seek to stimulate discussion about the greyness of leisure in the Anthropocene beyond skateboarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how leisure organisations developed entrepreneurial practices to enable innovation for the post-covid-19 pandemic era. Whilst entrepreneurship and innovation have been the subject of academic scrutiny in mainstream sport, there is a relative paucity of studies within the broader holistic context of leisure. Semi-structured interviews, conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), provide insights from nine high profile, globally recognised industry practitioners from across the leisure industry including the sport, entertainment, health and fitness, leisure, hospitality, arts and culture, events and tourism sectors. Four key themes emerged from the data including extending capabilities through (i) research and development (R&D) and (ii) digitalisation, and changing culture through (iii) diversification, and (iv) sustainability. These practices were shown to enable leisure organisations to create new customer value within an increasingly competitive environment. The paper concludes with an overview of theoretical and managerial implications and provides approaches for developing more entrepreneurial practices in leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to examine fitness club members' willingness to start exercising in the clubs with the end of the lockdown. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used in order to explore which of its components can predict club members' intention; furthermore, the degree to which leisure constraints can predict the formation of the elements of the TPB was tested. Three hundred and twenty three (N = 323) questionnaires were used; they were collected with an on-line survey, during the second lockdown in Greece. The results indicated that almost one out of three of the club members do not intend to return to the clubs when they are allowed to open. All the three elements of the TPB were contributed to the prediction of Intentions, with the Attitudes having the highest contribution. The Covid19, Hygienic and Financial constraint dimensions were the most influential on the formation of the elements of the TPB. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International, elite level tournament bridge is a unique context for exploring the dynamics of serious leisure experience. This paper presents sociological research on participation and motivation in a dyadic serious pursuit, understood through the lens of the serious leisure perspective (SLP) and complementary approaches of social worlds and leisure experiences. Qualitative interviews with 52 elite bridge players from the USA and Europe, suggest that the rewards of winning, competition, thrill and flow are worthy of more consideration in the serious leisure perspective. Motivation and participation in elite bridge involve individual and interpersonal dynamics and agency whilst being shaped by wider structural constraints. The motivations of professionals and amateurs are contextually specific and shaped in relation to career contingencies and turning points. This elite social world illustrates that the serious pursuit category of the SLP can encompass both serious leisure amateurs and professional devotee workers. An exploration of the rewards, costs and constraints of elite bridge offers empirical insights that can inform a multi-paradigmatic approach to understanding complex leisure experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to extend understanding of visitors' leisure benefits in relation to their meaning-making of heritage through qualitative interviews conducted at Liangzhu Culture Museum (an archaeological world heritage site in Hangzhou, China). Semi-structured interview with 68 museum visitors was conducted to explore their personal, contextual, and interactive interpretations of leisure and heritage meaning-making. The study found four main types of leisure benefits gained from visiting this museum: recreation; learning and education; relationship enhancement; and affection towards the community. It showed that the perceived leisure benefits of some visitors aligned with the museum's officially represented heritage meaning and value; while those of others were intimately linked to their personal memories, collective identities, and sense of place. This study contributes to a better understanding of heritage museum visitation as a leisure activity; visitors' perceptions of the meaning of leisure in the Chinese heritage museum context; and the link between visitors' heritage meaning-making and their leisure experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic and policy research point to the low participation rate of Muslim women in leisure and physical activities in several Western nations and often linked the issue to their gendered subordination to patriarchal Islamic guidelines. Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews, online observation and self-directed photography, I challenge this view that Muslim women constitute a homogenous group who withdraw from leisure and sports merely because of religious and gender obligations. This paper aims to explore the ways Muslim women take to (non) participation in aquatic leisure activities (ALA) at the crossroads of their religious, gender, migrant and cultural identities with wider relations of power. Employing cultural geographers' reading of 'intersectionality', this study points to the diverse ways that Muslim women negotiate their multiple identities and the intersecting structures that shape their ALA. This article contributes to further an understanding of religious and cultural diversities among Muslim women. Muslim women's leisure participation as spatial processes constructed through entanglements of religion and gender, with several social identifications including, cultural and migrant identities. The results show that Muslim women's ALA are informed by intersecting power relations operating across different, yet interconnected, scales of Muslim women's bodies, their community, families and wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sports participation rates of British adults remain