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Adopting the social survey as an analytical tool, this paper explores the origins of a sociology of leisure. Modern social understandings of leisure were formed in the expansion of the social sciences in the late nineteenth century in parallel with the growth of systematic and scientifically informed social work. In both Great Britain and the United States of America the survey became a widely adopted method of gathering data to inform social work. Through advances in social work and the settlement movement’s association with universities an embryonic sociology of leisure had emerged by 1914. After the First World War leisure became a field of policy discourse in post-war reconstruction and the subject of large scale surveys in both countries. These surveys give insight to new and changing sociological understandings of leisure which provided the foundations for the formal recognition of leisure as a sociological field in the late twentieth century.

In this article, I contend that the sociology of leisure in particular and leisure studies in general has been shaped by adult-centric assumptions which have marginalized children’s perspectives on and experiences of leisure within theory building exercises. Consequently, leisure researchers who do empirical work on children’s leisure have largely eschewed critical debates about children’s agency, social positioning and lived citizenship among others that have been developed by the ‘new’ sociology of childhood. Failure to build bridges with other areas of scholarship such as sociological childhood studies, has intensified the intellectual isolation of leisure research. Here, I propose a sustained dialogue between leisure studies and childhood studies which will not only widen the intellectual breadth of leisure theory and make it more inclusive, but also enable leisure studies to have an impact on the new social studies of childhood. In illustrating what such a collaboration might entail, I outline a conceptual schema of three interlocking genres of children’s leisure – namely organized, family and casual leisure – based on existing studies conducted by researchers in leisure, childhood and family studies that offer a roadmap for the development of a new critical sociology of children’s leisure.

This concluding chapter summarizes all the chapters in this volume on positive sociology of leisure (PSL), while identifying common themes across them. Some of the common themes are represented in the book’s sections: meanings of leisure; aging; gender, sexuality, and family; community, youth, and education; and arts and creativity. In addition to these section themes, we also note several common characteristics of PSL, including a balanced view of leisure phenomena, lifespan perspective, methodological diversity, interdisciplinarity, and representations of different cultures. The chapter also outlines three main tasks to be addressed in the future PSL studies, including theory development, evidence building based on various methods, and cultural diversity.

This introduction chapter describes the origin of this book project and the field of positive sociology of leisure (PSL), drawing on Stebbins’ works and the positive sociology movement. The chapter also defines PSL as an area of research that examines social aspects of leisure life with a focus on the optimal functioning of relationship, group, community, organization, and other social units. Moreover, PSL is connected to the extant leisure studies literature to show that there is a history of PSL-like works in the field. Yet, the chapter also points out that more focused and articulated PSL research is necessary to further advance happiness studies and leisure studies. Lastly, it provides an overview of the rest of this book’s structure.

The starting point of this article is that the ultimate objective of sociology so far as the study\ud of leisure is concerned should be with understanding the ways in which twenty-first century\ud modern men and women attempt to reconcile the demands of individuality and community\ud (aka freedom and security) by focusing on what they choose to do when they can do anything\ud at all. The first introductory part sets up the rest of the article by offering a brief critique of\ud the sociology of leisure which operates with the somewhat startling assertion that in modern\ud societies leisure is largely consumerist in orientation and that as a result freedom is a fiction.\ud Counteracting this assertion with a startling one of its own it is subsequently argued that the\ud twentieth century interregnum saw modernity radically revise its modernity which led to a\ud transformation in the power of human agency and emergence of the insistent voice ‘I too am\ud in individual’. Taking as its starting point Peter Sloterdijk’s reading of Nietzsche’s imperative\ud to ‘Become who you are’ articulated passionately in his book You must change your life\ud (2013), the second part of the article argues that in the twenty-first century terms like\ud authentic leisure and consumerist leisure, work and leisure are not antithetical to one another,\ud and there is a radical need to rethink how people give meaning and order to their lives though\ud their leisure pursuits. Here the article explores the relationship between Sloterdijk’s concept\ud of anthropotechnics, the art of living and leisure. The next part of the article fleshes out the\ud theory of devotional leisure which is one part of a more embracing project set out in the book\ud Re-imagining leisure studies (Blackshaw 2017). Here the article explores two contrasting\ud ways of understanding devotional leisure practice, namely ‘devotional leisure’ and\ud ‘performative leisure’ by drawing respectively on the examples of surfing and car cruising.\ud The article concludes with an attempt to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory forms\ud of devotional leisure practice with a discussion of urban exploration, speculating that their\ud uniqueness to one another is never absolute, and the more you perceive their particularity, the\ud more you understand their double nature, as simultaneously aspects of a third endeavour.

