Concept Of Leisure Research Articles

'I can find my own Elder!' Cultural engagement as serious leisure for Aboriginal adults living in non-Aboriginal group homes

Leisure experiences for people with intellectual disabilities are often limited by influential dependency-laden assumptions found within disability service paradigms. Within a group home living environment, leisure can become even more constrained through the necessity to accommodate the desires, abilities, and needs of other residents as well as the time, duties, and available resources of the group home staff. For Canadian First Nations people with intellectual disabilities who may have been removed from their culture to be supported in a group living environment, cultural engagement needs to be purposeful and intentional as the desire to experience traditional activities is for more than simple pleasure, as explained by Stebbins’ concept of serious leisure. Using an ecological perspective, the purpose of the study was to (a) gain an understanding of the knowledge, experience, and meaning of Aboriginal culture to Aboriginal adults with intellectual disabilities living in a group home/supportive living setting, (b) become aware of the challenges experienced by the participants when connecting with their culture, and (c) develop strategies to address challenges presented so the participants can maintain/become further engaged in their culture. Using an Indigenist research framework to come to understand their experiences and ascribed meaning of Aboriginal culture, the participants were able to ‘Know’, ‘Be’, and ‘Do’ culture on their own terms. The strengths perspective may help to write a counter-story of possibility, hope, expectation and independence in response to a dominant grand narrative of inadequacy, hopelessness, underachievement and dependence which is typically the paradigmatic thinking associated with marginalised groups.

O valor do lazer no jogo da essência e aparência das relações sociais capitalistas

O artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre o lazer, seus significados e contradições na sociedade capitalista, enfatizando o jogo da essência e aparência como metáfora explicativa. Trata do valor de uso e valor de troca como características fundantes da diferenciação da essência e aparência do lazer. Contempla o leitor como uma perspectiva vinculada aos conceitos de experiência valiosa e lazer humanista, como alternativa de resgate da essência e do valor de uso do lazer. O objetivo da pesquisa é compreender como é possível superar as contradições do lazer e romper a lógica do capital nas intervenções promovidas pelo Estado. A construção dessa análise crítica contemplou o referencial teórico que apresenta as contradições do lazer estimuladas pelas relações sociais capitalistas.

‘Real Ale’ Enthusiasts, Serious Leisure and the Costs of Getting ‘Too Serious’ About Beer

The article uses the concept of serious leisure to explain the leisure commitments made by members of the British consumer campaign group the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and that of Real Ale enthusiasts in general. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research including interviews with CAMRA branch members and staff, the article demonstrates that beer appreciation can be understood as a serious rather than a casual leisure activity. While many of the benefits to participation typical of serious leisure activities are identified, so are the numerous “costs” involved. Beyond costs relating to money, time, obligation, and organizational conflicts, the article suggests that Real Ale enthusiasts are at times marginalized by wider cultural stereotypes positioning them as obsessive and snobbish. The article concludes with discussion of how the concept of the cultural omnivore might explain how serious leisure practitioners are often marginalized because of their specialism in a single field rather than many.

Re-enactment and its information practices; tensions between the individual and the collective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation of an impression, the dress, behaviours and accoutrements of the period, through the concepts of serious leisure and information practices. Design/methodology/approach – Re-enactment is a practical, information-based performative activity. In this paper, the research styles and decision-making processes developed and employed by its enthusiasts to create authentic impressions are examined through an ethnographic case study. Findings – The re-enactors are identified as “makers and tinkerers”, in Stebbins’s categorisation of serious leisure. Research, documentation and the sharing of information, knowledge and skills are common practices among re-enactors and acknowledged as integral to the processes of creating an impression to a collectively agreed standard of authenticity. Re-enactors’ “making” includes not only the creation of the impression but also the documentation of their process of creating it. They prize individual knowledge and expertise and through this, seek to stand out from the collective. Originality/value – Although communities of re-enactors are often studied from a historical perspective, this may be the first time a study has been undertaken from an information studies perspective. The tension between the collective, social norms and standards that support the functioning of the group in understanding authenticity, and the expert amateur; the individual with specialist skills and talents, encourages a fuller investigation of the relationships between the individual and the collective in the context of information practices.

