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This paper introduces the recent revision of the WLO Charter for Leisure. It presents the background and underlying reasons for the revision, positions the Charter in the global human rights system...

Time for “rest and leisure” is one of the human rights established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR). Count...

The Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) divides leisure activity into three forms: serious, casual and project-based, each with a number of distinguishing qualities, rewards, costs and benefits. It i...

Recent decades have seen efforts by open space/recreation planners to provide an alternative to traditional population-ratio and area-percentage planning standards. Traditional standards have been ...

In economically advanced countries in recent years, working hours of many full-time employees have been static or increasing and there has been talk of people suffering from a “time squeeze”. Resea...

One of the most widely cited definitions of leisure is that presented by Joffre Dumazedier, originally published in 1962 and based on three functions of leisure identified in his empirical research...

Wilkinson and Pickett, in their 2009 book The Spirit Level, found that, in rich countries, income inequality was negatively associated with a range of indicators of well-being, but they did not consider the relationship with volunteering. This paper seeks to fill that gap. Using existing data sources, it shows that, among European countries, higher levels of volunteering are associated with lower levels of income inequality. The relationship is particularly strong for regular and sport-related volunteering. The basic Spirit Level thesis is therefore confirmed as applicable to volunteering. However, while the thesis involves just one theoretical explanation for the income inequality/well-being relationship, namely status anxiety, in the case of volunteering, other variables are also found to be at play, including government social spending, available leisure time and geo-historical traditions. It is concluded that, while high levels of volunteering, as a form of social capital, can be seen as one of a number of features of more equal societies, disentangling cause and effect may require a more holistic approach to understanding its contribution to the generation and sustaining of social well-being.

Original article:A. J. Veal, K. Toohey, & S. Frawley. (2012). The sport participation legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and other international sporting events hosted in Australia. Journal of...

The serious leisure perspective (SLP), which divides leisure activities into three distinct forms (serious, casual, and project-based), has been developed by Robert Stebbins over the last 40 years. This article evaluates the perspective as theory and as a typology. The theory associated with the SLP concerning social worlds, identification, and optimal leisure lifestyles is found to be generally untested because it has been developed in relation to the serious leisure form only. The validity of the typology is questioned on the grounds that “seriousness” is a continuum, rather than discrete categories, and that most leisure activities can be engaged in with varying degrees of seriousness. It is proposed that the SLP be replaced by a more flexible, open research approach, the Leisure Experience Perspective, which consolidates features of the SLP and other research traditions and theoretical perspectives.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, endorsed by the United Nations in 1948, includes the right to leisure time, to cultural participation and to travel. While the idea of human rights permeates many aspects of national and international life, it has not permeated the field of leisure studies to any great extent. The purpose of this paper is not to remedy this situation but to argue that this neglect is unjustified and to suggest that leisure researchers might incorporate the idea of human rights and leisure rights into their work. The paper is divided into six main parts. First, it considers the parallels between the neglect of human rights in sociology and in leisure studies. Second, it considers the basis of human rights in general. Third, it examines the nature of the leisure rights declared in the Universal Declaration. Fourth, the place of leisure in the general critique of economic, social and cultural rights is assessed. Fifth, the relationship between human rights and a number of themes in ...

This paper was prompted by the publication in Britain in 2009 of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which attracted considerable comment, both positive and negative and both substantive and methodological. The book claimed to show that, on a range of health and social measures of well-being, rich countries with more equal income distributions tended to perform better than those with less equal income distributions. Leisure time and behaviour were not among the indicators of well-being included and, while some researchers have sought to fill this gap, the range of leisure indicators used to date has been limited. This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and leisure time on a world-wide basis, and ten measures of cultural participation and two of sport and physical recreation participation in European countries. Efforts are made to address some of the methodological criticisms which have been made of The Spirit Lev...

Leisure and the Family Life Cycle was published in 1975 when the field of leisure studies in Britain was in its infancy: the Leisure Studies Association was formed in the same year, the first issue...

For almost a quarter of a century, Anthony Veal’s planning and policy textbooks have provided a comprehensive overview of why and how important decisions are made in the leisure and tourism industr...

While national standards for open space planning have long been subject to criticism, their use is still advocated in a number of Australian state planning guidelines, even if only as a ‘starting point’. This suggests that the British and American origins of open space standards commonly used in Australia are believed by some to have at least a modicum of credibility. This paper seeks to establish documented evidence of the link between Australian standards and their British and American origins and to examine the scientific basis for the latter. It was found to be impossible to establish clear, explicit and documented statements of such links. Furthermore, it was found that, in the case of American standards, the responsible organisation was itself unable to explain their basis and abandoned their use in 1996. In the case of British standards, it is found that they were based on estimated demand for sport in Britain in 1925, have remained substantially unchanged since the 1930s and do not includ...