There is a great realization that a professor teaching an introductory or philosophical foundations course in the field of leisure studies comes to, if that professor may not be from the dominant culture of most Western societies. This realization is as stark as their numerical presence in their respective departments. Why are the philosophical foundations of the field devoid of the experiences, voices, and perspectives populations of color, or even more broadly, the populations of the global majority? And, why is there an absence of historical discussions on the field’s role in perpetrating or condoning activities that hindered or constrained populations of color full access, enjoyment, and articulation of leisure? As we move forward in the field more globally, thinking and discussing the new and progressive ways that we can conceive the sociology of leisure, it is imperative that we rethink our philosophical foundations in reconciliation of the potential harm it may have caused (and may continue to harm) and the actual good it can invoke in assisting the myriad of scholars who are pushing more progressive efforts for a critical leisure paradigm (Spracklen, Lashua, Sharpe and Swain, 2017). The objectives of this manuscript are: 1) to briefly categorize the research in the field on Race and ethnicity; 2) to outline the key canonical texts of the field; 3) to consider and reconceptualize a racially and ethnically inclusive foundation for the field utilizing The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study as an example; and, 4) to identify some of the specific areas that this change and inclusion would impact or realign the field’s history.

Starting with Veblen the rocky career of the sociology of leisure is traced up to the present. The field grows slowly during the first half of the twentieth century in North America and Britain and then from approximately 1950 to 1970 it enjoys a spurt of research. After that mainstream sociology in various ways abandons its progeny referred to here as subdisciplinary sociology of leisure. Fortunately, interdisciplinary sociology of leisure comes alive and continues to develop a vibrant, research-based conceptual foundation anchored in new ideas bubbling up from the interdisciplinary side and trickling down from the disciplinary mainstream. Despite this ferment the sociological mainstream remains seriously out of touch with what is happening in the sociological part of interdisciplinary leisure studies. This is most unfortunate. Leisure activities are universal and widely sought after. They are thus positive, a quality of social life to which mainstream sociology, being problem-centered, has given short shrift.

Research over the last 20 years has contributed to the conceptualization and theorizing about family leisure. Missing from this body of knowledge has been research that focuses on the provision of family leisure programs and services that includes the perspectives of practitioners. Also missing from this research are the perspectives of those who engage in programs and services that have been designed for or offered to families. The first purpose of this article is to, through a discussion of the literature, demonstrate the potential value of engaging recreation and leisure agencies in research that advances knowledge about how family leisure is practiced in program and service contexts. The second purpose is to identify potential areas of inquiry that not only will contribute to advancing theory about family leisure but also support practice in delivering recreation and leisure programs and services for families.

In this special issue of Leisure Sciences, we examine the progress made and challenges ahead in research on leisure and families—20 years revisited. We consider what advancements have been made in family leisure research and potential new directions that family-centered scholars can look towards. We also consider the dominance of particular theoretical perspectives and methodological designs, and the limitations and consequences of such perspectives, to understand the complexities, diversity, and richness of the lived family experience. Emphasis is placed on the need for scholarship that explores diverse constructions of family and to provide a call to action for family-centered scholars to engage with broader global social issues.

