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Young people from refugee backgrounds have been repeatedly denied the ability to lead a life that they value. Community sport and leisure has been positioned as a tool to foster positive wellbeing experiences for these young people living in Western resettlement countries. Drawing on qualitative data from a Participatory Action Research project in London, England, we apply Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach to examine how the young people made sense of and negotiated their interconnecting capabilities through the sport and leisure programme. We examine three key interconnections between the capabilities of (a) life, bodily health and play; (b) affiliation and emotion and (c) bodily integrity and control over the environment. The findings are significant in ensuring sport and leisure provides opportunities for young people from refugee backgrounds to engage in positive wellbeing experiences and for enabling them and those supporting them to know and challenge harmful practices that may restrict capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this special issue is to encourage critical theoretical and methodological reflection on the broad topic of leisure and wellbeing. Haworth ([27]) emphasised that while the relationship between leisure and positive or optimal experience was already an established field of enquiry, there had been little opportunity for debate about linking such research and policy agendas focused on the concept of wellbeing. Our contributors discuss issues connected to subjective wellbeing in leisure policy and practice, focusing on themes such as identity, leisure, happiness, spirituality, difference, and cultural diversity in the leisure sphere. The authors propose that adventure satisfies multiple and overlapping psychological needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness and beneficence, and the significance of this type of meaning-making has policy and practice implications beyond adventure recreation for schooling, public health and urban and rural planning. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one which examines policy issues and access to inland water resources for outdoor leisure and recreation in Wales, another which discusses temporal changes in policy towards noisy sports in Great Britian, and a report on environmental impacts of leisure consumption in Norway.