Leisure Contexts Research Articles

The cue is in the queue, smart! Assessing the ritualised leisure experiences of long queuing for a bubble tea brand in China

ABSTRACT Drawing on the perspective of ritualised leisure experiences underscored by the theory of interaction ritual chain, this study attempts to demystify the seemingly irrational and ineffable long queues of Chinese customers for a bubble tea brand which is only priced modestly. A four-factor scale of ritualised leisure experiences was conceptually proposed and empirically assessed with survey-derived data. Meanwhile, the research variables of subjective vitality and customer loyalty were incorporated to account for the cognitive and affective processes activated and engaged in the ritualised queuing experiences. Modelling results report that the confirmed scale of ritualised leisure experiences exerts positive effects upon customer loyalty, as mediated by subjective vitality. Meanwhile, young Chinese females have been profiled as the outstanding force shaping and reinforcing the queuing culture, claiming and asserting their own sway of leisure discourses in contemporary China. This study expands knowledge on rituality in leisure contexts, and offers references for leisure practitioners in better embedding ritualised components into the brand equity of leisure products and services.

Intergenerational Solidarity Revisited: Migrant Families in the Dilemma of Providing Family or Elderly Care in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its Challenges

The assumption that people live in one place with their lives guided by a singular set of national and cultural norms no longer holds true. The same applies for migrating due to various reasons with the aim of finding a better place to live. Instead, contemporary transnational migrants are accustomed to operating in several contexts of employment, leisure and political interests that extend beyond national borders. Yet, state borders still cut through the very core of the family life, forcing migrants to take difficult decisions about leaving, separation or arranging care of children and elderly, but also creating a certain degree of choice between two or more socio-political social and cultural contexts. Events of recent years have shaken established beliefs about the potential of transnational care networks. As the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown, what once seemed to be enduring rules can be suspended for long periods of time.
 For Poland, one of the countries affected by intense mobility to and from the country, discussions about the effects of migration on care networks are of paramount importance. As a direct consequence of mobility, the expectations and obligations that migrants (especially women) have towards the family they leave behind may change, shift or even remain unrestricted in spite of living abroad. Yet, establishing family care strategies for elderly family members in ageing societies is also based on the assumption of availability of migrant labour. Drawing on two sets of data, this article asks how intergenerational obligations were negotiated during the Covid-19 pandemic and whether the associated long-term restrictions on crossing national borders caused changes in patterns of care provision.
 * This article belongs to a special issue on “Demographic Developments in Eastern and Western Europe Before and After the Transformation of Socialist Countries”.

Vaccine hesitancy, parental concerns, and COVID-19 in a digital leisure context: Implications for out-of-school time

Due to the increasing prevalence of parental vaccine hesitancy or refusal, it is important to understand parental motives for vaccine hesitancy. This study examines social media conversations and commentaries regarding concerns about parenting, vaccine hesitancy, and the COVID-19 pandemic within an in-person leisure and recreation context: out-of-school time (OST) programs. A generative, probabilistic Bayesian machine learning model was used to analyze 31,925 tweets and group them into seven categories: Government, Feelings, School, Public Health, Christmas, Risk and Safety, and Families. As a result, recommendations for research and practice are discussed in connection to both OST programs and digital leisure, including a diverse range of vaccine hesitancy motivations related to children and parents, communication management strategies for OST professionals, and the impact of the politization of leisure in a digital leisure context.

