Understandings Of Leisure Research Articles

Spectres of Nature in the Trail Building Assemblage

Through research that was conducted with mountain bike trail builders, this article explores the processes by which socio-natures or ‘emergent ecologies’ are formed through the assemblage of trail building, mountain bike riding and matter. In moving conversations about ‘Nature’ beyond essentialist readings and dualistic thinking, we consider how ecological sensibilities are reflected in the complex, lived realities of the trail building community. Specifically, we draw on Morton’s (2017) notion of the ‘symbiotic real’ to examine how participants connect with a range of objects and non-humans, revealing a ‘spectral’ existence in which they take pleasure in building material features that are only partially of their creation. Such ‘tuning’ to the symbiotic real was manifest in the ongoing battle that the trail builders maintained with water. This battle not only emphasized the fragility of their trail construction but also the temporal significance of the environments that these creations were rendered in/with. In conclusion, we argue that these findings present an ecological awareness that views nature as neither static, inert or fixed, but instead, as a temporal ‘nowness’, formed from the ambiguity of being in and with nature. Ecologically, this provides a unique form of orientation that re-establishes the ambiguity between humans and nature, without privileging the former. It is set against this ecological (un)awareness that we believe a re-orientation can be made to our understandings of leisure, the Anthropocene and the nature-culture dyad.

Fermenting uncertainty: re-imagining leisure under liquid modernity

ABSTRACT In Bauman’s terminology, leisure under liquid modernity is characterized by our enslavement to the consuming life. Consumption has replaced work as the backbone of fulfilment, and consumers are becoming ‘de-skilled’ because consumption is presented as the only way to achieve desired certainty (Bauman, 1988). This paper enrols the practices of food fermentation, materially and metaphorically, to complement and extend current understandings of leisure under liquid modernity. The paper offers a sequence of vignettes to propose that leisure might be re-imagined as a skilled performance which acknowledges the comfort of certainty as it embraces the hospitable possibilities of uncertainty. The argument is made that to realize these transformative possibilities there is a need to attend to the consequential role ‘naming’ plays in fixing meanings and expectations of leisure, together with a commitment to disrupting leisure’s consumerist, positivist and humanist heart.

Exploring veganism through serious leisure and liquid modernity

ABSTRACT Understandings of leisure have progressed into a deep comprehension of the importance of intrinsic qualities that leisure creates for an individual choice and expression of self through food support the ‘modern’ paramount of personal choice and individuality. Food and dietary choices connecting to leisure and lifestyle mirror the conceptual framework of liquid modernity. The clarification of lifestyle offers an approach to explore veganism as a leisure lifestyle providing the foundation for this paper where veganism is explored using the dimensions of serious leisure. In this exploratory paper, the serious leisure perspective will be critiqued as a framework to explore veganism, as it moves from a diet and lifestyle to a form of individual expression of identity and self, culture and leisure.

Leisure in a post-work society

ABSTRACTModern understandings of leisure have formed in terms of its relationship to work. The effects of industrialization in the western world are well known, regulating time for leisure and, through urbanization, producing social scientific definitions of leisure as either a civic good or a social problem requiring surveillance and regulation. Current predictions of a rapid quantitative decline in work are therefore of serious social, economic and psychological concern, raising questions about the meanings of leisure without work. This paper reviews the historical formation of work–leisure relationships. It then considers predictions of the impact of further technological change on the future of work and proposals for a universal basic income, and the implications of these for free time and leisure. Finally, it reviews the new focus on well-being in academic research and in government policy in the UK, and discusses the importance of leisure in terms of enjoyment of life, meaningful activity and social participation.

The New Leisure, Voluntarism and Social Reconstruction in Inter-War Britain

In post-World War I social reconstruction, leisure acquired a new meaning as a social good with the capacity to contribute to the building of a new post-war society. A discourse of citizenship and leisure emerged which drew from Christian socialism and the works of John Ruskin, William Morris, and the social idealist thinking of T. H. Green and J. A. Hobson. The classical Athenian model of leisure was re-worked by Ernest Barker and Cecil Delisle Burns who argued that the function of a leisure class could become that of the whole community through a democratic redistribution of leisure. Although efforts to realize idealist visions were rarely successful they were nevertheless important to twentieth-century understandings of leisure and citizenship and brought leisure within the framework of social policy.

Theory in Recreation and Leisure Research: Reflections from the Editors

The evolution and importance of theory in leisure research have been recognized as essential to broaden understandings of leisure. The purpose of this reflective piece is to describe and critique the contributions that theory has made by examining the research documented in American leisure and recreation research journals during the 1990s and projecting those contributions toward the future. From our perspective as individuals associated with Leisure Sciences during the past two years, we provide a review of literature regarding the meanings of theory, note summaries of other studies in our field that have empirically examined theory, compare leisure research from the 1980s to the 1990s, and offer suggestions regarding trends in the future theoretical development of the parks, recreation, leisure, sport, and tourism fields. We also advocate “post approaches” such as postmodernism that may be essential in the next stage of theory evolution.

Exploring leisure and psychological health and wellbeing: some problematic issues in the case of Northern Ireland

An under-researched, controversial and complex leisure event is examined in the light of orthodox research that documents the beneficial effects leisure has on the psyche. This involves drawing on contemporary theorizing in leisure studies while at the same time using grounded knowledge of a particular locality and synthesizing the material to identify areas for future theorizing and research. In Northern Ireland, the July summer holiday period was traditionally used to celebrate Protestant culture and religion and Unionist supporters marked these events by holding religious and political rallies. However, this celebration of Protestantism has not (recently) been shared with the Nationalist community and various skirmishes and civil disorder offences have been recorded over this holiday period during the last 5 years. The paper notes the change in emphasis from celebration to confrontation and considers the effects this has on individuals already living in an armed conflict situation. It is contended that during this particular holiday period in the Province, leisure is used as a vehicle for social mobilization as Unionists and Nationalists pursue group interests and engage in collective action for their respective ideologies. Leisure, in Northern Ireland, does not function in a manner that orthodox research would initially suggest but is used to reinforce political and sectarian divisions. The paper concludes by commenting that the political, social and economic indices that shape our experiences of leisure need to be considered and/or incorporated into theoretical understandings of leisure.