strongly influenced by their social class background, with those from the bottom of the social class hierarchy significantly less likely to take part in sport and/or active leisure. These trends are closely linked to the types of active leisure participation that adults engage in as young people, with those from working-class backgrounds more likely to engage in a narrower range of class-related activities in their youth, a trend that has been shown to constrain the likelihood of them participating into adulthood. One of the influences on this outcome is the way in which parental influence comes to impact upon the ways that young people from working-class families approach and engage in activities during their leisure time. In order to explore this influence, this paper examines the leisure lifestyles of white, working-class adolescent males via the use of group interviews in an attempt to explain the current and future participation of working-class male adolescents in sport and active leisure. The study utilised responses from 47 participants in Years 10 and 11 across eight focus group interviews as part of a semi-ethnographical multi-method design in a predominantly white, working-class mainstream secondary school. The results found that the participants spent significant amounts of their leisure time engaged in class-related, recreational activities within the local area alongside their peers. Linked to this was the apparent lack of formal guidance and support from their parents in relation the participants’ regular involvement in organised sporting activities. The behaviours and attitudes of these participants meant that the majority of the participants were neither inclined nor ‘set up’ to participate in the types and range of activities that may well have kept them active into and through adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taoism is the only indigenous Chinese religion and one of the most important ideological traditions that have a significant influence on leisure. Current Taoist leisure research mainly focuses on philosophical Taoism, an offshoot of the ‘real Taoism’. This paper will take philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism as a cultural whole and conduct a comprehensive, in-depth study of Taoist leisure, by paying more attention to its religious dimension, which is very esoteric, characteristic, and more of the essence of Taoism but rarely investigated before. We will explore Taoist leisure from the perspectives of philosophical bases, leisure concepts, pharmaceutical and life cultivation (i.e. alchemy, regimens), outdoor activities (i.e. seclusion, festivals, liturgy, travel) and its art practices (i.e. literature, paintings, music). Finally, we will make a concise comparison and exchange between the Taoist and the West leisure in the global vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garbage Island'. 'The Pacific Trash Vortex'. 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch'. Titles abound for the growing build-up of waste, mostly microplastic and non-biodegradable, floating in the North Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, Garbage Island is just one egregious example of how human activities are exacting an enormous toll on the planet. Considerations of waste should be central to our field, not merely due to the degree to which leisure practices are deeply implicated in its production but because the very provision of leisure opportunities often rests on disposability. The time is ripe to develop a research agenda for understanding waste and disposability in leisure. This research note presents a brief accounting of waste as it has been taken up in our field in an effort to set a path forward for understanding and addressing this issue. Of course, explorations of consumption in leisure studies is well-trod ground and, arguably, critical considerations of how individuals consume through leisure (i.e. conspicuous consumption) form the backbone of our field. Rather surprisingly, however, relatively little, critical attention has been given to the very notion of waste, or the disposability that undergirds the material production and provision of leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial sets the scene for this special issue by unpacking the concept of 'lockdown leisure' as closely linked with the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic which spread globally in early 2020 and throughout 2021 and 2022. It provides a snapshot of the parameters of lockdown leisure, outlines the separate articles in this special issue, and considers the medium-to-long term implications of the pandemic for leisure studies. By incorporating perspectives from a plethora of academic disciplines, the special issue advances our understanding of the social, spatial and cultural impacts of the various lockdowns on leisure and our lives more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass gatherings are a public health challenge because of crowdedness and associated health risks. 'Schoolies' is the largest youth leisure mass gathering in Australia. We examine a coordinated service response called 'Safer Schoolies', which aims to manage risks and optimise health and wellbeing for Schoolies attendees and the surrounding community. We examine 'Safer Schoolies' in a leisure context from a social identity theory-informed perspective; describe the coordinated service response; demonstrate a practical model of data collection, measurement and baselining; and report trends from a survey-based research programme with five annual cohorts of young people who attended Schoolies (N = 1,588). Findings show attendees have strong levels of trust in, and feel highly identified with, their friends at Schoolies, with low psychological distress on average. Service perceptions and help-seeking intentions improved over time, with cohorts increasingly considering service providers to be safe and viable sources of support. As societies continue to open up following COVID-19 restrictions, these insights can inform targeted surveillance and coordinated management of leisure pursuits in youth mass gathering settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored leisure constraints and facilitators