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Heritage sites and places are often mobilized to represent a group's identity and sense of place and belonging. This paper will illustrate how heritage and museum visiting, as a leisure activity, facilitates or impedes recognition and redistribution in direct and indirect ways. Drawing on extensive qualitative interviews with visitors to 45 heritage sites and museums in the USA, Australia, and England, the paper demonstrates the importance of emotions in mundane struggles over recognition and misrecognition. How emotions uphold or challenge investments in heritage narratives are examined. The paper argues that heritage and heritage‐making is a valuable focus of analysis that reveals the nuances of how people sustain or impede claims for recognition and redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Contemporary mobilities research has demonstrated a fundamental blurring between work, leisure and tourism practices for migrants as they seek to construct new lifestyles whilst maintaining connections with their homelands. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the results of a research project that analysed the work and leisure experiences of Polish migrants living in the North East of England using a mobilities theoretical approach. In this paper, the authors focus on the reasons influencing their migration and their leisure and tourism mobility practices. Design/methodology/approach: The results are based upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods gathering a sample of 90 questionnaires and 11 focus groups. Findings: Based upon a statistical analysis of the questionnaires using SPSS and textual analysis applied to the focus group transcriptions, different gendered work, leisure and tourism mobilities were identified relating to family attachments and social ties. Research limitations/implications: The authors argue that seemingly mundane leisure and tourism practices can often be a catalyst for greater mobility, and this mobility has significant gender dimensions. Originality/value: This paper thus provides new insights into the interweaving of different gendered work and leisure mobility practices based upon empirical findings of Polish migrants to the North East of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, the arts have become a popular response to dementia. Amidst wider concerns with accessibility, widening participation and audience diversity, coupled with greater attention to creativity across dementia studies, many arts organisations are now offering dementia friendly initiatives. While dementia friendliness has been well-established for almost a decade, the meaning of friendliness remains vague. This paper reports results from a study of how stakeholders navigate this nebulousness when developing their own dementia friendly cultural events. To assess this, we interviewed stakeholders working for arts organisations in the northwest of England. We found that participants built up local informal networks of knowledge exchange, sharing experiences between stakeholders. The dementia friendliness that characterises this network centres on the crafting of vibes that enable people with dementia to 'unhide' themselves. Through this accommodating approach, dementia friendliness converges with stakeholder interests, becoming something of an art form in its own right, typified by active embodied experience, flexible and creative self-expression, and being in-the-moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuting between home and work is routinely performed by workers and any wellbeing impacts of commuting will consequently affect a large proportion of the population. This paper presents findings from analyses of the impact of commuting (time and mode) on multiple aspects of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), including: satisfaction with life overall and the SWB sub-domains of job satisfaction, satisfaction with leisure time availability and self-reported health. Measures of strain and mental health (GHQ-12) are also examined. Six waves of individual-level panel data from Understanding Society (2009/10 to 2014/15) are analysed, providing a sample of over 26,000 workers living in England. Associations between commuting and SWB are identified, paying particular attention to those arising from individual changes in commuting circumstances over the six waves. It is found that longer commute times are associated with lower job and leisure time satisfaction, increased strain and poorer mental health. The strongest association is found for leisure time satisfaction. Despite these negative associations with the SWB sub-domains, longer commute times were not associated with lower overall life satisfaction (except where individuals persisted with them over all six waves). Workers in England appear to be successful in balancing the negative aspects of commuting against the wider benefits, e.g. access to employment, earnings and housing. Differences amongst selected population sub-groups are also examined. The job satisfaction of younger adults and lower income groups are not found to be negatively associated with longer commute times; longer commute times are more strongly negatively associated with the job satisfaction of women compared to men. With respect to mode of transport, walking to work is associated with increased leisure time satisfaction and reduced strain. The absence of the commute, via working from home, is associated with increased job satisfaction and leisure time satisfaction. Overall, the study indicates that shorter commute times and walkable commutes can contribute to improved SWB—particularly through the release of leisure time. But life satisfaction overall will only be maintained if the benefits of undertaking the commute (earnings and satisfactory housing/employment) are not compromised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in unprecedented restrictions on citizen's freedom of movement as governments moved to institute lockdowns designed to reduce the spread of the virus. While most out-of-home leisure activities were prohibited, in England the lockdown rules allowed for restricted use of outdoor greenspace for the purposes of exercise and recreation. In this paper, we use data recorded by Google from location-enabled mobile devices coupled with a detailed recreation demand model to explore the welfare impacts of those constraints on leisure activities. Our analyses reveals evidence of large-scale substitution of leisure time towards recreation in available greenspaces. Indeed, despite the restrictions the economic value of greenspace to the citizens of England fell by only £150 million over lockdown. Examining the outcomes of counterfactual policies we find that the imposition of stricter lockdown rules would have reduced welfare from greenspace by £1.14 billion. In