Searching for the crowd in sustainable tourism and leisure projects

PurposeBuilding a cycling route is an interesting example of sustainable, environmentally friendly leisure and tourism project and this also fosters innovation in eco-friendly transport options. Financial resources must be found to achieve these ambitious goals and crowdfunding could be the answer. The study analyses the factors that influence potential backers' decisions to contribute to the fundraising campaign.Design/methodology/approachA Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) was applied to elaborate a map of factors that could influence the process of the crowd's contribution to a crowdfunding round for supporting the enhancement of a cycling route. The factors taken into account were the motivations to contribute, the crowdfunder's features and the dynamics of the fundraising campaign.FindingsThe results demonstrate the strategic role played by rewards in the design of a crowdfunding round for a sustainable tourism and leisure project. The results also add more insights by considering backers' attitudes to rewards.Research limitations/implicationsUnderstanding the factors that can influence the decision to pledge in the tourism and leisure context has extremely valuable implications for tourism businesses developing the business idea and associated capital raising strategies. The study also has practical implications for all institutions trying to foster innovation in eco-friendly transport, particularly in promoting more cycling and improving the image of cycling in the culture.Originality/valueThe study is a step forward in understanding the factors that lead backers to support a sustainable project in the tourism and leisure context and the related dynamics of the crowdfunding round.

Places of recreation, places of memory: tourism in the heritagisation of LGBT+ identities

ABSTRACT The analysis of LGBT+ memories and identities has been neglected in processes of heritagisation. This is despite numerous attempts undertaken by various institutions to promote a more inclusive notion of heritage, which incorporates cultural diversity and the demands of social sectors that have previously been ignored in heritage policies. This study contributes to the literature by examining the incipient recognition of heritage that contributes to the visibility and normalisation of sexual diversity. We focus on tourism and leisure contexts, which have played an important role in disseminating certain perspectives on sexual diversity. Specifically, we highlight how the confluence of the market, transformations in heritage systems, and ways of depicting the LGBT+ narrative reveals new processes of recognition for LGBT+ heritage. In the process of heritagisation, tourism and leisure serve as narrative pillars of memories and identities. This study explores these aspects by focusing on a Spanish town, Torremolinos, which has become one of the most important international LGBT+ tourist destinations.

Industry insights and post pandemic practices for entrepreneurship and innovation in leisure

ABSTRACT This article explores how leisure organisations developed entrepreneurial practices to enable innovation for the post-covid-19 pandemic era. Whilst entrepreneurship and innovation have been the subject of academic scrutiny in mainstream sport, there is a relative paucity of studies within the broader holistic context of leisure. Semi-structured interviews, conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), provide insights from nine high profile, globally recognised industry practitioners from across the leisure industry including the sport, entertainment, health and fitness, leisure, hospitality, arts and culture, events and tourism sectors. Four key themes emerged from the data including extending capabilities through (i) research and development (R&D) and (ii) digitalisation, and changing culture through (iii) diversification, and (iv) sustainability. These practices were shown to enable leisure organisations to create new customer value within an increasingly competitive environment. The paper concludes with an overview of theoretical and managerial implications and provides approaches for developing more entrepreneurial practices in leisure.

The Moral Status of Leisure in a World with Ongoing Moral Catastrophe

In this essay, we argue that counter to the dominant narrative, many commonly practiced forms of leisure are morally impermissible. Specifically, we describe how for many people, in many circumstances, the practice of leisure cannot be reconciled with the pursuit of an ethical life. We also describe how certain leisure practices, which we identify as morally significant, are permissible. In short, we contend that in a world with ongoing moral catastrophe, leisure must earn its claim on our lives and our resources. To do so, we draw primarily on the work of Peter Singer. We begin by introducing Singer’s rescue principle, and then extending it to the context of leisure. We conclude with a discussion of the potential implications of our argument for a variety of stakeholders, including scholars, practitioners, and members of the general public.

Bridging brains: exploring neurosexism and gendered stereotypes in a mindsport

ABSTRACT Ingrained gendered discourses about women’s abilities and skills impact on their participation in leisure and sport. This paper argues that gendered stereotyping extends to the serious leisure context of mindsport in the form of neurosexism. The card game bridge is played by a roughly equal proportion of men and women but at elite-level male players significantly outperform female players worldwide. Based on 52 semi-structured interviews, the paper explores the everyday gendered assumptions that exist and are reproduced by elite bridge players. Many of the research participants draw on ideas of male brains being more rational, logical and competitive whereas women’s brains are perceived to be more emotive, unfocused and uncompetitive. These gendered stereotypes are used to explain and defend why more women are not playing at elite level. Such neurosexist and behaviourist assumptions actively reproduce inequality within mindsport to the detriment of women bridge players. This article shows that neurosexism reinforces ongoing, systemic inequalities around gendered experiences of serious leisure, thereby reproducing gendered inequalities and hindering greater participation and inclusion in mindsport.

A qualitative insight at gender-based violence among young alcohol consumers in leisure contexts

ObjectiveTo know the characteristics of gender violence that underlies among adolescents in the context of leisure, their behavior and how they overcome these conflicts in leisure contexts where the consume alcohol. MethodQualitative study, with an ethnographic and feminist approach, with the participation of young people aged 16–22, frequenters of nightlife contexts and alcohol consumers, residents of two Andalusian provinces and one of Castilla-La Mancha. The participants were selected through intentional sampling and interviewed in depth. ResultsAdolescents frequently suffer from gender-based violence in leisure contexts that they assume normally as part of the role of having fun, while they use their own protection strategies to minimize risks. The abuse of alcohol and other drugs increases the possibility that a gender violence event take place. ConclusionGender-based violence among young people in the context of leisure, presents special characteristics that it is necessary to know in order to design preventive policies. The most vulnerable are young women who consume alcohol intensively. They usually go to the hospital emergency department for being unconscious due to alcohol consumption.

When volunteers are also consumers: Exploring volunteers’ co-consumption experience in leisure contexts

Volunteers might function like partial employees, but in leisure contexts, they also consume the experience to which they contribute. The additional benefits, relative to those attained by a typical consumer, achieved through volunteers’ insider status remain unstudied though. The current qualitative study, conducted at a French music festival, reveals that volunteers’ experience involves three new consumption dimensions: community, privilege, and pride. Previous research on co-creation identifies situations in which consumers take the role of producers; the current study contributes to this literature stream by adopting an opposing, “co-consumption” perspective, in which producers (here, volunteers) take the role of consumers. Because they are producers in the first place, they are insiders with behind-the-scenes access, which ultimately defines their experience.

Survey on user perceived system factors influencing the QoE of audiovisual calls on smartphones.

With the widespread use of applications and services supporting audiovisual calls via smartphones, both in business and leisure contexts, a key challenge for service providers is meeting end user Quality of Experience (QoE) expectations and requirements. To successfully meet this challenge, there is a need to identify and analyze the key system-related factors impacting user perceived quality. In this paper, we contribute beyond state-of-the-art by conducting a large scale web-based questionnaire survey to investigate the system-related factors that subjects identify as most influential in contributing to their overall experience and quality perception. We focus in particular on leisure audiovisual calls, established via mobile devices. Our initial survey (Phase 1) was conducted in Feb. 2020, just prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (272 participants). To investigate if the importance of factors has changed due to increased usage of the service caused by the pandemic among the general population, we conducted a second survey (Phase 2) in October 2021 with 249 participants. Based on obtained results, we identify key system-related QoE influence factors belonging to three categories: media quality, functional support, and usability and service design. We observe no significant differences in user opinions and expectations prior to and during the period of increased service usage, despite different participant demographics and study time frames, thus contributing to generalizability of obtained results. Study results contribute to providing insights for designing future user studies investigating QoE, in terms of key factors that should be considered.

Managing youth leisure mass gatherings: A coordinated service response for ‘Safer Schoolies’

ABSTRACT Mass gatherings are a public health challenge because of crowdedness and associated health risks. ‘Schoolies’ is the largest youth leisure mass gathering in Australia. We examine a coordinated service response called ‘Safer Schoolies’, which aims to manage risks and optimise health and wellbeing for Schoolies attendees and the surrounding community. We examine ‘Safer Schoolies’ in a leisure context from a social identity theory-informed perspective; describe the coordinated service response; demonstrate a practical model of data collection, measurement and baselining; and report trends from a survey-based research programme with five annual cohorts of young people who attended Schoolies (N = 1,588). Findings show attendees have strong levels of trust in, and feel highly identified with, their friends at Schoolies, with low psychological distress on average. Service perceptions and help-seeking intentions improved over time, with cohorts increasingly considering service providers to be safe and viable sources of support. As societies continue to open up following COVID-19 restrictions, these insights can inform targeted surveillance and coordinated management of leisure pursuits in youth mass gathering settings.

Being at Leisure in blue spaces: The role of Leisure in amplifying the well-being benefits of the seaside

This article utilises work from Leisure Studies and various elements of Psychology (Leisure and Ecological Psychology in particular) to frame an empirical exploration of the leisure health receptor theory. We question if being in a leisure state of mind magnifies the feelings of well-being experienced in blue spaces (aquatic environments), namely, the promenade areas of seaside resorts in North-West England. We surveyed two groups in these places, those in a leisure state of mind and those who were not, asking how they viewed these blue spaces and how they made them feel – within the context of leisure and well-being. We devised a Seaside Well-being Index, which summarised well-being-related positive feelings about these leisure and work experiences at the coast. The key finding was that being in a leisure state of mind accentuates feelings of well-being associated with exposure to blue spaces. We also consider the role of savouring and affordance in this process. The potential impact of this research is to encourage a scholarly conversation on the role that leisure mind-states can play in improving well-being outcomes associated with blue spaces – not just in theory but in well-being-related interventions by practitioners.

Time perspective of leisure participants: Conceptualization and measurement

Time perspective refers to individuals’ attitude toward leisure time and leisure time use. Although the time perspective has been discussed over the years, the concept and measurement of time perspective in leisure contexts remains scant. This study proposed a construct of leisure time perspective and developed a scale to explore perception of time for leisure participation. Both metropolitan and non-metropolitan populations in Taiwan were surveyed for scale development. The research method started with a literature review and focus-group interviews to identify the initial items. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to facilitate scale purification and factor extraction, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to validate the structure. The result showed that the leisure time perspective comprised seven dimensions: structured routine, time-use meaning, effective organization, polychronic orientation, pace preference fit, persistence, and social orientation. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings and suggestions for future studies are presented in this study.

Identifying targets for interventions to support public use of face coverings.

Interventions to promote the wearing of face coverings if required in the future can only be developed if we know why people do or do not wear them. Study aims were, therefore, to assess public adherence to wearing face coverings to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and to gauge why people were or were not wearing face coverings in work, public transport, and indoor leisure settings. Cross-sectional survey. 10,622 adults (25 January-6 February 2022) who were representative of the UK population were asked about their (a) wearing of face coverings in work, public transport, and leisure settings; (b) sociodemographic characteristics; and (c) perceptions of capabilities, opportunities, and motivations ("COM-B"). Data were analysed descriptively, using within-participants ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Participants reported mostly wearing face coverings in public transport settings (>80%), but substantially less in work (<50%) and leisure (<30%) contexts. Perceptions of capabilities, opportunities, and motivations to wear face coverings were consistently associated with the actual wearing of face coverings across the three settings, but there were marked deficits in automatic motivation and social opportunity. People living in England, describing themselves as White, and men were least likely to wear face coverings. Interventions targeted at men, people living in England, and those describing themselves as White that focus on increasing capabilities, providing greater opportunities and boosting motivations are suggested to promote the wearing of face coverings, with particular focus on addressing automatic motivation and social opportunity.

An approximation to the identification of contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims of drug-facilitated sexual assaults

This study advances on overcoming a bias limiting the forensic cases studies of drug-facilitated sexual assaults: a narrow study focus, restricted to assaults affecting young women in leisure contexts related to nightlife, party culture, and dating. A new working framework is applied to analyse data from cases received in the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Madrid, Spain) over the six years between 2012 and 2017. The work throws light on non-previously described contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims, including domestic cohabitation, labour, education, healthcare, women trafficking, and the daily life of people with intellectual disabilities.

Contribution of frequency and structured leisure activities features to the alcohol use: perception of adolescents from the northwest county of Croatia

ABSTRACT One of the most important contexts for adolescent development, along with family, school, and community, is leisure. However, leisure time can be associated with risk behaviours such as substance use, as adolescence is also known as a time of experimentation. This study aims to determine the extent to which adolescents’ frequency of participation in structured leisure activities (SLA), perceptions of context, motivational factors, and the experience of participating in SLA contribute to adolescents’ alcohol use (lifetime prevalence, monthly prevalence, binge drinking). Regression analyses were conducted with 1.431 high school students who reported having participated in SLA. This cross-sectional study showed that perceptions of context, motivational factors, and experience of participating in SLA contribute to adolescent alcohol use. The study confirms that leisure context can have a protective effect on the substance use path. The findings may be helpful in developing strategies and interventions within SLA context.

Women's Expressed Motivational Factors for Participation in Aquarobics Classes.

Leisure provides a vehicle for women to develop friendships in later life, yet few studies have explored older women’s experiences of social and emotional connections with leisure. This article provides insights into the perceived benefits a group of older women state they gain from participation in aquarobics for leisure. The main themes to emerge from the focus group interview data (n = 19 women, age = 75 years), illustrating the key motivational factor for participation in the classes, included an individual desire to improve one’s overall fitness. Participants also expressed a strong sense of belonging from being able to socialize after the activity, and highly valued the welcoming atmosphere and feeling of comradery involved. The aquarobics instructor was noted as performing a very important role in ensuring delivery of an enjoyable class experience where participants experienced variety, had fun, and felt happy taking part. For this group of women, aquarobics forms a health promoting leisure context offering an important space for gaining subjective wellbeing, building social connectedness and resisting the dominant ideology of aging.

Between equality and discrimination: the paradox of the women’s game in the mind-sport bridge

ABSTRACT Gender differences in the sporting world are long-standing and historic. Couched often as biologically given, differences in the uptake, training and playing of sport, from hobby to elite Olympian, are riven with discourses, practices and attitudes regarding the different aptitudes of men and women. Recognizing the ways these gendered differences operate is contentious and problematic, particularly in relation to women-only spaces. Such spaces can be used to promote the development and skills of women while simultaneously perpetuating and reinforcing women’s difference and inequality to men. Using the case study of bridge (the card game), we analyse the ways in which the women’s game is viewed as both hindering women’s progression in the game whilst also providing women spaces to compete internationally. Findings from an email questionnaire with tournament and club players show how the women’s game incapsulates both inequality and opportunity. The women’s game remains a divisive issue within the bridge world as it provides competitive opportunities for women at an elite level, whilst simultaneously being viewed as technically inferior and discriminatory. The paper argues that the tensions and ambivalences of the paradox of women-only spaces reflect ongoing hetero-patriarchal discourses within sporting and leisure contexts.

Like, comment and share: examining the effect of firm-created content and user-generated content on consumer engagement

ABSTRACT Social media marketing efforts have been considered an essential role for businesses to stay in the competition and ensure the prosperity of the business world. This study aims to investigate the decisive role of two types of social media brand communication, namely firm-created content (FCC) and user-generated content (UGC), on customer engagement. Drawing on 257 fans of a coffee shop page on Facebook and using the structural equation modelling approach, the finding of this study indicated that FCC and UGC are significant predictors of customer engagement in the form of ‘like,’ ‘share,’ and ‘comment.’ The results indicate that UGC is a stronger predictor of liking and sharing than FCC, but that the effect of FCC on commenting is greater than that of UGC. The findings of this study contribute to the leisure context by examining the effect of two types of social media brand communication on customer engagement.