of marriage migrant women. Qualitative interviews with 20 Vietnamese marriage migrant women in South Korea were conducted. At the individual level, language skills, financial resources, time, personal leisure orientation and preference, and capacity for individual mobility were identified as the constraints and facilitators of leisure for the marriage migrant women. At the interpersonal level, family served as both the leisure constraint and facilitator of this group. At the context and system level, the Multicultural Family Support Centre was highlighted as a facilitator, while transportation acted as both a facilitator and constraint of the leisure of migrant women. This study sheds light on the impacts of a diverse amalgam of facilitators and constraints of leisure participation among marriage migrant women. Implications for leisure planners, human resources managers of organisations, and the government are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multispecies leisure has recently become an area of attention. Pet-keeping is one of the popular leisure activities today. This study aims to explore the relationship between pet attachment and life satisfaction, with particular focus on the mediating effect of the leisure seriousness and rewards on the relationship mentioned above. A total of 275 responses were collected at a pet exhibition. SEM and SPSS were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that pet attachment is positively related to pet owners' life satisfaction. The effects of leisure seriousness, personal reward, and social reward were shown to mediate the relationship between pet attachment and life satisfaction. The pet-keeping practices during the COVID-19 pandemic are provided based the serious leisure perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has detrimentally affected people's sex lives. The purpose of this research was to study sex as leisure approach during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the quantity and quality of people's sex lives. The cross-sectional data were collected using an online survey methodology (N = 675). The results show that, on average, the participants' tendency to view sex as leisure has deteriorated during the pandemic, which is a problematic health risk factor because people's capacity to view sex as leisure was positively related to sexual frequency, desire, quality, diversity, intimacy, and satisfaction during the pandemic. People who strongly believed that sex is leisure prior to the pandemic have preserved this view during the pandemic, which contributed to the resilience of their sex lives. All the decreases in the propensity to view sex as leisure happened among people who held a moderate view of sex as leisure before the pandemic. Socio-demographic factors, adjustment to lockdown, and changes in stress levels have also affected people's sex lives during the pandemic. These results demonstrate that a strong(er) tendency to view sex as leisure can serve as a protective factor against the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's sex life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research note, we discuss how the pandemic forged a renewed interest in self-care among urban older Indians. A reflexive thematic analysis of time-use diaries (N = 15) allows us to examine leisure patterns and everyday subjectivities of middle-class older Indians. In particular, time-diaries reveal a heightened focus on leisure-based enacted self-care practices including meditation, online activity/learning, and socialising. Consistent with previous scholarship of an unequivocal gender inequality in leisure as self-care, we observe distinct differences among men and women in their engagement with self-care. Specifically, while men engaged in outdoor activities as a way to cope with the stress and uncertainties of the pandemic, women's everyday lives continued to be defined by domesticity and household management. Additionally, we show that while immediately uplifting, the ethics of self-care embodies the neoliberal logic of the entrepreneurial subject that makes self-reliance a necessity to practice responsible citizenship in times of the pandemic. Overall, by shifting the logics of care to the self, we depart from the more commonly held notion of older adults being recipients of care to the crafting of autonomous subjects through the pandemic-led public health practices of committed citizenship and civic virtue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have demonstrated that engagement in various leisure activities is associated with improved physical health and subjective well-being among people with SCI. These studies have stressed the importance of leisure activities as coping strategies that contribute to the life satisfaction and quality of life among people with SCI while counteracting their negative life experiences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among types of leisure activities, health perception, life satisfaction, and happiness among people with SCI. The participants of the study were 201 individuals, 148 males (73.6%) and 53 females (26.4%), with spinal cord injuries who were recruited through the Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association. Results indicated that sport activities, community activities, and perceived health condition were significantly related with life satisfaction. Perceived health condition and life satisfaction as well as age and home-based activities were significantly related with the happiness of the participants. Participation in sport activities and community-based activities was positively associated with life satisfaction, and home-based activities had a positive association with happiness among people with SCI. Thus, the results of this study confirm the importance of leisure as a way of increasing the life satisfaction and happiness of people with SCI during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to determine Brazilians' leisure education level (LEL) and which variables have an effect on it. The Leisure Education Scale – LES was used as a data collection tool following validity and reliability examinations. With a convenience sampling method, this study involved 2630 