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Conferences,
seminars and workshops |
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Postgraduate session at the LSA annual
conference
The LSA offers students the opportunity to present their work
at the annual conference. In the past, the sessions have been
friendly, informal and lively affairs. They are a good starting
point for students wanting to pursue a career in leisure studies.
The student session will be up and running again at the LSA 2003
conference.
Click here for abstracts of
student papers presented at the 1999 LSA conference held
at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education (now
the University of Gloucestershire)
Many student conference papers are successfully offered for
post-conference publication in themed and edited LSA Publications
volumes.
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LSA Day seminars
The LSA plans to run a series of day
conferences. Let us know if you would like to see an
LSA postgrad day conference.
E-mail: p.lokman@roehampton.ac.uk
Other conferences, seminars
and workshops
- The UK Council for Graduate Education
"The Postgraduate Experience"
Summer Conference 2002
Monday 15th & Tuesday 16th July
The Park Campus, University of Gloucestershire
THEMES & AIMS
~ to explore the changing postgraduate experience, students'
own expectations as well as those of HEIs and stakeholders
~ to look forward to future challenges
~ to share experiences, identify good practice and explore innovative
solution
~ to stimulate HEI policy/strategy developments
http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/framesets/three.html
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Abstracts of student papers presented at the 1999 LSA conference
held at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education
(now the University of Gloucestershire) |
Carlton Brick
'Do as I say, not as I do'? Moral education, English football
and the third way: the case of Newcastle United Football Club
Centre for Sports Development Research, School of Sports Studies,
Roehampton Institute London, UK
This paper will examine contemporary shifts in the move away
from football as an object of social policy, to football as a
conduit of social policy. It will pay particular attention to
the current New Labour government's incorporation of the football
club into the "realm" of state education policy. Since
their election in May 1997, New Labour have developed an ideological
and policy orientation involving local football clubs in the
educational progress of youngsters in their local communities.
The "rejuvenation" of Newcastle United under the ownership
of the Hall family, as a football club and as a focus for regional
identity has drawn significantly from this "privatisation"
of the educational process, with great emphasis upon the "moral"
education and discipline of "Geordie" youth. In March
1998 the Newcastle United chairman and vice chairman, Freddie
Shepherd and Douglas Hall, were reported to have brought Newcastle
United, the North East and football into "disrepute",
regarding their behaviour and comments whilst visiting a Spanish
brothel. Such an issue suggests that the project to "remoralise"
society through "new" institutional forms is built
upon a fraught and fragile foundation. New forms of social and
moral "integration" are being played out through the
football club and its "local" community. These forms,
I would argue, are representative of the building of new "privatised"
social institutions outside of the "old" traditional
framework of the corporatist welfare state now largely perceived
as "ineffectual". This paper will argue that the incorporation
and privatisation of new institutional forms of "moral"
education reflects on the one hand an institutional and ideological
crisis that has increasingly manifest itself within western political
elites, but also on the other represents an attempt to cohere
"new" socio-political institutions at a time when "traditional"
institutional forms of power and ideology are perceived to be
discredited. |
Claudia Cockburn
(in LSA Publication No.
72)
Identities and subcultures in relation to sport: an analysis
of teenage girls' magazines
Research and Graduate School of Education, Southampton University,
UK
This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the references to
sport in current issues of four teenage girls' magazines. Attention
is directed towards the negative stereotyping surrounding females
in support, the risks girls' face on entering the sporting domain,
and the trivialization of involvement in sport, whether of females
or males. The young readers of these magazines are faced by contradictions,
which are explored here in the light of recent theories of teenage
girls' subcultures and processes of identity formation. "Sportyness",
in these popular publications, is represented as incompatible
with heterosexual desirability. The paper concludes by stressing
the need for alternative discursive practices on the part of
editors, the PE profession and others, that would encourage teenage
girls and young women to develop a stronger sense of self, and
empower them to define themselves autonomously. |
Richard Garrett
(in LSA Publication No.
71)
The effect of lottery funding on voluntary sports clubs
Leisure Management Unit, University of Sheffield, UK
Research into the voluntary sector in leisure is extremely limited
(Hoggett and Bishop 1985; Stebbins 1996), but recent work (Gratton
et al 1997) has attempted to measure its significance in providing
opportunities for sports participation. The voluntary sector
in sport is important to the English Sports Council (ESC) as
a means of meeting their policy objectives. By December 1998
2763 projects had received 779 million pounds (ESC 1998) from
the Lottery Sports Fund (LSF) distributed by the ESC. In a procedure
that many voluntary sports clubs find daunting, applying to the
LSF makes new demands on volunteers (Gratton et al 1997). If
successful, further demands are made on the clubs in the conditions
attached to the award by the ESC which address the wider interests
of sport in the community and those of the ESC. This paper reports
initial results from research examining the affect of these pressures
and demands on the structure of voluntary sport clubs. The findings
are placed within the context of an inter-dependent network of
organisations using Institution Theory (Barley and Tolbert 1997).
Organisation literature has previously examined sports National
Governing Bodies (Henry and Theodoraki 1994; Slack 1985; Winkler
1984) but has rarely ventured into grass roots voluntary sports
clubs, with the exception of Horch (1994). The paper also raises
the issue of the tension between the voluntary sports club sector
as a vehicle for members' free expression of interests, as exemplified
by Hoggett and Bishop (1985), and the attachment of conditions
to financial support from publicly accountable sources which
are often associated with the bureaucratisation and professionalisation
of the receiving organisation (Gratton et al 1997) resulting,
possibly, in a change in the nature of the voluntary sectors
(Nichols 1998). The paper describes the planned continuation
of the research through qualitative methods. |
Sally Shaw
Symbols in Sport: a cultural analysis of a sport organisation
School of PE Sport and Leisure, De Montfort University, UK
In order to add to further understanding of the gendered nature
of organisations, it is possible to analyse them as cultures
(Smircich, 1983). This analysis can be extended to sport organisations.
These cultures are created and recreated through symbols and
meanings, which are often accepted by individuals and reinforced
within the organisation (Meyerson, 1991). Symbols can be identified
through the political and historical contexts of the organisation,
as well as through officially and unofficially endorsed practices
within organisations. Such symbols have often been understood
to belittle the influence of women within organisations. However,
these symbols are more being challenged more frequently within
sport organisations, in an attempt by both 'influential' and
'non influential' organisational members to create a more equitable
environment. The purpose of this study was to analyse some of
the changes which are evident within a sport organisation which
is making a concerted effort to become more equitable. Organisational
members were interviewed, both those in positions of 'power'
and those who are 'ordinary members'. It was found that, despite
a history of 'male dominated' influence and privilege, there
is a move to alter previously unquestioned assumptions. This
has served to increase access by women to positions of influence
within the organisation. As the organisation continues this evolution,
there appears to be a commitment to fundamental changes to increase
gender equity within the organisation in the future. |
Heather Sheridan (in
LSA Publication No. 71)
Ethical leisure: the 'dark' and 'deviant' disambiguated
Leisure and Sport Research Unit, Cheltenham and Gloucester College
of Higher Education, UK
In a recent conference paper titled "The significance of
serial killing for leisure studies" Rojek (1997, p.9) suggests
that leisure theorists should study what he refers to as the
"dark side" of leisure. As well as serial killing,
the kinds of activities, experiences and behaviour that Rojek
(1997) believes to be the "dark side" of leisure, or
"dark leisure," include substance abuse, illegal sex
rings, domestic violence, paedophilia, trespassing and graffiti.
The aim of this paper is to see whether conceptual sense can
be made of "dark leisure." It is argued that "deviant
activity," a species of Stebbins' (1997, p.20) concept of
"casual leisure," may be most able to contribute to
the conceptualisation of "dark leisure." It is also
argued that conceptualisations of leisure in terms of residual
time, functional, freedom or activity, are inadequate as none
pay sufficient attention to the content and quality of leisure.
It is argued that Telfer's (1987) Neo-Aristotelian conceptualisation
of leisure does take into account the content and quality of
leisure, and is best understood when contextualised in terms
of MacIntyre's (1981a) conception of social practices. I conclude
that the activities considered as possible candidates for conceptualising
that "dark leisure" cannot be conceived of as leisure.
It follows, that if they cannot first be conceived of as leisure
they cannot then be conceived of as "dark leisure"
or any sort of leisure for that matter. Thus, I conclude that
"dark leisure" is an oxymoron. Nevertheless, I have
drawn two further conclusion. First, those activities described
as "deviant leisure" appear to be the same as the candidates
for "dark leisure." Second, it would seem that due
to the nature and characteristics of the candidates for "dark
leisure," such as the way they are generally motivated by
pleasure, or often seem to be described in terms of pleasure,
it would be more appropriate that they are conceptualised as
"dark pleasure" or "deviant pleasure." |
Elizabeth Such
Leisure and family lifestyle: researching the construction of
time-use and activity patterns in dual-earner households
Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy, Department of Physical
Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management, Loughborough
University, UK
One of the consequences of economic restructuring and socio-cultural
change in the UK has been the emergence of the dual-earner family
as the most common family form. For the most part, this has resulted
from the increased level of labour market participation amongst
mothers, the majority of whom now combine parenting with paid
labour. In Britain, dual-earner households have become the most
common household type for two-parent families: by 1994 60% were
in this category, compared with 47% ten years previously (Brannen,
Moss, Owen and Vale, 1997). At the same time, the number of two-parent
households in which there is only one earner has declined by
about a third, from 43% in 1984 to 30% in 1994 (ibid.). These
changes suggest that the role expectations of male and female
parents' may be becoming less strongly differentiated than previously,
and that new forms of household activity patterns are emerging
to meet the time-demands on dual-earner families. The trend towards
heterosexual couples combining paid work with parenting has stimulated
debate amongst academics and policy makers alike. Much of this
has centred on the implications of the dual-earner family on
the work and family lives of individuals (e.g. Rapoport and Rapoport,
1971, 1976; Gregson and Lowe, 1993, 1994), with particular attention
being paid to implications for gender relations and divisions
of unpaid labour within the home. Much less attention has been
paid to the implications of the dual-earner lifestyle for individual
and household leisure behaviour. This paper reports on research
currently being undertaken into the construction of individual
and collective lifestyles in dual-earner families. The study
is concerned with the processes through which dual-earner couples
construct their patterns of activities and time-use in the context
of multiple, often conflicting, time demands. In particular,
the research is concerned with the role that leisure plays in
shaping activity patterns, and the extent to which a gendered
'leisure gap' (Hochschild, 1989) is influential in the broader
construction of gender relations within the household. The paper
will draw on a review of the main social science literatures
on dual-earner families to identify the dimensions of household
lifestyles to be addressed in the research, and discuss the implications
of these for the methodological development of the study. The
appropriateness of using the family as the unit of analysis,
incorporating separate and joint interviews with both male and
female partner, will be evaluated. |
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