Positive Sociology of Leisure: Contemporary Perspectives [1st ed.] 9783030418113, 9783030418120

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LEISURE STUDIES IN A GLOBAL ERA

Positive Sociology of Leisure Contemporary Perspectives Edited by

Shintaro Kono · Anju Beniwal Priyanka Baweja · Karl Spracklen

Leisure Studies in a Global Era

Series Editors Karl Spracklen Leeds Beckett University Leeds, UK Karen Fox University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada

In this book series, we defend leisure as a meaningful, theoretical, ­framing concept; and critical studies of leisure as a worthwhile intellectual and pedagogical activity. This is what makes this book series distinctive: we want to enhance the discipline of leisure studies and open it up to a richer range of ideas; and, conversely, we want sociology, cultural geographies and other social sciences and humanities to open up to engaging with critical and rigorous arguments from leisure studies. Getting beyond concerns about the grand project of leisure, we will use the series to demonstrate that leisure theory is central to understanding wider debates about identity, postmodernity and globalisation in contemporary societies across the world. The series combines the search for local, qualitatively rich accounts of everyday leisure with the international reach of debates in politics, leisure and social and cultural theory. In doing this, we will show that critical studies of leisure can and should continue to play a central role in understanding society. The scope will be global, striving to be truly international and truly diverse in the range of authors and topics. Editorial Board: John Connell, Professor of Geography, University of Sydney, USA; Yoshitaka Mori, Associate Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan; Smitha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College, USA; Diane M. Samdahl, Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Georgia, USA; Chiung-Tzu Lucetta Tsai, Associate Professor, National Taipei University, Taiwan; Walter van Beek, Professor of Anthropology and Religion, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Sharon D. Welch, Professor of Religion and Society, Meadville Theological School, Chicago, USA; Leslie Witz, Professor of History, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14823

Shintaro Kono  •  Anju Beniwal Priyanka Baweja  •  Karl Spracklen Editors

Positive Sociology of Leisure Contemporary Perspectives

Editors Shintaro Kono University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada

Anju Beniwal Government Meera Girls College Rajasthan, India

Priyanka Baweja Rajasthan University Jaipur, India

Karl Spracklen Leeds Beckett University Leeds, UK

Leisure Studies in a Global Era ISBN 978-3-030-41811-3    ISBN 978-3-030-41812-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and ­transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © George H.H. Huey / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

1 Introduction to Positive Sociology of Leisure  1 Shintaro Kono, Anju Beniwal, Priyanka Baweja, and Karl Spracklen 2 Positive Sociology: An Overview 13 Robert A. Stebbins Part I Meanings of Leisure  27 3 Happiness and Perseverance: The Interplay of Emotional Energies in Gray Dancing 29 Satu Heikkinen and Eva Alfredsson-Olsson 4 “One Can Make a Swing with a Rope and a Piece of Wood”: The Positive Leisure Experience of Children Living in the Informal Settlements of Soacha, Colombia 49 Andrea Diaz-Hernandez and Idurre Lazcano Quintana

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5 Anything Goes for Being Happy? A Qualitative Analysis of Discourses on Leisure in Finland 67 Riie Heikkilä 6 An Evolving Leisure Practice: Home Climbing Walls as a Case 87 Ko Fan Lee, Daniel Peretti, and Piin Shiuan Wu Part II Ageing 107 7 The Complexity of Sport-as-Leisure in Later Life109 Julie Son and Rylee A. Dionigi 8 Leisure and Late Adulthood: Examining the Benefits of Participation during Retirement125 Thomas Sweeney and Jennifer Zorotovich 9 Life-Course Transitions and Leisure in Later Life: Retirement Between Continued Productivity and Late Freedom137 Anna Wanka Part III Sex, Sexuality, and Family 157 10 Same-sex Pairings on Strictly Come Dancing: LGBTQ+ Identity and Leisure Participation in Ballroom Dancing159 Vicki Harman and Yen Nee Wong 11 The Intersection of Leisure and Racial Socialization to Promote Positive Practices175 Augustus W. Hallmon and Desirée Y. McMillion 12 Sex as Leisure for the Japanese Women195 Maki Hirayama

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Part IV Community, Youth, and Education 213 13 Positive Youth Development and Communities: Practices that Work and the Potential for Community Development215 Evan Webb 14 Evolving Societal Contributions of Leisure Education239 Julie Son, Elizabeth Weybright, Megan Janke, and Laura Payne 15 Digital Gaming: A New Way of Programming Happiness and Creativity in Youth259 Anju Beniwal 16 Reflecting on Perceptions of Local Communities and Visitors: Sustainable Heritage Leisure and Tourism279 Charles Spring and Lisa Wakefield Part V Arts and Creativity 295 17 Transformative Leisure and Play: Bringing Forth Our Reason for Being297 Susan Ross, Yoshitaka Iwasaki, Joshua Bauer, and Paul Heintzman 18 Adolescent, Identity, and Community Art315 Vaishali Sharma 19 Doodling: A Positive Creative Leisure Practice333 Priyanka Baweja 20 Conclusion to Positive Sociology of Leisure351 Shintaro Kono, Anju Beniwal, Priyanka Baweja, and Karl Spracklen Index363

Notes on Contributors

Eva  Alfredsson-Olsson is associate professor in sociology at the Department of Social and Psychological Studies, Karlstad University, Sweden. She has been working at Karlstad University since 2001 and has developed specific competence in the field of sociology of emotions, organizational theory and analysis, and regional development such as cross-border commuting and attractive living environment. She is also doing research in the field of social problems, mental illness and addiction/substance abuse. She has been involved in several research projects, the most recent being about the social aspects of dancing in later life. Joshua  Bauer’s  research focuses on the relationship between humans and the natural environment. He focuses on the study of human ecology that occurs primarily in the context of urban and developed settings, looking specifically at recreation and leisure behaviour of urban and city dwellers, and the relationship urban people have with the natural surroundings in and around developed areas. Priyanka  Baweja has done her Masters in Anthropology and Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. She is a Certified Tutor for Online Hybrid and Blended Education and also holds a Diploma in Computer Arts and Jewelry Design and Manufacturing. She is a member of ISA RC13. She has been working as a designer and design educator for 19 years. She is pursuing her PhD in Anthropology at the University of ix

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Rajasthan, India. Her area of interest is finding interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities for design and creating a space where design, anthropology and sociology meet. She has also presented papers on combining art, technology leisure and Sustainability in national and international conferences. Anju  Beniwal has earned a PhD in Sociology and a Masters in Anthropology and Sociology. She is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Government Meera Girls College Rajasthan, India. Her area of interest is Leisure Studies. She is the author of seven books, fifty papers and book chapters covering different aspects of society. She is an active member in the editorial/advisory/referee boards of various International journals and has presented her views in more than fifty five conferences, both in the country as well as abroad. She is the Board Member of RC13 of the ISA and is also the editor of Global Leisure and the Struggle for a Better World. Andrea  Diaz-Hernandez  is a PhD candidate at the Program Leisure, Culture and Communication for Human Development at the University of Deusto (UD), Spain. Diaz earned a Master’s degree in Crisis Analysis and Humanitarian Action, and then worked as a language teacher in several Colombian universities. In October 2016, she was awarded with the funding program Cátedra UNESCO-Banco Santander addressed to support young professors of Latin American universities. Since then, her research interest has been in children’s leisure experiences. Recently, Andrea visited University of Georgia (USA) as a visiting scholar along with Professor Douglas Kleiber. Rylee A. Dionigi  has written widely in the fields of sport sociology, ageing and physical activity, health, exercise psychology and leisure studies. She has expertise in qualitative methodologies and knowledge on the personal and cultural meanings of sport, leisure and exercise participation in later life. She (with Michael Gard) co-authored an edited book with Palgrave Macmillan, entitled, Sport and Physical Activity Across the Lifespan: Critical Perspectives. This collection problematizes health ­promotion and related policy trajectories across the lifespan from a critical social science perspective. Overall, she calls for acceptance of diversity and difference in the ways in which people age.

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Augustus W. Hallmon  is an assistant professor in the School of Health Science and Wellness. He volunteers regularly at park districts, YMCAs and Boys and Girls clubs. His research interests include positive youth development, cultural competency and understanding marginalized populations’ perceptions and beliefs with regard to participating in recreation activities. Vicki  Harman is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. Her research interests include gender, social inequalities, family life and consumption. She is the author of ‘The Sexual Politics of Ballroom Dancing’ published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019. She has had her research work published in academic journals including Sociology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Families, Relationships and Societies, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Young Consumers, The European Journal of Marketing and Ethnic and Racial Studies. She has recently co-edited a book titled ‘Feeding Children Inside and Outside the Home: Critical Perspectives’, published by Routledge in 2019. Riie  Heikkilä is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University, Finland. Her main research interests include cultural capital, cultural consumption, cultural hierarchies, social stratification and comparative sociology. She earned her PhD in 2011 at the University of Helsinki and runs a Finnish Academy postdoctoral research project studying cultural participation and disengagement in Finland. Her recent publications include papers in journals such as American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Poetics, and a collective monograph, Enter Culture, Exit Arts? The Transformation of Cultural Hierarchies in European Newspaper Culture Sections, 1960–2010 (Routledge). Satu Heikkinen  is Associate Professor in sociology at the Department of Social and Psychological Studies, Karlstad University, Sweden. Her research has mainly dealt with issues of age, ageing and mobility. She has been involved in several research projects, including a research project about the social aspects of dancing in later life. Theoretically, her research has addressed issues of power, discourse and age. She was one of the guest editors of the special issue Resistance and Emotions in Journal of Political Power in 2017.

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Paul  Heintzman’s  research on leisure and spirituality focuses on the leisure-spiritual processes that are associated with spiritual well-being. In other words, what is it about leisure that may enhance or hinder spiritual well-being? He also writes extensively on Christian perspectives on leisure. His research on recreation and the environment has most recently focused upon outdoor recreation management in Gatineau Park. Recent and current thesis supervision topics include: outdoor education, park interpretation, play and spirituality, and the interactions between mining and hunting. He has published hermeneutical, philosophical, ethical, historical as well as quantitative and qualitative social scientific studies. Maki Hirayama’s  research focuses on modern and contemporary sexuality in Japan. Sexual activities have been depressed, while in the academic world, sexuality studies have been underdeveloped in this country. She makes efforts to change these situations. She organizes a multi-­ disciplinary group of researchers in the field of sexuality and social sciences, and leads or commits various projects such as research on modern history of sexualities, survey on sexual function of the Japanese women, international comparative survey on sexuality of young adults and the research on sexual happiness of the Japanese. Yoshitaka Iwasaki  is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Science and Recreation in the College of Health and Human Sciences at San Jose State University (SJSU) in California, USA with over 20 years of experience in community-engaged research and education, knowledge mobilization, and capacity-building. His areas of specialization include: (a) culture, diversity, and community-university engagement; (b) active living and quality of life (e.g., meaning-making, mental health, and leisure); and (c) participatory action research (PAR) to address social justice issues (e.g., human rights, poverty, empowerment, youth engagement, mental health, social change). Megan Janke’s  research focuses on the relationship between leisure and health during older adulthood. Specifically, her work addresses (a) changes in leisure involvement during later life transitions (e.g., widowhood, retirement) and its associations with health outcomes, (b) the role of evidence-based health promotion programs (e.g., Matter of Balance,

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Chronic Disease Self-Management Program) on leisure and health outcomes, and (c) involvement in leisure activities after the onset of chronic conditions and disability in later life and its association with health and quality of life indicators. Her research intersects the areas of recreational therapy, gerontology, leisure sciences and health promotion. Shintaro Kono  is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research involves how leisure experiences influence subjective well-being among participants. He has also studied constraining factors for leisure across different social groups. Idurre  Lazcano Quintana  is a researcher at the Institute of Leisure Studies at University of Deusto (UD), Spain, and is a member of the Leisure and Human Development Official Research Group of the Basque Government. She is the Director of the Master Program Leisure Project Management at UD and professor in different postgraduate programs. Since 2005, she is the Academic Coordinator of master thesis and has been director of more than sixty academic works at UD.  Lazcano is author and co-author of different monographs, book chapters and papers in specialized journals. Ko  Fan  Lee is Assistant Professor of recreation management. His research interests are focused on the impacts of outdoor adventure recreation on human well-being and the development of healthy lifestyles. His current projects entail serious pursuits in adventure recreation, the process of internalization as a mechanism of sustaining one’s commitment to adventure recreation activities, and the contextual influences on internalization. Desirée Y. McMillion  is an administrator in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines the nature and relationship of historic and contemporary educational experiences of Black Women in leadership roles in academia, and their community. Her more recent focus is recognizing patterns of racial socialization practices and mothering as it relates to lives of Black women while using a frame of race, class and gender as a unifying approach.

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Laura Payne’s  earlier work provided evidence of the health benefits of park use and elucidated factors that affect capacity building and utilization of local parks and recreation. She advocates improvement in community recreation and park resources for small towns and rural communities that lack access to parks, programs and recreational facilities. She also studies how engagement in valued leisure and recreation activities is affected by the onset of chronic health conditions and how people use their leisure to cope with physical, socio-emotional and cognitive effects of chronic disease. Daniel Peretti  teaches folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His research interests span folklore and popular culture—specifically the way myth and legend coincide with ritual, holiday celebrations and festivals. Susan Ross  as a therapist, specializes in the treatment of women survivors of sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress and adventure therapy. Her doctoral research examined the underlying archetypal phenomenon of personal transformation and is the subject of her forthcoming book, The Map to Wholeness: Finding Yourself through Crisis, Change, and Reinvention. Vaishali Sharma  is an Anthropologist and an Art Critic. She has done extensive research in the rural and tribal areas of Rajasthan, India. Her areas of interest are displacement and rehabilitation, gender and identity, visual art and culture, and children and art therapy. Many critical and insightful essays on the art of International and National artists have been published in eminent art magazines and individual art catalogues. Julie Son’s  research focuses on leisure and health across the lifespan with special attention to: (a) age-related developmental and learning processes of leisure and physical activity, and (b) ageing and gendered aspects of leisure and sport and how these aspects relate to leisure education and leisure self-care. She has investigated these topics with different populations and with an emphasis on issues of diversity especially as they relate to age, gender and culture. Her research intersects several audiences: leisure sciences, gerontology, kinesiology, sociology and outdoor and environmental education.

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Karl Spracklen  is Professor of Sociology of Leisure and Culture at Leeds Beckett University, UK, and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, and the author of over a hundred books, papers and book chapters on leisure theory, leisure studies, popular music, heavy metal, tourism and sport. He has been the chair of the Leisure Studies Association and remains the executive secretary of Research Committee 13 (Sociology of Leisure) of the International Sociology of Leisure. His latest book before this one, published in 2020, is Metal Music and the Re-imagining of Masculinity, Place, Race and Nation. Charles Spring  is Senior Lecturer in spa and wellness management programmes at the University of Derby at the University’s Buxton campus. His research has recently focussed on the area of wellness in the area of physical activity, especially using interventions with people with varying degrees of ability. Current lecturing duties in spa and wellness management include specialisms in management areas around business development and entrepreneurship and contemporary issues within this discipline. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Robert A. Stebbins’s  research interests in leisure date to late 1973, the year he began his theoretical work on amateurs. From here, it soon became clear that leisure studies could be conceived of in at least two great categories: in 1982, (Pacific Soc. Rev.) Stebbins published the basic conceptual statement of serious leisure, using casual leisure as the comparative backdrop. Then, early in 1997, he published in Leisure Studies a similar statement on casual leisure. Between 1975 and the present he has written a range of theoretical and empirical articles, chapters, and books on amateurs (musicians, actors, baseball players, football players, entertainment magicians, stand-up comics, archaeologists, astronomers), hobbyists (barbershop singers, cultural tourists, kayakers, snowboarders, mountain climbers, and other nature challenge enthusiasts), and career volunteers, particularly those in the North American francophone communities outside Quebec. A third category of leisure—“project-based leisure”—was defined and discussed in Leisure Studies (Jan., 2005). Of his 47 books published or in press, 34 centre exclusively or substantially on one aspect or another of serious and casual leisure.

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Thomas Sweeney, PhD  is Assistant Professor of Recreation and Tourism Management at Georgia Southern University. He teaches undergraduate courses on Recreation Management, Leadership and Programming in Recreation, Leisure Theory, Facility Planning and Golf Operations. His research focuses on the influence of leisure on personal and social identity formation. Lisa  Wakefield  is a lecturer in International Tourism Management at the University of Derby. Working with a variety of industry partners throughout her seventeen years of teaching has helped Lisa to keep up to date with industry trends and helps to inform her teaching, thus contextualising best practise in industry with theory in the classroom. Whilst teaching at the University of Derby, she has worked with students on several live research projects to explore visitor behaviour in Derbyshire at attractions and in destinations. She is working on a research project regarding ageless wellness and heritage tourism. Anna  Wanka studied and obtained her PhD in sociology at the University of Vienna, Austria. She specialized in the sociology of ageing. Her research foci comprise late life lifestyles, place appropriation in later life, lifelong learning as well as ageing and technologies. She is working as a postdoctoral researcher in the research training group “Doing Transitions”, where she focuses on the transition from work to retirement. Evan Webb  is a researcher, author and instructor in the field of recreation and leisure studies. He earned his PhD in Human Kinetics from the University of Ottawa and both his MA in Applied Health Science and BA in Recreation and Leisure Studies from Brock University. Webb’s main focus of research is studying positive youth development through community based recreational programs. Elizabeth Weybright’s  research views leisure as a unique context associated with adolescent risk behaviour and healthy development. Intersecting leisure, prevention science, and positive youth development, her research focuses on how leisure experience such as healthy leisure, boredom and motivation is associated with adolescent risk behaviour including substance use. Specifically, her research (a) examines how leisure experience

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serves as a risk or protective factor for substance use, (b) identifies socioecological moderators of these associations, and (c) uses findings to further inform development and evaluation of leisure-­based prevention efforts promoting adolescent health. Yen Nee Wong  is a doctoral student in the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. She is herself a ballroom dancer, and her current research interests are in the areas of same-sex ballroom dancing, gender (particularly queer identities) and sexuality. She holds an MPhil in Gender from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where her research focused on home-based care and women’s empowerment in South Africa. Piin Shiuan Wu  earned her doctoral degree in Ethnomusicology with a minor of folklore from Indiana University Bloomington. Immersed in the fascinations of artistic forms and storytelling, she always aspires to explore the flexible nature and making processes of individual creativity. Her research is focused on contemporary musical experiences and related cultural forms in East Asia. In particular, she conducts research on the ways that music, media performances and narratives embody historical senses and senses of a given place in various sociocultural contexts including cyberspace communities. Jennifer Zorotovich, PhD  is Assistant Professor of Child and Family Development at Georgia Southern University. She teaches undergraduate courses on Adult Development and Later Life, Death and Bereavement across the Lifespan, Undergraduate Research Methods and Family Services. Her research focuses on major transitions in adulthood, attitudes towards aging, social status, and positive well-being. She also offers aging simulation workshops in a variety of on-campus and off-campus settings for educational, training and personal enrichment purposes.