The continued focus on the individual as a unit of analysis, along with the privileging of the nuclear family over the past two decades of family leisure scholarship, has rendered grandparents virtually invisible in family leisure scholarship. In this commentary, I examine the position of grandparents in leisure research and suggest that the implicit acceptance of the status quo has been detrimental to the state of family leisure research. Drawing on literature from both leisure studies and family relations, I assert a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of diverse family forms is vital to the progression of family leisure scholarship.

The purpose of this study was to identify and summarize to what extent articles in leisure journals have focused on and critically examined the relationship between leisure and sustainability. The study was conducted using content analysis of articles in leisure journals over the past decade (2005–2015) including: Leisure/Loisir, Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Studies, Leisure Sciences, World Leisure, Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management and Journal of Ecotourism. The results indicate that while some contributions to advance sustainability are emerging in leisure journals, there is a need for more explicit links between leisure and sustainability in the literature. The paper highlights areas where leisure research could be making stronger contributions to advance sustainability moving forward including questioning the relationship between leisure and sustainability, determinin...

It was not until the 1970s that work by Neulinger, Kelly, and Csikszentmihalyi brought the constructs of perceived freedom and intrinsic motivation to the forefront of leisure research. Since then, perceived freedom and intrinsic motivation continue to be paramount in our quest to fully understand leisure studies, the conceptualization of leisure, as well as past and recent theoretical developments in leisure studies. This paper discusses how the ideas of perceived freedom and intrinsic motivation, implicit in the conception of leisure for years, have evolved through the major theoretical developments that have occurred in the field. This paper also looks at how these developments have implicated contemporary research in leisure studies, thus laying a basis for future research leading to a deeper understanding of leisure theory, practice, and conceptualization. It is concluded that, although somewhat slow, a progressive shift from social empiricism to social analysis has taken place in leisure studies res...

A 12-year-old boy is shot in a public park on the grounds of being a threat, yet despite the locational relevance there was a silence within leisure research. With this in mind, the aim of this manuscript is a manifesto on the manner that leisure-related research on race, social justice, quality of life, and leisure studies (more broadly, as an academy) must confront the silence with dealing with racism as structural and systematic. If we are to advocate in varying ways on the right of populations to enjoy the life sustaining opportunities that are afforded to them as citizens through leisure, then we must also hold ourselves accountable when those very leisure settings fail to deliver on that promise, and become life-threatening. Tamir Rice, is a case of the duality of silence on the structural nature of racism while also an opportunity to assert a social relevance for leisure research.

Leisure is a major sphere of both private and public life. It is thus of concern that the identity and profile of leisure in the Higher Education curriculum of the UK has become less obvious over the past decade. This trend is not peculiar to leisure studies; the social sciences as a whole are considered to be under threat as neo-liberal discourse increasingly informs Higher Education strategic management. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential reasons for the reduced status of leisure studies in HE institutions within the UK and to contribute to a theoretical basis of a counter-argument for the social and economic benefits of retaining leisure studies as a unifying field. We present a loosely diachronic account of the emergence and growth of leisure studies as a subject field, followed by a discussion of the impact of neo-liberal thinking on UK Higher Education. The principal challenge to leisure studies is to establish its importance and relevance to others within the social sciences. We propose a need for more academics to engage in ideational ‘border crossings’ to advance thinking in different subjects and disciplines; those subjects that may be under threat in the current climate of Higher Education (like leisure studies) may benefit from exploring opportunities to collaborate with those from outside of their immediate subject area.

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 aim of the article is to identify constraining and enabling aspects for the management of leisure time for women participating in ‘Football Fitness’, a new ‘sport for all programme’ carried out in associative sport clubs in Denmark. The article is based on six focus group interviews with white, middle-class female participants (N = 32, aged 27–56). An analysis combining Hochschild’s conceptualization of the second and third shift [1989. The Second Shift. New York: Avon] with Elias and Dunning’s perspective on leisure as part of the spare-time spectrum and leisure sport as a quest for excitement [1986. Quest for Excitement. Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process. New York: Basil Blackwell] demonstrates that leisure sport participation must be understood in relation to both spare time, family life, and work life, as these spheres are interrelated. According to the women, both doing and planning housework are constraining for their leisure sport participation. On the other hand, Football Fit...

