LEISURE: Our Common Wealth?

2426 July 2002, Unversity
of Central Lancashire

For information on LSA Publications themed and edited volumes arising from work presented at the LSA 2002 Conference, which will be published in 2003, please contact LSA Publications, c/o M. McFee,
E-mail: mcfee@solutions-inc.co.uk

Organising Committee Report

Choosing the theme for LSA 2002 was a relatively easy task ~ the imminent staging of the Commonwealth games in Manchester gave an almost irresistible impulse to establish some thematic connection with this major leisure event: so "Leisure: our common wealth?" it was, the question mark being all important. In retrospect, we didn't foresee how diversely this theme would be interpreted by speakers and presenters. Sub-themes of post-colonialism, social inclusion, economic impact and morality were identified at the beginning ~ and we were certainly delighted with the range of papers dealing more or less directly with these themes ~ but there were also papers which interpreted the concept of 'commonwealth' in wider and different ways.

In planning the conference we also had the intention, bearing in mind the stated theme of inclusion, of bringing together the academic and practitioner leisure communities (as has been a principal aim of LSA from its inception in 1975). As always, it is for others to judge to what extent the conference was successful in this, but it was heartening to hear David Evans, Director of Leisure Services, Swansea City and County Council and also the President of ILAM, speaking in his presentation on 'The future of leisure', of the value leisure practitioners place upon the work of leisure academics and of how many of them look to the academic community ~ dare we say towards the LSA ~ for the research and theoretical advances that inform their practice.

David was not, of course, suggesting that the academic community should engage only in research with immediate practical impact, but was asking us to remember the potential shared benefits of the two spheres working in co-operation and with mutual respect.

In pursuit of the theme of inclusion, one of our principal objectives was to offer a complementary blend of keynote speakers from the academic leisure community and from the leisure industries. In addition to David Evans we welcomed Alan Cavill, Head of Economic Development at Blackpool Borough Council whose paper 'The Repositioning of Blackpool as the Las Vegas of the United Kingdom' raised many absorbing questions on the economic, social and indeed moral dimensions of commercial gambling. In the ensuing discussion the feasibility of re-modelling Blackpool as an English Las Vegas was queried, though, as Alan pointed out, a more accurate comparison would be with Atlantic City.

We were also pleased to welcome Kevin Moore, Director of the National Football Museum in Preston. Kevin's paper on 'Football: our common culture?' challenged received wisdom by questioning whether football might actually be socially divisive rather than inclusive, and also gave some revealing insights to the development and management of the Museum itself.

Representing the commercial leisure provider's perspective we were grateful to Nick Leach, Senior Partner of Partnership Consulting, whose paper, also titled 'The future of leisure', shared his vision of the evolving leisure market as it is seen from within the private sector. Nick discussed a range of demographic and consumer trends relevant to leisure and offered, as major emerging commercial leisure themes, Science, Art, Gambling, Sport and Fish. The latter clearly demands a little explanation: Nick's point was that as leisure consumers increasingly seek enhanced levels of interaction, the virtual experiences offered by venues such as 'The Deep' in Hull are thought likely to engender a greater demand for fish and marine related leisure attractions.

The keynote speakers representing the academic community reflected the international status of leisure studies.

Karla Henderson (University of North Carolina) spoke on 'Leisure and sport as the foundations for social capital and inclusion', and presented an interpretative analysis of the relationships between leisure and citizenship. Karla then proceeded to explore the ethical and professional obligations of leisure and sport providers to nurture social capital as a lever for inclusion and social justice.

Tony Veal (University of Technology, Sydney) gave a timely and thought-provoking analysis of the differing emphases in leisure practice and leisure studies in the past two decades in his paper 'Managing economic impacts of leisure, sport and tourism: the continuing role of the state in the common wealth of leisure'. Tony noted the relatively low priority in leisure studies of economics-based research and then explored and restated the principles underlying the rationale for the existence of a significant state sector within a primarily market economy and the state's role in protection, regulation and redistribution.