List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2 Fig. 4.3

Informal settlements in Soacha, Colombia Neighborhood’s soccer field. (Photo taken by a child) Wooden house for children’s activities in the neighborhood. (Photo taken by a child under the instruction “photograph things you like in your neighborhood”) Fig. 9.1 Time allocation of working and non-working persons aged 55+ years by activity indices in hours (x-axis); German Time Use Survey 2012/13 Fig. 12.1 Sexless rate among married couples. (Data source: 1982: Kyodo News “The Japanese and Sex” (N = 533), men and women with spouses in their 20s–70s, 1984: Group Wife “Sex; Messages of Wives” (N = 261), married women in their 20s–70s, more than half were in their 30s, 1999: NHK “NHK Sexuality of the Japanese” (N = 953), Men and women with spouses or lovers in their 20s–40s, 2001: Asahi Shimbun Newspaper, “Sexuality of married couples” (N = 1000), married men and women in their 20s–50s, 2004–2016: Japan Family Planning Association “Report on life and consciousness of men and women”) Fig. 12.2 Sexuality as duality in modernized Japan

53 58 61 145

199 202

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Fig. 12.3 Rate of the married men and women who had an intimate relationship∗ with someone of the opposite sex out of marriage during the past year. (Note: ∗in this survey, intimate relationship includes close but not sexual relationship. Data source: Sexuality Research Association, 2014) Fig. 12.4 New structure of sexuality in contemporary Japan Fig. 17.1 Thirteen phases of a complete transformation Fig. 17.2 Three tasks of transformation

206 209 300 302

List of Tables

Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table 9.1 Table 9.2 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Table 15.1 Table 15.2 Table 15.3 Table 15.4 Table 15.5 Table 15.6 Table 15.7 Table 15.8 Table 17.1 Table 19.1

The categories used for the analysis 76 The frequencies of each category, % (n = 398)76 Socio-demographic characteristics, non-matched and matched sample 55+ years, German time use data 2012/13 143 Socio-demographic characteristics, qualitative longitudinal study 2017–2021, project ‘Doing Retiring’ 144 List of selected articles 163 Comparative thematic analysis of LGBT+ and mainstream media168 Most popular video games among gamers in India 266 Respondents playing video games 267 Leisure time activities before video games 268 Favorite video games genres 268 Time spends for playing games 269 Reasons for playing video games 270 Effects of video game on youth 271 Devices used for playing video games 272 Transformative recreation during the three tasks of transformation303 A summary of responses 337

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1 Introduction to Positive Sociology of Leisure Shintaro Kono, Anju Beniwal, Priyanka Baweja, and Karl Spracklen

What makes sociology of leisure distinct from other sub-fields of sociology? What is missing in current trends of leisure studies? When we asked these critical identity questions for our field work, an answer seemed to be that social researchers of leisure are better equipped and positioned to

A manuscript exclusively for Positive Sociology of Leisure: Contemporary Perspectives on Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, Palgrave Macmillan

S. Kono (*) Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada e-mail: [email protected] A. Beniwal Department of Sociology, Government Meera Girls College, Udaipur, India P. Baweja Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India K. Spracklen Leeds School of Social Science, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_1

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investigate not only what is going wrong about society but also what is going well about it. To promote positive sociology or sociology of happiness and well-being, Thin (2014) observed that “there are important differences between minimal standards and really good social quality, and if we are to develop better societies we need to learn from good examples not just from bad ones” (p. 2). Although leisure can cause and facilitate deviance, conflicts, discrimination, and injustice, leisure can also bring about trust, civility, community, and social justice (Glover, 2016; Stewart, 2014). Of course, each of these social ideals can be further critiqued (e.g., not all communities are “good”), but the big picture is that leisure serves as a unique context where members of society pursue, achieve, and maintain many social goods (Stebbins, 2009). To encourage systematic inquiries on this “positive” side of sociology, Stebbins (2009) coined the term “positive sociology.” As a prominent leisure scholar, of course, Stebbins’ focus was on leisure studies and sociology of leisure. Hence, positive sociology of leisure (PSL) was born. Ten years have passed since Stebbins’ (2009) declaration of PSL, and yet not many articles are explicitly associated with this sub-field. Our observation is, however, that studies of PSL have existed and prevailed without being labeled as such. This was obvious when Research Committees 13 Sociology of Leisure and RC 55 Social Indicators Research collaborated at the XIX International Sociological Association World Congress. Besides this particular joint session, RC 13 has hosted many presentations with the spirit of PSL. This edited volume presents PSL research from those who have involved with RC 13, leisure studies, and general social research and sociology. The broad goal of this volume is to increase awareness of the potentials of PSL, to demonstrate PSL exemplars, and to provide collective voice with scholars who engage with PSL.

What Is Positive Sociology of Leisure? We define PSL as an area of research that examines social aspects of leisure life with a focus on the optimal functioning of relationship, group, community, organization, and other social units. Specifically, PSL:

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Looks into how, why, and when people pursue those things in life that they desire, the things they do to make their existence attractive and worth living. [PSL] is the study of what people do to socially organize their lives such that those lives become, in combination, substantially rewarding, satisfying, and fulfilling. (Stebbins, 2009, p. xi)

To further clarify our definition of PSL, each term should be elaborated on. First, the term “positive” should not be confused with so-called “positivist” tradition of social sciences (Henderson, 2011; see also Chap. 2 by Stebbins). Scientific positivism is characterized by its epistemological assumption that knowledge will eventually become complete and its adherence to quantitative methodology (Henderson, 2011). Although traditional positive sociology or sociology of happiness has been predominantly quantitative, there has been recent calls for, and exemplars of, qualitative inquiries (Cieslik, 2015; Thin, 2014). In fact, the founder of PSL, Stebbins’ work has been largely qualitative (see Stebbins, n.d.). We even argue that qualitative methodology is crucial to PSL because what is “optimal” is ultimately a subjective and inter-subjective issue (Thin, 2014). For instance, a marriage one considers as healthy may be deeply dysfunctional from the spouse’s view. Of course, often, what constitutes of a “good” marriage is negotiated within a couple and influenced by societal discourses. Thus, PSL encompasses various epistemologies as well as methodologies, which is clear in this book. Second, we use the word “sociology” rather loosely, and this is reflected by the intentional use of the phrase “social aspects” in our PSL definition. In conceptualizing positive sociology, Thin (2014) noted that there are different levels of investment into formal sociology. Specifically, the modest sociological lens allows researchers to investigate “positive subjectivity with reference to sociocultural context,” while the maximal sociological lens drives scholars to commit to “explicitly using sociological theory to explore positive subjectivity” (p.  4). We maintain that both lenses are important in advancing PSL, because of the interdisciplinary nature of both well-being and leisure research. Although a psychological approach has been dominant, well-being research has been also informed by economics, anthropology, and other disciplinary works (e.g., Easterlin,

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2004; Mathews, 1996). Leisure studies have been clearly more interdisciplinary by gaining insights from sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, cultural studies scholars, health researchers, and so on. Thus, PSL welcomes contributions from scholars of different disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in the social aspects of leisure. Third, we tend to agree with the definition of leisure, which Stebbins inductively based on numerous qualitative studies, as an “uncoerced, contextually framed activity engaged in during free time, which people want to do and, using their abilities and resources, actually do in either a satisfying or a fulfilling way, if not both” (Stebbins, 2015, p. 3). By “satisfying” and “fulfilling,” Stebbins acknowledged different types of subjective well-being (see Huta & Waterman, 2014). Its focus on positive aspects of leisure experience is congruent with the overall emphasis on positivity in PSL. However, scholars without formal training of leisure studies should be aware that people can feel dissatisfied or even discriminated during their leisure experience; leisure is not entirely positive. Moreover, there is still no consensus among leisure researchers regarding what leisure is—across leisure as free time, activity, psychological experience, and state of mind (e.g., Henderson, 2008). Having said that, there is emerging empirical evidence that prove people across cultures associate leisure with positivity and freedom (e.g., Gui, Walker, & Harshaw, in press; Ito & Walker, 2014), which is consistent with Stebbins’ conceptualization. As subjectivity and inter-subjectivity are crucial in PSL, we contend that Stebbins’ definition of leisure provides PSL scholars with a good starting point. Now that PSL has been formally defined, and each of the three components is unpacked, one may wonder how PSL studies look like. Of course, this is discussed in the rest of this book. However, we also note that there are extant leisure studies that can be considered as PSL. This fact reinforces potential contributions of PSL to the literature. One of the simplest examples would be a stream of research on family leisure (Hodge et al., 2015). By definition, family requires a relationship among two or more people who closely relate to one another, and thus qualifies as a social unit that PSL focuses on. Dozens of past studies in this area have shown that, for instance, family leisure can be separated into core leisure (i.e., ordinary, home-based activities) and balance leisure (i.e., infrequent,

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resource-intensive activities outside home), and that each of them uniquely contributes to family functioning and satisfaction (Agate, Zabriskie, Agate, & Poff, 2009; Zabriskie & McCormick, 2003). A key theory identified by advocates of positive sociology is social capital (e.g., Kroll, 2014; Thin, 2014), which has been also used in leisure studies (Glover, 2016). For example, Son, Yarnal, and Kerstetter (2010) studied members of Red Hat Society in the United States to find that middle-­ aged and older women connected with others of similar social backgrounds (bonding) and with those of different backgrounds (bridging) through club activities, which then led to social support for other members in need and civic engagement (e.g., volunteering) beyond the association. Another useful concept that can guide PSL is resistance (Sharpe, 2008). Sharpe’s work on a music festival with political goals to promote social changes, such as anti-consumerism, environmentalism, and cultural diversity, pointed out that the leisure event played a critical role in facilitating social changes, by not making overtly political space, but rather infusing the political within the enjoyable. As seen in these exemplars, the spirit of PSL has long lived in the leisure literature.

Why Positive Sociology of Leisure? The next important question to facilitate PSL scholarships is: why should we care about PSL now? To understand the rationale behind the current collective efforts to advance PSL, we must clarify the state of two academic fields in which PSL is situated: sociology of happiness and leisure studies. Sociology of happiness, or positive sociology, is rather a new subfield within broader sociology (Kroll, 2014; Thin, 2014; Veenhoven, 2016). Although “happiness” was a topic of interest for early sociologists, such as Marx and Durkheim, the concept was often equated with shallow pleasure arising from consumption or with a part of neoliberalist and individualist discourse, which then was “problematized” and used to trigger sociological inquiries (Cieslik, 2015; Thin, 2014). More recent sociologists of happiness acknowledge that happiness, or well-being, is conceptualized and experienced more holistically beyond mere pleasure,

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encompassing altruism and compassion (Cieslik, 2015; see also Huta & Waterman, 2014). Besides a collection of quantitative data regarding well-being and social correlates across nations, sociology has made only limited contributions to happiness studies, especially in terms of theorizing how happiness is experienced within a particular socio-cultural context (Cieslik, 2015; Kroll, 2014; Thin, 2014; Veenhoven, 2016). From the PSL perspective, the lack of attention to leisure within sociology— including sociology of happiness—is concerning (Stebbins, 2018). For instance, the world leading sociologist of happiness, Veenhoven’s database operationalizes leisure as free time or activities, which does not reflect more complex and nuanced understanding of this key concept in the leisure literature (Henderson, 2008). Thus, sociology of happiness has a long way to go, especially in relation to leisure. With regard to leisure studies, we observe that the field may have experienced a so-called “critical turn” through which critical theories—feminism, critical race theory, critical disability theories, and so on—become predominant or at least privileged within academic discourse. It has been widely known that European Leisure Studies tend to adopt and appreciate critical studies due to its influence by critical sociology and socio-cultural studies (Coalter, 1997). Moreover, even in North American Leisure Sciences, critical lenses are well-represented in recent journal special issues, such as feminism (Fullagar, Rich, Pavlidis, & van Ingen, 2019; Parry & Fullagar, 2013) and social justice (Mowatt & Schmalz, 2014; Stewart, 2014). Although leisure studies have been clearly enriched by these critical voices, critical studies tend to need problematizing social conditions, and thus may not be conducive to positive sociology (Cieslik, 2015; Thin, 2014; Veenhoven, 2016). In this regard, we suggest that PSL is complementary, not competing, to critical studies of leisure. While critical perspectives help scholars reveal problems and address them within leisure contexts, PSL is aimed at understanding and facilitating the achievement and maintenance of optimal social aspects of leisure life (Stebbins, 2009). The lack of problematization in PSL should not be equated with “uncriticalness.” Both critical studies of leisure and PSL can be done thoughtfully and rigorously. Both streams of research can advance the wider leisure scholarship.

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The above suggests that PSL can contribute to both sociology of happiness (and mainstream sociology) and leisure studies. In addition, it is noteworthy that there is growing attention to the intersection between leisure and well-being from a psychological perspective (Stebbins, 2015). For example, the Journal of Positive Psychology recently published a special issue on Leisure and Positive Psychology: Complementary Science for Health and Well-Being (Schmalz & Pury, 2018). Mainstream psychologists have published on the relationship between leisure and well-being (e.g., Kuykendall, Tay, & Ng, 2015; Newman, Tay, & Diener, 2014). A premier leisure journal, Leisure Studies, has also launched a special issue on Leisure Cultures and Wellbeing, while psychological publications on well-­ being by leisure scholars accumulate (e.g., Freire, 2013). Nevertheless, as noted earlier, neither well-being nor leisure is a sole jurisdiction of psychology; both require an interdisciplinary approach and sociological perspective. It is crucial to recognize that both well-being and leisure are socially constructed. What people mean by well-being and leisure differ across social groups (e.g., gender, age, social class), cultures, and times. This very nature of well-being and leisure necessitates focused collective efforts to understand positive social aspects of leisure life, that is, PSL.

The Structure of the Current Volume Although the current volume is a collection of chapters freely developed by contributors with a broader focus on PSL, one can find five distinct themes within the rest of this book. In Chap. 2, Stebbins, the founder of PSL, joins us to further describe and contextualize the background and agendas of this sub-field. The next three chapters address the first broad topic of meanings of leisure. In Chap. 3, Heikkinen and Alfredsson-Olsson presents a qualitative study of emotions experienced through gray dancing and between dance couples and their contributions to a good life by using a serious leisure perspective among others. In Chap. 4, Diaz and Lazcano report a case of Colombian children living in an economically deprived condition yet creatively explore meaningful leisure experiences. Heikkilä in Chap. 5 shows what leisure practices Finnish people from lower socio-economic

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class believe contribute to their happiness. Lee, Peretti, and Wu in Chap. 6 suggest how serious commitment to indoor climbing generates dynamic social practices among climbers. The following section addresses the second theme of ageing. Son and Dionigi in Chap. 7 offer a comprehensive, balanced review of the literature on sport-as-leisure for older adults, including the issues of resilience and community. In Chap. 8, Sweeney and Zorotovich show how retirees form sub-groups in their community to access social capital and avoid failing retirement. Chapter 9 by Wanka reveals, using both quantitative and qualitative data, that retirees experience dynamic changes in leisure practices during this transitional period while subjective assessment of the changes as positive or negative seem to interact with various socio-­ demographic factors. The third theme is sex, sexuality, and family. In Chap. 10, Harman and Wong discuss the implications of LGBT+ individuals in a ballroom dancing television show for wider social inclusion of this minority group. Hallmon and McMillion in Chap. 11 share a qualitative study of how African American mothers socialize and navigate racialized discourses with their children’s through their choices of recreation activities. Chapter 12 by Hirayama critically examines the significance of seemingly deviant sexual behaviors, such as masturbation and affairs, to conceptualize sexual happiness among Japanese women who tend to experience sexlessness. What follows is the fourth section on community, youth, and education. Webb in Chap. 13 discusses the potential implications of positive youth development, beyond well-documented individual benefits, for community development. In Chap. 14, Son, Weybright, Janke, and Payne extend the importance of leisure education beyond the traditional clinical population to wider community. In Chap. 15, Beniwal critically analyzes the data on video game use among Indian youth for their creativity and development. Chapter 16 by Spring and Wakefield demonstrate a case in which tourism resulted in a better understanding of cultural significance of a heritage among visitors and hosts. The last, fifth section is concerned with the topic of arts and creativity. Chapter 17, Ross, Iwasaki, Bauer, and Heintzman critically reflect on the concept of transformation and its intersection across play, spirituality,

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and social institution of recreational therapy. Sharma in Chap. 18 discusses the benefits of community art programs including skill development, identity exploration, and networking. Chapter 19 by Baweja re-conceptualizes the potentials of a seemingly mundane artistic activity, doodling, and its benefits to individuals and groups. In Chap. 20, the editors review all the chapters, provide summary comments, and lay out agendas for future studies of PSL.

References Agate, J. R., Zabriskie, R. B., Agate, S. T., & Poff, R. (2009). Family leisure satisfaction and satisfaction with family life. Journal of Leisure Research, 41(2), 205–223. Cieslik, M. (2015). ‘Not smiling but frowning’: Sociology and the ‘problem of happiness’. Sociology, 49(3), 422–437. Coalter, F. (1997). Leisure sciences and leisure studies: Different concept, same crisis? Leisure Sciences, 19(4), 255–268. Easterlin, R. A. (2004). The economics of happiness. Daedalus, 133(2), 26–33. Freire, T. (Ed.). (2013). Positive leisure science: From subjective experience to social contexts. New York: Springer. Fullagar, S., Rich, E., Pavlidis, A., & van Ingen, C. (2019). Feminist knowledges as interventions in physical cultures. Leisure Sciences, 41(1–2), 1–16. Glover, T. D. (2016). Leveraging leisure-based community networks to access social capital. In G. J. Walker, D. Scott, & M. Stodolska (Eds.), Leisure matters: The state and future of leisure studies (pp.  277–285). State College, PA: Venture. Gui, J., Walker, G. J., & Harshaw, H. W. (in press). Meanings of xiū xián and leisure: Cross-cultural exploration of laypeople’s definition of leisure. Leisure Sciences. Henderson, K.  A. (2008). Expanding the meanings of leisure in a both/and world. Loisir et Société/Society and Leisure, 31(1), 15–30. Henderson, K. A. (2011). Post-positivism and the pragmatics of leisure research. Leisure Sciences, 33(4), 341–346. Hodge, C., Bocarro, J.  N., Henderson, K.  A., Zabriskie, R., Parcel, T.  L., & Kanters, M. A. (2015). Family leisure: An integrative review of research from select journals. Journal of Leisure Research, 47(5), 577–600.

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Huta, V., & Waterman, A.  S. (2014). Eudaimonia and its distinction from hedonia: Developing a classification and terminology for understanding conceptual and operational definitions. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(6), 1425–1456. Ito, E., & Walker, G. J. (2014). Similarities and differences in leisure conceptualizations between Japan and Canada and between two Japanese leisure-like terms. Leisure/loisir, 38(1), 1–19. Kroll, C. (2014). Towards a sociology of happiness: The case of an age perspective on the social context of well-being. Sociological Research Online, 19(2), 1–18. Kuykendall, L., Tay, L., & Ng, V. (2015). Leisure engagement and subjective well-being: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 141(2), 364–403. Mathews, G. (1996). What makes life worth living?: How Japanese and Americans make sense of their worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Mowatt, R.  A., & Schmalz, D.  L. (2014). The conspicuous nature of power. Journal of Leisure Research, 46(3), 353–358. Newman, D. B., Tay, L., & Diener, E. (2014). Leisure and subjective well-being: A model of psychological mechanisms as mediating factors. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(3), 555–578. Parry, D. C., & Fullagar, S. (2013). Feminist leisure research in the contemporary era. Journal of Leisure Research, 45(5), 571–582. Schmalz, D.  L., & Pury, C.  L. (2018). Leisure and positive psychology: Complementary science for health and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(1), 1–3. Sharpe, E. K. (2008). Festivals and social change: Intersections of pleasure and politics at a community music festival. Leisure Sciences, 30(3), 217–234. Son, J., Yarnal, C., & Kerstetter, D. (2010). Engendering social capital through a leisure club for middle-aged and older women: Implications for individual and community health and well-being. Leisure Studies, 29(1), 67–83. Stebbins, R. A. (2009). Personal decisions in the public square: Beyond problem solving into a positive sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Stebbins, R.  A. (2015). Leisure and positive psychology: Linking activities with positiveness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Stebbins, R. A. (2018). The sociology of leisure: An estranged child of mainstream sociology. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 1, 43–53. Stebbins, R. A. (n.d.). The serious leisure perspective (SLP): Biography of Robert A.  Stebbins. Retrieved July 8, 2019, from https://www.seriousleisure.net/ biography-of-robert-a-stebbins.html

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Stewart, W. (2014). Leisure research to enhance social justice. Leisure Sciences, 36, 325–339. Thin, N. (2014). Positive sociology and appreciative empathy: History and prospects. Sociological Research Online, 19(2), 1–14. Veenhoven, R. (2016). The sociology of happiness: Topic in social indicators research. Retrieved July 8, 2019, from https://personal.eur.nl/veenhoven/ Pub2010s/SociologyOfHappiness2_ISAbook.pdf Zabriskie, R. B., & McCormick, B. P. (2003). Parent and child perspectives of family leisure involvement and satisfaction with family life. Journal of Leisure Research, 35(2), 163–189.

2 Positive Sociology: An Overview Robert A. Stebbins

The neologism positive sociology refers to the study of what people do to organize their lives such that those lives become, in combination, substantially rewarding, satisfying, and sometimes even fulfilling (Stebbins, 2009). This proposed new branch of sociology follows the lead of the only two fields in the social sciences—namely, positive psychology and leisure studies—to look beyond the traditional concentration in social science on life’s many disagreeable problems. Instead, these fields focus intensely on how, why, and when people pursue those things in life they desire, the things they do to make their existence agreeable, worth living. And lest there be confusion, it should be clear that positive sociology has nothing to do with methodological positivism, which is an approach to research, not a field of inquiry. This new field diverges sharply from sociology’s mainstream. That is, a large segment of its parent discipline has focused and continues to focus on explaining and ameliorating various problematic aspects of life, aspects

R. A. Stebbins (*) University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_2

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many people dislike because they make their lives unpleasant, sometimes very unpleasant. Yet, for most people in Western society, there is much more to life than eliminating or at least controlling crime, drug addiction, urban pollution, daily stress, domestic violence, overpopulation, and so on. To be sure, significant levels of success in these areas of negativeness bring to the people, substantially affected by them, a noticeable measure of relief, security, tranquility, and similar feelings. But, alone, such successes can never spawn positiveness in daily life; they are unable to generate the rewards, satisfaction, and fulfillment that flow in diverse combinations from leisure activities and “devotee work” (work so engaging and exciting that it is essentially paid serious leisure, Stebbins, 2004/2014). Compared with the mainstream, this new field, to take root and grow, must start from some different premises. In general, explaining positiveness must rest on a non-problematic model. To be precise, I suggest that the principal wellspring of positive sociology should be the sociology of leisure (today a component of the inter-discipline of leisure studies), whose central focus is on the agreeable side of life. Among the basic concepts in the sociology of leisure, and hence in positive sociology, are activity and personal agency. An activity is a type of pursuit, wherein participants mentally or physically (often both) think or do something, motivated by the hope of achieving a desired end (discussed more fully later). Though not all of our activities are positive (e.g., passing through airport security, negotiating commuter traffic jams), it appears that many are. The centrality of positive activities in this new field is one of its hallmarks and one of the premises separating it from other sociological specialties. The concept of agency—personal action taken to reach a goal—is also key to positive sociology, which unlike activity however, is also an important idea in some of the other social sciences. Positive sociology centers on the leisure domain of life, and its conceptual roots are for the most part found in the approach known as the “serious leisure perspective,” or SLP (Stebbins, 1992, 2007/2015). This broad theoretic framework synthesizes the three main forms of leisure (serious, casual, and project-based) showing, at once, their distinctive features, similarities, and inter-relationships. Still, notwithstanding the importance of leisure, positive sociology must also consider the two other

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domains of life: work and non-work obligation. They bear hugely on the quest for balance during our routine pursuit of positiveness as carried out against the disagreeable requirements found in these two domains. Positive sociology is much concerned with balance among all three domains as seen in the goal of developing an optimal positive lifestyle. This is one of the most pressing issues in this new field, a patch of common ground shared with the mainstream’s interest in “work–life” balance.1 Leisure, activity, personal agency, and the other concepts of positive sociology (e.g., community involvement, personal development, interpersonal relationships, volunteering, well-being) do not exist in a vacuum. In broad terms, this new field is framed and to some extent simultaneously constrained and facilitated by two great sets of conditions: personal and social. The personal conditions include health, wealth, marital status, level of education, taste and talent for a given activity, and knowledge of activities. Numbering among the social conditions are historical forces, type of government, local and national culture, gender stereotype, leisure trends, ethnicity (including religion, race, nationality), educational system, geographic location, and spatial constraints and facilitators. The problem-centered interests mentioned earlier may be conceived of, in broad terms, as concerned with various constellations of social conditions. And there is no doubt that pursuit of positive activities directed by personal agency is also framed, constrained, and facilitated by these same conditions. Nor is there any doubt that a positive sociology must also be anchored in these three.

The Second Step As a complement to positive psychology, positive sociology centers on social meanings, interpersonal interaction, human agency, and the personal and social conditions in which these three unfold with reference to particular human activities. It centers on the activities in their social  Nevertheless, the mainstream studies the problem of imbalance in this area, usually in work vis-à-­ vis family (e.g., Emslie & Hunt, 2009), while a positive sociology explores how people find an acceptable lifestyle balance through leisure activities (e.g., Kelly & Kelly, 1994). 1

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milieu that people can do and want to do to make their lives worth living. Martin Seligman was the prime mover of positive psychology. Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2000), both psychologists, advised that every social science should be moving beyond its dominant, problem-­ centered approach to also examine systematically the positive aspects of social and psychological life falling within its purview. Thus “positive sociology,” as defined here, is a new idea, even if traces of it have been around as long as sociology itself. Remember, for instance, that Max Weber (1947, pp.  413–415) wrote about amateurs. Robert Dubin (1979, p. 405), writing more recently and at a time when “relevance” was the reigning battle cry in American sociology, observed that a relevant sociology should do more than focus on the problematic “disarticulations between the individual and society.” He said it also needs theoretic models on how people construct “worthwhile lives.” Such models, this book will stress, are predominantly the province of the sociology of leisure though it must share the positive sociology stage with the sociological study of positive emotions such as love, joy, and admiration. Unfortunately for positive sociology, however, the sociology of leisure has been, throughout the history of its parent discipline, a marginal branch (Stebbins, 2018). In Stebbins (2009), I argued that sociology must become positive; that is, it must recognize the central place of the pursuit of those (mostly leisure) activities that make life rewarding, satisfying and fulfilling, though in doing so, I also argued, however, that the discipline should certainly not abandon its long-standing interest in trying to understand and solve life’s many difficult social problems, its disarticulations. A large segment of sociology has focused and continues to focus on explaining and handling the various problematic aspects of life that many people dislike, which make their lives disagreeable (see also Jeffries et al., 2006). Controlling or even ameliorating these problems, to the extent this is truly effective, brings welcome relief to those people. Still managing a community problem in this way—be the problem rampant drug addiction, growing domestic violence, persistent poverty, or enduring labor conflict—is not the same as people pursuing something they like. Instead, control of or solutions to these problems bring, in effect, a level of tranquility to life—these efforts make life less disagreeable. This, in

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turn, gives those who benefit from them some time, energy, and inclination to search for what will now make their existence more agreeable, more worth living. In other words, there is second major step to take, which is to find the positive, rewarding side of life, made possible after having accomplished the first major step of eliminating or at least controlling as much as possible, those conditions that undermine our basic tranquility. It is in this sense that much of sociology over the years can be said to have concentrated on the negative to the neglect, if not the detriment, of the positive. Nevertheless, let me be clear that I am in no way asserting that positiveness is completely absent during the first step. For, obviously, some people manage to pursue leisure and other attractive aspects of life, at times quite effectively, while various social problems rage about them. That is not my point. Instead I want to underscore sociology’s widespread neglect of the second step, including when it overlaps—as it indeed usually does—the first step.2 Still the control and solution of problems are complex processes. Some people pursue as leisure their contribution to the amelioration of certain social issues. Examples include volunteering to serve food to the needy, mentor juvenile delinquents, read to hospital patients, clean up beaches, and provide water filters and electrical lighting to developing countries. Positive sociology recognizes these activities as leisure pursuits, whereas problem-oriented sociology tends to ignore the attractive, agreeable side of such pursuits. Instead the second favors study, control, and amelioration of the problems themselves, commonly referred to without reference to the volunteer component as poverty, juvenile delinquency, health care, environmental pollution, and underdevelopment, respectively. Finally, note that many people face problems while trying to organize their leisure lives. We may refer to these as “positive problems,” in that controlling or solving them helps clear the road to positiveness in everyday life. Consider two examples: the wife who persuades her husband to prepare evening meals, thereby freeing her for community theater  Parts of sociology are neither positive nor negative, as these terms are used here. The discipline, especially in its early years, has also been given to describing in neutral language, such phenomena as social organization, demographic patterns, and group culture. 2

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rehearsals; and the father who reorganizes his volunteering at the food bank around the new schedule of soccer practices of his young children. Dealing with such problems is also the province of positive sociology, not that of its problem-centered counterpart.

Activity and Agency An activity is a type of pursuit, wherein participants in it mentally or physically (often both) think or do something, motivated by the hope of achieving a desired end. It is a basic life concept both in the SLP and outside it. Our existence is filled with activities, both pleasant and unpleasant: sleeping, mowing the lawn, taking the train to work, having a tooth filled, eating lunch, playing tennis matches, running a meeting, and on and on. Activities, as this list illustrates, may be categorized as work, leisure, or non-work obligation. They are, furthermore, general. In some instances, they refer to the behavioral side of recognizable roles, for example commuter, tennis player, and chair of a meeting. In others we may recognize the activity but not conceive of it so formally as a role, exemplified in someone sleeping, mowing a lawn, or eating lunch (not as patron in a restaurant). The concept of activity is an abstraction, and as such, one broader than that of role. In other words, roles are associated with certain statuses, or positions, in society, whereas with activities, some are status based whereas others are not. For instance, sleeper is not a status, even if sleeping is an activity. It is likewise with lawn mower (person). Sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists tend to see social relations in terms of roles, and as a result, overlook activities whether aligned with a role or not. Meanwhile certain important parts of life consist of engaging in activities not recognized as roles. Where would many of us be could we not routinely sleep or eat lunch? Some hobbies are uncommon enough to be activities but not institutionalized roles, among them perfume making and constructing kites. The reading hobbies revolve around the generic role of reader, but readers often specialize. Some do this in atypical activities like reading all the writings of the local novelists, of a certain author,

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or about a major event (e.g., sinking of the Titanic, the San Francisco earthquake, the Galveston Hurricane). Moreover, another sociological dimension separates role and activity, namely, that of statics and dynamics. Roles are static, whereas activities are dynamic. Roles, classically conceived of, are relatively inactive expectations for behavior, whereas in activities, people are actually behaving, mentally or physically thinking, or doing things to achieve certain ends. This dynamic quality provides a powerful explanatory link between an activity and a person’s motivation to participate in it. Nevertheless, the idea of role is useful, since participants do encounter role expectations in certain activities (e.g., those in sport, work, volunteering). Although the concept of activity does not include these expectations, in its dynamism, it can, much more effectively than role, account for invention and human agency (both are major properties of leisure). In addition, roles and activities are often central points of involvement for groups, organizations, social movements, social worlds, and the like. Finally, both concepts are linchpins linking the social individual to his internal psychology, to his personality, motivation, attitudes, emotions, and so on. This definition of activity gets further amplified in the concept of core activity: a distinctive set of interrelated actions or steps that must be followed to achieve the outcome or product that a participant seeks. As with general activities, core activities are pursued in work, leisure, and non-­ work obligation. Consider some examples in serious leisure: a core activity of alpine skiing is descending snow-covered slopes, in cabinet making it is shaping and finishing wood, and in volunteer fire fighting it is putting out blazes and rescuing people from them. In each case the participant takes several interrelated steps to successfully ski downhill, make a cabinet, or rescue someone. In casual leisure core activities, which are much less complex than in serious leisure, are exemplified in the actions required to hold sociable conversations with friends, savor beautiful scenery, and offer simple volunteer services (e.g., handing out leaflets, directing traffic in a theater parking lot, clearing snow off the neighborhood hockey rink). Work-related core activities are seen in, for instance, the actions of a surgeon during an operation or the improvisations on a melody by a jazz clarinetist. The core activity in mowing a lawn (non-work obligation) is pushing or riding the mower. Executing an attractive core

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activity and its component steps and actions constitute a main feature attracting participants to the general activity encompassing it, because this core directly enables them to reach a cherished goal. It is the opposite for disagreeable core activities. In short, the core activity has motivational value of its own, even if more strongly held for some activities than others and even if some activities are disagreeable but still must be done. Activity as just defined is, by and large, a foreign idea in psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Sure, scholars there sometimes talk about, for instance, criminal, political, or economic activity, but in so doing, they are referring, in general terms, to a broad category of behavior, not a defined set of actions comprising a pursuit. Instead, our positive concept of activity knows its greatest currency in the interdisciplinary fields of leisure studies and physical education and, more recently, kinesiology. And I suspect that the first adopted the idea from the second. There has always been, in physical education, discussion of and research on activities promoting conditioning, exercise, outdoor interests, human movement, and so on. The experiential aspect of leisure is also evident in the definition of leisure: “un-coerced, contextually framed activity engaged in during free time perceived as such, which people want to do and, using their abilities and resources, actually do in either a satisfying or a fulfilling way (or both)” (Stebbins, 1992, Chap. 2). The three basic forms of leisure set out in the SLP—casual, serious, and project-based (discussed in the next section)—offer either satisfaction or fulfillment and, at times, both. Some activities also offer the experience of psychological flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). In brief, an activity is the means for having a certain leisure experience—when we speak of leisure activity, we speak of its leisure experience, whether satisfying, fulfilling, or both. The theoretic advantage of linking experience, a psychological state, with activity is that the latter, also being social, has a place in the meso and macro levels of leisure analysis and theory discussed in Stebbins (2017). Activity, with its experiential component, becomes thus a vital linchpin in leisure theory, as is evident in the SLP.

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Serious Leisure Perspective The serious leisure perspective (SLP) is the name for the theoretic framework that bridges and synthesizes three main forms of leisure, known as the serious pursuits, casual leisure, and project-based leisure (discussed in Stebbins, 2007/2015, in press). The serious pursuits consist of serious leisure and devotee work. The first refers to the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that is highly substantial, interesting, and fulfilling and where, in the typical case, participants find a career in acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience. The second denotes people inspired by “occupational devotion,” by a strong, positive attachment to a form of self-enhancing work, where the sense of achievement is high and the core activity (set of tasks) is endowed with such intense appeal that the line between this work and leisure is virtually erased (Stebbins, 2004/2014). Devotee work is serious leisure from which the worker gains a livelihood. Serious leisure is further distinguished from casual leisure by six characteristics found exclusively or in highly elaborated form only in the first. These characteristics are: (1) need to persevere at the activity, (2) availability of a leisure career, (3) need to put in effort to gain skill and knowledge, (4) realization of various special benefits, (5) unique ethos and social world, and (6) an attractive personal and social identity. Casual leisure is immediately, intrinsically rewarding, and it is a relatively short-­ lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. It is fundamentally hedonic; it is engaged in for the significant level of pure enjoyment, or pleasure, found there. Project-based leisure is a short-term, moderately complicated, either one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertaking carried out in free time (Stebbins, 2005). Such leisure involves considerable planning, effort, and sometimes skill or knowledge, but for all that is not of the serious variety nor intended to develop into such. Nor is it casual leisure. The adjective “occasional” describes widely spaced undertakings for such regular occasions as arts festivals, sports events, religious holidays, individual birthdays, or national holidays while “creative” stresses

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that the undertaking results in something new or different, showing imagination, skill, or knowledge.

Context The SLP is in tune with the definition of leisure set out earlier. That is, the perspective also conceives of the study of leisure as “un-coerced, contextually framed activity engaged in during free time.” The word context is my preferred summary term for the micro-macro/agency-structure levels of phenomena. It includes a variety of collective formations, many of which unfortunately are commonly given short shrift in the diversity of abstract arguments about context. These formations include the social worlds, formal organizations, social institutions, spatial arrangements, social movements, and global post-modern tribes that characterize modern social life (discussed in Stebbins, 2017). In short, positive sociology includes studying these aspects of the many leisure activities. Thus, many sports teams are organized as formal organizations, arts activities are presented in spatial arrangements (e.g., concert halls, art galleries, cinemas, theaters), and all serious leisure activities are pursued within their unique social worlds. These formations may facilitate or constrain, if not both, the experience of the activity, influencing thereby the degree of satisfaction gained from it. Context can be effectively studied on three levels: micro, meso, and macro. The term “meso structure” was coined by David Maines (1982) to identify the intermediate field of interaction lying between the micro sphere of agency, emotions, beliefs, immediate social interaction, and so on and the macro sphere of such all-encompassing, broad-ranging abstractions as community, society, culture, social-class, social and historical trends, and the large-scale organizations. On the meso-structural level, human (micro-level) interaction continues to be evident in interpersonal relationships, small groups, social networks, social worlds, and lifestyles. Jonathan Turner’s (2005) interest in the micro-macro/agency-structure question parallels closely the directives of this article: to understand leisure we must recognize that the domain of leisure also consists of these

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three levels. Over the years Homo otiosus (leisure man) has created a great variety of arrangements (e.g., organizations, social worlds, subcultures) to meet his leisure needs and interests. Furthermore, there is considerable “embeddedness” (Turner’s term) in these arrangements. For example, individual leisure participants fit into their surrounding social worlds, they form organizations some of which may spawn national or international federations, and they go in for activities that reflect certain values of the day (e.g., the modern interest in adventure, physical fitness, and individuality).

Fragmentation A risk that any new field in the social sciences faces is one that many an established field there has already had to confront. That risk is fragmentation, or the evolution of the field into exclusive specializations, sometimes informally referred to as “silos.” This metaphor on the physical construction that vertically houses grain or missiles underscores the separate existence of these entities and lack of contact between them. In an age in which specialization dominates, fragmentation begets small-­picture thinking, to knowing more and more about less and less. The best time to counter fragmentation in a field is to ensure that big-­ picture thinking also occurs during its early years, happening in parallel with the early phases of fragmentation. For otherwise, the latter when it becomes established seems to hinder development of the former. This is one reason for the appeal in scholarly circles for more big-picture thinking (e.g., Cunningham & Williams, 1993, p. 407; Ellemers, 2013, p. 1; Rosenfeld, 2011, p. 1). Note also the lengthy list of articles and books on the subject available in Google Scholar (search term: “big-picture thinking”). These statements are there for good reason: the scarcity of this perspective in the intellectual literature. Meanwhile, small-picture thinking, the dominant approach, is a product of intense specialization. Here we find the basis of the above-­ mentioned expertise. Here is also where we find a strong sense of personal competence and self-efficacy. Objectively limited by small-picture thinking but subjectively inspired by narrow success, some specialists

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erroneously generalize what they know to seemingly related but in fact subtly and sometimes vastly different fields of knowledge and practice. Positive sociology, as a sociological specialty, is in its infancy. We must ensure that development of big-picture and small-picture theory and research parallel each other as the field grows.

Conclusions Research under the conceptual banner of positive sociology is just beginning, an understandable deficiency given that its central tenets were promulgated only a decade ago (Stebbins, 2009). Nevertheless, both positive psychology and leisure studies contain hundreds of studies that indirectly provide data on diverse aspects of this new field (see reviews by Snyder, Lopez, & Pedrotti, 2011; Blackshaw, 2013). Stebbins drew on some of this literature in support of his proposal for a positive sociology. As for future research the little studied domain of non-work obligation begs greater scrutiny. It is key because, by controlling if not reducing its demands, homo otiosus finds himself with more time for positive activities, including the serious pursuits. Non-work obligations are not leisure, but nevertheless, they should be examined by leisure studies scholars to learn how such activity can undermine the positiveness of free-time interests. This must also be on positive sociology’s to-do list.

References Blackshaw, T. (Ed.). (2013). Routledge handbook of leisure studies. London: Routledge. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Cunningham, A., & Williams, P. (1993). De-centring the “big picture”: The origins of modern science and the modern origins of science. The British Journal for the History of Science, 26, 407–432. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0007087400031447

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Dubin, R. (1979). Central life interests: Self-integrity in a complex world. Pacific Sociological Review, 22, 404–426. Ellemers, N. (2013). Connecting the dots: Mobilizing theory to reveal the big picture in social psychology (and why we should do this). European Journal of Social Psychology, 43(1), 1–8. Emslie, C., & Hunt, K. (2009). “Live to work” or “work to live”? A qualitative study of gender and work–life balance among men and women in mid-life. Gender, Work & Organization, 16(1), 151–172. Jeffries, V., Johnston, B.  V., Nichols, L.  T., Oliner, S.  P., Tiryakian, E., & Weinstein, J. (2006). Altruism and social solidarity: Envisioning a field of specialization. American Sociologist, 37(3), 67–83. Kelly, J.  R., & Kelly, J.  R. (1994). Multiple dimensions of meaning in the domains of work, family, and leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 26(3), 250–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1994.11969959 Maines, D.  R. (1982). In search of mesostructure: Studies in the negotiated order. Urban Life, 11(3), 267–279. Rosenfeld, R. (2011). The big picture: 2010 presidential address to the American Society of Criminology. Criminology, 49(1), 1–26. Seligman, M.  E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. Snyder, C. R., Lopez, J., & Pedrotti, J. T. (2011). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Stebbins, R. A. (1992). The serious leisure perspective: A synthesis of theory and research. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Stebbins, R. A. (2004/2014). Between work and leisure: The common ground of two separate worlds. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers (paperback edition with new Preface, 2014). Stebbins, R. A. (2005). Project-based leisure: Theoretical neglect of a common use of free time. Leisure Studies, 24, 1–11. Stebbins, R.  A. (2007/2015). Serious leisure: A perspective for our time. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction (published in paperback in 2015 with new Preface). Stebbins, R. A. (2009). Personal decisions in the public square: Beyond problem solving into a positive sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Stebbins, R.  A. (2017). Leisure activities in context: A micro-macro/agency-­ structure interpretation of leisure. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

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Stebbins, R. A. (2018). The sociology of leisure: An estranged child of mainstream sociology. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 1(1), 43–53. Turner, J. H. (2005). A new approach for theoretically integrating micro and macro analysis. In C.  Calhoun, C.  Rojek, & B.  Turner (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of sociology (pp. 405–423). London: Sage. Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization (T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: The Free Press.

Part I Meanings of Leisure

3 Happiness and Perseverance: The Interplay of Emotional Energies in Gray Dancing Satu Heikkinen and Eva Alfredsson-Olsson

Introduction Leisure has been associated with predominantly positive and enjoyable experiences (Stebbins, 2006, see also Chap. 1). Several researchers have pointed out that leisure activities seem to be particularly rewarding when the individual is more committed (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Lee & Payne, 2016; Stebbins, 1992). Leisure is not only practiced as relaxation or entertainment but also with determination; occasionally participants have to prove perseverance and make efforts to overcome challenges. Stebbins’ concept of serious leisure offers a significant framework for considering these aspects of leisure (Stebbins, 1992). Flow, which has been called “an optimal experience”, likewise requires effort (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975/2000, 1990). While perseverance is well established as a key requirement for both flow and serious leisure, we know less about what contributes to and shapes perseverance in the context of leisure. In this chapter,

S. Heikkinen (*) • E. Alfredsson-Olsson Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_3

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we explore perseverance in leisure from a sociological-emotional perspective by analysing interview data from older people active in social dancing. In an earlier article based on the same data, we studied how interaction between emotional energies made older dancers continue dancing despite setbacks (Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019). In this chapter, we advance this discussion by linking emotional energies to serious leisure and flow. After a brief overview of previous research and the theoretical framework, we present our method and empirical data. The analysis is then divided into two sections, the first of which is focused on positive emotional energy and perseverance and the second on challenges and perseverance.

Previous Research and Theory There is a great deal of research on older people’s dancing, which highlights how dancing contributes to health and well-being (Connor, 2000; Keogh, Kildin, Pidgeon, Ashley, & Gillis, 2009). In other words, dancing is described as a positive activity for older people, and for this reason, several measures are also taken to promote dance in this group (Elsaway & Higgins, 2010; Lamdin & Fugate, 1997). However, research on older people’s dancing is typically framed by medical and health science perspectives in quantitative intervention studies. We still do not know much about older people’s dancing as leisure and everyday activity (for one exception, see Brown, McGuire, & Voelkl, 2008) or how emotions are involved in dancing (see Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019; Paulson, 2009, for exceptions). This chapter focuses on gray dancing as a leisure activity, that is, couple dancing among older people in Sweden, as well as emotions in dancing in order to explore perseverance in a leisure activity. Perseverance has been emphasised in the serious leisure perspective formulated by Robert A. Stebbins. Serious leisure is defined as “the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that is sufficiently substantial and interesting for a participant to find a career there in acquisition and expression of its special skills and knowledge” (Stebbins, 1992, p. 3). It is distinguished from casual leisure, which is an immediate and pleasurable activity performed with little or no practice. Some

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examples of the latter are social conversations, going to the cinema, and play. An important difference between serious leisure and casual leisure, then, is that the former requires effort and perseverance on the part of the participants (Stebbins, 1992). While Stebbins distinguishes between serious leisure and casual leisure, other researchers have questioned the binary separation of the two and suggested that the relationship can be seen as a continuum rather than a clear distinction (Shen & Yarnal, 2010). Stebbin’s theory can be seen as a “pragmatic depiction of what is entailed in commitment to a leisure activity” rather than an explicatory theory (Elkington, 2011, p. 256). This is also the way we use this perspective in this chapter. It provides an overall framework which synthesises important aspects of leisure and foregrounds perseverance as an important factor in creating positive leisure experiences. Occasionally, engaging in a leisure activity leads to an experience of particularly strong positive feelings. Csikszentmihalyi (1975/2000) introduced the concept of flow or what he called “an optimal experience”. This experience occurs when “action follows upon action according to an internal logic which seems to need no conscious intervention by the actor. He [sic] experiences it as a unified experience flowing from one moment to the next, in which he is in control of his actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment, between stimulus and response, or between past, present and future” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975/2000, p. 36). Flow typically occurs in so-called autotelic activities that someone engages in for the rewards that the activities themselves offer, not for extrinsic rewards such as money. Leisure has been identified as an ideal activity for flow since it is an uncoerced activity that people choose, because it is satisfying and/or fulfilling (Stebbins, 2012). It has also been noted that “flow does not come through passive, receptive, relaxing times” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.  2) but requires effort and involvement. Several researchers have therefore pointed out the similarities between flow and serious leisure (e.g. Elkington, 2011; Lee & Payne, 2016). It has also been argued that an experience of flow is what motivates participants to be more involved and serious in their leisure activities (Stebbins, 2001). What flow experience exactly consists of has been debated over 40 years in various ways. Our starting point is the sociologist Bloch’s (2001,

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cf. 2000) description of flow as an experience of being so intensely immersed in a certain activity that it creates feelings of effortlessness, fluidity, and order, at the same time as the perception of time and space often changes. Bloch suggests that flow is not only experienced in one way and identifies three dimensions of experience termed: Unity/totality, focus, and other spheres of meaning (2001, cf. 2000). Unity/totality involves experiences of unity between the subject, time, and space and is often part of leisure activities with a sensuous dimension, such as running, playing music, or for that matter dancing. The structure of such experience can be understood through the concepts of emotional accomplishment, process, self-transcendence, unity/totality, and hyper-reality (Bloch, 2001, cf. 2000). The focus dimension of flow is characterised by a focus on the here-and-now of the real world, directed towards external goals rather than internal ones and is described through the concepts of excitement, presence, competence, optimacy, achievement, awareness of results, and a strictly focused perception of reality. Other spheres of meaning is about becoming part of meaningful reality separate from everyday reality and is described by Bloch through the concepts such as absorption, well-being, and absence of the reality of everyday life. In order to analyse and understand people’s experiences of dancing, including flow, we start out from a sociological interactionist perspective on emotions (Collins, 2004; Hochschild, 1983). Following Hochschild, we use the terms emotion and feeling synonymously. Emotions can be seen as signal functions of the social situation and our own actions. They tell us if we are violating norms, what state our relations are in, and if a situation is safe or not. We can also do emotion work; transform feelings and emotional expressions in order to handle situations and our relationships with other people (Hochschild, 1983). All situations also involve emotional rules, norms for how we should feel and can express ourselves. This means that experiences of flow are also subject to social norms and influenced by the social environment. Bloch’s (2001, cf. 2000) three dimensions of flow, described above, can be experienced separately or together depending on the social context. Bloch (2001) contends that leisure is more conducive to experiences of flow, that is, working life or family life. Sociology of emotions does not study single emotions isolated

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from a social environment but emotions as they are always formed, lived, and handled in a social situation (Bericat, 2016). Emotions can be brief, such as an outburst of anger, but also create more enduring energy called emotional energy (Collins, 2004). For the individual, this energy functions as an internal source of power which is crucial for agency and action. According to Collins, interaction plays a key role in strengthening or draining emotional energy and occurs in interaction rituals. The energy lasts beyond the ritual itself, and the individual brings it to the next interaction ritual, which creates interaction chains. Collins (2004) identifies physical co-presence, mutual focus of attention, common emotional mood, and a boundary to others as important conditions for interaction rituals to take place. The couple dance that we study can therefore, if the participants share a common emotional mood, be seen as simple interaction rituals between two parties. However, Collins has pointed out that all social interaction between people who take part in a joint activity, such as conversation or another type of group activity, is an interaction ritual. In addition, internal interaction (cf. Mead, 1934) may also influence the dynamics of emotional energy when individuals remember earlier interaction rituals and imagine future ones. A central part of Collins’ theory is that successful interaction rituals create high emotional energy that “feels good”. A common rhythm intensifies the ritual, and the parties synchronise their interaction. High levels of emotional energy have been described as creating dramatic feelings such as joy, love, ecstasy, and enthusiasm as well as experiences of belonging, confidence, and solidarity (Collins, 1990). If the ritual is flawed or does not take place, the individual is instead drained of emotional energy. Low levels of emotional energy are linked to depression and withdrawal (Collins, 1990). According to Collins (2004), social life is constituted by a series of interaction rituals between people and a constant pursuit of emotional energy, described through the concept of emotional energy tropism, which suggests that we gravitate towards the interaction rituals that give us more pay off in terms of emotional energy. Even though Collins’ theory on emotional energy has been widely used, it has not been much developed theoretically (Boyns & Luery, 2015; Bramsen & Poder, 2014). The theory is primarily constructed

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based on positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and self-confidence (Boyns & Luery, 2015). Boyns and Luery (2015) as well as Bramsen and Poder (2014) have therefore built on Collins’ theory, claiming that negative emotions such as worry, anger, and anxiety are not only draining of energy but can also create a qualitatively different kind of energy, namely negative emotional energy. If positive emotional energy, as Collins theorised, contributes to solidarity and feelings of belonging, negative emotional energy can be seen as antagonistic. Its focus is on prevailing over uncomfortable feelings and it gives individuals strength to overcome challenges and difficult situations. Both positive and negative emotional energy, then, lead to action and agency (Boyns & Luery, 2015; Bramsen & Poder, 2014). In general, people try to maximise positive emotional energy (Boyns & Luery, 2015; Bramsen & Poder, 2014) since it “feels good” but sometimes, if there are few opportunities to generate positive emotional energy, individuals may seek out conflict to obtain energy even if what they get is negative emotional energy (Bramsen & Poder, 2014). The interplay between positive and negative emotional energies must be approached empirically since the emotional dynamics may vary between situations (Bramsen & Poder, 2014). In this chapter, we adopt the following perspective on negative emotional by Boyns and Luery: “Negative emotional energy is an important source of motivation to action that takes on a different quality when it is simultaneously accompanied by positive emotional energy. Positive emotional energy when stimulated by negative emotional energy can become dramatically invigorating” (2015, p. 164). This means that while emotional energy tropism is about our motivation to seek out interactions that give us positive emotional energy, we sometimes need replenishment of negative emotional energy in order to prevent draining of energy in situations that generate negative emotions. Sometimes a degree of negative emotional energy can also enhance the positive emotional energy.

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Method This study is part of an exploratory project focusing on the social aspects of older people’s dancing and funded by Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (P15-0754:1, see also Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019; Krekula, Arvidson, Heikkinen, Henriksson, & Olsson, 2017). The data for all parts of the project were collected in 2016 and comprise both qualitative interviews, documents, and participant observations (Brinkman & Kvale, 2015; Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995). The project complies with the ethical requirements specified by the Swedish Research Council. This chapter is based on the interviews only and complements the results presented by Alfredsson-Olsson and Heikkinen (2019) that interplay between emotional energies plays an important role for older people in sustaining their dance. In order to ensure variation, dance venues were selected from three broad overlapping categories: association, exercise, and social dancing. Association dancing is arranged by a dance association, exercise dancing is focused on health and fitness, and social dancing is the kind of dancing that people do when they go out to have fun and meet others. The dance venues visited included a folkpark (a public recreation park), dance events organised by senior organisations, disco for older people, a dance festival for social dance, dance on a boat cruise, folk dance, dance at fitness centers, and artistic dance for older people. A total of 44 interviewees were recruited in the context of the participant observations carried out in the project. The interviewees were selected both through convenience sampling based on who the researchers danced with or talked to and through selection to create variety based on gender, age, and other characteristics (e.g. beginner-experienced dancer). Only persons above the age of 50 were asked if they would like to participate. The interviews were semi-­ structured and based on a thematic interview guide. The themes were concerned with, for instance, experience of dancing throughout life, present dance participation, norms and the transgression of norms in dance, as well as emotions in relation to dancing. The interviews lasted between one and two hours.

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In their previous article, Alfredsson-Olsson and Heikkinen (2019) began their analysis by coding all the interview transcripts in relation to specific feelings in specific situations as well as the theoretical framework of emotion theory, using NVivo. In order to identify recurrent similar situations and what emotions emerged in them, the authors focused on social dancing, or more specifically couple dancing. This type of dancing is rooted in the Swedish culture of the folkpark, which is connected to the building of the welfare state (Andersson, 1991; Berman, 2011), but performed today at a number of dance venues such as dances in senior organisations and dance festivals. Foxtrot and Swedish bugg (a kind of lindy hop) are the most important kinds of dance in this dance tradition (Starrin & Jeffner Starrin, 2013). A total of 29 informants were or had recently been active in this kind of social dancing, recruited not only from social dance events but also from exercise dance and association dance. The further analysis focused on these 29 informants. This kind of social dancing was the only social dance the informants had participated in, with the exception of a few informants who, besides this couple dance, also had been on disco for older people. Hereafter, we use the term social dance for the above referred type of couple dance common in Sweden. This chapter is based on the coding conducted in Alfredsson-Olsson and Heikkinen (2019) but has also required re-readings of the material and specific searches for different words, such as “effort” and “challenge”. The 29 informants’ involvement in social dancing was also coded for this re-analysis because of the concept’s relevance to serious leisure and flow. A number of 19 informants were assessed as they were deeply involved in social dancing. Seven informants were active in social dancing, but not as involved as the 19. Three informants had been seriously involved in social dancing earlier but had recently quit this kind of dancing. In the thematic analysis, the results from Alfredsson-Olsson and Heikkinen (2019) were further advanced and re-framed by the perspectives of serious leisure and flow. Couple dancing can be seen as a context suitable to study perseverance in leisure in light of theories on emotional energies, since the core activity consists of simple interaction rituals involving only two people. This situation arguably made it easier for interviewees to verbalise the emotional experiences of such interaction rituals and, for us as researchers, to

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analyse the material. In other leisure contexts, interaction rituals may be more subtle and therefore more difficult to study in terms of how they contribute to the emotional dynamics that promote perseverance. In the results section below, excerpts from interviews are included to substantiate themes. All quotations were translated from Swedish to English by the authors. To ensure confidentiality, we used pseudonyms for both interviewees and places.

 appiness, Emotional Energy Tropism, H and Perseverance Leisure studies has been called a “happy science” (Stebbins, 2006) since it typically examines activities that give people pleasure and satisfaction. Social dancing among older people is definitely happy leisure. “Dancing in itself is such a joy; you meet happy people who share the same interests. I cannot say what it is about it that is so enjoyable” said Margaret, 68, who had been dancing very actively ever since she was young. The informants talked about a number of positive emotions such as “joy”, “happiness” and “euphoria” and how they simultaneously feel “elated” and filled with emotional energy. The expression “joy of dancing” that several informants used appeared to represent this cluster of emotions and energy (cf. Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019). This section is focused on the positive emotional energy and perseverance. According to Collins’ (2004) theory, we are emotional energy tropists, which means we seek out those situations in which we get the maximum amount of emotional energy. If the participants have received positive emotional energy at a dance event, they will continue to look for similar experiences, which contribute to perseverance. A key characteristic of leisure is voluntariness (Stebbins, 2012). This means that the participants in a leisure activity such as social dancing can to a great extent shape, choose, and be strategic about how and where they take part in it in order to optimise the emotional outcomes of their dancing. The interviews showed that the informants were particular about who they danced with and where they went. For instance, Elsa, who was 63 years old and often

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danced, said, “We do stand there and look around, ok, that one I would very much like to dance with. No, I don’t want that other one to come over and ask me to dance”. Johanna, who was 75 years old and got dedicated to dancing after she became a widow, explained that she did not visit Middletown since she was skeptical about people’s attitudes there, but instead she liked to go to: Smallvillage which is every other week, and in the summer there is dancing up in the City on Sundays as well as the Smalltown Park on Wednesdays, if you feel like it. Plus we have Bigvillage on Sundays in the autumn, winter, and spring. We go there, and it’s once a week.

The quotation exemplifies how dancing was so important for many dancers that they organised their everyday lives around the recurrent days and various locations for dancing. The possibility to structure their dancing the way they wanted and to create everyday routines around it increased the potential for positive dancing experiences. What exactly generated the positive emotion and energy that the participants sought? Because dancing was an uncoerced leisure activity and most people adapted the activity to optimise the experience, the emotional rule of social dancing was positive emotions and positive emotional energy. “You meet a lot of people when you’re out [dancing], it makes you cheerful” said Olof, a 75-year-old person who started dancing intensively at older age. The quotation foregrounds how positive the primary emotion in the dance room was. As social life is constituted by constant interaction rituals (Collins, 2004), emotions are often transmitted between people. Occasions when the interaction rituals are successful and smoothly interlock without friction to interaction chains seem particularly crucial. Anna, a 68-year-old who loved dancing, stated: It is some kind of euphoria. You feel unbelievably elated and joyful and happy since it is working so well. This thing about music, feeling the rhythm and everything, you hear it the same way. It’s like you’re floating, dancing around the dancefloor. It is a wonderful feeling, really wonderful. It’s not something that you experience a lot, but I have experienced it a few times, that’s for sure.

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This quotation clearly illustrates Collins’ interaction ritual. The dancing is corporeal, the dancers move synchronised to the rhythm, they share a common perception of the situation and a common feeling (they feel and “hear it the same way”), and in couple dancing, the couples constitute a distinct unit. The emotions and the energy that emerge on occasions like these when the interaction chains connect particularly smoothly, “it is working so well”, and it creates high levels of emotional energy and “dramatic” feelings of joy and love (Collins, 1990). The quotation also illustrates what Bloch (2001, cf. 2000) calls an experience of unity/totality of flow. There is emotional accomplishment (“euphoria”), or a process in which dancing means movement, rhythm, and self-transcendence since the “I” becomes part of a “we” together with a dancing partner, and experiences of unity and blurred reality which Anna and several other interviewees described in terms of “floating”. The interviewees also referred to this experience of unity/totality as “everything flows” or “that good feeling”. According to Bloch, this way of experiencing flow is common in relation to leisure activities with a sensuous dimension, such as playing music and practicing yoga, and it is obviously part of older people’s couple dance. The focus experience of flow, described by Bloch as sharpened attention, high performance and feelings of being fully present, was occurring as well. Adam, who was 81 years old and basically lived for dancing since he was young, used the metaphor of “somersaulting” for joy when he remembered occasions of being able to play with difficult steps and improvise successfully. Several interviewees also described another spheres of meaning experience, the third flow experience illuminated by Bloch, characterised by alternative meanings and the crossing of boundaries. In the context of older people’s dance, this experience was about how perceptions of the ageing body and age-related norms might change. For example, “I feel that the body keeps up and there is no pain anywhere” said Stina, 55 years old, when mentioning how she forgot about the pain in her foot during a successful dance evening. Molly, 79 years old, talked about “feeling the music and the rhythm and [how] it is something special because you cannot experience it with just anybody on the dancefloor… it doesn’t even have to be someone your own age… and looks don’t matter either when you feel this kind of connection”. In other

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words, couple dancing seems to be conducive to all three flow experiences, unity/totality, focus, and other spheres of meaning, identified by Bloch. Researchers have claimed that flow is what creates the most pleasurable moments in leisure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1997) and that flow motivates participants to be more involved in and serious about the activity (Stebbins, 2001). It can be argued, then, that emotional energy tropism is primarily about the pursuit of flow. Our analysis indicates a reciprocal relationship between being involved in dancing and flow. As experiences of flow made the dancers more involved, their involvement also helped them experience flow in dancing. Due to space limitation, we focus on only two features of couple dancing that made involved dancers more likely to experience flow. The first was the ethos of dancing. A prerequisite to experience flow is to participate in the very core activity, that is, to dance. The interviews showed that a person must be acknowledged as a possible dance partner to get a chance to dance (cf. Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019). Someone who was new or had been away for a while had to prove themselves worthy as partners by dancing and being around for some time to be included in the dancing crowd. There is even a Swedish expression unique to this situation of being included by dancing in order to become recognised, namely “dansa in sig”. Someone who does not dance regularly finds it harder to take part in the interaction rituals and consequently less likely to experience flow. The second feature was the importance of skill development. Many interviewees mentioned that mainly “skilled” dancers got a chance to dance. A female casual dancer, 66 years old, explained that the steps were difficult and that dancing at old age was not at all as enjoyable as it was when she was young. Adam compared social dancing to swimming: “the more ways of swimming you learn, the more fun it will be you know”. As skills are developed by practice, the dancers who remained or at least had been deeply involved had a greater chance to dance and flow. This section supports the results of previous research regarding perseverance as a basis for flow and many positive emotions in leisure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Lee & Payne, 2016; Stebbins, 1992). We have pointed out that skills and recognition as a potential partner facilitate participation in the core activity of dancing. In addition, we have shown

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how emotional energy tropism (Collins, 2004) can explain how positive emotions and emotional energy contributes to perseverance. If the participants had experienced positive emotional energy before, especially in the form of flow, they would try to find similar situations again. This pursuit of positive experiences has been observed before (see for instance Stebbins, 2006, 2012), but in this present study is further analysed through a sociology of emotions perspective. However, what really caught our interest when analysing the results was that challenges and negative emotions seemed highly relevant to perseverance and positive experiences, which will be discussed in the next section.

 hallenges, Emotional Energies, C and Perseverance Both the serious leisure perspective and flow theory indicate that a certain level of effort is key for an optimal experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Lee & Payne, 2016; Stebbins, 1992). Our interviewees also described challenges in dancing that led to negative emotions. They were “tired”, “sad”, “angry”, “depressed” and sometimes also thought “it is boring”. What was it, then, that made most of them to continue dancing instead of looking for other activities? Sometimes it also seemed as though the challenge in itself and the negative emotions turned into something positive. In this section, we explore challenges in dancing and the interplay of positive and negative emotional energy in relation to perseverance. As we established in the previous section, a requirement for experiencing positive emotions and positive emotional energy was getting a chance to dance, and hence a chance to take part in the interaction rituals of dancing. Being excluded from dancing or unable to dance for various reasons created negative feelings. Since there tends to be a large surplus of female participants, it can be particularly challenging for women to get a chance to dance (cf. Alfredsson-Olsson & Heikkinen, 2019). Elin, who was 73 years old and recently quit dancing, told:

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Well, it feels a bit sad of course, I don’t know, when you have come there and you tried to look good because you wanted to dance. Of course it feels sad if you don’t get to dance, if you had imagined you would, you know. Maybe you sit most of the time. But many times it has been my own fault, because I have been lazy, and that’s why I have been sitting down.

As appears in the quotation, Elin felt sad when she did not get to dance. She also seemed, in Collins’ terms, drained of positive emotional energy when she was not able to take part in the interaction rituals. Recurrent situations of this kind and the emotions that emerge finally made her quit dancing. The quotation is an illustration of how especially women had to struggle to get the chance to dance. For Elin, couple dancing was definitely not a casual leisure activity. Nor could she enjoy it as a serious leisure activity because she did not have the energy to persevere. Another potential challenge in dancing involved the ageing body which could make the interviewees unable to participate due to lack of strength. The negative emotions that ensue may, again in terms of Collins’ theory, drain positive emotional energy. Sebastian, 78 years old, recalled one occasion in which he felt particularly old and tired. it’s sort of shameful, have I reached such an old age now that… that I am an oldster, I cannot do it anymore, and you sort of feel it, and you try to master it but… and I have to slow down and rest for a couple of dances and sit down on a chair for a while, because…I felt it last Thursday in particular… that I… it is only this last year that I have felt it. You actually get tired… so… it’s not a good feeling either.

When his body failed, Sebastian experienced draining of positive emotional energy, “getting tired”. The quotation could also be interpreted as an expression of feeling low “it’s not a good feeling” and shame; he is ashamed (Scheff, 2000). The negative emotions and negative emotional energy were mainly directed towards the self and ageing itself, not towards dancing. In this case as well, the overall level of emotional energy seemed low. However, negative emotions and negative emotional energy have another important function that we argue is extremely significant in

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relation to perseverance. Although draining and low levels of energy may contribute to a decrease in perseverance, negative emotions can also generate negative emotional energy which provides strength for bouncing back in the face of adversity. Several interviewees described what might be defined as anger as the reason for trying again. Josefin, 74 years of age, who had started to dance a lot recently, discussed the experience of being turned down: Yes, sure, I am turned down, but to hell with that… but sometimes it is actually disappointing…because I think I am not a bad dancer really, and I can follow almost anybody, and I think “you should know that, you bastard” that’s what I think.

Josefin was spurned, but instead of just feeling disappointed and letting emotional energy drain, she expressed a desire to be avenged and prove the antagonist wrong. The quotation also clearly shows her anger. This can be explained as a secondary emotion masking a primary emotion (Kemper, 1978). Disappointment was replaced with anger through emotion work (Hochschild, 1983), and this allowed the woman to reach a high level of negative emotional energy and gather the strength required to act. Another example was given by Johanna: Well, you have to learn to be brave and ask people to dance! […] even if you don’t get the dance with that person who is such a good dancer, you then take the hit. […] No, but this is probably something I have found out, that it will boost your self-esteem—and of course your self-esteem can be harmed as well, if you are turned down a thousand times in one evening, or well, I guess a thousand is a bit of an exaggeration but if you were to come up against this kind of thing and be turned down again and again, it would of course depress you.

Johanna pointed out that she learnt to be brave and ask people to dance with her, which involved the risk to be rejected. She believed she needed to be able to handle these rejections; “you then take the hit”. Most interestingly, a situation like this can increase people’s self-esteem if they are rarely turned down. Even when one is rejected, as indicated by the previous quotation from Josefin, she can mobilise negative emotional

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energy through emotion work, use it to overcome this difficult situation, and retain the courage required to keep asking people to dance. This process generates pride, which is an emotion central to self-confidence and self-esteem (Barbalet, 1996). According to Barbalet, confidence is one of the calm background emotions that interact with other emotions and is crucial for any action to take place: “All action is ultimately founded on the actor’s feeling of confidence in their capacities and the effectiveness of those capacities. The actor’s confidence is a necessary source of action; without it, action simply would not occur” (Barbalet, 1996, p. 90). Thus, as confidence increases by overcoming the challenge, her capacity for action in the future improves. Confidence is also a positive emotion connected to positive emotional energy (Collins, 2004). Thus, the quotation also illustrates why it is important to consider situations rather than singular emotions, since emotions interact in complex ways (Bramsen & Poder, 2014). There were also examples of interviewees seeking out challenges when dancing did not present enough challenge and felt too comfortable. Gustav, 68 years old, talked about how he sometimes went to new venues where he was not recognised precisely in order to have to make an effort to find partners: It is a bit fun, because when you go dancing in a new place, maybe this is a bit of an ego trip, but if you are in a new place where nobody knows you […] you cannot just stand around waiting. At home I’m spoilt since I don’t have to care, someone always comes up and wants to dance with me. But at a new dancing venue I have to deal with the situation and get things going and start dancing with one of the good dancers among the ladies. It takes around half an hour, for while dancing you look around all the time to figure out who you will ask next and that’s what everyone does.

Again, this pursuit of challenges could be interpreted in terms of both negative emotional energy and pride. In relation to the former, there is an interplay of emotional energies where negative feelings, which emerge in a context of positive emotions and positive emotional energy, contribute to an increase in positive emotional energy (Boyns & Luery, 2015). A small dose of nervousness and negative feelings of being ignored can generate negative emotional energy, which in turn provides the force to act

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and boosts the experience of positive emotional energy which also feels good. In relation to the latter pride aspect, the situation described in the quotation can be interpreted as creating confidence or more specifically pride (“a bit of an ego trip”). When the informant was initially not recognised but successfully danced, surmounting this challenge promoted his pride as his dance skills were confirmed by other dancers. This is a question of both internal interaction (cf. Mead, 1934) regarding an imagined challenge and face-to-face interaction where he also got affirmation from other people (Cooley, 1902/1972). In relation to this challenge, negative and positive emotional energy interact (through pride, among other things) in such a way that it “feels good”. As we have seen, there is an interplay of emotions and emotional energies. Let us conclude with an example from an interview with Sebastian which provided a clear illustration of this interplay: I do feel much better when I have been dancing and if I have had a fun evening and what I think is a successful one, and I have had the chance to dance and that lady that I like, she was happy as well and thought it was fun, I feel very positive and it makes me pleased […] this makes you content all week, it… it affects your self-confidence as well … it is only positive then… and if not… it would all fall to pieces, it makes you pessim… nega… well it makes you… not depressed but you get…well it’s not a good feeling, it makes you a bit low… but I think it means a great deal… it adds to my self-confidence somehow, it is sort of like testing myself.

Sebastian described the positive emotional energy that arose when he got a chance to dance. He talked about both joy and self-confidence which had long-term effects in the sense that dancing “makes you content all week”. Concurrently, he also mentioned the situations when dancing was not successful. These situations created negative feelings and made him pessimistic and low, which in turn drained him of energy. Yet, this difficult situation still “adds to [his] self-confidence somehow”. Our interpretation is that the negative feelings, through emotion work, generated the negative emotional energy and strength required for the informant to “test [himself ]”. He also experienced pride which enhanced his self-confidence when he was able to handle the challenge. The result of these emotional processes was perseverance. He explained, “No matter what happens [I] will still be there again next Thursday”.

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Concluding Remarks We have analysed how emotions, both positive and negative, as well as positive and negative emotional energy, can interact in ways that contribute to perseverance in the leisure activity of couple dancing among older people. This interaction has previously been discussed by Alfredsson-­ Olsson and Heikkinen (2019). In the present chapter, we have considered the results in a new context of serious leisure and flow but also developed the analysis in terms of challenges and perseverance. For example, our analysis highlighted how negative emotional energy and pride may occur together in challenging situations. The study presented in this chapter is exploratory and there are several aspects that could be examined further in future research. We have focused on the simple interaction rituals of couple dancing to investigate perseverance, but interaction rituals can also be more subtle. It would be interesting to study perseverance in relation to a broader range of interaction rituals and include not only the core activity but also aspects of the social context, such as conversations. It would also be interesting to explore the role of emotions in other types of leisure activities, including cognition-based ones such as bridge and less physically demanding ones such as gardening. In conclusion, we would like to point out that negative emotions are not always negative per se. They can be crucial for our ability to carry on and for experiences of joy and euphoria—contradictory as it may seem!

References Alfredsson-Olsson, E., & Heikkinen, S. (2019). “I will never quit dancing”. The emotional experiences of social dancing among older persons. Journal of Aging Studies, 51(Dec.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2019.100786 Andersson, G. (1991). Folkets park. En hundraårig historia [The Folk Park. A history of hundreds years]. Gidlunds förlag. Barbalet, J.  M. (1996). Social emotions: Confidence, trust and loyalty. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 16(9/10), 75–96. Bericat, E. (2016). The sociology of emotions: Four decades of progress. Current Sociology, 64(3), 491–513.

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Berman, S. (2011). Social democracy and the creation of public interest. Critical Review, 23(3), 237–256. Bloch, C. (2000). Flow: Beyond fluidity and rigidity. A phenomenological investigation. Human Studies, 23(1), 43–61. Bloch, C. (2001). Flow og stress—Stemninger og følelseskultur i hverdagslivet [Flow and stress—Moods and emotional cultures in everyday life]. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. Boyns, D., & Luery, S. (2015). Negative emotional energy: A theory of the “Dark-Side” of interaction ritual chains. Social Sciences, 4(1), 148–170. Bramsen, I., & Poder, P. (2014). Theorizing three basic emotional dynamics of conflicts: A situational research agenda. Peace Research, 46(2), 51–86. Brinkman, S., & Kvale, S. (2015). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Brown, C. A., McGuire, F., & Voelkl, J. (2008). The link between successful aging and serious leisure. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 66, 73–95. Collins, R. (1990). Stratification, emotional energy and the transient emotions. In T. Kemper (Ed.), Research agendas in the sociology of emotions. Albany: State University of New York Press. Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Connor, M. (2000). Recreational folk dance: A multicultural exercise component in healthy ageing. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 47, 69–76. Cooley, C. H. (1902/1972). The looking glass self. J. In J. Manis & A. Meltzer (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: A reader in social psychology (pp.  231–233). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975/2000). Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Introduction. In M. Csikszentmihalyi & I. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds.), Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness (pp. 3–15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books. Elkington, S. (2011). What it is to take the flow of leisure seriously. Leisure/ Loisir, 35(3), 253–282. Elsaway, B., & Higgins, K.  E. (2010). Physical activity guidelines for older adults. Am Fam Physician, 81(1, Jan.), 55–59.

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Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography. Principles in practice. London: Routledge. Hochschild, A.  R. (1983). The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kemper, T. D. (1978). A social interactional theory of emotions. New York: Wiley. Keogh, J. W. L., Kildin, A., Pidgeon, P., Ashley, L., & Gillis, D. (2009). Physical benefits of dancing for healthy older adults: A review. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 17, 1–23. Krekula, C., Arvidson, M., Heikkinen, S., Henriksson, A., & Olsson, E. (2017). On gray dancing: Constructions of age-normality through choreography and temporal codes. Journal of Aging Studies, 42, 38–45. Lamdin, L.  S., & Fugate, M. (1997). Elderlearning: New frontier in an aging society. R&L Education. Lee, C., & Payne, L. L. (2016). Experiencing flow in different types of serious leisure in later life. World Leisure Journal, 58(3), 163–178. Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Paulson, S. (2009). An exploration of how various ‘cultures of dance’ construct experiences of health and growing older. Diss., City University London, London. Scheff, T. (2000). Shame and the social bond: A sociological theory. Sociological Theory, 18(1), 84–99. Shen, X. S., & Yarnal, C. (2010). Blowing open the serious leisure-casual leisure dichotomy: What’s in there? Leisure Sciences, 32(2), 162–179. Starrin, B., & Jeffner Starrin, L. (2013). Hela Sverige dansar [The whole Sweden is dancing]. Karlstad: Starrin Press. Stebbins, R.  A. (1992). Amateurs, professionals, and serious leisure [Electronic book]. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Stebbins, R. A. (2001). New directions in the theory and research of serious leisure. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press.. Stebbins, R.  A. (2006, November). Leisure studies: The happy science. LSA Newsletter. Stebbins, R. A. (2012). The idea of leisure: First principles. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

4 “One Can Make a Swing with a Rope and a Piece of Wood”: The Positive Leisure Experience of Children Living in the Informal Settlements of Soacha, Colombia

Andrea Diaz-Hernandez and Idurre Lazcano Quintana

Introduction Who can better show the positive side of life than children? This chapter presents a reflection on some of the collected data for an investigation, The Leisure Experience of Children Living in the Informal Settlements of Soacha, Colombia (Diaz-Hernandez, 2020), based on Stebbins’ Positive Sociology of Leisure (2017). Although this research focused on children’s leisure constraints and on how their context influenced their leisure choices and behaviors, children clearly communicated that, in spite of their adverse living conditions, they were able to have fun. Perhaps that is

A. Diaz-Hernandez (*) • I. Lazcano Quintana University of Deusto, Bilbo, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_4

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why Stebbins (2006) calls leisure studies the “happy science” because, even in adverse conditions, studying the reality from the lens of positive sociology reveals the positive side of life, even more so when research participants are children. The positive side of life, however, has rarely been empirically investigated by leisure studies. This is because research in the social sciences—in which leisure studies is part of—normally focuses on social problems and on how to overcome them (Stebbins, 2006). For instance, most of the investigations studying leisure in context of poverty focused on the lack of leisure opportunities for people (Bowling, 2002; Vandermeerschen, Van Regenmortel, & Scheerder, 2017) and on how this situation impacts their leisure and life in general (Outley & Floyd, 2002). Nevertheless, there are some studies highlighting the activities people in poverty pursue (Hodgetts & Stolte, 2016; Klitzing, 2004; Trussell & Mair, 2010) to have an attractive and worthwhile life (Stebbins, 2009), especially when promoting better interventions and social policies. According to Stebbins (2004, 2009), positive activities are specifically related to people’s leisure, to concepts such as activity and human agency, and to the key implications for people and society. Some investigations that have informed Stebbins’ idea—perhaps coincidentally—have addressed the topic of homelessness/poverty and leisure. For instance, Hodgetts and Stolte (2016) demonstrate that homeless people pursue leisure activities (e.g., visiting betting shops, libraries, coffee stores, and parks) to have enjoyable moments on their own or with friends. These authors maintain that shared activities generate friendship, joy, and emotional support among those people (p. 907). In addition, in findings by Klitzing (2004), homeless women escape from stress when talking with other women and doing leisure activities with their friends. Similarly, in Trussell and Mair’s research (2010), the participants pursue leisure activities proposed by shelter homes, which enables them to enjoy judgment-free spaces and be in contact with people both within and outside their communities. These three investigations highlight the leisure’s benefits, which are essential for people in poverty, and their findings encourage policy makers to develop resources and programs for homeless individuals beyond standard financial and material aid (e.g., by offering positive leisure experiences).

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Accordingly, if the present case study incorporates Stebbins’ positive sociology of leisure, one might ask: What kind of leisure activities children, living in the informal settlements of Soacha, Colombia, pursue in order to have an attractive and worthwhile life? And what are the implications of these positive leisure experiences for children and their communities? Although there is an assumption that children in poverty do not have leisure experience, this chapter reveals that children, by their very nature, seek to have such experiences that they perceive as enjoyable and fulfilling. It is worth noting that this chapter does not seek to legitimize the inequalities regarding access to and variety of leisure opportunities for these children. Conversely, the chapter highlights how, even in a hostile context, children desire and attain activities that make their lives more attractive and worth living. It should be also noted that some children’s comments do not reflect the objective reality of their neighborhoods, but rather the way the children perceive those places. Analyzing the leisure experiences of children, living in the informal settlements of Soacha, Colombia, through the lens of Stebbins’ positive sociology enables us to discover children’s agency and the implications of their positive leisure experiences for them and their communities (e.g., appreciation and pride for their neighborhoods). This framework also helps identifying people, places, and institutions that promote such positive experiences (e.g., municipal and neighborhood parks, school, and civic organizations).

Investigation Design This chapter is derived from the research titled The Leisure Experience of Children Living in the Informal Settlements of Soacha, Colombian (Diaz-­ Hernandez, 2020), which is founded on an interpretive paradigm. This paradigm aims to understand reality through the subjective experience of participants (Thanh, Thi, & Thanh, 2015). In Stebbins’ (2004) words: “The study of leisure experience requires us to get inside the skin of leisure participants to see the world as they see it” (p. 10). This investigation, therefore, turned to qualitative methods in order to capture children’s

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leisure narrative accounts as well as the contexts where their leisure experiences occurred. The main data collection method was semi-structured interviews, supported by drawings and photographs taken by children themselves. The interview questions were constructed based on a review of literature on leisure and poverty (Bowling, 2002; Outley & Floyd, 2002; Roets, Cardoen, Bie, & Roose, 2015; Trussell & Mair, 2010; Vandermeerschen et  al., 2017) and they were adapted to the Spanish language for children between ages of 6–12 years. Example questions included: • • • • • • • • • •

What do you do with your friends? What do you do for fun? What do you do on weekends? What do you like to play? Who do you play with? What makes that activity fun? What do you feel when doing those activities? Do you practice a sport? What activities would you propose to a child new in your neighborhood? Are you part of a civic organization or after school program? If your answer is yes, why do you attend to their activities? • What do you think about your neighborhood?

Participants’ Context Soacha is a municipality that borders Bogotá city. As of 2018, 645,205 people lived here (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística [DANE], 2018), of whom 26.59% were children and young people between ages of 5 and 19 years (TerriData, 2019). According to the latest official poverty statistics for Soacha in 2005, when its population was 398,295, 15.91% of its people in urban area reported unsatisfied basic needs, while 35.22% in rural area had also unsatisfied basic needs (DANE, 2010). According to Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD, 2014), Soacha has 368 neighborhoods. Of these, 152 are known

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as informal settlements, where families have moved in because of high rents inside Bogotá or forced displacement. In fact, Soacha is the largest recipient of people displaced by the Colombian armed conflict. This situation has pushed families to self-produce their houses and neighborhoods, including their recreational facilities. The informal settlements are characterized by poor-quality materials used for housing construction, inaccessibility to public services, lack of public spaces and green areas, and pollution. According to Torres (2009), due to the lack of water and sewer services, families are forced to make irregular connections and to throw wastewater into lakes and other water sources near their dwellings. Besides, families face multiple social challenges (e.g., unemployment) due to the scarcity of government aid for entrepreneurship (Manrique, Perea, Platt, & Bueno, 2016), lack of property title, overcrowding, poverty, and insecurity. In fact, in Soacha, paramilitary groups have done “social cleansings,” and the army has committed extra-judicial killings (Mellizo, 2012) (Fig. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1  Informal settlements in Soacha, Colombia

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The economic and social situation described above has turned Soacha into a municipality of civil society organizations. Such organizations seek to meet people’s needs, which cannot be met by the state, and to improve their living conditions. For instance, in the neighborhood where the present case study was undertaken, there were around seven civic organizations—formal and non-formal—focused on enriching children’s and young people’s free time. The neighborhood where this research was undertaken was part of commune 4 in Soacha, which had the most serious problems related to poverty, insecurity, and pollution. It  had a rudimentary soccer field built on sand, a community center in poor condition, two churches (one Christian and one Catholic), some bars, and a little wooden house for children’s activities. Due to its informality, there was limited information on this neighborhood, including people’s life style and leisure.

Research Participants Participants were seven girls and seven boys between ages of 6 and 12 years. All children attended school and participated in the activities provided by the civic organizations in their neighborhood. Among these organizations, there were two Christian organizations, two soccer schools, and one secular organization that aimed to improve the quality of children’s free time with pedagogical and recreational activities.

Results The following results are based on an analysis of the leisure experience of children living in the informal settlements, based on Stebbins’ positive sociology. The results demonstrate how these children exerted their agency to turn their leisure experience more. The findings also highlight the implications of such experiences for children and their communities, and the results identify people, places, and institutions promoting leisure among children. When presenting children’s responses, their real names have been changed in order to protect their identity.

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Children’s Positive Leisure Experience Children’s leisure is both serious and casual. The latter is understood as enjoyable and short-term activities for their own sake (e.g., play, going for a walk, watching television, or talking), which was described by my participants as positive. According to Stebbins (1997), this type of leisure has its own benefits (e.g., relaxation, relief, sensorial stimulation, and enjoyment) and can serve as a gateway to a more serious leisure. Nevertheless, casual leisure activities may turn into a problem when there is an excess or lack of variety in such activities. Serious leisure is related to people’s personal interests and is characterized by perseverance, expertise, acquired skills, self-actualization, and durable benefits (e.g., self-expression, social interaction, and sense of belonging). Some examples of persons engaging in serious leisure are art collectors and sport amateurs (Stebbins, 2009). In terms of casual leisure, my children informants engaged in traditional games, used their mobile phones, cooked, spent time with family and friends, and played football. The main reasons why they enjoyed these activities were that they allowed the children to move their body, to be with friends and family, and to go outside. Children enjoyed football because such sport was an end in itself and because of its multiple benefits, as Sergio, 11 years old, expressed when he was asked why he liked the sport: I like, I love playing football! I like football because [it] is exciting. It is exciting when one is on the soccer field playing, running and sharing with friends. When one runs, your legs and body become stronger. It is exiting when you are close to the goal and want to score a goal.

Children described most casual leisure activities as fun, which made them feel happy. These activity opportunities were created and supported by other children, by the family, by the adults of the different civic organizations, and by the school. In relation to more a serious leisure, football was the most frequently pursued activity by children. This was possibly because the neighborhood had a soccer field, albeit in very poor condition, and because there were civic organizations promoting football (e.g., Tiempo de Juego and Escuela

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Deportiva de Fútbol Popular El Progreso). Although the aim of these organizations was to prevent children from being involved in drug abuse or gangs, they became the leisure service providers in the neighborhood. Thanks to the soccer schools, children trained on weekends, were able to get uniforms, and participated in football matches. Accordingly, being able to train, move the body, go out, interact with family and friends, and enjoy activities for their own sake were what made children’s lives more attractive and worth living. However, it was difficult to turn activities other than football into a more serious leisure due to the lack of infrastructure and resources in the neighborhood.

Children’s Agency: Activity and Core Activities Stebbins (2009) relates human agency with people’s strengths and actions to achieve a goal. This agency manifests through an activity “wherein participants in it mentally or physically (often both) think or do something, motivated by the hope of achieving a desired end” (Stebbins, 2009, p. 4). In the case of children living in Soacha, their agency was expressed through the creation of their own leisure objects and experiments they did in activities, such as playing and cooking. For example, when Daniela, 9 years old, was asked about the activities she would propose to a new child in the neighborhood, she said, “to play with the swings.” Nevertheless, El Progreso had neither swings nor a playground. Then, when asked where the swings were in the neighborhood, she replied: There isn’t, but one can make a swing with a rope and a piece of wood … we make them in the neighborhood, but in a factory where there are some trees, we put a rope up and a piece of wood. There [in the factory] there are a lot of machines and plastic [in this factory her mother works].

In fact, when children’s parents were asked about the strengths of their children, a mother mentioned her son’s capability to create his own toys, such as tents and radios out of cardboard when he was playing a soldier (Diaz-Hernandez, 2020).

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Inventing their own leisure resources was also a strategy used by teachers at school. Sergio, 11 years old, said the following when he was asked about the activities offered in his school: “My school Ciudadela has Chinese checkers, chess and ranita [a game consisting of landing metal rings in holes]. Teachers borrow you a ranita, but there are no rings instead there are lids full of cement.” Another activity that showed children’s agency was cooking. For example, when Mia, 10 years old, was asked about what she did for fun, she replied: “I like to be in the kitchen.” Although housework was a common activity for children, especially for girls, in the neighborhood, to Mia cooking was a way to discover new things: “…nobody forces me. In fact, I was not allowed to be in the kitchen because once I baked some cakes and some oil jumped at me, and I was forbidden but now I am allowed again…I cook because I like to mix things and see what comes up.” According to Stebbins’ idea about human agency, and how it manifests through an activity and its components, Mia’s account allows us to see that play was preceded by a core activity. This concept is defined by Stebbins as “a distinctive set of interrelated actions or steps that must be followed to achieve the outcome or product that a participant seeks” (2009, p. 5). That is, creating their own leisure resources is a core activity some children do so that they can play. In Mia’s quotation, cooking was preceded by “mixing things” that as a core activity she found appealing. Another example of activity and core activity is when children seek to have fun when playing or attending the activities offered by civic organizations in their neighborhood. When asked why she enjoyed her favorite activities, Lucia, 9 years old, answered: “I like to play ‘ponchados’ [a traditional game] because I am with my siblings and because my mom allows us to go out.” Marta, 10 years old, provided the following reason, when discussing why she attended the activities provided by the civic organizations: “Because I like to come and play with my cousins.” Accordingly, being with siblings, cousins and going out are the core activities during children’s leisure, which appealed to them.

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 ositive Leisure Experiences and Their Implications P for Children and Their Communities In the present case study, the two most significant consequences of children’s positive leisure experience were that children appreciated the place where they lived and children felt proud of the places they frequented. For instance, when Jimena, 10 years old, was asked about what she thought about her neighborhood, she said: “It is beautiful, because it has a park and a soccer field for playing.” In terms of what he liked about his neighborhood, Lucas, 8 years old, mentioned going to the park, even if it was technically not a park. In Lucas’ words: “I like to go to the park. The soccer field is a park [answer to the statement: ‘But, there is not a park in the neighborhood’].” (Fig. 4.2) Besides, both children’s neighborhood and houses, as leisure places, enabled children to see the positive side of living in the outskirts of the

Fig. 4.2  Neighborhood’s soccer field. (Photo taken by a child)

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city. Although the frequent children’s answer was “I got used to life here,” when they were asked about the place where they lived, children reported positive things about living in the informal settlement that is related with their leisure experience. Mia, 10 years old, said the following when she was asked about what she liked about her neighborhood: I like because I got used [to]. For example, here is not the city, cars do not go through, and here one can have all the animals one wants. If one wants, one goes to the mountains, here you can run, cars do not go through and there are not traffic lights, one does not worry about this or that and one can put music if one wants at night … here you can go out and nobody runs over you, no cars or motorbikes, and at night cars do not sound as in the city.

Another consequence of their positive leisure experience was that children felt proud of the places they frequented. When Lola, 9 years old, was asked about what she did on a school break, her brother, Sergio said: But those fields [soccer fields of the neighborhood’s primary school] are too smalls, not like Ciudadela where the fields are huge and there are two [soccer fields of the neighborhood’s secondary school]; if we have soccer games, no child can walk through. Whereas, at the other school when we played soccer, everybody walked through. In Ciudadela, the field below is for the soccer games and the one on the top is for the people [In response to Lola’s answer “Play to jump rope at the school”].

Later, when he was asked about what he did on the school break, Sergio answered: “I always play football up in Ciudadela, because the teacher has three types of balls.” This comparison was also made by Mia, 10 years old, about the different leisure possibilities across schools. When she was asked if she practiced a sport at school, she said, “I am doing gymnastic at school. We are in cheerleading. Ciudadela is more advanced, so there are more chances to do things. The school is bigger, and you can do more things [secondary school of the neighborhood].”

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 eople, Places, and Institutions Promoting Children’s P Positive Leisure Experience Stebbins’ framework of positive sociology of leisure recognizes the importance of research context, as the various manifestations of contexts (e.g., social institutions, organizations, the environment) “facilitate or constrain, if not both, the experience of the activity, influencing thereby the degree of satisfaction gained from it” (Stebbins’ chapter, p. 6). This facilitated me to identify actors and institutions promoting children’s positive leisure experience. For instance, when children were asked about what they did during weekends, they—besides citing leisure activities—mentioned people, places, civic organizations, and institutions promoting such experiences. In the following account from Sergio, for example, a park and one civic organization can be identified: “On weekends I come here [to the recreational and pedagogical activities offered by a secular civic organization] (Fig. 4.3), sometimes we go to the park and also I play football.” Additionally, with regard to what park he went, he replied: “Tibanica [municipal park]. It is nearby, we go by foot, it doesn’t take long. There are swings, there are three soccer fields, and there is a park for the little ones with padded floor. Sometimes there are some free games, as ice-skating”. Pablo, 10 years old, referred to a neighborhood that had a number of parks, when he was asked where he strolled with his family: On weekends, I come here [to the activities offered by a secular civic organization] and I stroll with my mom and everybody….in Tres Esquinas or San Mateo [neighborhoods nearby the place where children live]. Tres Esquinas is a city [neighborhood] and there are many parks, it is five minutes away [according to parents it is about twenty minutes away walking]. There we buy clothes, ice creams and many things.

Tres Esquinas and San Mateo neighborhoods were also mentioned by Mia, 10 years old, when she talked about what she did on weekends: “…. go out with my family to the park [park in San Mateo’s neighborhood], to Tres Esquinas or to the malls.”

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Fig. 4.3  Wooden house for children’s activities in the neighborhood. (Photo taken by a child under the instruction “photograph things you like in your neighborhood”)

Besides municipal and neighborhood parks, another institution promoting children’s positive leisure experience was the neighborhood’s secondary school (i.e., Ciudadela). This school, in addition to generating feelings of pride in children for its infrastructure and leisure equipment, offered an activity that could potentially turn into a more serious leisure experience. When Sergio was asked about the activities offered by his school, he answered: “Basketball, volleyball, tennis, football matches and ponchados … football matches are during the week. Everyone pays 2000,1 and as we are seven [players], teachers give for free two places.” When asked what the money covered, Sergio said, “the referee, medals, and t-shirt.” Finally, civic organizations played a substantial role in facilitating children’s leisure, despite their lack of volunteers and financial resources, because the organizations became providers of a wide range of  2000 Colombian pesos are equivalent to 0.63 cents.

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recreational activities in the neighborhood. In addition, they became the plan for weekends and a reason for children to leave their house. The following was Sergio’s answer, when he was asked why he attended the activities offered by the civic organizations in his neighborhood: To go out, because sometimes one can’t go to the parks or to the soccer field … because there is guy who is stealing children.…then, my mom does not allow us to go out and she says that if we want to go out, we can attend the activities.

In summary, parks near their houses, civic organizations, the neighborhood’s secondary school, and family were people and places that fostered children’s positive leisure experience. Moreover, in the contexts of social, economic, and infrastructure challenges, such experiences needed to be supported by the institutions to turn children’s leisure into more serious leisure activities, where they were able to develop their abilities, knowledge, and experiences.

Discussion and Conclusion Throughout this chapter, some of the data collected for the research The Leisure Experience of Children Living in the Informal Settlements of Soacha, Colombia (Diaz-Hernandez, 2020) have been analyzed through the lens of Stebbins’s positive sociology. Although there is little empirical research based on Stebbins’ theory, the current study’s findings are consistent with extant investigations into leisure and poverty. One example is the research by Bennett, Lutz, and Jayaram (2012), where schools reduced social gaps between low- and middle-class children by using structured leisure activities. Similar to my results, schools offered free or low-cost leisure activities to children that are unavailable in their neighborhoods. It is worth noting that although this investigation was conducted in the United States, its results are very similar to those of children living in the informal settlements of Soacha, Colombia. Moreover, drawing upon children’s perceptions to understand their positive leisure experience supports what Walker, Crawford, and Taylor (2008), as well as Roets et  al. (2015), said about children in poverty.

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These authors argued that these children are able to construct meaning, act and choose despite their limiting circumstances. Stebbins’ positive sociology of leisure enabled us to understand what children were capable of doing (e.g., children created their own leisure objects), as well as the meanings they associated with their positive leisure experiences that can be used to intervene socially. To conclude, positive sociology is a theoretical framework that enables us to understand the positive side of life, even in the contexts of poverty. In case of children living in the informal settlements of Soacha, Colombia, Stebbins’ theory allowed me to identify children’s positive leisure experiences and the consequences of such experiences: children’s agency, the implications for children and their communities, and people, places, and institutions promoting children’s leisure. Given that the present chapter identifies the resources that are fostering children’s positive leisure experience, despite the social context where they lived, it can be concluded that the positive sociology of leisure can be used for what Glover (2015) called as “leisure research for social impact.” That is, social institutions (e.g., family, civic organizations, and the school), as well as municipal and neighborhood parks identified here, should be preserved by the community and the State, so that these entities will ensure a minimum of leisure for these children. In Glover’s words (2015): “The social sciences—in which I include Leisure Studies—matter because they help society understand, confront, and address complex social challenges” (p. 11).

References Bennett, P. R., Lutz, A. C., & Jayaram, L. (2012). Beyond the schoolyard: The role of parenting logics, financial resources, and social institutions in the social class gap in structured activity participation. Sociology of Education, 85(2), 131–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040711431585 Bowling, C. P. (2002). Exploring the leisure lives of the working poor through photo-elicitation. Leisure/Loisir. https://doi.org/10.1080/1492771 3.2002.9651293

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Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE). (2010). Censo General 2005. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from https://www.dane.gov. co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/demografia-y-poblacion/censo-general-2005-1/censo-general-2005 DANE. (2018). Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/ demografia-y-poblacion/censo-nacional-de-poblacion-y-vivenda-2018/ informacion-tecnica Diaz-Hernandez, A. (2020). The leisure experience of children living in the informal settlements of Soacha, Colombia (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Deusto, Bilbao. Glover, T.  D. (2015). Leisure research for social impact. Journal of Leisure Research, 47(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2015.11950348 Hodgetts, D., & Stolte, O. (2016). Homeless people’s leisure practices within and beyond urban socio-scapes. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0042098015571236 Klitzing, S. W. (2004). Women living in a homeless shelter: Stress, coping and leisure. Journal of Leisure Research Copyright, 36(4), 483–512. Manrique, M. X., Perea, S. A., Platt, S., & Bueno, J. M. (2016). De lo informal al mejoramiento integral. Bogota. Retrieved from https://cpnaa.gov.co/sites/ default/files/docs/CAZUCA-2016-FINAL-DIGITAL-NOV.23.pdf Mellizo, W. (2012). “Desaparecieron y Asesinaron Nuestros Muchachos” El Caso de Soacha: Fronteras del Sufrimiento, Deber de Reparación. Bogotá: Universidad de la Salle. Outley, C. W., & Floyd, M. F. (2002). The home they live in: Inner city children’s views on the influence of parenting strategies on their leisure behavior. Leisure Sciences, 24, 161–179. PNUD. (2014). Soacha y los Objetivos del Milenio. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://www.co.undp.org/content/colombia/es/home/presscenter/articles/2014/06/26/soacha-y-los-objetivos-del-milenio.html Roets, G., Cardoen, D., Bie, M. B., & Roose, R. (2015). We make the road by walking: Challenging conceptualisations of leisure time for children in poverty, 29, 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12056 Stebbins, R. A. (1997). Casual leisure: A conceptual statement. Leisure Studies, 16(1), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/026143697375485 Stebbins, R. A. (2004). Fun, enjoyable, satisfying, fulfilling: Describing positive leisure experience. LSA Newsletter, 69(7), 8–11.

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Stebbins, R. A. (2006). Leisure studies: The happy science. Leisure Reflections, (14), 2006–2008. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4618.3843 Stebbins, R. A. (2009). Personal decisions in the public square. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers. Stebbins, R. A. (2017). The sociology of leisure: An estranged child of mainstream sociology. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure. https://doi. org/10.1007/s41978-017-0003-5 TerriData. (2019). Soacha, Cundinamarca. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://terridata.dnp.gov.co/index-app.html#/perfiles/25754 Thanh, N. C., Thi, T., & Thanh, L. (2015). The interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. American Journal of Educational Science, 1(2), 24–27. Retrieved from http://www.aiscience.org/ journal/ajes Torres, C. (2009). Ciudad informal colombiana: barrios construidos por la gente. Santa Fe de Bogotá: Editorial Unal. Retrieved from http://www.facartes.unal. edu.co/fa/institutos/ihct/publicaciones/ciudad_informal.pdf Trussell, D. E., & Mair, H. (2010). Seeking judgment free spaces: Poverty, leisure, and social inclusion. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(4), 513–533. https:// doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2010.11950216 Vandermeerschen, H., Van Regenmortel, T., & Scheerder, J. (2017). ‘There are alternatives, but your social life is curtailed’: Poverty and sports participation from an insider perspective. Social Indicators Research. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11205-016-1360-z Walker, J., Crawford, K., & Taylor, F. (2008). Listening to children: Gaining a perspective of the experiences of poverty and social exclusion from children and young people of single-parent families. Health and Social Care in the Community, 16(4), 429–436. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2524. 2008.00781.x

5 Anything Goes for Being Happy? A Qualitative Analysis of Discourses on Leisure in Finland Riie Heikkilä

Introduction: Do Leisure Practices Promise Happiness? Leisure practices and lifestyles are strong markers and conveyors of social hierarchies. While upper classes typically consume and appreciate many kinds of high arts, the tastes and practices of middle and working classes are radically different. In most Western societies, knowing, appropriating and eventually consuming “highbrow arts” has been considered an indicator of cultural capital—thus not an aleatory personal preference but a direct product of societal position and habitus, and therefore linked to power structures in society (Bourdieu, 1984). Also, the highbrow arts— such as opera, ballet and classical music—have been subsidized by the public cultural policies of practically all industrialized Western countries, and they play a strong role in school curricula, making the knowledge

R. Heikkilä (*) Tampere University, Tampere, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_5

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and taste of the upper classes look “natural” and sanctioning the lower classes for the lack thereof (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1979). Bourdieu’s account on the inevitable link between class position and taste has been contested countless times. Some of the most salient critiques include that cultural divisions might have been especially strong in the society Bourdieu studied, namely 1960s France, and that other kinds of historical, cultural or local contexts might push towards entirely different divisions and boundaries such as for instance socio-economic or moral ones (Lamont, 1992). It has also been claimed that cultural practices do not depend uniquely on class positions but also, to an important degree, on individual life courses and significant others (Lahire, 2004) or that “highbrow snobbery” as a marker of status in general would be a historical phase, currently being replaced by new kinds of “omnivorous” and tolerant cultural practices (Peterson & Kern, 1996). There is a relatively wide international consensus that active cultural participation is at least to some extent linked to good health and well-­ being, even happiness. Deeply embedded in the Western/European intellectual discourse, since ancient times there has been a belief in the “transformative powers of the arts” (Belfiore & Bennett, 2007, p. 138). In contemporary scholarly research, the link between cultural participation and well-being is supported through vast epidemiological research, different kinds of nationally representative social surveys and different practice-based approaches (for a thorough review, see Clift, 2012). Time after time, researchers have shown that the larger the amount of cultural activities people attend, the better is their health and the longer they survive, even if main socio-economic variables are controlled for and in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research settings (Bygren, Konlaan, & Johansson, 1996; Hyyppä, Mäki, Impivaara, & Aromaa, 2006; Konlaan, Bygren, & Johansson, 2000; Wilkinson, Waters, Bygren, & Tarlov, 2007). Cultural participation is also linked to happiness as such. Through a scrutiny of cultural participation and happiness in 30 countries in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2007 wave, Ateca-Amestoy, Gerstenblüth, Mussio, and Rossi (2016) show that most leisure activities, whether home-based, attendance-based or participation-based, have a statistically significant positive effect on self-reported happiness. This is especially true regarding activities that require active attendance. Wheatley

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and Bickerton (2017) find the same association between arts, culture and sports attendance and subjective well-being but likewise point out that frequency of attendance is an important factor for positive effects: while some types of participation (such as singing or playing an instrument, or active sports) require regular participation for generating positive effects, attending arts events (such as the opera or a musical) generates positive effects independently of the frequency of attendance. Nevertheless, most scholars recognize that the link between cultural participation and well-being or even happiness should not be understood as automatic or problem-free, even if meticulous and representative datasets are used (cf. Hyyppä, 2010). First of all, operationalizations of well-­ being and happiness vary according to the study in question: objective and subjective well-being are different issues, and general satisfaction or happiness in life is an umbrella concept compared to “domain satisfaction”, such as satisfaction regarding work or leisure time (Wheatley & Bickerton, 2017). When it comes to individual surveys, measuring happiness often remains a quantified ascending scale: for instance, the previously mentioned ISSP survey (Ateca-Amestoy et al., 2016) only has four options for measuring general self-rated happiness (not at all happy, not very happy, fairly happy or very happy). Second, it is practically impossible for different kinds of surveys measuring cultural participation to consider all kinds of cultural participation that people are engaged in, not to mention that many surveys are biased towards practices typical to middle and upper-middle classes (Flemmen, Jarness, & Rosenlund, 2018, p. 146). Finally, different cultural contexts are important mediators of meanings tied to the almost infinite forms of cultural participation and happiness. This, along with the other factors mentioned, makes measuring the real or even perceived impacts of cultural participation a complicated task, mainly because disentangling economic and cultural value is an enormously complex issue (cf. Belfiore & Bennett, 2007; Wheatley & Bickerton, 2017). In this chapter, I argue that the typical operationalizations of happiness and leisure used in most quantitative, nationally representative studies do not necessarily capture all the shades of the connection between them. Therefore, I ask, in the light of a qualitative empirical setting, what links less privileged and potentially less culturally active groups draw between

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their leisure participation practices and happiness. The empirical context is Finland, a Nordic welfare state with a relatively large decommodified public sector, with, for instance, an entirely public and free education system providing a certain equality of opportunities (cf. Esping-Andersen, 1999) and high self-rated happiness according to the newest United Nations World Happiness Report (Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs, 2018). The chapter proceeds as follow: I will first review the literature on the links between cultural practices and happiness and after that present the empirical data and analytical strategy. After this, I will go on towards analysing the results, first through describing, on the macro level, the occurrences of happiness found in the empirical data and then through scrutinizing more in detail the most pertinent categories. Finally, I will discuss the relevance of the findings in the light of existing research and contemporary cultural policy.

From Happiness to Cultural Policy and Back It can safely be argued that in the last decades, the incessant pursuit and appreciation of happiness and well-being has occupied a central position in the mindscapes of late modernity post-industrial societies. This has brought about an avalanche of self-help literature and a rise of different mindfulness techniques, all meant to discover and enhance personal happiness and life satisfaction. Recent times have also seen the advent of similarly themed research sub-fields, such as happiness studies and positive sociology, which in this volume is treated mostly under the umbrella of positive sociology of leisure. Originally coined by Stebbins (Stebbins, 2009, Stebbins, 2020 in this volume), positive sociology aims to showcase and research the activities that make life rewarding, emphasizing personal activity and agency. However, studying and especially conceptualizing happiness has its caveats. Among others, Bauman (2008) argues that the current pursuit of subjective and essentially self-made happiness is an epitome or even justification for the current frenzy of consumerism. Hochschild (2003), in her influential work on emotional labour exemplified through the selection processes, training sessions and experiences of flight attendants,

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shows that living and experiencing happiness is a complex issue: ideal and actual happiness are different phenomena, and society imposes on us different “feeling rules”, for the fulfilling of which being happy becomes another task to undertake in the already complicated economy of feelings. Cieslik (2015) holds that sociology has to some extent clung too much to instrumental or individualistic notions of happiness or “well-­ being”. According to Cieslik, it is especially the World Health Organization that has been playing an important role in introducing happiness and well-being into the research agendas, basically in order to “augment economic indicators of development with other subjective measures” (Cieslik, 2015, p. 423). Meanwhile, cultural policies everywhere in the industrialized countries do take these subjective measures seriously: they rest upon the assumption that cultural participation enhances citizens’ well-being and happiness. While the epidemiological research quoted above has to some extent been able to validate the link between cultural participation and well-­ being, Belfiore and Bennett (2007) point out that “measuring impacts” of cultural participation is in fact an idealization, something that is useful for guaranteeing and even increasing the public funding for culture and the arts. Belfiore develops elsewhere on the strong belief of the “power of the arts to deeply affect both the psyche and the body” (Belfiore, 2016, p. 12), something that we shall return to in the conclusion. Above we have seen how well-being and happiness have been understood and operationalized in the scholarly studies on cultural participation. But what about its linguistic or cultural conceptualizations? The ambiguity of the term both in a cross-comparative and historical sense make a global perspective useful: for instance Oishi, Graham, Kesebir, and Galinha (2013) point out not only that the meaning of happiness has historically speaking shifted from a conceptualization close to the Greek eudaimonia, understood as referring to “good luck” or “fortune” beyond active agency, towards a more agentic and dynamic concept which stresses the individual as a justified pursuer of happiness but also reminds that there are differences between the way different languages and cultures conceive happiness. Finally, with the consensus that cultural participation is at least in some ways linked to happiness, different studies, operationalizations of

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both subjective well-being and happiness, and cultural contexts are different. Therefore, it remains unclear what kind of cultural participation is really linked to happiness and how. Does participating in highbrow culture link to a stronger or more enduring happiness or could it be that participation in general matters for well-being regardless of its status (cf. Miles & Sullivan, 2012)? The contribution of this chapter to the above referred discussions and debates will be to bring to the fore, first of all, the fact that qualitative points of view illuminate the link between cultural participation and happiness, and second, that it is important to take into consideration and understand better the associations between cultural participation and happiness in groups that are especially far from privileged class positions and, in a concrete way, arts and culture audiences. Hence, this chapter sheds light on what kinds of leisure contributes to happiness in disadvantaged groups whose background profiles predict low cultural participation.

Research Design Interviews The empirical data is derived from my Understanding Cultural Disengagement in Contemporary Finland research project for which I conducted 49 interviews—out of which 40 were individual interviews and nine were focus groups interviews—in 2018. The overall research focused on a so-called theoretical sample of people whose profiles would statistically predict cultural disengagement or low cultural participation. Interviews were chosen because people with low cultural participation had been found underrepresented answering nationally representative surveys (Purhonen et al., 2014, p. 423). Two large national surveys measuring different kinds of cultural practices—Culture and Leisure in Finland 2007 (N = 1388) and Finnish Views on and Engagement in Culture and the Arts 2013 (N = 7859)—were used to define the statistical background factors affecting cultural disengagement most. Two survey questions with a large array of cultural participation possibilities from both highbrow and lowbrow spheres (from classical

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music concerts to cinema, restaurants, pubs and bingo halls and so on) were used to construct a scale of the groups that never or very rarely attended them. After that, the most salient background factors predicting cultural disengagement were defined: these were residential area (with living in the countryside predicting disengagement), province (with living in Northern or Eastern Finland predicting disengagement), education (with low or no education predicting disengagement) and occupation (with especially manual work, but also for instance being on pension of parental leave predicting disengagement). The interviewees were recruited to mirror these predicting factors as faithfully as possible, while being aware of the fact that these factors would only serve as probabilities. The idea was that each interviewee, whether interviewed individually or in a group setting, would cover at least four of the aforementioned statistically significant indicators of cultural disengagement. The focus groups were so-called naturally occurring groups that knew each other beforehand (cf. Wilkinson, 1998), including students of polytechnic schools or customers of unemployment centres. While living in the Northern or Eastern parts of Finland predicted cultural disengagement, approximately one-third of the interviews were conducted in the Helsinki metropolitan area because of possible comparisons and work economic reasons. All data is carefully anonymized. The recruitment thus yielded profiles with low education, mostly manual jobs and so on: interviewed profiles included for instance an unemployed female electrician in a small province city in Northern Finland, a farmer’s wife without any formal education in a small village in Northern Finland, a pensioner with a history of many low-paid manual jobs, and several young people in the Helsinki metropolitan area with no or extremely low education on disability leaves for various reasons. The focus groups were more varied, including for instance some participants with university studies in the unemployed groups. This is why it is difficult to argue that all the interviewees would belong to the working class: meanwhile, they certainly are part of the more disadvantaged groups of Finland, both in terms of economic, social and cultural capital (cf. Bourdieu, 1984) and form a certain fraction of underprivileged popular classes. Statistically speaking, these groups are likely to be culturally disengaged and also unhappier (cf. Ateca-Amestoy et al., 2016) at least if

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measured in the traditional quantitative way. This is what makes the research setting particularly interesting. The interview guide was designed based on several recent studies on cultural practices (Elliott, Miles, Parsons, & Savage, 2010; Purhonen et al., 2014), focusing on general time use as well as cultural taste, knowledge and participation. The interviews were semi-structured, allowing for the interviewees to define themselves what they understood as leisure and offering many possibilities to develop on the topic of happiness or joy as part of leisure practices, for instance, through discussing the “dream day” of each participant. It should be stressed that there were no explicit questions on happiness in the interviews, unlike, for instance, in the study by Cieslik (2015). My expectation was that this would make the naturally occurring expressions of happiness even more spontaneous.

Analytical Strategy Using qualitative interviews to study the link between leisure practices and happiness means adopting a point of view entirely different from the scholarly discussions based on predominantly quantitative, nationally representative datasets. I expected that interviews, especially in the case of a difficult-to-reach group (at least in terms of their participation in national surveys), might be able to attain different embodied perceptions and attitudes (cf. Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) that would be difficult, if not impossible, to detect through quantitative methods. For instance Lamont and Swidler (2014) emphasize the power of interviews in exploring the imagined and potential lifeworlds of the interviewees. In the case of this chapter, the use of semi-structured interviews allowed for expressing basically any forms of leisure practices and accounts of happiness or satisfaction (or the lack of those) in a way that quantitative surveys cannot capture with their predefined sets of questions and alternatives. I used qualitative content analysis, more specifically summative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005), to scrutinize in detail the expressions of happiness related to leisure practices in the interview data, which consists of circa 1200 transcribed pages in Finnish. After conducting the interviews and finishing an initial reading of the material in search for the

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most salient and common expressions of happiness, joy and satisfaction, the Finnish words I chose to use for finding the objects of analysis were ihana (wonderful), hauska (fun), mahtava (great), iloita (get joy from), iloinen (joyful), onnellinen (happy), mukava (nice), rakastaa (love), tykätä (like), nauttia (enjoy), nautinto (enjoyment), elämys (experience) and kiva (nice). As the initial goal was to focus on participation instead of taste or knowledge, I decided to only take into consideration expressions referring to participation or some kind of action. Thus, the criterion for the formation of the sample of expressions of happiness was that a verb would be included or alluded to, no matter what its tense and mode was. I started by searching for all the above-mentioned expressions of happiness connected to a verb and listing them for further classification and analysis, proceeding next to a more general qualitative close-reading (Silverman, 2014). In the following section, I will first present the preliminary analysis on the different types of the occurrences of happiness and then focus on the most salient types.

Occurrences of Happiness Preliminary Analysis My preliminary analysis found a total of 398 expressions of happiness linked to an explicit or implicit verb. Most of the expressions were simple declarative sentences or phrases in the present tense such as “I like to sing karaoke” or “it’s such good fun to go to the bingo”. Besides these, the expressions of happiness included also references to the past and imagined future: both memories (“there was an ice hockey rink that even Teemu Selänne used to go to, I sometimes played there and it was so much fun”, “as a schoolkid I loved to just be on my own”) and verbalizations of wishes or potential joy derived from something (“I would just love to dance but my husband is stiff as a brick”, “it would be so great to take walks in the forest”).

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To make better sense of the data, I chose to organize the expressions into ten thematic categories, paying attention to not only highbrow and popular cultural fields but also inside-home and outside-home activities and different kinds of informal categories of culture, such as social life or sports. The final categorization followed the lines of many contemporary sociological discussions (Bennett et  al., 2009; Miles & Sullivan, 2012; Purhonen et al., 2014). The categories I used were the following (Table 5.1). My next step was to divide all 398 expressions into these ten categories. Table 5.2 shows their frequencies, revealing that the largest amount fell in the popular sphere, especially in the inside-home but also in the out-of-home category. Another frequent category was social life, followed by for instance “being alone” or “outdoor life”. Apart from these categories, others were less often mentioned; for instance, highbrow activities, whether outside the home (traditional highbrow spectatorship in a formal setting) or inside the home (similar, but in informal home settings) Table 5.1  The categories used for the analysis 1: Out-of-home “highbrow” (classical music concerts, opera, museums…) 2: Out-of-home “popular” (pop music concerts, comedy show, bingo, spa…) 3: Inside-home “highbrow” (reading literature, listening to classical music…) 4: Inside-home “popular” (watching TV, crosswords, DIY, baking…) 5: Social life (seeing family/friends, eating out together, associations…) 6: Outdoor life & sports 7: Trips 8: Being alone/ “time for myself”/ “doing nothing” 9: Work/study 10: Other Table 5.2  The frequencies of each category, % (n = 398) Inside-home “popular”: 24% (n = 94) Out-of-home “popular”: 17% (n = 69) Social life: 12% (n = 47) Being alone/“time for myself”/ “doing nothing”: 8% (n = 35) Other: 8% (n = 35) Outdoor life & sports: 7% (n = 29) Inside-home “highbrow”: 7% (n = 28) Out-of-home “highbrow”: 6 (n = 23) Work/study: 5% (n = 20) Trips: 4% (n = 17)

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were much less often mentioned. In the following three sections, I will scrutinize the three most widely mentioned categories of happiness: the inside-­home popular, outside-home popular and finally social life.

Inside-Home Popular as the Main Conveyor of Happiness: A Temple of Non-Organized Relax In a sociological sense, the individual home is an interesting setting: it is both a private sphere or backstage which researchers might find difficult to access and a site for cultural choices and distinctions through conscious home-making (cf. Miller, 2001). In the empirical data, a vast majority of the expressions of happiness were focused on inside-home activities, especially “popular” ones—varying from consuming traditional popular culture such as watching television or listening to popular music to commonplace daily routines such as cleaning or cooking. The key element of this category is a certain level of freedom in organizing these activities, both in terms of time and style. Most people that mentioned everyday tasks in the first place talked about them as something relatively pleasant. The following comment by a disability pensioner living in a very small village together with her cat and husband—who is often away on work trips—and far from possibilities of active formal participation is a typical, frequently reported example from the data: I like it a lot when the house is clean. I get almost too fussy when I am alone or when it’s just me and my husband, I love that we clean the house and then it’s tidy and then we cook some food… this kind of basic things, cooking, baking.—In the autumn I love to extract juice. Woman, 59, disability pensioner, very small village

While the expressions of happiness evoked by recurring everyday inside-home routines might not have been especially fervent, it was traditional popular culture that stood out as really gratifying, basically throughout the data. Many interviewees spoke about the relief and relaxation that popular culture consumed at home such as watching TV,

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playing pop music or browsing the internet was able to provide: often it had to do with the fact that it “gets you away from this everyday misery”, like a shopkeeper put it in one of the interviews when justifying her choice for never reading or watching anything reality-based. Sometimes a love for consuming popular culture was conceptualized as something of a “joie du second degré” described by Lahire (2004) as an ironic way of enjoyment that derives from the kitschy status of the culture consumed. A rich example of this was the following excerpt from a manual worker currently on maternity leave: I like to watch reality TV—Temptation Island is on today, I like it because when I watch these kinds of foolish TV series, I’m able to relax completely. I forget my own worries, and I kind of start to live fully with those people. It’s really amusing, sometimes it’s even annoying if in some series there are some quarrels between people and I get annoyed. It’s totally crazy to go so deep into them, but it’s my thing. I like all kinds of reality TV things, foreign and domestic and romp, I call them romp… my husband calls it quality poop [laughs]. Quality poop series. But it’s my thing, I watch them for one hour or one and a half hours or whatever one program takes, and meanwhile I can totally relax. It is nice. Woman, 38, manual worker on maternity leave, Helsinki metropolitan area

The joy of inside-home cultural consumption was especially prevalent when one was in life situations that did not allow for much social life: the happiness found in the “inside-home popular” was most often discussed by shift workers and parents of small children (belonging to these groups is also a typical reason for non-participation in culture altogether, see Willekens & Lievens, 2016; Miles & Sullivan, 2012). The following example is from a young man who was both a shift worker and a father of small children, without practically any free time for himself: I usually drive a bit around with the motorbike. And then I potter around, often I like to tinker around in the garage doing this and that, my own things. If there really and truly is nothing to do and I can do whatever I fancy, I will tinker around in the garage and maybe take a ride on my motorbike. Man, 34, truck driver, very small village

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 utside-Home Popular: The Escape O from (Work) Reality The second most salient category was that of “out-of-home popular”. This referred to attending events such as popular music concerts or stand­up comedy shows, as well as other less formal venues such as movie theatres, cafés, spas and restaurants. In this category, an overarching and recurring theme was an escape from reality, usually expressed as a momentary relief from tiring manual jobs and tedious shift work (cf. Miles & Sullivan, 2012). The first example of the outside-home popular category clearly demonstrates that leisure served essentially as a counterbalance for work. It came from a small-village 54-year-old ward domestic who complained throughout her interview that her physical tiredness after shifts practically prevented her from going anywhere after work and that she spent weekends recovering instead of pursuing leisure activities. She depicted her dream day as a getaway from this feeling: I would go to some lovely spa where I could swim and just be and pamper myself, I would have a massage and something wonderful, I would go to the hairdresser and to massages and all kinds of treatments and eat well. Woman, 54, ward domestic, very small village

Several cases exemplified strong joy related to some forms of outside-­ home popular culture. Especially, concerts were often mentioned as a mix of cultural enjoyment and sociability. In the following excerpt, one of the focus group participants, who were unemployed men, recalled the atmosphere of a popular music show in which he himself was playing the guitar and singing: It was so great when you got the crowd going. They started to dance and all that, and that’s the best thing… when you do this musician stuff, it makes you laugh when you have the crowd around you, you start to sing, and if you get them to dance without even asking, that’s fun (—) rising the atmosphere is the best thing, you don’t think of what you’re doing, you just get the crowd going and get this sense of community that hey, this is damn good fun. 7 men, 32–61, unemployed, medium-sized city

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Finally, the fact that the interviewees came in many ways from underprivileged milieus was seen in the belief that some unrealized leisure practices would bring unforeseen joy: many spoke fervently about the outside-home popular leisure practices they would like to have, if they only had the economic means to do it. “I love to go to concerts but I’m unemployed which takes its toll, I don’t have much money for these kind of bigger gigs”, summarized a 33-year-old unemployed woman, basically unable to attend any of the several activities that she would have been interested in. The lack of money as a barrier to meaningful leisure practices emerged in relation to discussions on both popular culture events such as concerts and theatre shows, and less formal leisure, such as going out with friends and participating in associations.

Social Life: Cultivating the Social Self Existing research, especially the one focused on epidemiological links between cultural participation and happiness, often cites social capital as an important precondition for happiness (cf. Hyyppä, 2010). In my interview data, social life was the third most common category connected to happiness. Most expressions of happiness related to social life were rather simple: they were about joy derived from abundant and satisfactory contacts with family, friends and community members. The first example is from a small focus group with close family members: an elderly couple and their daughter on maternity leave, accompanied by her small child. While the daughter’s daily life was understandably filled with tasks and activities related to the family, it was perhaps more surprising that her parents (both on pension) spent most of their leisure time with their grandchild and that this was depicted as the most fulfilling and most “quality time” imaginable. Then we have lots of friends, well it varies, sometimes there are larger intervals, but I meet my friends pretty often, both my own friends and the friends we have in common with my husband, but pretty much of my own friends as well. And then we have little Teo! As a grandma I have the right to be with him as much as they let me [laughter], so we play with Teo and

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go to the library and take him for sleighrides and play here at our place. At with grandpa we take the car and take Teo with us and do whatever we fancy. It’s such a wonderful quality time you spend with your grandchild, I just love it. 2 women and 1 man, 34–63, pensioner couple and their daughter on maternity leave, medium-sized city

The importance of good friends for a meaningful and satisfactory leisure time was expressed by all the interviewees. Friends themselves seem to be a contributing factor for happiness. In the following excerpt, a young woman on maternity leave expressed her effort to see her friends more often, something that she found very rewarding at the point of her life in which family obligations occupied a large part of her leisure time: I like quite a lot to ask friends to come over. We—once had an Indian theme, that kind of thing, we cook and have friends over to have dinner. Or then we have this kind of cake thing, my husband bakes several cakes and then we have friends coming. In that way we can invite a bigger group in one go. Sometimes I feel that I see my friends too little, so I have to be inventing excuses and keep on begging that hey, come over… Woman, 30, student on maternity leave, medium-sized city

Finally, surrounding communities, which in existing research often figure as the context of the supposed positive “impacts” of cultural participation such as contributions to health and education, were referred to in some expressions of happiness (see Belfiore, 2002). Although the following example portrayed the importance of good contacts with physical, real-life neighbours for happiness, a satisfactory “community feeling” could also stem from hobby groups or virtual communities, which seemed to provide important contexts for belonging and feeling happy especially for younger interviewees. We have friendly neighbours. Immediately when we moved into our house a couple of decades ago we started to fix it. We started to fix the roof, so we sat on the roof and of course painted it, so we waved to everybody and immediately became familiar with all the neighbours. It was this kind of nice thing that we would wave to each other and say something. And then

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one of the neighbours, the next door one, started to be very helpful. He is also pretty young, well he just retired. He has lots of forces, and he’s ready to help immediately if we are ill or need help with snow removal or whatever. We really have nice neighbours. 2 women and 1 man, 43–84, farmers

While social inclusion and exclusion were often cited themes in the research literature, in my interviews, social life was part of the expressions of happiness much less often than different forms of popular culture. Could social life, sociability and different forms of “neighbourhood revival” be overrated as the most salient sources of happiness?

Discussion and Conclusion This chapter has scrutinized the relationship between leisure practices and happiness in a rich interview data based on 49 interviews with members of socio-economically disadvantaged groups in Finland. The data were analysed through summative content analysis and qualitative close-­ reading, which resulted in several salient categories. The three most common sources of happiness were inside-home “popular”, out-of-home “popular” and social life, which altogether accounted for more than half of all the expressions of happiness. While both research and policy literature most often cite the link between highbrow culture and happiness, this chapter is a worthy reminder that at least in the context of non-privileged groups, it is mundane and popular activities that really foster happiness. In fact, my interviewees rarely mentioned highbrow culture in association with happiness—for instance, being alone or doing nothing were more typically associated with happiness than any forms of highbrow culture. This could be seen as a reflection of Bourdieu’s idea of homology, that is the match between social positions and cultural hierarchies across different fields, indicating that high classes would go to the opera and enjoy elite newspapers and that working classes would watch TV and read the yellow press (cf. Bourdieu, 1984). My interviewees with disadvantaged backgrounds clearly derived joy from popular, to a certain degree extremely mundane activities that balanced their often extremely tiring every day and work life.

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Here, it is perhaps interesting to recall the pervasive belief underlying cultural policies that culture is “good for you”—a belief that underpins the idea that public funding for culture is important, perhaps even a good investment that can reduce social and cultural exclusion (cf. Belfiore, 2002). Instead, we have seen that in the light of the data the most gratifying experiences for disadvantaged groups come from mainly home-based popular culture, not the highbrow culture that enjoys heavy public funding and is expected to provide some kind of returns. This echoes Bourdieu and Darbel (1991) who maintain that the keys to understand certain kinds of culture are central for being able to process them. It could be argued that the keys to understand culture are equally important for eventually enjoying them, which was seen in the interview data through the strong links that interviewees drew between popular culture or mundane activities and happiness. Related to this, I have found elsewhere that similar underprivileged groups sometimes adopt very hostile tones towards culture altogether (Heikkilä, 2015), highlighting that the “cultural participation brings happiness” belief is true for and a luxury only granted to some. Some limitations and future directions of research are in order. While this chapter has only examined expressions related to a verb, thus focusing on doing something (cultural participation), it might be wise to also analyse expressions of liking something (cultural taste), given that we know that participation, knowledge and taste work through different logics and that participation does not entail liking and vice versa (cf. Yaish & Katz-Gerro, 2012). In another vein, this study has built on the premise that quantified measures of happiness do not necessarily capture all the various faces of leisure-related happiness and therefore relied on interviews. Yet, it remains an open question how and through what methods and scholarly approaches happiness or positivity can be best captured and understood by researchers. I encourage future studies to bravely adopt and create different kinds of mixed methods. It should also be noted that the context of this research was Finland, a relatively rich Western knowledge economy, one of the most egalitarian countries in the world with the highest rates of self-rated happiness. At the same time, the interviewees of this study were a part of arguably the most underprivileged groups of this wealthy society. While it might be

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assumed that in a country like Finland, it is easy for even underprivileged classes to be relatively happy and derive joy from many kinds of decommodified cultural services (such as publicly broadcasted television and radio or free libraries), one could also speculate that a sense of inferior position vis-à-vis the relatively resource-rich majority could lead to even stronger unhappiness, which could also be also related to leisure. Following this argument, positive sociology of leisure should perhaps pay even more attention to the role of social class and status differences in perceiving, feeling and expressing happiness.

References Ateca-Amestoy, V., Gerstenblüth, M., Mussio, I., & Rossi, M. (2016). How do cultural activities influence happiness? Investigating the relationship between self-reported well-being and leisure. Estudios Económicos, 31(2), 217–234. Bauman, Z. (2008). The art of life. Cambridge: Polity Press. Belfiore, E. (2002). Art as a means of alleviating social exclusion: Does it really work? A critique of instrumental cultural policies and social impact studies in the UK. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 8(1), 91–106. Belfiore, E. (2016). The arts and healing: The power of an idea. In S. Clift & M. Camic Paul (Eds.), Oxford textbook of creative arts, health, and wellbeing (pp. 11–17). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Belfiore, E., & Bennett, O. (2007). Rethinking the social impacts of the arts. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 13(2), 135–151. Bennett, T., Savage, M., Silva, E., Warde, A., Gayo-Cal, M., & