Recreation & Leisure Studies

El tiempo libre como heurístico del self: una metodología para el análisis de la complejidad del sujeto

by Nuria Codina

Tendencias emergentes en el comportamiento de ocio: el ocio serio y su evaluacion Arising new tendencies in leisure behaviour: Serious leisure and its evaluation

by Nuria Codina

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk: Aerobics for Fat Women Only, 1981-1985

by Jenny Ellison

Published in Gender, Health and Popular Culture: Historical Perspectives, ed. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh.

By 1984 aerobics, dancercise, jazzercise and the like were among “the most popular physical activities of North... more By 1984 aerobics, dancercise, jazzercise and the like were among “the most popular physical activities of North American women.”  Aerobics emerged in the early 1980s in the wake of Title IX and the development of organizations like CAAWS [Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport], actions which sought to advance the position of women by improving their status as athletes.  Due to their apparent focus on femininity and feminine display aerobics classes have tended to be seen as a departure from the sports feminist goals of liberation and equality for women.  Some historians and feminist theorists have likewise viewed aerobics as a co-optation of the concept of liberation. With aerobics, the potential for collective gains for women appear to be replaced with individualistic goals; the freedoms offered by sports co-opted for the purpose of selling a service to women.

My previous research on female athletes confirms that media representations of aerobics tend to present the activity as aesthetic rather than health-promoting.  From the :20 Minute Workout to Tab-Cola advertisements, an archetype of female aerobics participants emerges. Clad in high-cut pink leotards, with matching leg-warmers and sweat-bands, these young, lean, white women represent the self-monitoring, self-disciplining consumers of beauty culture described in Susan Bordo’s seminal Unbearable Weight.  This paper explores the relationship between idealized images of women in popular culture and women themselves. Do feminine ideals and archetypes of femininity figure into women’s participation in aerobics? Can we find the sports feminist values of liberation and health promotion in women’s aerobics classes in the 1980s?

Rights of public access to the foreshore: A study of public awareness and opinions: Summer Research Scholarship Report

by Brendan Doody

This study examines the way a sample of Christchurch residents use the foreshore for outdoor recreation, how they... more This study examines the way a sample of Christchurch residents use the foreshore for outdoor recreation, how they perceive their access rights and what they think about proposed foreshore and access initiatives. It responds to recent events that have highlighted the importance of access rights to New Zealanders, specifically the foreshore debate. The Land Access Ministerial Reference Group report released in August 2003 was an additional catalyst. The study has three objectives: 1. To investigate the public’s use of, and need for, access to the foreshore; 2. To gain an understanding of what the Christchurch sample population know about their access rights to the foreshore; and 3. To determine what opinions the public hold about the Government’s proposed public domain foreshore land tenure and the ‘solutions’ suggested by the Land Access Ministerial Reference Group (LAMRG) report. A questionnaire survey of 300 Christchurch residents was conducted in December 2003 to investigate these objectives.

Rights of public access to the foreshore: a study of public awareness and opinions

by Brendan Doody

Doody, B. J. & Booth, K. L. (2006). "Rights of public access in New Zealand: Public opinion about foreshore access and proposals to improve land access." Annals of Leisure Research 9(1-2): 62-85.

The New Zealand government has initiated new policy for the public’s rights of access to land, and the foreshore in... more The New Zealand government has initiated new policy for the public’s rights of access to land, and the foreshore in particular. Despite this policy activity, little is known about the public’s views on their access rights. A survey of 300 Christchurch residents examined respondents’ use of, and need for, access to the foreshore, their knowledge of foreshore access rights, and opinions about selected access policy proposals. Results show that respondents highly value the foreshore for recreational purposes and expect to be able to go there without charge. Most believe the foreshore should be in public ownership. Knowledge of access rights was found to be low, suggesting policy should place emphasis on improving public knowledge and awareness about access to existing recreational resources rather than increasing the extent of the accessible resource. General support was given for a range of land access policy proposals, including greater portrayal of access information on maps and on-site access signposting; however, the likely effectiveness of such proposals is less certain.

Balancing more than backpacks: Communitarian ideas applied to educational expeditions

by Jerry Isaak

Media Culture: The social organisation of media practices in contemporary Britain

by David Wright

Co-authored with Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Elizabeth B. Silva, Alan Warde and Modesto Gayo-Cal

A report for the British Film Institute.