Open space is often neglected in academic discussion of leisure policy, yet local authorities in England are responsible for 94,000 ha of formal parks, 4400 ha of equipped playgrounds and 285,000 h...

The legacy of an Olympic Games in a host city or country can take a variety of forms, including non-sporting benefits, such as enhanced urban infrastructure and national and international tourism profile, and sporting benefits, such as improved sporting facilities, strengthened sports organisations and potential increases in grassroots sport participation. This paper concentrates on the last of these, particularly in regard to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The paper examines claims by the Olympic movement concerning increased sports participation as a legacy and examines available evidence to consider whether the hosting of the Games boosted sports participation in Australia. While some estimates suggest that participation did increase following the hosting of the 2000 Olympics, the failure of relevant organisations to maintain an adequate and consistent data collection regime makes this conclusion extremely speculative. From 2001 onwards, with the existence of a more stable data collection system and increasing awareness of the idea of a sport participation legacy, it is possible to make more reliable estimates of the pattern of grassroots sports participation following the hosting of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. However, even when reliable and consistent participation data are available, the question of causality in the context of the wider sport development and participation system remains to be addressed. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The “leisure society thesis” was developed primarily in the 1960s and 1970s and a recent paper in the World Leisure Journal summarised the relevant literature from that period and analysed contemporary recollections of it (Veal, 2011). This paper follows the story of the leisure society thesis since 1980. Set against the background of discussions of work and leisure in periods of high unemployment, the work ethic, working hours, post-work and work–life balance, the paper reviews the post-1980 offerings of proponents, analysts and critics of the leisure society thesis. A four-fold typology of leisure society conceptualisations and reduced-work future scenarios is proposed, comprising: the current leisure society; the evolutionary leisure society; the leisure society as a political project; and other reduced-work scenarios/projects. The second half of the paper reviews literature that is analytical, ambivalent and/or definitional regarding the leisure society thesis and that which is critical. This involves...

Recent discussion in the World Leisure Journal has raised the issue of the place of the “leisure society thesis” in the development of leisure studies. Some have argued that the thesis was a key, but misconceived, “project” of the early phase of leisure studies which has done lasting damage to the leisure studies brand. Others argue that the thesis was a passing preoccupation which has long since been superseded and is no longer of relevance. In this paper, it is noted that recollections of the leisure studies thesis in its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s are often unspecific and at times ill-informed. The paper is not a defence or critique of the leisure society thesis but an attempt to establish a more accurate history through discussion of five myths: 1. that portrayals of the leisure society in the 1960s and 1970s invariably involved visions of the future; 2. that there was a consensus within the leisure studies community concerning a future leisure society; 3. that the thesis was a significant feature ...

In recognition of the principle that quantitative methods have a role to play in gender-related studies of leisure, alongside qualitative methods, this paper draws on past and current official Australian national surveys to examine men's time use and leisure participation patterns. Three frequently asserted observations on leisure and gender, and men's leisure behaviour in particular, are addressed. First, the proposition that early survey-based leisure research was ‘gender blind’ is shown to have not generally been the case in Australia. Second, it is shown that, while it is broadly true that men have more leisure time than women, this is not the case for some key socio-demographic groups. Third, the observation that men have higher levels of participation in leisure activities than women often relies on data on sport and physical recreational activities only, but when a comprehensive definition of leisure is adopted, including such categories as cultural activity and informal outdoor recreation, and whe...

by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, London, Allen Lane, 2009, 331 pp., £10.99 (paperback), ISBN 9780241954294 In The Spirit Level, British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett use ...

On the basis of a review of some 82 sets of official, professional and academic English-language guidelines, this paper1 evaluates eight rationales, goals and associated planning approaches for planning for leisure, sport, tourism and the arts: (1) meeting standards; (2) providing opportunity; (3) managing (natural/heritage) resources; (4) meeting demand; (5) satisfying stakeholder groups; (6) meeting needs; (7) meeting participation targets; and (8) providing (net) benefits. A number of the approaches are found to suffer from limitations that are generally overlooked by the guidelines reviewed. While guidelines are often strong in providing advice on data collection, they are invariably weak in regard to data analysis and the relationships between goal setting, data analysis and policy formation. A single solution to the difficulties identified is not offered, but it is concluded that a yet to be developed demand/participation/benefits-based approach to planning would offer a way forward.