The purpose of this paper is to present a balanced and systematic leisure education service model using Eastern and Western perspectives. The term leisure education describes a multi-faceted, dynamic process that promotes exploration of perspectives and opportunities intended to develop an ethic of positivity and savouring that is conducive to flow, arousal, and leisure. Leisure education is designed to stimulate self-awareness, promote acquisition of leisure-related knowledge, and encourage skill development that enhances self-determination by meeting needs for autonomy, competence, and social connections, which are influenced by a variety of factors and people including family members, educators, leisure service providers, and neighbours. These leisure education services are applied across diverse audiences in various venues across the world designed to facilitate the interrelated positive experiences of leisure, happiness, and flourishing.

Joffre Dumazedier's work has, since the mid-1970s, captured the attention of many of Brazil's students and researchers. His work is examined with reference to the scope of the serious leisure perspective (SLP). Thus, after considering Dumazedier's ideas as they bear on the SLP, the Perspective itself is first presented and then examined for its usefulness in understanding Brazilian leisure. The methodological bases of the two approaches are contrasted. Dumazedier underscored the importance of the leisure activity and its central role in generating satisfaction or fulfilment. A review of the SLP-related Brazilian literature follows. Dumazedier failed to build a research programme on the activity-satisfaction link. By contrast, the SLP given its definition of leisure and its basic conceptual structure of the leisure activity and its accompanying leisure experience (found in the core activity), has been expanded at the very base line of leisure: what people actually do in their free time. The princip...

The present study explored the retirement and leisure experiences and perceptions of 31 people with intellectual disabilities living in community accommodation, as well as the perceptions of 21 significant others and 4 service providers in relation to the participants’ retirement and leisure experiences. Participants were either currently participating in paid work of at least 15 hours per week or had retired from paid work of at least 15 hours per week. Participants’ current participation in leisure activities, leisure aspirations for retirement, and experiences and perceptions of barriers to leisure participation were explored. Findings indicated that participants’ current leisure participation predominantly reflected Stebbins’ [1997. “Casual Leisure: A Conceptual Statement.” Leisure Studies 16: 17–25] definition of ‘casual leisure’ and many activities were in-home based. However, most participants expressed the desire to participate in more leisure activities and reported that their current participation was restricted by a number of barriers. Restrictions were likely to be greater as people retired. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The research literature on family leisure has been dominated by the views of participants in family leisure activities, so the purpose of this study was to give leisure facility managers an opportunity to reflect on the issue of family leisure from a provider perspective to address the imbalance. Leisure facility managers operating in different areas of leisure provision play a pivotal role in enacting leisure policy into a range of leisure programmes and activities for families. Their opinions and knowledge concerning family leisure needs are significant, as they help shape and determine the nature of family leisure provision in the facilities they manage. The literature review on which this study is based identified five key areas of research in family leisure (concept of leisure, constraints, parenting, work–life balance and dualities of family leisure). As a result of the interviews with leisure facility managers, six key themes emerged (concept, constraints, empathy, customers/community, family frien...

This article sets the scene for the range of issues that could be addressed in the World Leisure Journal special edition on leisure management. The management and delivery of leisure programmes and services is the foundation of community leisure. Leisure management textbooks provide guidelines and direction for leisure programme delivery but there is limited research about how leisure programmes and services are delivered and evaluated. This paper provides a summary of a range of considerations about leisure management and community leisure programmes and services. After decades of leisure services delivery, there is still a need for public leisure managers to provide a rationale for why they deliver services. Five legitimations based on health, socialization, economic impact, community development and national identity provide a further consideration for what needs to be better understood about leisure management.

