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This paper explains the symbols and rituals of sporting events and how symbols, ritually celebrated and performed through song as school spirit, normalise the incorporation of white supremacist ideologies into the everyday lives of a community. These racialised ideologies become normalised, taken for granted meaning without much critical reflection. This paper asks how racist anti-Black sentiment becomes normalised as heritage or tradition. Black American male football players sang this song to a predominantly white audience, the tensions of power, racism, and sport overlapped in ways that seemed to go unnoticed by many. This paper explores ritual and tradition as forms of institutionalised racism framed within the context of heritage and school tradition. I argue ritual symbols, and ritual practice teaching anti-Black and pro-White sentiment becomes learned and passed on through subtle and unmarked practices. School fight songs and sporting traditions are part of the ongoing interconnectedness of race and sport in American college life. If we are to see sport as part of a complicated and expansive practice of leisure, then we must also recognise that sport and leisure are always political. Sport is an integral component to normalisation of racism even when sport denotes fun and entertainment. [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]

The paper reviews several theories about coloniality/modernity, Indigenous land, global securitisation and decolonial feminism in relation to sport mega-events. We use this special issue as an opportunity to reflect[1] which aspects of our own research may have been decolonial, and what is more accurately described as anti-colonial or anti-settlercolonial critique. In this paper, we review four different decolonial theories - coloniality/modernity, Indigenous land; global securitisation and decolonial feminism. We illustrate, and reflect upon, ways we have used these theories in our recent research about the Olympics, FIFA and Egyptian Ultras soccer fans. What became clear was that different decolonial theories helped us produce critiques of colonialism and settler colonialism in sport, but this raised the question whether our critiques of colonialism and settler colonialism are part of decolonisation. Some decolonial feminists suggest that decolonisation happens in the intersubjective, embodied realm of social erotics and queer affinity beyond coloniality. We conclude that, for us, decolonisation only happens within our relationality and process of doing research, from our social locations as queer arabyyah and white researchers respectively, working with and across our colonial differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly anointed American cities of the late capitalist moment appear preoccupied with the reconstitution of urban space. More accurately, select parcels of urban America have been reconfigured into multifaceted sport, leisure and tourism environments designed for the purpose of encouraging consumption-oriented capital accumulation. Within this paper, the focus is a critical exploration of the ways in which tangible and intangible forms of heritage have been employed, utilized and exploited within these urban transformations. Through focus on a city emblematic of the processes that have molded downtown cores under US capitalism - Memphis - the paper points to the role of heritage in the reconfiguration of the Memphian 'tourist bubble'. In particular, discussion centers on the often problematic selection of histories and historical elements, forms and practices within the interests of capital space and thus raises a host of localized questions about whose collective memory is being performed in the present, whose aesthetics really count and who benefits. Conclusions address how such urban space is imbued with power relations, that is, how increasingly leisure-oriented spaces can be seen as important sites of social struggle in which dominant power relations can be constructed, contested and reproduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon Foucault's (1977 , 1998) research methodology of genealogy, the purpose of this paper is to highlight how educational disciplinary techniques utilized by the United States National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) unknowingly normalizes people toward the dominant discourse of white Euro-North American individualistic notions. In particular, the NCTRC uses three types of individualistic technologies of educational discipline: the art of distribution, the examination and the confessional, to create individualistic actions as 'common sense' practice in therapeutic recreation. As the NCTRC attempts to gain a greater international and cross-cultural audience (e.g. Australia, Canada, China, United Kingdom), it may unintentionally assimilate people from different cultures and national backgrounds into a standardized framework of white Euro-North American individualism, which can result in damaging psychological consequences for clients from diverse cultures. The paper concludes by outlining an interdisciplinary therapeutic recreation certification model that is attentive to cross-cultural issues, entitled the Mosaic Certification Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tourism industry. This paper reviews the status of active sport tourism in the US. Taking a lead from sport sociologists who have repeatedly shown that sport in the US is still stratified on the basis of gender, class, and race among others, this paper examines the notion that by its evasiveness active sport tourism has gained mass appeal. Who is the active sport tourist? Are men more likely to be active sport tourists than women? Has active sport tourism become democratized? Male, affluent, and college educated are characteristics that describe the typical active sport tourist. A discussion focusing on gender, race, and social class is used to examine the participation patterns in active sport tourism and to suggest future avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revises an earlier taxonomy of equity models that was published in this journal in 1988. This revised taxonomy consists of three elements. First, it extends the original taxonomy by proposing a set of moral philosophies, positioning them as antecedents of the operational strategies that determine equity outcomes. Six are identified: Rawlsian, egalitarianism, benefit principle, utilitarianism, libertarianism and paternal professionalism. It is suggested that communitarianism offers a philosophical basis for reconciling some of the antithetical perspectives embedded in these six moral philosophies. A second element in the taxonomy suggests the operational criterion flowing from each of the moral philosophies when it is adapted as the basis for policy decisions regarding the allocation of resources to leisure services. The third element identifies 14 operational strategies that determine equity outcomes. Their linkage to operational criteria and moral philosophies is shown. Potential equity consequences and implications of the operational strategies are illustrated and compared by use of a scenario relating the allocation of resources to park land acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the lens of Charles Chesnutt's short story collection, Conjure woman (1899) and other tales of his in the same genre, to focus some of the theoretical problems and ontological struggles existing at the nexus of African-American labour and leisure in the late nineteenth-century US. Specifically, it illuminates an African-American counterculture of incorporation. While the national incorporation of political, economic and cultural interests required the disavowal of black citizenship, African-Americans defended their claims to national inclusion and attempted to repair the ravages of slavery and segregation on black bodies and black memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage tourism has evolved to include study of sub‐segments who travel to attend and participate in historical event re‐enactments. In the US, the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific coast and back again is being commemorated from its point of departure to its end. This paper is an exploratory study of a sample of re‐enactment tourists who attended three of the Lewis and Clark events. The role that re‐enactment tourism plays in heritage tourism is examined and preliminary findings on perceptions of nostalgia and authenticity of the re‐enactment products and events are presented. Preliminary managerial benefits and suggestions for host communities are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an introductory contextualization to dance competition culture's evolution since the early 1980s in relationship to serious leisure. Dance competition culture (which includes the for-profit regional and national competition events focused on jazz, contemporary or lyrical dance, hip hop, tap, and ballet and the dance studios that train dancers for these events) is a significant site for dance training in the United States. Using a physical cultural studies lens in relation to the conceptualization of serious leisure, the article suggests that dance competition culture is shifting towards pre-professional dance training thereby changing dance competition culture from a serious leisure pursuit into vocational training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed methods study explores the relative preference people in the United States have for sharing leisure space in their local urban parks with coyotes. Two rounds of survey data (n= 482) and a series of interviews (n= 28) were conducted. In both survey samples, people preferred to share park space with coyotes less than all other species options (e.g., people experiencing homelessness, off-leashdogs). Interview data suggest that the primary reason for this lack of desire to share park space with coyotes is a perception that coyotes are dangerous for people and pets. This strong level of preference against coyotes has implications for current efforts to promote human-wildlife coexistence strategies in many urban and peri-urban locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As leisure studies and higher education more generally embrace the themes of sustainability and global citizenship, it is important to investigate educational initiatives that purport to achieve these goals. Using transformational theory of transformative learning, this study examined the experiences of 150 US university students who participated in three interdisciplinary short-term study abroad programmes that focus on sustainability in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The programmes are highly experiential with the curriculum structured around modules targeted at a particular destination, visited on a specific programme. At the conclusion of the programmes, the students were asked to reflect on their experiences in response to four open-ended questions. The data were coded by the research team, and guided by the tenets of sustainability and transformative learning theory. Four themes were identified: a new sociocultural understanding; a new connection with the natural world; economic considerations; and making changes. The findings provide insights into some ways US students have been introduced to the need for, and importance of, sustainable practices in daily life. In turn, support is provided for the supposition that programmes that are highly experiential and involve critical reflection have the potential to shift students’ worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Residences located close to urban parks frequently sell at a premium. The increased home values represent a ‘capitalization’ of a park’s value to proximate homeowners and this phenomenon has been termed ‘the proximate principle’. The evolution of the principle from squares and gardens in small private estates to large park areas occurred with the development of Regent’s Park in London. The proximate principle’s dissemination into the new industrial cities of the UK first emerged at Prince’s Park in Liverpool, but it was still confined to private developments. Its transition into the public sector occurred with the development of Birkenhead Park. The data showing that Birkenhead Park was potentially a self-financing venture funded by the enhanced value of proximate profits were widely disseminated and provided the financial rationale for many subsequent urban parks in other UK cities. This principle was absorbed by Frederick Law Olmsted on two early visits to Birkenhead Park and incorporated into the design of Central Park in New York City, the first large urban park in the US. Olmsted meticulously documented the impact of Central Park on adjacent property values and demonstrated that the park made a ‘profit’. These data were crucial in verifying the legitimacy of the proximate principle and in providing the justification for large urban parks in a host of other US cities. Although these data are naïve when viewed through the lens of modern social science, recent studies using sophisticated techniques have confirmed the fundamental legitimacy of the proximate principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family life and expectations for parents have changed dramatically over the past two generations. In the United States these changes have been fuelled by a combination of factors, including a conservative emphasis on traditional family values and fathers as heads of households, a neo-liberal emphasis on individualism and the need for fathers to take responsibility for the development of their children, a liberal feminist emphasis on gender equity in family life, and progressive ideas about the meaning of gender and sexuality. As a result of these factors mothers and fathers today are held responsible for the whereabouts and actions of their children 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This standard, never before used in any society as a baseline measure for good parenting, serves as a foundation for linking the character and achievements of children to the moral worth of parents. Because sports are activities in which a child’s success is visible and objectively measurable, and because fathers are more likely than mothers to have or claim expertise in sports, the development of athletic skills among children is often monitored by fathers who act as coaches, managers, agents, mentors, and advocates for their child athletes. Therefore, the involvement of fathers in youth sports is grounded in complex cultural changes and it has implications for families and father–child relationships. These implications are discussed in light of new expectations that connect the moral worth of parents to the success of their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this investigation we sought to explore the properties of enduring leisure involvement from the perspective of campers attending an agricultural encampment and fair in the United States. Using informants' narratives of their experiences, we sought to address the research question: 'what elements of informants' experience of the fair have sustained their involvement with it throughout their lives?' It was revealed that informants' experiences at the fair were shared experiences and that their relationships with family and friends were identified as the most important and meaningful elements of their experience. These shared meanings were held by members of informants' immediate social world at the fair and consisted primarily of family and friends staying at their tent. These relationships also provided informants with a sense of their own identities. The 10 days spent at the fair each year allowed informants to reconnect with their family history and maintain their relationships with family and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]