“Hearts for Sale: The French Romance and the Sexual Traffic of Musical Mimicry,” 19th-Century Music 35:1 (2011), 34-71.

by William Cheng

'Race', Sport and Leisure: Lessons from Critical Race Theory

by Kevin Hylton

Leisure Studies 2005

This paper presents and explores critical race theory (CRT) as an ontological starting point for the study of sport... more This paper presents and explores critical race theory (CRT) as an ontological starting point for the study of sport and leisure. CRT is based on five precepts outlined by Solorzano and Yosso that centre ‘race’ and racism, social justice, plurivocality, transdisciplinarity and challenge orthodoxies. There have been a number of recent criticisms and debates amongst leisure and sports studies writers that challenge their general focus of study as narrow and myopic. The five precepts have been fundamental to radical shifts in critical legal studies over the past fifteen years and have significance for the development of critical sport and leisure theory. CRT and ‘race’ crit- ical perspectives are drawn out, clarified and their mutual agendas focussed. It is argued here that researchers and writers need urgently to centralize ‘race’ and racism as core factors in the study of social relations in sport if Birrell’s optimism in the development of sport (and leisure) theory is to be realised.

Toward a more phronetic leisure science

by Jeff Rose

Dustin, Schwab, & Rose (2012)

In this essay, we examine the assumptions underlying natural science, social science, and the humanities. More... more In this essay, we examine the assumptions underlying natural science, social science, and the humanities. More specifically, we suggest that social science in general and leisure science in particular be guided by a different set of assumptions than those guiding natural science and the humanities. Drawing on the Aristotelian idea of phronesis, we propose that value rationality more so than instrumental rationality guide social scientific inquiry, and that social science in general, and leisure science in particular, be viewed as a bridge between natural science and the humanities.

Why Luxury brands aim non-core sectors?

by Alvaro HIDALGO

Extension of Luxury brands to Tourism facilities Extension of Luxury brands to Tourism facilities

If Small is Beautiful.....Exclusive beats it.

by Alvaro HIDALGO

Luxury as a factor to set carrying capacity .TALC Luxury as a factor to set carrying capacity .TALC

Leisure divide: Can the poor come out to play?

by Payal Arora

published in an ISI indexed journal - Information Development, 2012

As billions of dollars are invested in mitigating the digital divide, stakes are raised to gain validity for these... more As billions of dollars are invested in mitigating the digital divide, stakes are raised to gain validity for these cost-intensive endeavors, focusing more on online activities that have clear socio-economic outcomes. Hence, farmers in rural India are watched closely to see how they access crop prices online, while their Orkuting gets sidelined as anecdotal. This paper argues that this is a fundamental problem as it treats users in emerging markets as somehow inherently different from those in the West. After all, it is now commonly accepted that much of what users do online in developed nations is leisure-oriented. This perspective does not crossover as easily into the Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) world, where the utilitarian angle reigns. This paper argues that much insight can be gained in bridging worlds of ICT4D and New Media studies. By negating online leisure in ‘Third World’ settings, our understandings on this new user market.
can be critically flawed.

Dancing through the Market Transition: Disco and Dance Hall Sociability in Shanghai

by James Farrer

James Farrer. 2000. “Dancing through the market transition: discotheque and dance hall sociability in Shanghai” in The Consumer Revolution in Urban China edited by Deborah Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 226-249.

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview, 12.11.2011

by Volkan Aytar

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview, 12.11.2011

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book... more "Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview on our co-edited book, "Entertainment in Istanbul" Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 12.11.2011

Rethinking Kink: Sadomasochism as Serious Leisure

by Staci Newmahr

Based on extensive ethnographic research in a public SM (sadomasochism) community, this paper frames SM as recreation.... more Based on extensive ethnographic research in a public SM (sadomasochism) community, this paper frames SM as recreation. Drawing on Robert Stebbins’ work on “serious leisure” (1982), I posit that in order to more adequately understand SM as it occurs in this community, we need to shift from mainstream assumptions of SM as (simply) “kinky sex” to a more nuanced perspective. I explore the unique skills required in order to engage in SM, as well as the benefits and rewards that participants derive from it, in order to illustrate that SM can be more usefully understood as serious leisure.

BOOK EXCERPT: Walt Disney: A Biography

by Louise Krasniewicz

This cultural biography of Walt Disney shows how to think about Disney's life and contributions in the context of the... more This cultural biography of Walt Disney shows how to think about Disney's life and contributions in the context of the first half of the 20th century.

Reflections on reflexivity in leisure and tourism studies

by Scott Cohen

Cohen, S.A. (2012) Reflections on reflexivity in leisure and tourism studies. Leisure Studies, DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2012.662522 (in press)

While leisure and tourism researchers have come some way in addressing issues of reflexivity in their own research,... more While leisure and tourism researchers have come some way in addressing issues of reflexivity in their own research, this effort towards engaging with positionality has lagged approximately ten years behind when the broader social sciences confronted the ‘reflexive turn’. This research note draws upon two cases from my own research with lifestyle travellers to illustrate how a reflexive approach can help to generate more trustworthy, richer texts in qualitative leisure research.

Keywords: methodology; reflexivity; leisure; tourism

American Circus (Re)Invented-Queering Cirque Du Soleil

by Michael Johnson Jr.

City Debates 2008: Spaces of Faith and Fun

by Mona Harb

International Journal for Urban and Regional Research, 33(4), pp.1073-78 (2009).