We think we had a "first" for an LSA Conference with an "e-presentation" ~ ironically by John Walton, who actually teaches at the University of Central Lancashire but happened at the time of the conference to be in Buenos Aires. John's video-recorded presentation 'Tourism (im)moralities: transatlantic historical perspectives' covered a range of perceptions of the rise of tourism, contrasting notions of its educative and economic benefits with its capacity to displace and marginalise indigenous populations and to exploit pristine environments in pursuit of profit and transient pleasures. The presentation was followed by a conference-call question and answer session conducted live by telephone link to South America.
Over 60 delegates attended the conference. The majority came from the United Kingdom, though others had travelled considerable distances, amongst them guests from Australia, USA and Iran. The papers reflected a diverse and wide-ranging interpretation of the main theme and most will be available in post-conference publications. There were 19 parallel sessions with a total of 46 papers.

Organising the papers into sessions was an interesting task, as some could be grouped very easily within a topic while others seemed initially to be more resistant to categorisation, and several papers drew, quite properly, on more than one theme. However, the resultant eclecticism of several sessions engendered some very interesting discussions and offered fresh insights to respective topics.

Six sessions were based around social inclusion and gender ~ a good reflection of the still-high profile of these issues, but only one session dealt specifically with the economic impact of leisure, perhaps an interesting point with reference to Tony Veal's comment in his keynote paper. Session themes included Gender and Inclusion; Moral Educations: Tourism Holidays; Economic Impacts of Sport; Sport and Inclusion; Aspects of Visitor Attractions; Volunteering; Gender; Culture; Social Inclusion in Arts and Cultural Events; Sport Development and Coaching; Socio-cultural aspects of climbing; Sports Tourism and Post-Colonial Leisure; Post-Colonial Leisure; Cultural Strategies.

The social element of the conference proved to be successful, and we would like to acknowledge the generous sponsorship of the Lancashire Tourism Partnership through which we were awarded a substantial sum which enabled us to organise visits to Blackpool and to the National Football Museum. The wine reception, for which we thank Taylor and Francis for their sponsorship, offered the first officially scheduled opportunity to meet informally and this was followed on the evening of the same day by a coach trip to Blackpool.

A visit to Blackpool is always an educative as well as a leisure experience, and on this occasion, offered the chance to reflect on the afternoon's paper on the role of gambling in the regeneration of Blackpool and to assess the relative merits of the Pleasure Beach, the Golden Mile and the Tower as leisure attractions.

The Thursday sessions were rounded off with an after-hours visit to the National Football Museum and then by the Conference Dinner. In his report of LSA 2001 at Luton, Ian Jones commented on the friendliness of that conference, and this was certainly a prominent characteristic of LSA 2002 too. In addition to the usual networking and exchange of ideas it was good to see members, as usual, using an LSA Conference to offer support and encouragement to others, especially those fairly new to the leisure studies community.

We would also like to record our thanks to the Conference Team of the University's Business Services who were a constant source of help throughout the entire planning period as well as during the Conference itself and also to the LSA Executive for their support and guidance. Finally, thank you to all who came to Preston - keynote speakers, delegates, sponsors, exhibitors, colleagues at the University of Central Lancashire and all who supported the Conference in any way.

Bob Snape and Christine Williams
for LSA 2002 Organising Committee
October 2002

LSA 2002 Committee

Christine Williams, Chair, University of Central Lancashire

Graham Baldwin, Head of Department University of Central Lancashire

Prof. John Walton, University of Central Lancashire

Edwin Thwaites, University of Central Lancashire

Martine Middleton, University of Central Lancashire

Adrian Ibbetson, University of Central Lancashire

Maggie Ferguson, University of Central Lancashire

Iain Adams, University of Central Lancashire

Bob Snape, University of Central Lancashire

Beccy Watson, Leeds Metropolitan University

LSA 2002 PHOTO ALBUM