Performing
Leisure
Recent critical approaches
to academic research have provided the opportunity to assess
the extent to which socially constructed understandings of individual
identity are shaped and (allowed to be) expressed within different
social, historical and cultural settings. Within the context
of leisure, it could be argued, that much of an individual's
ability to experience leisure activities is incumbent upon one's
ability to 'perform' in the appropriate manner. Therefore, social
factors such as class also need to be considered in relation
to gender, age, race, economy and (dis)ability. Read in this
way, embodied and social identities are made and remade through
specific forms of leisure activity whether, for instance,
this is through participation in a sports club or an adventure
holiday. This theme will attempt to explore the range of social
factors which contribute to the experience (or not) of leisure,
and as such overlaps with the Learning Leisure theme. |
Learning Leisure
This theme explores the different
leisure pathways available to people and the extent to which
people learn leisure, as well as policy and provision strategies
to cater for such pathways. Recent government interest in the
role of play in children's lives (for instance, The Children's
Play Council, extended schools and local authority play strategies)
demonstrates a growing awareness of (or concern for) what young
people do in their free time. Furthermore, over £1 billion
is being made available for (UK) PE and school sport to help
ensure that all members of society are offered opportunities
and encouragement to play, lead and manage sport. Indeed, it
is often the case that learning in these contexts can directly
influence engagement in leisure beyond childhood and adolescence.
However, for others, learning leisure is a lifelong experience
as people are introduced to or try new leisure experiences as
a result of various social, health, family and other factors
throughout the lifecourse. In this respect, learning leisure
is not just about young people and schools, but about lifelong
learning for leisure, sport, tourism and health activities. |
Locating Leisure
Space and place are geographical
concepts related closely to people's everyday leisure experiences
and to more extra-ordinary leisure or tourism experiences. Although
issues of demographic constraints on leisure, tourism and recreational
have been well documented, more general issues related to spatiality
have largely been left unexplored. Spaces routinely used for
leisure may be formally designated (such as parks or leisure
centres) or may evolve informally over time (such as the use
of the urban landscape for rollerblading). Other spaces may be
so designated more temporarily (such as the use of the streets
of London for the London Marathon) or may be adapted to become
leisure places as a result of a particular leisure, sport or
tourism event. This theme relates to both the extent to which
the development of spaces as leisure places is planned and provided
for, or the extent to which they develop as a result of the 'place-making'
quality of leisure participation. The theme is open to multiple
interpretations of space and place, varying from the impacts
of cultural geography changes on urban leisure to spatialized
feminism and gendered spaces. |
Risk and Leisure
Risk is a significant phenomenon
in leisure, whether it is experienced as a positive and motivating
factor (as in some aspects of adventure sports tourism), or seen
as a potential threat to be controlled and protected against
(as in health and safety or child protection legislation). The
control of risk may be seen as a positive factor in ensuring
that children are protected from harm (or, indeed, that people
are protected from antisocial children!), and that leisure facilities
and services are safe and fit for purpose. Conversely, an elevated
risk consciousness may in fact narrow leisure opportunities and
diminish leisure experiences. In this respect, areas in which
risk is seen as a positive and motivating experience may become
sanitised and commodified as providers seek to sell a packaged
form of risk (or at least the illusion of risk) that provides
a form of risk experience without "risking" the provision
of real risk and the potential legislative and litigious consequences
that may bring. |