participants, including employees and students in the Brazilian education system. Data were analysed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Results showed statistically significant differences in terms of gender, age and occupation, but only the occupation variable influenced the Leisure Education (LE) total score. In addition, some interactions between variables present significant differences in the awareness dimension. Although it is not generalisable to all LE dimensions, we concluded that in the dimensions where significant differences are observed, women have higher LE scores than men, teachers have higher LE scores than administrative staff and students, and individuals in the 14–17 age group have lower LE scores than other ages. The implications of these findings for public policies for the promotion of LE among Brazilians are discussed. Since few researchers have examined LEL in Brazil, this study presents a valuable contribution to the scientific literature on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical Activity is linked to a wide range of social, psychological, and physical health and leisure benefits. However, many sub-groups of the Australian population experience inequity in accessing opportunities to engage in this health promoting behaviour. Migrant women, from non-English speaking backgrounds, report the lowest levels of physical activity participation within Australia. This study explores the perceptions of physical activity among a group of migrant women living in Sydney, Australia. Focus group interviews and written narratives were used to explore the experiences and perceptions of 81 women born in the Middle East and in North Africa. Key findings include new insights regarding the way the term 'physical activity' was defined and understood among the participant group, as well as the perceived benefits, enablers, motives and barriers to participation. These results provide guidance and direction for future policy development and health messaging, with a strong focus on addressing leisure inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adventure as a form of contemporary recreation is growing in popularity, and seen as a way to stimulate economic growth via tourism, and to promote personal and community development. However, the risk-taking appeal it provides has led to high-profile serious injuries and deaths. In Brazil and Aotearoa/New Zealand, the families of victims involved in fatal accidents demanded that their governments provide greater regulation. National public policy proposals followed. Our interpretive research used observation, interviews, and document analysis to investigate the development of pioneer policies (2002–2016) on adventure recreation regulation in these two countries. Bourdieu's concept of field was used to understand adventure as a form of leisure, which crosses the boundaries between sport and tourism, and, as we show, is a site of contestation. This study shows that many of the challenges experienced in developing national public policies for adventure activities in Brazil, were also found in Aotearoa. The discussion highlights that adventure as recreation and leisure is a hybrid field, requiring inter-sector understanding in addressing risk management. The market-centred model evident in tourism in both countries reinforces profit, often to the detriment of access equity, environmental and intercultural sensibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how the Sustainable Village Project (SVP), developed in a peripheral region of Curitiba-Paraná-Brazil, enables residents to take ownership of different leisure spaces autonomously. The study's concern was to situate how SVP was set and its actions in the neighbourhood, to understand how leisure spaces influence or provide mobilisations, and to support the interventions of this project. As social ethnographic research (that used the techniques of participant observation, field diaries, and open and structured interviews as research instruments), we sought to know the different interlocutors and describe and interpret various phenomena to share meanings with others. The SVP was created by the Municipal Environment Secretariat of Curitiba and aimed to collectively establish sustainability practices as a process that allowed people to decide on their own choices, combining individual and collective well-being with the conservation of the physical environment. The proposal developed mainly in this community's leisure time allows us to conclude that the experiences lived in the context of leisure can be decisive for human emancipation. Such experiences can promote, through dialogue, critical reflection and collective construction, the observation and resistance to injustice, giving us conditions to modify the reality in which we are inserted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to Covid-19, businesses offering enrichment activities for pre-school aged children were saturating the early years (0–5 years) market. However, the pandemic caused sudden changes to family routines with regular leisure activities cancelled. Using Lareau's theory of concerted cultivation as a framework, we explored how physical activity (PA) was managed by parents of pre-school children and how routines changed during the pandemic. A UK national online survey was completed by 925 parents. Sixteen tailored, follow-up semi-structured interviews were undertaken with parents. Due to the nature of the pandemic and the age range of the young children, it was the parents who ultimately made decisions about PA, and it was parents who had to adapt, often to a challenging set of circumstances. Our data suggests many parents sought to utilise informal play and online PA during the lockdown periods with mixed levels of success. For those that attended baby, toddler, and pre-school sport sessions provided by commercial businesses prior to lockdown, the vast majority were eager to resume their in-person classes as opposed to continuing online. Parents perceived a wider range of benefits and cultivation for their child if they attended such classes in person (e.g. expert delivery, socialisation, and routine). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]