© 2011, Copyright 2011 Taylor and Francis Group LLC. This paper looks back to an international comparative study of sports participation in seven European countries that was carried out in the late 1990s, COMPASS 1999. The original COMPASS study used data from the 1995-1997 period. This paper reviews the COMPASS framework and results, considers what new evidence is available to update the original COMPASS results, and considers what changes would be needed to the COMPASS approach if a new comparative study were undertaken today. Finally, the paper attempts to find explanations for the European pattern of sports participation revealed.

Karl Spracklen's Leisure, Sports & Society is an introductory textbook on the sociology of leisure with, as the title indicates, an emphasis on sport. The latter is evident in the choice of example...

Urban parks are a significant feature of the urban environment and constitute a significant budget commitment on the part of local councils and some state governments, but they are relatively neglected, and often ignored, in mainstream leisure studies. This paper examines two themes in existing urban parks research, namely the ‘non-use and decline’ theme and the theme of equity. The review concludes that the ‘accepted wisdom’ on non-use and decline of urban parks is questionable and contrary to available empirical evidence and that leisure studies discourses which ignore urban parks as a leisure sector give a distorted view of the equity outcomes of public leisure services as measured by patterns of usage. The paper presents data from recent surveys of park use in Sydney, Australia, which indicate that visiting urban parks is the most popular of all out-of-home leisure activities and, unlike a number of other public leisure services, urban parks attract high levels of use from virtually all sectio...

Tourism degree programs generally incorporate a wide range of disciplinary inputs. These include, first, a full range of business-related disciplines, such as marketing, economics, quantitative methods and research methods, accounting and management. Second, a range of other disciplines in which tourism research has developed, is included, such as environmental planning, psychology and sociology. In some programs technical skills are also developed, such as travel agency work, hospitality or recreation leadership. Tourism is not the first area of study to face this problem; earlier examples include education, town planning, leisure studies and general business degrees, including the MBA. But, arguably, tourism embraces a wider range of disciplines than these earlier examples. The challenge is how to select and package the material from such a wide range of sources to provide students with sufficient grounding in each of the fields, but also to form a coherent whole related to the phenomenon of tourism - all in the space of a single three-year degree program. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that students must not only master the basics of each of the disciplines -any one of which can be studied inits own right for a three-year degree - but they must also master a growing body of specialist applied research material in most of the fields. Drawing on experience in Australia, this paper raises the question of what frameworks should be used to assist students to make sense of such a diverse range of material.

The paper focuses on gambling as a form of leisure and notes that, despite its prevalence around the world, it has been relatively neglected in the leisure studies literature to date. An historical approach is used to analyse the struggles between competing social and economic forces over the legitimacy of gambling in Australia, and over the development of casinos in particular. A framework for the study of leisure as a marginal, contested activity is presented. This framework focuses on competing arguments for and against gambling as espoused by various groups in the public debates over gambling policies in Australia and other Western countries. The proposition is developed that, while millions of participants are attracted to gambling as a leisure activity, the recent growth of legal opportunities to gamble in Australia, particularly in casinos, has been sanctioned almost entirely on the basis of economic arguments.

One particular strategy employed by governments and government agencies to promote sport participation has been to support the hosting of international sport events. Governments and their agencies are increasingly identifying the promotion of grassroots-sport participation as one of the opportunities, and anticipated outcomes, of hosting a mega-sport event such as the Olympic Games. For example, in regard to the London 2012 Olympic Games, UK Sport (2005) has stated that ‘a comprehensive development strategy will encourage participation and boost all levels of a sport — everything from assisting potential medal winners to inspiring children to take up sport’ (p. 74). Given the considerable amounts of public funds that are spent in the staging of mega-sport events, it is inevitable that there will be calls for evidence of the effectiveness of such events in delivering the promised outcomes, including sport-participation outcomes.

(1994). Intersubjectivity and the transatlantic divide: a comment on Glancy (and Ragheb and Tate) Leisure Studies: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 211-215.

The paper is a review of literature and an analysis of the concept of lifestyle and its relationship to leisure. In the first part of the paper the review is divided into nine sections covering Weberian, sub-cultural, psychological, market research and psychographics, leisure/tourism styles, spatial, socialist lifestyles, consumer culture, gender, and miscellaneous approaches. In the second part of the paper a number of themes are identified and their roles in defining lifestyle are discussed; these are: activities/behaviour; values and attitudes; individuals versus groups; group interaction, coherence, recognisability and choice. In conclusion, a definition of lifestyle is offered and a brief indication of a research agenda is presented.