Leisure Spaces Research Articles

Метавселенные — из сумерек во тьму перелетая?

The article studies the phenomenon of the metaverses, that is, projects developed by technology companies, where physical, virtual and augmented (extended) realities are brough together in digital space. Apologists for the metaverses argue that soon the Internet will cease to exist in the usual sense, and its place will be taken by the metaverses as global virtual spaces for communication, work, and leisure. This vision is compared with the concept of the Panopticon, formulated by Jeremy Bentham and subsequently interpreted by Michel Foucault. The growing dependence of the state, the society, and the individual on technology and their increasing interconnection forms a set of problems with an ever increasing acuteness, yet no obvious solution has been found so far. The article demonstrates how technology manipulates human weaknesses, increasing its power and gaining control over society. Among the major risks related to the metaverses are the decay of values and morality in the virtual world, and the collapse of the individual’s identity. Possible scenarios of interaction between human and technology are illustrated by Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Cronenberg’s Videodrome, and Folman’s Congress. The study ends with an assumption that a new socio-humanitarian rationality must be formed to enable control over the logic of the development of tech companies promoting the metaverses.

Codiseño de pocket park inclusivo: proceso de proyecto con niños de educación básica utilizando la fabricación digital como comunicación

The active participation of users in the design process (PP) in architecture is a collective action, which aims to meet their real needs. In terms of open spaces for children, squares and playgrounds become leisure spaces known for being places of coexistence, interaction and entertainment. However, the vast majority of children’s environments are planned and organized considering the perceptions and experiences of adults. Children become absent from the process of building the contemporary city. Codesign is an important tool for adding users to PP. The objective of this work is, therefore, to include children in the PP of a Pocket Park, using methods and tools to support Codesign. The work was structured based on bibliographic review, Focus Group, Culture Maker, Digital Fabrication and Prototyping. Two synchronous online workshops were held via a digital platform with 23 students and 2 k12 level primary school teachers. Participants received kits with objects and tools, which helped the exchange of information, perception and communication. The research indicated that the collaborative project has a great contribution in the PP of urban spaces. In addition, it promotes assertive communication between children and designers, welcoming their ideas and perceptions in a flexible way. It also indicates that Digital Fabrication and Prototyping equipment such as 3D printer and laser cutter are important vehicles in the construction of objects that facilitate communication during the PP, such as toys present in children’s daily lives. Finally, it is understood that there was a rich exchange of information and learning among those involved.

Reading Party as Space: A Study of Virginia Woolf's Select Short Stories

This paper aims to address a conceptual gap in the understanding of 20th-century modernist literature where on the one hand, it was associated with a sensibility of death, frustration, crisis, and social dissonance. On the other hand, the literature of the times was proliferated with social spaces and public gatherings which not just acted as spaces of leisure but had a politics of their own. By developing on this inherent contradiction, this paper studies the impact of the built environment of the party space on the construction of the modernist subject through urban theorist Henry Lefebvre’s idea of the “lived space.” Party here is a reference to any social gathering, a celebratory occasion, and does not have any political affiliation. Through this theoretical framework, the paper identifies space not as a physical structure or a medium but as a milieu formed through human actions and interactions with each other and the surroundings. Moreover, to study the ambience of the modernist party the paper draws inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s idea of “party consciousness” which elucidates the impact of the imping of spatial consciousness of the party through its developments which either “make things much more real or much less real.” Through this understanding, the paper studies Virginia Woolf’s short story collection Mrs Dalloway’s Party (2012) wherein the ideological binaries of race, class, and gender collapse to reveal party as a third space of open-ended possibilities. In a larger context, this study recognizes humans as inherently spatial beings made and re-made continually through socio-political and economic factors. Therefore, the impressive impact of city life which has stirred multiple consciousnesses and has realized the significance of leisure time makes it a relevant study in the present times.

‘Event-tualising’ Physical Leisure Activity: How Gauteng Parkrunners Brought the Parkrun Home during COVID-19

On the 27th of March 2020, South Africa entered hard lockdown (alert level 5) following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the banning of all physical activity outside a place of residence. As a result, official parkrun events were immediately suspended. In June 2020, the country moved to alert level 3, no longer curbing the use of public spaces for leisure, entertainment, and physical activity, albeit with restrictions. However, group sports leisure, such as parkruns remained prohibited. Thus, parkrun, a highly successful global movement where individuals gather on Saturday mornings for a timed 2 or 5km run, jog, or walk, with family and friends, was severely affected by COVID-19 prevention measures. In mitigation, parkrun officials launched, in June 2020, the (not)parkrun to enable individuals to log (on the parkrun website) their own 5km activity, irrespective of time, day or route. In this regard, parkrun enabled parkrunners to bring the event ‘home’, that is, to informally claim public space and time for their physical leisure. By analysing participation figures and feedback posted on the national parkrun blog and social media pages, this research shows how the (not)parkrun enabled Gauteng parkrunners to ‘event-tualise’ their runs to counter act the de-eventualisation of the parkrun by lockdown regulations.