As a PhD student, with a background in health and social care, I was excited by the prospect of reading this book. The work afforded an opportunity to engage with a key concept familiar to me, soci...

Presents an overview of the articles appearing in The Journal of Positive Psychology's special issue on Leisure as well as a summary of the overlap between positive psychology and leisure studies.

Leisure studies is like an old clock that stops ticking from time to time and needs to be shaken to get it working once again, and if that does not do the trick, opened up and disassembled, its gea...

Bu çalışmanın temel amacı toplumsal dönüşüm çerçevesinde boş zaman olgusunun değişen anlam, temsil ve kullanımlarını incelemek ve boş zaman sosyolojisinin temel konularını ve güncel yaklaşımlarını, üretim ilişkileri, tüketim örüntüleri ve gündelik hayatın diğer bileşenleri bağlamında ortaya koymaktır. Makalede, boş zaman sosyolojisinin odağa aldığı okul ya da iş hayatı gibi resmi ya da kurumsal bağlardan azade zaman diliminin ne ölçüde boş veya serbest olduğu sorgulanacaktır. Bu doğrultuda literatür taraması gerçekleştirilerek, öncelikle tarihsel bir yaklaşımla boş zaman olgusunun çağlar boyu değişen anlamı değerlendirilmeye çalışılacaktır. Ardından, kültürel etkinlik, spor faaliyetleri ve turizm başta olmak üzere “ciddi” ve “ciddi olmayan” türleriyle gündelik hayatın içinde boş zamanın temsili ve kullanımı tartışılacaktır. Son olarak, dünyadan ve ülkemizden örneklerle boş zaman kavramını merkeze alan akademik çalışmalarda değişen yaklaşımlar ortaya konulacaktır. Her şeyin şimdiki zamanın uzamı içine sıkıştırıldığı günümüzde, boş zamanın, derin düşünce ve değer üretiminden uzak, kalıcılığa ulaşmadan sönümlenen kirler ve eylemlerle sarılı etkinlikler dizisine indirgenmiş durumda bulunması çalışmanın temel bulguları arasındadır.

In this introduction, the editors make the case for the book’s structure and format and its focus on sociology of leisure and leisure studies seen through local, virtual and global perspectives. They discuss the history and development of sociology of leisure in Research Committee 13 (RC13 Sociology of Leisure) of the International Sociological Association, from which the book emerged.

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...

Using acculturation theory, this study examines sport- and leisure-related factors that influence the acculturation experiences of Chinese immigrants in the local community in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Semi-structured interviews with 16 Chinese immigrants were used to elicit information about the types of sport and leisure activities in which they participated, their interactions with locals and other related factors that influenced their acculturation experiences. The results revealed that (a) familiarity with an activity, (b) duration of settlement, (c) influence of key persons and community groups and (d) media-related consumption of sport impacted the nature and extent to which sport and leisure activities provided necessary conditions and opportunities for Chinese immigrants to interact with locals and experience local culture. The findings point to a number of recommendations that help strengthen social cohesion through fostering engagement in sport and leisure activities that promote belongi...

While ideas about leisure may vary across society and cultures, leisure research itself has been predominantly Western centric. This paper considers leisure within two ethnic communities (Turkish and Chinese) in Vienna, Austria, and examines how the experiences and meanings of leisure are elaborated in these cultural groups. Data from qualitative interviews (n = 80) show that leisure varies strongly between generations; specifically, people who migrate for labour purposes tend to elevate work over leisure. Experiences and meanings of leisure among younger generations are associated more with personal choice and with recovery from work. Results also suggest that immigration processes produce constraints that cause inequalities in access to leisure. Further, cultural background influences leisure attitudes, but does not constitute a barrier to leisure participation.