contrast, more relaxed lockdown rules would have delivered an aggregate increase in the economic value of greenspace equal to £1.47 billion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Active People Survey data (collected 2011/12 to 2015/16) on 789,196 English adults, providing new information on how a range of socio-demographic factors are associated with utility and leisure cycling. Substantial inequalities are found in relation to gender, age, disability, and ethnicity for both types of cycling. For gender and age, and perhaps for disability in relation to recreational cycling, inequalities are moderated by local cycling prevalence such that English authorities with more cycling see less inequality. For education and car ownership, the picture is more mixed. Individuals with higher educational levels are more likely to participate in leisure cycling, but within most English local authorities this association is absent for utility cycling. Car ownership is negatively associated with utility cycling, but positively associated with recreational cycling. The paper’s discussion section puts these inequalities in context, and discusses the significance of the fact that some inequalities seem to be less pronounced or even absent in some contexts. It is argued that more research and a broader conceptualisation of cycling inequalities are needed to better understand and address inequalities in cycling participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the role of scuba diving therapy in growth experiences of ex-servicemen. Previous research has focused on difficulties arising from re-entering civilian life after deployment. Known mental health challenges occurring after severe combat related trauma exposure include depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, less is known about the potential positive transformation which can occur when individuals navigate these challenges. Known facilitators of this positive transformation, often referred to as posttraumatic growth (PTG), are still sparse in this participant pool. This study utilized an in-depth qualitative approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis utilizing semi-structured interviews. A homogeneous sample of five male British ex-service personnel with a diagnosis of PTSD who identified with PTG was recruited. All participants reported positive mental health benefits from diving with four themes emerging: human connection; meaningful leisure; embodiment; and the calm. Scuba diving appeared to afford instant access to lasting relief of anxiety, stress, and symptoms of PTSD and reduction of physical symptoms of their trauma connected to underwater weightlessness. The reduction of PTSD symptoms carved space for PTG, facilitated through a meaningful leisure environment with opportunities for human connection with individuals who had gone through similar experiences. Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) respond less well to conventional treatments for PTSD than civilian populations. Scuba diving has the potential to benefit veterans by giving access to relief from anxiety and symptoms of PTSD, such as hypervigilance and invasive thoughts. Scuba diving not only reduces symptoms of physical and psychological ill health but can facilitate wellbeing and growth. Scuba diving, as a meaningful leisure activity, could potentially enhance medical and psychological therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dementia-friendly communities (DFCs) are one way in which people living with dementia can be supported to be active, engaged and valued citizens. Quantitative evaluations of the experiences of those with dementia living within these communities are scarce. This article reports findings from a survey of people living with dementia on their experience of living in a DFC. Two-hundred and forty people living with dementia completed a cross-sectional survey in six DFCs across England. Around half of respondents reported they were aware they were living in a DFC. Being aware of living in a DFC was associated with taking part in leisure activities (p = 0.042), community centre attendance (p = 0.009), being involved in organised activities or groups (p < 0.001), feeling understood (p = 0.008), and feeling valued for their own contributions to the community (p = 0.002). This study illustrates the contribution that surveys can make in facilitating the expression of views and experiences of people living with dementia. Awareness of living within a DFC is associated with greater involvement in, and belonging to, the wider community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhood planning was the first volunteer-led statutory planning tool to be created in the UK. Whilst it has provoked debate and critique covering numerous practical and theoretical aspects, little attention has been paid to the actual experience and motives of the volunteers who spend their leisure time by volunteering to prepare a plan. Given the range of leisure activities that have been shaped in the context of a neo-liberalised policy environment, we add to longstanding debates concerning the political nature of leisure and how neo-liberal policies require, and exploit, volunteer time and input while claiming to offer forms of empowerment. Qualitative data derived from neighbourhood plan volunteers is presented here to highlight the political work of neighbourhood planning, thus responding to calls to extend the analysis of the political in and through leisure. It is argued that neighbourhood planning pushes the boundaries of what can be legitimately asked of volunteers and expected in terms of delivering policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skipton, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is an old mill town that has seen tourists flocking to it since the arrival of the railway in the 19th century. Like many other old mill towns in northern England, Skipton has lost those mills-as-factories and the workers in them—and has struggled to retain a sustainable local economy. At the same time, Skipton has become increasingly gentrified, and has become a focus for day visitors and tourists attracted by the beautiful countryside seen when Le Tour de France came through Yorkshire in 2014. In this article, we explore the area of Skipton, dubbed the Canal Quarter. We focus on the leisure spaces that have opened there as attempts to construct alternative, authentic experiences around the consumption of real ale, the performance of live music, and the curation of second-hand vinyl records. We have previously explored how these might be shown to be a space for Habermasian rationality. In this sequel, we use critical theory to show how the alternative, authentic space of vinyl, real ale, and live music has already been compromised by two conflicting hegemonic powers: the cooption of leisure into the economics of tourism and tourism policy, and the meaninglessness of cool capitalism and Bauman's consumer society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness in later life is a common problem with poor health outcomes. However, interventions to prevent or ameliorate loneliness have a weak evidence base. The views of older people experiencing or at risk of loneliness in the community are important in identifying features of potential support, but have been little studied. Twenty-eight community dwelling people, aged 65 and over who reported being 'lonely much of the time' or identified as lonely from the de Jong Gierveld six-item loneliness scale in a larger study, participated in in-depth interviews, between June 2013 and May 2014. Views and experiences on seeking support from primary care and community based one-to-one and group based activities, including social and shared interest groups, were explored. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was conducted by a multidisciplinary team, including older people. Using two different measures of loneliness enabled a spectrum of loneliness experience to be explored. Two-thirds of the participants were the 'younger old' and all were able to leave their homes independently. Older people with characteristics of loneliness were generally knowledgeable about local social and community resources but, for the majority, community and primary care based services for their loneliness were not considered desirable or helpful at this point in their lives. However, group based activities with a shared interest were thought preferable to one-to-one support (befriending) or groups with a social focus. Descriptions of support as being for loneliness and specific to older people discouraged engagement. Older people experiencing or at risk of loneliness did not consider that primary care has a role in alleviating loneliness because it is not an illness. They thought primary care practitioners lack understanding of non-physical problems and that a good relationship was necessary to discuss sensitive issues like loneliness. For many, loneliness was a complex and private matter that they wished to manage without external support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families with children with disabilities can feel isolated during school holidays and concerns exist that they face greater difficulties than families of children without disabilities in finding enriching activities for their child. In the context of national policies that encourage integrated play, local service commissioners in England require evidence on what sort of short breaks parents and children prefer. The parents of 99 children with disabilities and 43 children without disabilities attending various holiday play schemes in summer 2010 completed mailed questionnaires. Parents of children with disabilities reported more difficulty getting information, less choice of schemes and further distances to travel than parents of children without disabilities. Although 72% of parents of children without disabilities and 55.5% of parents of children with disabilities stated integrated schemes would be suitable for their child, open text comments provided weaker support. Variety of provision is required to meet all needs and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the Give-it-a-Go programme, which offers free leisure centre memberships to physically inactive members of the public in a single London Borough receiving state benefits.Methods: A decision analytic Markov model was developed to analyse lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) of 1025 people recruited to the intervention versus no intervention. In the intervention group, people were offered 4 months of free membership at a leisure centre. Physical activity levels were assessed at 0 and 4 months using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Higher levels of physical activity were assumed to decrease the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes mellitus type II, as well as improve mental health. Costs were assessed from a National Health Service (NHS) perspective. Uncertainty was assessed using one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.Results: One-hundred fifty nine participants (15.5 %) completed the programme by attending the leisure centre for 4 months. Compared with no intervention, Give it a Go increased costs by £67.25 and QALYs by 0.0033 (equivalent to 1.21 days in full health) per recruited person. The incremental costs per QALY gained were £20,347. The results were highly sensitive to the magnitude of mental health gain due to physical activity and the duration of the effect of the programme (1 year in the base case analysis). When the mental health gain was omitted from the analysis, the incremental cost per QALY gained increased to almost £1.5 million. In the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the incremental costs per QALY gained were below £20,000 in 39 % of the 5000 simulations.Conclusions: Give it a Go did not significantly increase life-expectancy, but had a positive influence on quality of life due to the mental health gain of physical activity. If the increase in physical activity caused by Give it a Go lasts for more than 1 year, the programme would be cost-effective given a willingness to pay for a QALY of £20,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As access to photographs and improved housing increased from the turn of the century, images of front and back gardens taken by or for householders became a popular form of domestic photography. While all kinds of streets were photographed in this way, those built for an expanding artisan and clerical class who migrated to London's 'bye-law' suburbs form a significant proportion of surviving images. Carefully delineated photographs of terraced and semi-detached house fronts and back gardens may be read as individual records of family advancement and personal celebrations of the space and privacy of the new homes. Yet specific forms of these photographs were designed for sharing beyond the family, creating a semi-public visual culture and a dispersed photographic record of the exteriors of the working-class and lower-middle-class suburban house. Using representative examples of two groups of these sources-photographic postcards and readers' photographs published in Amateur Gardening magazine-this essay explores how and why the inhabitants of London's outer suburbs presented themselves, at home in their gardens, to family, friends and fellow gardeners. It finds that both photography and gardening could be social pastimes, and that through their exchange, these 'suburban' photographs reflected and even consciously demonstrated social progress in the form of increased leisure time and self-contained space in which to exercise it productively at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]