Urbanizing Islands: A Critical History of Singapore's Offshore Islands

While Singapore is often considered an island city in the singular sense, the city-state actually consists of many islands, with the Singapore mainland being by far the largest. While most of these islands traditionally had thriving indigenous communities, all have since been displaced over time as the islands were developed to service Singapore's economic and metabolic needs as a rapidly urbanizing and developing nation. Some of the islands have also undergone considerable transformation (through reclamation) which has had significant impacts on the ecologies of the offshore islands. This simultaneously allowed for the ‘ruralization’ of mainland Singapore to provide more green space for nature conservation, recreation and leisure. This paper will provide a brief history of these transformations, drawing on specific examples which serve to illustrate how Singapore's offshore islands have been redeveloped over time to service the nation-state and in response to the changing needs of the urban core. In doing so, the paper examines how spaces on the urban periphery are deeply bound up with processes of ‘urbanization’, given their important role in processes of urban metabolism. In this way, the paper contributes to recent work in urban political ecology which has sought to trace processes of urbanization beyond the city and render visible the socio-environmental inequalities produced therein.

Forest Recreational Services in the Face of COVID-19 Pandemic Stress

Forest ecosystems provide numerous services and benefits to both humans and biodiversity. Similarly, urban forests services play a vital role by providing urban dwellers with recreational and leisure space, mental health relief, and meditation. In the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, many people living in the urban areas could benefit from the forest and park recreational services to relieve psychological stress due to lockdown rules. The study examined existing literature simultaneously; however, very few studies have presented the relationships between forest services’ role on COVID-19 stress relief. Furthermore, we examined forest visitors’ frequency at the Training Forest Enterprise (TFE) Masaryk Forest Křtiny in the outskirts of Brno City in the Czech Republic. The study collected data using a TRAFx infrared trail counter before the pandemic (2015–2018) and during the COVID-19 period (2021). As in other studies of the subject, we observed an increasing trend in forest visits during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021, compared to the same months before the pandemic in 2016 and 2017. We recommend further research to focus on scientific analysis of the relationship between forest ecosystem services and COVID-19 stress and mental health. Moreover, given the spike in visitors during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021 in March and April, our data provide evidence regarding the role of nature for relieving stress and supporting mental and physical health. Policy, decision-makers and medical advisors could use such data and study to guide future lockdowns and pandemic situations regarding nature and forest recreational use and importance.

Theoretical-Methodological Reflections for the Approach to Older Adults in Vulnerable Situations: From Social Education to Social Pedagogy, a Study in the Province of Alajuela, Costa Rica

This article systematizes theoretical and methodological considerations to care to vulnerable elders. It also systematizes the experiential process in jointly building a network of older adults in Santa Rita de Alajuela, as part of the 2013-2018 Social Pedagogy project being implemented by Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA) at Centro de Investigación y Docencia en Educación (CIDE) [Center for Education Teaching and Research] of UNA’s Division of Basic Education (DEB). The methodology is based on the naturalistic paradigm and holds that participating adults and older adults are both builders of previous stages and social actors at current stages in their lives. This field is addressed by social pedagogy through participatory action research. A conclusion reached by the research team in the project is that the elderly population in this type of community requires not only care and healthcare but also leisure and recreational spaces as tools to improve health thoroughly. This will result, in turn, in enjoyment, well-being, and quality of life and will be reflected in the emotional and physical health of the elderly.

Exploring Cruise Tourists’ Preferences and Satisfaction: The Case of Taiwan

In this study, the product attributes of cruise tours are distinguished into on-board activities, leisure space, cabin comfort, Michelin restaurant, and refund mechanism, and the multi-attribute utility model of cruise tours is constructed using the choice experiment (CE) method. Of the 575 questionnaires distributed, 439 were valid, with an effective recovery rate of 76.3%. The results revealed the following: (1) when cruisers travel, what they value the most is the quality of service on board, followed by the facilities on board; (2) passengers’ preferences for comfortable pool space and more activities on board are negatively significant, indicating that they do not prefer to add these amenities and experiences to the cruise ship; (3) passengers are willing to pay extra to upgrade the interior cabin to one with a view and to experience the Michelin restaurant; and (4) influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, cruisers are more willing to manage their own health. Moreover, the pandemic does not reduce their willingness to travel by cruise.

The Liminal Leisure of Disadvantaged Young People in the UK Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic has created, exposed and exacerbated inequalities and differences around access to—and experiences and representations of—the physical and virtual spaces of young people’s leisure cultures and practices. Drawing on longstanding themes of continuity and change in youth leisure scholarship, this paper contributes to our understandings of ‘liminal leisure’ as experienced by some young people in the UK before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, we place primary pre-pandemic research on disadvantaged young people’s leisure spaces and practices in dialogue with secondary data on lockdown and post-lockdown leisure. Subsequently, we argue that existing and emergent forms of youth ‘leisure liminality’ are best understood through the lens of intersectional disadvantages. Specifically, pre-existing intersectional disadvantages are being compounded by disruptions to youth leisure, as the upheaval of the pandemic continues to be differentially experienced. To understand this process, we deploy the concept of liminal leisure spaces used by Swaine et al Leisure Studies 37:4,440-451, (2018) in their ethnography of Khat-chewing among young British Somali urban youth ‘on the margins’. Similarly, our focus is on young people’s management and negotiation of substance use ‘risks’, harms and pleasures when in ‘private-in-public’ leisure spaces. We note that the UK government responses to the pandemic, such as national and regional lockdowns, meant that the leisure liminality of disadvantaged young people pre-pandemic became the experience of young people more generally, with for example the closure of night-time economies (NTEs). Yet despite some temporary convergence, intersectionally disadvantaged young people ‘at leisure’ have been subject to a particularly problematic confluence of criminalisation, exclusion and stigmatisation in COVID-19 times, which will most likely continue into the post-pandemic future.

The Public Good and the Brazilian State: Municipal Finance and Public Services in São Paulo, 1822–1930

The Public Good and the Brazilian State: Municipal Finance and Public Services in São Paulo, 1822–1930

Chez Paul Niquet: Sound, Spatiality, and Sociability in the Paris Cabaret

Years before Montmartre’s cabarets artistiques took Europe by storm, the Cabaret Paul Niquet thrived as a Right-Bank tavern popular among Paris’s laborers, vendors, and criminals during the early nineteenth century. It became notorious not only for its clientele, but also for its vivid representations in travel literature, fiction, popular song, and vaudeville. Even after its demolition by Baron Haussmann during the Second Empire, the cabaret remained a fixation among Paris’s musical and literary class. The interest in this lowly tavern reveals a sustained middle-class preoccupation with the spatial and sonic practices of the most destitute of Parisian citizens. Yet this preoccupation was not merely a condescending fascination with the poor. Niquet’s cabaret serves as a lens through which to examine social and sensory changes brought on by urbanization. Bringing urban geography into conversation with the historiography of French theater, this article contends that the city’s proletarian leisure spaces offered a relational form of sociability that was at odds with the spectacular aesthetic of Haussmannization. The sounds emanating from Niquet’s cabaret, from clanging glasses to spontaneous songs, defined the cabaret institution spatially: not merely in acoustic terms, but also as a democratized site of leisure for workers and literati alike.

도시 재난 메모리얼의 치유공간 계획 요소 연구 - 지진 메모리얼 사례를 중심으로 -

This study aims to analyze the healing elements of memorial designs, with which survivors and local residents cure their shocks and pains as well as overcome their traumas from disasters. The study analyzes four earthquake memorials; Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, Memorial 27F, Concepción, Earthquake Memorial in Sichuan, and Cretto di Burri. Moreover, in order to understand the healing processes after traumas from the disasters, this study uses the three steps of healing, 1. Establishing safety, 2. Remembrance and Mourning, 3. Reconnection, of Dr. Judith Herman. As the study analyzes the memorial designs of the cases in the views of locations, space configurations, activities and experiences within them in the steps of healing process, the study figures out the healing elements of memorial designs which facilitate healing process after the traumas, as follow. First, the memorial designs which establish safety are recovering life grounds after destruction, introducing natural elements and connecting them to their lives, as well as supporting openness and views with surrounding configurations which increase safety, stability and accessibility. Second, the memorial designs which face remembrance and mourning are memorial places, walls, and markers as well as narrow and long corridors, such corridors and rooms, and spaces of artistic events which immerse personal experiences of the disasters. Third, the memorial designs which support reconnection with others, thus provide senses of empowerment, are the healing elements of the memorials which connect to daily spaces, and cultural and leisure spaces, thus facilitate social activities and encourage participations in local community which recover commonness and cultural traditions. The study concludes that the memorial designs ought to be not only the places of recording, remembrance, and mourning of the disasters, but also the healing places for the survivors of the trauma to secure safety, recover daily lives, and connect to others. Thus, the memorial designs prolong their senses and values to future generations.

Reclamation and development of post-industrial sites for recreation as exemplified by projects carried out in Poland in the 1920s and 1950s

The aim of this article is to present spectacular examples of reclamation and development of post-industrial sites, carried out in Poland in the 1920s and 1950s, with emphasis on their recreational function. Examples include a park built between 1889 and 1920 by Wojciech Bednarski in the valley of the former quarry in Podgórze, now the right-bank district of Krakow, and “General Jerzy Ziętek Provincial Park of Culture and Recreation”, now called “the Silesia Park”, created in the 1950s on degraded post-industrial land located within the borders of three cities: Chorzów, Katowice and Siemianowice Śląskie. Both parks are examples of reclaiming brownfield sites for recreational use in order to create attractive leisure spaces. They have become a model and point of reference for other park planning projects in Poland. Their spatial and functional design is exceptionally timeless. The study is mainly based on a review of the literature of the subject.

Competing for space in Tbilisi: transforming residential courtyards to parking in an increasingly car-dependent city

ABSTRACT Urban transformation in the postsocialist Global East was heavily determined by the mass privatization of state assets and by a dramatic increase in car ownership. Tbilisi, Georgia, has experienced these significant changes. The upsurge in private vehicle ownership was brought about by failing public transit, ineffective planning, suspended vehicle quality control and greater individualism. The problem has been exacerbated on two fronts in Tbilisi: new buildings built since the 1990s are now consuming former open spaces, while more people seek parking for their cars in the few crowded remaining areas leading to competition for parking space. Households of residential buildings are devising strategies for guarding nearby areas suitable for parking, while non-driving residents are at a loss to use these formerly open spaces for other purposes. Barriers are installed by the car-owning residents of apartment blocks to impose the primary function of parking to shared residential courtyards, an understudied communal space, turning them into part of the city’s automobility system. The article relies on data from in-depth interviews with city officials and residents of affected areas, policy documents and field observations from the districts of Tbilisi most affected by such change. It argues that the changes started with the privatization of urban space and followed by an increase in the dominance of the automobile in Tbilisi have led to the rapid modification and deterioration of collective areas of multistory apartment blocks and created factors that are transforming courtyards from leisure space into the part of Tbilisi’s automobility system.

Gentrification of the (Leisure) Mind: Organizational Justifications and Community Concerns of a Proposed LGBTQ2S Sport and Recreation Center

ABSTRACT In 2015, Toronto’s largest LGBTQ2S organization, the city, and a private donor collaborated and proposed what they believed constituted the world’s first LGBTQ2S sport and recreation facility in Toronto’s Moss Park neighborhood. While conceived as a site that would expand community services in an underserved community, this project was met with criticism from segments of the Moss Park community. Using qualitative interviews with both representatives from the LGBTQ2S organization and local residents, the purpose of this was to analyze justifications behind the project and concerns from the community. In so doing, the authors reflect upon the relationship between sport, recreation, and leisure-based place-making and questions of queer/de-queering politics by exploring the transformative or assimilationist aspects of queer recreation practices, the homonormativity of leisure spaces, and spiritual displacement associated with queer gentrification.

Mechanism of Rip Current Generation at Deoksan Beach, South Korea

Chang, S.-Y.; Kim, J.-H.; Lee, H.-S., and Kim, I., 2021. Mechanism of rip current generation at Deoksan Beach, South Korea. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 295–299. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The coast serves as a buffer by reducing the energy of high waves and also serves as a leisure space for people. The east coast of Gangwon has become popular for its beach and for surfing in summer. Most beaches are sandy, and they have well-developed crescentic bars owing to exposure to high waves. The study site, Deoksan Beach, had an accident in which two college students drowned owing to rip currents at around 5:40 pm on July 13, 2019. The flow velocity and direction of the rip currents were identified using CCTV images at the time of the accident, and the causes of the currents were analyzed using data obtained from five water depths surveys conducted in 2017. At the time of the accident, the significant wave height was 0.6 m, the period was ∼7.5 s, and the wave direction was 54°. The survey results indicated that an environment suitable for rip current generation existed at this site. A numerical model experiment was conducted using the non-hydrostatic Surface Waves till Shore (SWASH) model to reproduce the occurrence of rip currents at the time of the accident, and the flow (surface: 0.38 m/s, average: 0.3 m/s) was found to be on the offshore side of the accident.

Leisure of older adults in Brazil: a look at the period of COVID-19

ABSTRACT Leisure is a fundamental component in the quality of life of people and is even a constitutional right in Brazil. During COVID-19, how were leisure experiences among older adults? This research was developed with 194 people 60 years of age or older, as part of a broader study on the impact of physical and social distancing from COVID-19 on leisure experiences, conducted with 2,278 people from all Brazilian states. The objective of this research is to understand the leisure of older adults in this period, analyzing the dimensions of time, space and nature of the experiences. This study used mixed method, with descriptive and inferential approaches and it was carried out through a field study, by sending out an online questionnaire to a non-probabilistic sample, based on convenience. The data analysis was performed through inferential and descriptive statistics and also content analysis. The data indicate a weekly average of eight hours dedicated to leisure, with the main objective of rebalancing and developing the body. The most reported experiences were those of virtual, intellectual and manual predominance, motivated and self-managed by older adults themselves. The results also indicate that the house is an appropriate leisure space for older adults.

Post-phenomenology, consumption and warfare on the urban leisure path, USA

The paper builds on recent literature on post-phenomenology to understand how politics suffuse the everyday experience of walking on an urban leisure path in Tucson, Arizona (USA). Beginning with non-representational accounts of affect, this paper then shifts to post-phenomenology to make sense of the findings on how walking the path is impacted by at least two other influences: the retail consumption infrastructure of shopping centres and advertising, and the military infrastructure of Air Force bases. Post-phenomenology helps us advance our understanding of how these power centers emit affective atmospheres while also situating their incompleteness and inability to fully control the production of subjectivity. By way of auto-ethnographic reflections, this paper displays (1) how retail spills into leisure space, and (2) how the materiality of warfare spills into civilian life. Post-phenomenology is a helpful approach for understanding a politics of affect in the absence of clear intentionality.

Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Use of Green Space by White-Collar Workers in Chinese Cities: A Study in Shenzhen

White-collar workers, with tremendous work pressure, excessive working hours, and poor physical condition, need green spaces not only to have physical exercise and social gatherings, but also to become closer to nature and to relieve stress for their mental health. In China, the 996 office schedule, working from 09:00 to 17:00 six days a week, has become popular in the workplace; under such high-intensity work and pressure, white-collar workers have limited time to access green space for leisure, and their use of green space for health benefits is compromised. This study selected Shenzhen Futian Central Business District to find out the green space use patterns and preferences of white-collar workers based on GPS data and questionnaire surveys. In addition, the value of green exposure in the time dimension was calculated according to individuals’ actual behaviors. Based on cluster analysis, this study summarized the typical green space use patterns of three groups of white-collar workers, which reflects the hidden inequity of white-collar groups who are subjected to varying degrees of spatiotemporal constraints in using green space. This paper puts forward three directions for the optimization of green space allocation, functional facilities, and improved walkability in employment-intensive urban areas. The results provide certain guiding significance for alleviating the mismatch of time and space in green space enjoyment and for improving the spatiotemporal inclusiveness of green spaces in urban central business districts.

Leisure on the Chinese Eastern Railway: Yacht Club and Racecourse as “Other Spaces” of Harbin

Applying Fr. D. Turner's frontier theory and M. Foucault's concept of heterotopic spaces the author studies “other” spaces created by Russian railway men and Cossacks in Northern Manchuria in the late 19th – first half of the 20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to the organization of leisure in Harbin. The article considers two quite interesting spaces: the yacht club on the bank of the river Sungari and the hippodrome. The choice of these leisure spaces was based on a number of important characteristics. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spaces of the yacht club and the hippodrome as heterotopic spaces on the frontier territory. The author reaches several important conclusions about the basic principles of the basic principles of the creation and the functioning of these leisure spaces. Within these spaces, many cultural processes took quite different forms. The article provides numerous previously unknown facts about the development of yachting and trotting in Harbin.