The concept of leisure emerged in modernity as the subordinated ‘other’ of a dominant labour in industrialized societies taking shape as bounded nation states. In late modernity, the notion of a coming ‘leisure society’symbolized a shift in their power balance whereby subordinated labour was foreshadowed as the ‘other’ of a dominant leisure. Leisure studies, while not entirely wedded to the leisure society thesis, developed as an interdisciplinary field dedicated to the recognition of the societal importance of leisure, and commonly as an advisory mechanism for the promotion of socially approved leisure structures and forms. However, in a disconcertingly short time, the conventional framework for understanding and championing leisure became problematic, along with the orthodox rationale for leisure studies itself. Leisure was harder to grasp as its secure location in single societies was increasingly challenged by globalization and transnationalism, and as the boundaries between leisure, commodity consump...

This chapter considers leisure as a powerful agent for social change alongside the field of adult education in bringing to life the idea of learning cities.

This special issue looks at the ways in which migrants’ leisure activities contribute to self-perception, daily life organisation, multiple embeddedness and sense of belonging. The precariousness o...

Sport mega-events exemplify the power of elitism, commercialisation and consumerism in leisure services. Progressive leisure studies researchers can influence sport and leisure policy by investigating the broader sociocultural impacts of sport mega-events on individuals and communities, with the goal of promoting sport and cultural democracy.

In the first issue of the new millennium, the Journal of Leisure Research (JLR) published an article by Fran McGuire titled "What do we know? Not much: The state of leisure and aging research." In that article, McGuire summarized almost 40 years of research about the topic, stating, "We probably 'know' that activity is in some sense good for people by contributing to the quality of life. However, for every article concluding one thing there seems to be a contradictory piece concluding something else. Our collection of bits and pieces of information still fails to give even a hint of a mosaic." (McGuire, 2000, p. 7). McGuire provided a list of possible explanations for this state. Some explanations were structural (e.g., small number of scholars studying the topic, few collaborations, lack of funding), but many expressed direct criticism on the work done in the field including not asking the right questions and being "borrowers" of concepts developed in other disciplines rather than owners of unique contributions built around deep understanding of leisure and aging. He argued that the uniqueness of leisure may require development of original questions and models, and that "while the easy work in leisure and aging focused on understanding ideas... now is the time for deeper thought" (p. 99).Much has transpired since this article was published. The number of scholars from various disciplines studying leisure and aging has dramatically increased, new and original concepts have developed, and exciting opportunities for dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policy makers have formed. It seems that parallel to global demographic trends leading to the "greying" of many countries, there is a growing interest in the extent to which leisure activities and experiences can promote active and healthy aging. Simultaneously, the field of leisure studies has profoundly transformed. To gain deeper understanding of the lived experience of leisure, qualitative approaches are increasingly used in leisure studies and scholars constantly explore conversational, multivocal, and critical representations of research. "Rather than simplifying and reducing leisure experiences, leisure studies scholars seem to want to contextualize leisure experiences and treat them as a complex phenomenon" (Parry & Johnson, 2007, pg. 121).Despite these trends, our knowledge related to how adults maintain involvement in the face of health declines, as well as their lived experiences of leisure during later life transitions, is still limited. In addition, there is a need to continuously monitor and update research to ensure that our programs targeting the aging population are diverse, pertinent, and meaningful. McGuire's call for deeper thought is still relevant, and we still have to ask ourselves what do we know, and, more importantly, what do we need to know in order to provide the most relevant and comprehensive opportunities for older adults in our society.To meet this challenge, the editorial board of JLR dedicated this special issue to leisure and aging research. The aim of this special issue is to present original and innovative ideas, concepts, and questions, as well as highlight research that addresses some of these relevant questions regarding leisure and aging. After a rigorous review process, five papers were selected for the special issue that represent contemporary top-quality research on this topic. Although the call for papers was not limited to qualitative research, most of the manuscripts submitted, and all the articles selected for publication, reported on qualitative inquiries into leisure in later life. Therefore, the special issue certainly reflects the shift toward more qualitative research in the field of leisure studies.The first paper, by Rebecca Genoe, Toni Liechty, Hannah Marston, and Victoria Sutherland, presents a new qualitative methodology for studying issues related to leisure and aging. The authors suggest that as a growing number of seniors use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), online qualitative data collection may be an especially effective means for studying leisure in later life. …

