The volume explores the myriad ways in which tourism and leisure-related policy, planning and participation can contribute to wider agendas that seek to address the 'triple bottom line' of environmental, economic and social sustainability.
Although the separation of these chapters, with their social and cultural focus, from wider environmental and economic analyses might be seen to disrupt this holistic engagement with sustainability, they form a coherent account of the state-of-the-art of social and cultural research in leisure and tourism studies today.
The research presented here is informed by both the 'cultural turn' in social science that took place from the 1980s onwards and by the current 'rematerialising' of social and cultural research where economic and material analyses have re-emerged alongside and integrated with cultural analyses.The volume therefore engages with contemporary theoretical perspectives in an effort to understand more fully the ways in which social and cultural life are informed by and, in turn, re-inform, policy and practice in tourism, leisure, culture, sports, the arts and creative industries. Using a narrative inquiry framework, Ann Campbell's chapter provides a useful insight into the meaning and perceptions of leisure among a sample of active older Hawaiian women.
Her ethnographic study is based on participant observation and in-depth interviews and emphasises the diversity of leisure interests and experiences among the participants.
The author identifies health, fellowship and mobility as the major constraints in leisure participation and highlights the central role played by family networks in the leisure experiences of these women.She also argues that "the individual's attitude towards life-long learning in childhood influences their attitude towards learning new skills and developing new interests as older women".
Her research reveals the importance of feelings in the women's constructs of leisure and the fact that it was the "feelings engendered by the enjoyable activities of childhood" that "determined their selection of leisure activities in later life".
These findings, she argues, raise questions regarding the "appropriateness of designated 'seniors' leisure activities, especially those targeted at older women". Continuing with the focus on the leisure experiences of older women, Diane Sedgley's chapter, "The meaning and significance of leisure for women in later life: the contribution of biographical research", is based on bio-graphical research methods and explores the influence of the whole life course on leisure behaviour.Her in-depth analysis of one individual's life, 'Alice', highlights the important role of leisure in providing opportunities for older women to meet people, spend time with peers, take on roles of responsibility and, ultimately, adapt to altered personal circumstances such as ill health and bereavement.
She concludes that the use of biographical research can provide insight into how structural processes and disadvantage can affect people's lives and their experiences and opportunities for leisure, and play an important role in challenging the traditional discourses and stereotypes around older people's leisure. In a chapter on ballroom dancing and the dance floor as "a significant social and cultural space for leisure", Peter Bramham elaborates the concept of dance as "emancipatory practice for older people, enabling them to belong to and enjoy social networks and also to exhibit cultural competence in performance".Drawing on Rojek's 'action approach' to leisure studies, his generational analysis of ballroom dancing in the UK suggests that this dance form "provides a perfect physical activity for older people to display bodily competencies and skills to younger generations". "Unlike in sporting contest", he argues, "living inside a decaying body is no great inhibitor to successful participation and performance", although "some forms of physical activity are uncool to younger generations if they symbolise the tastes of old people".
He proposes that the recent 'mediatisation' of ballroom dancing in the UK and elsewhere has re-popularised the activity for a young generation as well as "replenishing the tastes of the parent and, in this case, grandparent generation".
There remains, however, a "gender message of hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity [...]So the paradox remains why postmodern men struggling with the 'crisis of masculinity' are reluctant to put on dancing shoes and step into the less ambiguous world of ballroom dancing".
Moreover, Bramham maintains that "traditional gender relationships with their prescriptive body discourse and the discipline of ballroom dancing sit uneasily on the shoulders of more relaxed and diverse younger generations".
In conclusion, he argues that "social dancing must be located within generational cohorts and contextualised within collective historical experience. [...] Dancing still provides a crucial site for leisure for each generation but its significance and function differ, as each age cohort is different".
Phil Long and Scott McCabe's chapter, "Tourism and the inclusive society: conceptual and policy developments in the United Kingdom", discusses "the concept of social exclusion and its relevance to contemporary debates in the provision of support for family holidaymaking".This chapter investigates the "theoretical, conceptual and policy connections between tourism and social exclusion as conceived and practised in the UK. It is maintained that a holiday can be considered as part of a person's social capital, helping people to feel integrated in society and contributing to a sense of citizenship and belonging.
The authors argue that, despite recent government's efforts to implement measures that address social exclusion in leisure practices, there is a lack of systematic research on non-participation in holiday making or the benefits derived from participation.
They conclude that further research is needed into the role of tourism in contributing to contemporary notions of citizenship.Closely related to these ideas on the role of government in the provision of leisure opportunities and enhancement of social inclusion, Simone Fullagar's chapter employs a "governmentality perspective" to discuss the ways in which "family leisure practices are situated within a politics of risk" in Australia.
The chapter focuses on how "specific socio-cultural sites and discursive formations of risk are produced in relation to leisure practices and spaces" and specifically identifies discursive fields in which dominant discourses and accepted 'truths' are developed which "normalise and responsibilise family life". The author problematises representations of the "obesity crisis" by examining policy and popular representations that portray the risks attached to certain lifestyles, arguing that the 'new prudentialism' and neo-conservative inspired privatisation of health have created overly gendered, hegemonic discourses.Although the counter discourses of responsibility which emphasise a more collective approach to leisure are also examined, the author still finds a view of the population as homogeneous and a rather utilitarian notion of lifestyle practices that ignores the complex social and cultural forces that mediate leisure practices.