Towards a disrupted idleness Literary transmission and the crisis of experience in Walter Benjamin

Las aportaciones del pensamiento de Walter Benjamin en torno al ocio parecen quedar al margen del renovado interés con que se estudia su obra. Aquí se tratará de mostrarse cómo los conceptos de ocio y ociosidad están estrechamente relacionados con algunos de los hilos conductores centrales de sus escritos. Se discutirá el papel que atribuye Benjamin a los diversos modos de transmisión literaria en la conformación de la experiencia, identificándose la posición relativa del ocio en cada caso, así como su función. Finalmente, se propondrá una interpretación sobre la tarea que este puede desempeñar en la orientación general emancipatoria de la obra de Benjamin

Leisure activities and attitude of institutionalized elderly people: a basis for nursing practice.

Aim: to identify the leisure activities performed in Long-Stay Institutions for the Elderly (LSIEs), registered in the city of Maringá-PR, Brazil, and to analyze the attitude of the elderly people toward leisure promoted by the institutions. METHOD: this was a descriptive and transversal study with a quantitative approach, carried out with 97 elderly people, through the establishment of the socio-demographic profile and the application of the Leisure Attitude Scale. The data was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis, association tests (chi-square or Fisher's) and Spearman's correlation. RESULTS: males, aged 80 or over, widowed, with one to eight years of study, who had a monthly income were predominant. Age group and income were significantly associated with the performance of leisure activities. The results reflected the positive attitude of the elderly people in relation to leisure activities, except in the behavioral component. CONCLUSION: the findings of this study indicate the need for further investigation into the difficulties linked to the attitude toward leisure in the behavioral component, considering aspects such as individual concepts of leisure and the health status of the elderly people.

The Concept of Leisure as Culture-dependent–Between Tradition and Modernity

The article deals with the concept of leisure in Israel in terms of time, activity, state of mind, and Jewish values. The purpose of the study is to examine changes in how leisure is conceived in Judaism and the differences in the secular and religious conception of leisure, and the special relationship between leisure, work, and religious obligations and tradition. The study reviews the factors that have shaped the conception of leisure and its developments over time in Jewish religious society in general and in Israel in particular, which is a country with cultural foundations in both tradition and modernity, and one that strives to strike a balance between its multiple commitments to its religious roots and its modern democratic nature. The study proceeds to discuss the implications of such conceptions and developments for the Israeli education system. The article may have practical implications for imparting leisure behaviors, an educational challenge involving people’s attitude to leisure.

The lived experience of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers: a serious leisure perspective

Along with other sporting mega-events, the Olympic Games, in all its versions, makes extensive use of volunteers. The 70,000 London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, for example, played a vital role in the delivery of the event. Stebbins’ theoretical perspective of serious leisure includes consideration of volunteering and there are calls for its further empirical evaluation. This study, therefore, uses a qualitative study of the lived experience of London 2012 volunteers to test the relevance of the serious leisure framework to Olympic volunteering. The data are drawn from the reflective diaries of 20 participants who volunteered in a variety of roles during London 2012. It is concluded that all of the qualities of serious leisure are identifiable to various extents within the experiences of the London 2012 volunteers. This finding will help Olympic and other sporting mega-event managers to understand and improve the experiences of their volunteers. Recommendations are also made, in the light of the findings, for the further refinement of the serious leisure perspective. Particular attention is paid to highlighting how the findings might contribute to recent debates around whether sporting mega-event volunteering is best explained by the serious leisure quality of career volunteering, or by the serious leisure associated concept of project-based leisure, or alternatively by the competing term of episodic volunteering.

El proceso socio-cultural del envejecimiento y Alzheimer: apuntes psicológicos

This paper presents a thoughtful and controversial proposal about aging, assuming Alzheimer’s disease as the nodal axis of the analytical process, approaching the problem from the perspectives of the social models of aging, the manner in which they are designed, spread and assumed in a global context dominated by the immediate, the frugal, the fast, the young and the short-lived. The dynamics of these models, the costs of social security and emotional balance of seniors are also deliberated in this paper. It discusses the concept of leisure linked to socio-economic and the retirement pension characteristics as well as love and sexual life associated with health taboos and myths on aging. The Alzheimer belongs to this socially constructed context and as impairment it will be explained from a cultural perspective.