Section I: Leisure, Politics and the City 1. Cultural Policy and Urban Social Movements: the Response of the 'New Left' in Rome (1976-85) and London (1981-86) Franco Bianchini 2. Leisure Policy and the Quality of Life in Athens Fouli Papageorgiou 3. Central Government Policy in France under the Socialist Administration (1981-86) Linda Hantrais 4. Cultural Policy and Sports Policy in Brussels Eric Corijn, Dominique Danau, Livin Bollaert Section II: Urban Initiatives in Leisure and Sport 5. Leisure Education and the Antwerp School System Eric Corijn, Marc Theeboom 6. Unemployment and Leisure: A Case Study of Nijmegen Adri Dietvorst 7. Sports Policy Initiatives in Rotterdam: Targetting Disadvantaged Groups Sjoerd Rijpma, Henk Meiburg 8. Public Sector Sport and Recreation Initiatives for the Unemployed in Britain's Inner Cities Sue Glyptis 9. Community Recreation: New Wine in Old Bottles Les Haywood, Frank Kew Section III: Leisure and Socio-Spatial Structure 10. Urban Development, Leisure Facilities and the Inner City: A Case Study of Leeds and Bradford John Spink 11. Outdoor Recreation and Development in the Lille and Bassin Minier Region (Northern France) Jean-Michael Dewailly 12. Inner Cities and Urban Tourism in the Netherlands: New Challenges for Local Authorities Myriam Jansen-Verbeke 13. Changes in Economy, Politics and Lifestyles: An Essay on the Restructuring of Urban Leisure Hans Mommaas, Hugo van der Poel Conclusion Index.

Second homes (variously summer houses, shacks, baches, cottages, dacha) are a popular cultural phenomenon in many countries and an emerging trend in others. They are inextricably linked to tourism, recreation and leisure, and yet the fundamental relationship between second homes and leisure often appears to have been overlooked by researchers in the area. This book seeks to address this absence, bringing together an exciting collection of research from around the world. Drawing on examples from Canada, Japan, Morocco, Costa Rica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, this book highlights the interdisciplinary nature of second home research in the leisure field. The book describes the nexus of second homes and leisure from a variety of perspectives: planning and policy, historical, social and cultural. It is an essential work for those interested in new cultural viewpoints on second homes and leisure practices. This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of Leisure Research. [Book Synopsis]

The aim of this work is to study the dynamics of the impact that the students’ leisure activities have on the value system formation of modern students. The object of the empirical analysis is musical and theatrical art as a form of multi-dimensional socio-cultural influences. Noting their interdependence, the authors on a particular empirical material prove the change in the value of leisure in the modernization of higher education in Russia, and establishment of a new function - the formation of common cultural competences and worldview attitudes of the future professionals. Special attention is paid to the role and importance of leisure activities of students for the society, and necessity of researching them for the formation of cultural policy. We show the results of the monitoring studies by the authors identifying the ideas that modern students have about leisure preferences, and refute the myth about the lack of demand for works of world and national classics. An increase of students’ reflection degree on works which address social problems has been revealed in motivation for choosing a cultural work. Student society is increasingly becoming an acting subject in society, and this is reflected in sudents' leisure preferences.

Making music is largely a serious leisure activity, and as with all serious leisure it takes place in a set of physical spaces, each with its own special meaning for the participant. That meaning has roots in the core activities conducted there. Stebbins has identified and explored seven types of spaces for serious leisure, six of which pertain to making serious music. They are conquered space, showcase space, resource space, sales space, helping space, virtual space, and tourist space. Each is discussed in detail sufficient to show how it can help explain the lifestyle of the modern amateur and professional musician. The main types of today’s musician are included in this analysis: jazz, rock, folk, and classical. Furthermore, the analysis proceeds from the core activities comprising the musical life, as these unfold in the different places where that life occurs.

The introduction of the information and communication technologies in the home has transformed free-time leisure activities. Adopting a constructivist and interpretive perspective, we analysed 30 individual narratives in order to describe how digital technologies have transformed home-based leisure activities. The findings show that the changes brought about are qualitatively different from those produced by previous technological devices. The digital technologies have not only increased exposure to different experiences, they also allow people to control those experiences. The consumption of experiences is no longer homogeneous among household members and individuals now have greater freedom regarding their choice of home-based leisure activities. The findings of this study, suggest that digital leisure has transformed home-based leisure, can be used to understand home-based leisure technologies. Further studies are required to explore home-based digital leisure in other areas of people’s lives as digital technologies, devices and applications evolve.

This chapter explores the relationship between leisure and theories of diaspora. It proceeds by identifying the relative absence of the concept of diaspora in leisure studies in comparison to other fields within the social sciences. The chapter then considers some of the potential ways that leisure and diaspora might usefully come together, helping us to theorize the leisure practices and identities of migrant communities and their subsequent generations. The following section outlines some of the key contributions to diaspora studies, as well as critiques of this work. Next, some of the principal themes that have emerged in recent years in relation to leisure and migration processes more broadly are examined. Lastly, using a couple of examples from the author’s own research in this area, the chapter considers how the concept of diaspora might be harnessed in diverse ways to think about twenty-first-century leisure.

This chapter explores mindfulness as a path for leisure practices and introduces insight leisure as an approach that brings the possibility for deepened connection with eudaimonia and a freedom cultivated through 13 inter-related attitudes of mindfulness. Buddhism reveals to us a different set of qualities about leisure, which emphasize the mind’s capacity for wisdom, love, and compassion as the conditions for leisure practices, and caring as the spiritual equivalent of developmental tasks such as attachment, separation, and individuation. This chapter responds to seven central questions including how in leisure studies we might engage insight leisure in practice, teaching, and research; avoid reducing mindfulness practice to activity; avoid reducing mindfulness to goal orientation and fixing problems; shift awareness from doing to explorations of being; shift from hedonism to explore meaning making, savoring, and eudaimonia; create conditions that support letting go; and embrace paradox in leisure studies.

The main goal of this chapter is to examine the range of contributions that all three forms of leisure make to community life, and to show how they relate to the common sense images. The first type of contribution is made by the leisure service organizations. Next comes community involvement, or the process by which volunteers, amateurs, and hobbyists contribute to collective life through serious leisure. Additionally, in leisure as in most other areas of life, many activities are structured, or organized, in small groups (including dyads and triads), social networks, and grassroots organizations as well as in larger complex organizations and still more broadly, in tribes, social worlds, and social movements. The concept of leisure interest volunteering (LIV) is also introduced.

China has been undergoing profound social transformation for more than three decades. Class struggles have ended, but stratification has intensified. Selfless altruism has given way to selfishness, and asceticism has yielded to the unlimited display of desires. People have generally been living with an imbalance of work and leisure and with lives that are in disorder, both mentally and physically. In sum, material wealth has become abundant, but it has been accompanied by poverty in spiritual life.

This article reviews the literature on newcomer leisure, settlement and information behaviour. It highlights the interrelated nature of these three concepts and proposes a conceptual framework for the study of leisure and information across settlement. The article notes that leisure is a revealing lens through which the process of settlement can be better understood and draws on research from the fields of leisure studies, information studies and migration studies to support this idea. This article presents new insights for researchers and policymakers by outlining the potential role of leisure activities in bolstering mental health and the building of social capital by newcomers.