To conclude, it is suggested this kind of critical work can inform future theorisations and develop everyday practices that more closely "engage with the social paradoxes currently characterising different desires and opportunities for healthy living".Using a case study approach - the Bolton Indians Cricket Club - the chapter by Phil Binks and Bob Snape, "Place, space and community development: tensions surrounding diversity and cohesion in leisure spatial planning", investigates the implementation of current UK government policy on leisure space and "the extent to which leisure spatial planning might contribute to the development of socially and culturally integrative leisure space". This chapter explores notions of ethnic spatial segregation and highlights the relevance of community cohesion as a concept which presupposes "equality, interaction and inter-connectivity between people and communities who live in proximity to each other".They maintain that "leisure, and particularly sport, are arenas which offer excellent opportunities for social interaction and the promotion of community cohesion", and that current government policy on the planning of leisure space clearly "articulates its potential to promote social inclusion and community cohesion".
They conclude that "greater delegation of power to local communities may offer a more effective means of developing spaces for sport and leisure that reflect both the needs of the wider community and which adhere to government policy on spatial planning and community cohesion".
This focus on locally-supported and community-based leisure informs Kim Polistina's chapter on outdoor leisure's role in holistic sustainable regeneration.With reference to the Valleys of South Wales (a region that has experienced significant deprivation following the collapse of its iron industry), the chapter illustrates the ways in which outdoor leisure can directly maintain the cultural, social, economic and environmental 'pillars of sustainability'. Drawing on a wide range of information obtained from work with community projects and locally-run schemes, the author takes each pillar in turn, providing practical evidence to support the central argument that outdoor leisure activities directly contribute to social and cultural regeneration; emphasising the direct link between outdoor leisure and sustainability.Most specifically, the author seeks to bring attention to the value of non-formal and informal leisure activities in the current move towards ideas of life-long learning as discussed in Campbell's chapter, in addition to personal development, the enhancement of social capital, and social cohesion through inclusion within rural communities.
The chapter by Michael Morgan on visitors' experience of festival spaces is based on research into the 2005 Sidmouth Folk Festival.
He explores the elements of the event experience and the ways in which festival-goers evaluate it, with a particular "focus on how spatial issues impact on the experience" (p. 114). Using 'netnography' as a method, insights are given into the visitor use of festival spaces and the implications for leisure and event managers.He maintains that positive experiences of festival space are facilitated by a number of factors including, inter alia, an abundance of choice within event programming, being able to discover something new, the opportunity for shared experiences, a lively and informal fringe event, a reflection of local distinctiveness and the opportunity for the co-creation of extraordinary experiences. The Sidmouth Folk Festival's success - he argues - is largely down to the fact that the organisers, professional performers and local businesses do not create the experience, they merely facilitate it.
He concludes that the main challenge for future research in this domain is to employ methodologies that allow visitors to "articulate the complex meanings of their experiences", and that 'netnographic' methods represent one possible approach.Following this challenge to employ more person-focused methodologies which embrace individual attitudes and multi-layered understandings, Albert Postma and Anne Klaas Schilder's chapter discusses a pilot study in which a Critical Incident Technique was employed in order to locate and understand significant critical moments at the interface between local communities and tourists.
In a case study of Schiermonnikoog, an island in the northern Netherlands the idea of 'tipping points' and the ways in which the local reaction to tourism develops into acceptance, ignorance or rejection is explored. Underpinned by a number of seminal tourism models and Social Representations Theory, in conjunction with documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, they examined the social representations held by the local community in order to locate significant critical moments during tourism development.Despite uncovering some overarching concerns including traffic, overcrowding and misbehaviour, the authors conclude that the chosen methodology was limited in its ability to tackle the central research aims.
However, the chapter does highlight the need to experiment with innovative methodologies and theories in order to gain a greater understanding of the acceptance process and the nature of 'tipping points' within a local and community-focused context.
Based on field research in Japan's Kii Peninsula, Paolo Barbaro's chapter, "Pilgrims and Hikers in the Kii Pensinsula: a Study of the Relationship between Religious and Leisure Mobility in Japan", addresses the different contexts of religious-leisure mobility in twentieth century Japan. His empirical work was carried out at three of the most famous and ancient pilgrimage sites in Japan: Kumano, Ise, and the pilgrimage circuit of the 33 sacred sites of Saigoku.The study aimed to investigate visitors to the three sites in terms of their motivations, behaviour and place perceptions.
The three case studies were markedly different in terms of visitors' behaviour and specific place images, but most visitors displayed similar connotative elements of both leisure and religion in their motivations and behaviour.
Based on this, Barbaro observes that "purely religious travel is extremely rare in contemporary Japan" and that "worship, prayers and the recognizing of a site as sacred or 'powerful' are common forms of behaviour during leisure trips" - if at times secondary.
Overall, he argues, "historical causes have influenced trajectories of religious and leisure mobility in Japan until recent times", although clearly these trajectories have also been shaped by other political, cultural, and religious factors.This religion-leisure blend, often seen in Japanese domestic tourism, seems to stem from both the intentional and incidental polyvalence of religious and leisure attractions; particularly in the three cases mentioned. In terms of future research, Barbaro emphasises the importance of expanding knowledge of "how and why certain connotations of religious-leisure mobility are cross-cultural and inter-religious", and to what extent they can also be "observed...in other spatial and temporal contexts".