The impact of young people's participation in events

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the social impact that two events, the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Clipsal 500, have on young residents (16-19 years old) of Adelaide. The purpose of this paper is to examine how young people participate in these events and how this affects their sense of involvement in the event and contributes to their identity development. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods approach was adopted in which focus groups and questionnaires were conducted with secondary school students. As an exploratory study, focus groups (n=24) were conducted in the first stage of the research. The results of the focus groups were used to develop a questionnaire that resulted in 226 useable responses. The final stage of the research explored one event in further depth in order to determine the influence of different participation levels. Findings – This study found that young people demonstrated more involvement in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and their identities were more influenced by this event. Further investigation of the Adelaide Fringe Festival also indicated that level of participation affects the social outcomes gained, with those participating to a greater degree achieving higher involvement and increased identity awareness. This is demonstrated through a model which aims to illustrate how an event impact an individual based on their role during the event. Originality/value – This paper applies two leisure concepts in order to analyse the impact of events. Activity involvement is a concept which examines the importance of the activity in the participant's life. Also of importance to young people is how activities contribute to their identities, especially because they are in a transitional period of their lives.

Visitors' engagement and authenticity: Japanese heritage consumption

Understanding the sense of authenticity of heritage attractions is important for tourism management and marketing because presentation, interpretation and verification has a direct bearing on motivations to visit and engage with heritage tourism sites. This paper establishes relationships among the concepts of culturally specific motivation, perception of authenticity, engagement and attendant behavioral consequences based on domestic visitors' experiences at Japanese heritage sites. It further extends Kolar and Zabkar's (2010) model of authenticity by including concepts of serious leisure, heritage related behaviors, self-connection and their effects over engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 768 visitors in a culturally specific setting of Japanese heritage sites. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitors' perceptions and valuation of authenticity in Japanese tourist attractions. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings and interesting directions for future research are provided.

“Caught Happy in a World of Misery”: Art and Leisure in To the Lighthouse

This essay considers how Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse exhibits the principles of neo-Aristotelian leisure. The introduction uses modern philosophical thought on the concept of leisure as discussed by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Charles Taylor, and Alisdair McIntyre to better understand Aristotle’s notion of leisure as being grounded in arête , or excellence. I then consider how artistic excellence is a central fruit of neo-Aristotelian leisure. Therefore, art must be created primarily for the sake of excellence; artistic creation would be corrupted were it made with any exterior social or monetary benefit in mind. More specifically, I argue that Woolf’s characters in To the Lighthouse who engage in neo-Aristotelian leisure activities with no external motive find a renewing experience and peace, while those who seek other means of leisure become frustrated and restless. This essay also contends that Woolf’s novel, like many modernist works, implicitly challenges Victorian and Edwardian notions of leisure.

Integrating flow theory and the serious leisure perspective into mental health counseling

This article explores how flow theory and the serious leisure perspective (SLP) can be integrated into mental health counseling. Although different counseling models have acknowledged the role of leisure in the counseling process, leisure is largely an unknown and superficial concept in the mental health counseling literature. Four broad-based pragmatic ideas regarding how flow theory and the SLP can be integrated into the counseling process include mental health counselors (1) understanding the concepts of serious leisure, casual leisure, project-based leisure, flow (enjoyment), and hedonistic pleasure; (2) becoming aware of various assessment instruments that measure flow and serious leisure; (3) using the provision characteristics of entering flow into the counseling process; and (4) empowering clients to becoming community change agents through serious leisure pursuit, resulting in flow experiences.

Saigon's Edge: On the Margins of Ho Chi Minh City ERIK HARMS Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011, xiv+294p.

Saigon's Edge: On the Margins of Ho Chi Minh City ERIK HARMS Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011, xiv+294p.In his introduction to the book, Erik Harms that there are no Vietnamese poems about Hoc Mon, a district lying on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, one of its five outer-city districts. Per- haps this statement was true when Harms was conducting his research there at the beginning of the 2000s and when he was writing this book. But the appearance of this book has changed the situation-in Harms, Hoc Mon found its own poet, as his book, even if written in prose, is nothing short of a poem of appreciation if not of this industrializing area then of its inhabitants.To be sure, it is a sophisticated and complicated prose poem, not an easy afternoon read. The book is firmly grounded into anthropological and sociological theories: spatial-temporal consider- ations, analyses of edginess, conflations and confrontations of rural and urban, dichotomies of kinship. It thoroughly considers the relationship between idealized myth-making and practical reality.The book consists of three parts with each part subdivided into two chapters. The first chap- ter delineates the historical-sociological framework of the primary binary distinctions between inner city and outer city, the city and the countryside. They are not only in opposition to each other but also complement each other-their mutual interdependence seems to be inevitable as without one the other cannot exist, cannot even be identified. Harms skillfully analyzes trajectories that influence the development of each space and the changes produced by their proximity, reach- ing the conclusion that the outer city, regardless of this proximity and these changes, persists in maintaining its own identity.Chapter Two explores the reasons for this persistence: economy, culture, upbringing, oppor- tunities or lack thereof, and-perhaps most importantly-power are the factors that perpetuate the distinctions between urban and rural, inner city and outer city, Ho Chi Minh City and Hoc Mon. Disparity between the center and the margins has a dual effect on the latter: some people get depressed by what they perceive as their inevitably inferior position, while in others the disparity generates creative forces as well as the desire and ability to overcome invisible but firmly estab- lished borders.In Chapter Three Harms considers temporal changes in the material landscape of Hoc Mon and in the perception of Hoc Mon by its insiders. He examines the ideas of real time, social time, universal time, and (the Communist Party's interpretation of temporal changes and its own role in them). Harms argues that even though the Party sees and presents itself as an engine unfailingly moving Ho Chi Minh City and its suburbs towards their successes and the development of socialism, it does not necessarily interfere with the other ideas of time; is a political stance rather than socio-philosophical concept. While progress in the center and on the margins is uneven, the developmental drawbacks of the outskirts are compensated by their celebration as the keeper of traditions, also viewed as an aspect of the relationship between continuity and change.Chapter Four discusses the relationship between time and space in terms of spatiotemporal oscillation. Harms argues that [u]ltimately, the power of spatiotemporal oscillation depends not so much on expressing distinctly rural or urban time orientation but on the ability to move, accord- ing to contingent social circumstances, between states (p. 124). He further considers the concepts of labor and leisure in the negotiation of spatiotemporal oscillation. …

Satisfação e autonomia nas atividades de lazer entre universitários

Abstract: Leisure activities are defined individually and influenced by the culture and social issues. They are also directed for satisfying personal needs and the attainment of pleasure. Describing leisure activities can help constructing and planning professional interventions that focus on healthy leisure activities and also help planning public policies. Data collection was conducted through the internet, with 273 students, who lived at many different Brazilian states. The concept of leisure is linked to the time free of obligations and the choice for leisure activities is related with variables such as gender, working status, if have children and socio-economic self-perception. The information is discussed considering how people interpret the leisure, their motivations and satisfaction with these choices. Keywords: leisure; college students; life quality; daily activities; leisure time.

TEMPO LIVRE: ENTENDIMENTOS ENUNCIADOS POR PARTICIPANTES DE MESTRADOS LATINO-AMERICANOS EM LAZER E RECREACIÓN

Este artigo integra uma pesquisa mais abrangente e objetiva analisar os entendimentos de tempo livre de professores, profissionais e estudantes vinculados a cinco programas de mestrado em Lazer/Tempo Livre/Recreação desenvolvidos em quatro países latino-americanos: Brasil, Costa Rica, Equador e México. O texto busca, também, identificar e discutir os fundamentos utilizados pelos entrevistados para embasar seus entendimentos. A metodologia contempla uma pesquisa bibliográfica e entrevistas realizadas com 25 voluntários vinculados às cinco instituições estudadas. Os resultados evidenciaram que o chamado tempo livre, e também as compreensões de lazer e de recreação muitas vezes a ele associado, geralmente configuram-se como esferas contrárias ao trabalho. Embora não tenha sido unânime, prevaleceu a compreensão de tempo livre como aquele que resta após serem cumpridas as atividades profissionais, obrigações e outros compromissos, representando um tempo liberado para fazer o que se gosta e se deseja. Alguns entrevistados explicitaram sua opção por não utilizar o conceito de tempo livre, salientando as contradições que permeiam essa expressão.

A Cultural Confrontation: Western Impacts on Female College Students’ Leisure Opportunities in Taiwan and China

In this study, we discuss cultural change in Taiwan and mainland China, which, in turn, influences female college students’ attitudes towards leisure. A cross-cultural comparison of Taiwanese and mainland Chinese female college students’ leisure studies gives some indication of the extent to which aspects of female college students’ leisure have been affected by the Westernization in the Greater Chinese society. We present the results of a study that categorizes how cultural conflicts affect leisure concepts of female college students. A pilot study was conducted. Participants in the main study were 38 female students from mainland China and 20 female students from Taiwan. We found many factors constraining women’s leisure in the West also constrained Chinese women’s leisure pursuits, however, these factors were heightened by the ideology of Confucianism, which is the root of Chinese society. Influential factors we identified included the impact of Western media, educational level and family attitudes towards respondents’ leisure activities. To some degree, these would influence the type and contents of female college students’ leisure pursuits. Results showed that female college students are in the dilemma of having to conform to the traditional culture or adopt more Western ideologies while participating in leisure activities. However, female college students in Taiwan seem to struggle more in this regard compared to the respondents from mainland China.

The concepts of work, study, and leisure of parents and children

The present work examines how a group of Italian parents and their adolescent children view work, study, and leisure in order to check for possible relations between the ideas of parents and their children's. A total of 160 adolescents and 160 parents were recruited. Semi-structured interviews that assessed the participants' concepts about work, study, and leisure were conducted. The analyses carried out demonstrate that there are connections between the parents' and adolescents' perceptions regarding work, study, and leisure. The results confirm the importance of considering both constructs and the parents' perspectives on them, and of involving parents in their children vocational guidance actions.

Chaotic Phenomena in Addiction Model for Digital Leisure

Chaotic dynamics have been studied by many researchers in the fields of biology, physics, and engineering. Interest in chaos is also expanding to the social sciences such as politics, economics, and others, including the prediction of societal events. The concept of leisure has developed from a passive concept correlated with relaxation, entertainment, and ideology formation into a positive concept that assumes a more active role. As information and communications technology develops, digital leisure activity is expected to continue spreading. This expansion of digital leisure function correctly, as well as. Traditional leisure activity functions correctly more, whereas digital leisure activity is predicted to function incorrectly more often. In this paper, we propose a mathematical addiction model of digital leisure that deals with its dysfunctions such as addiction to digital leisure, including computer games, internet search, internet chatting, and social media. Herein, to solve addiction to digital leisure, we propose a model derived from a nicotine addiction.

O ENCONTRO ENTRE O ÓCIO E A CULTURA: Reflexões sobre o ócio criativo desde a investigação empírica

O ócio é um setor significativo pela sua importância económica e a sua incidência no bem-estar ou nos estilos de vida atuais. O desfrute da cultura, como decisão pessoal do sujeito que a experiencia, também é considerado ócio; mas nem a cultura como facto humano é toda ócio, nem o ócio é todo cultura.O artigo estuda o encontro entre ambos os conceitos a partir da ideia de ócio criativo e os dados que são obtidos da investigação empírica. Desde um ponto de vista humanista, a relação ócio-cultura tem um dos seus grandes referentes no ócio criativo, que vem a ser a realização atual do conceito de ócio herdado da cultura clássica. O desenvolvimento do tema é baseado na análise do estudo sobre Atividades Culturais em Espanha 2010-11 e de dados referidos em duas investigações concretas, realizadas no Instituto de Estudos de Ócio da Universidade de Deusto, Bilbau (Espanha): uma sobre as práticas e experiências de ócio na Região Autónoma do País Basco e outra focada na Experiência de Ócio em pessoas que praticam um ócio consolidado. Entre as conclusões destaca-se o desequilíbrio que existe entre a cultura da receção e a suavertente criativa, pelo que se torna necessário diferenciar entre práticas de ócio associadas a uma visão ampla do ócio humanista, e práticas culturais, cujo significado se tem vindo a reduzir ao consumo das chamadas indústrias culturais. Mesmo assim, é evidente que há um amplo leque de confluência e, em ambos os casos, é possível diferenciar as duas vertentes, criação e recriação, como âmbitos diferenciados da mesma realidade.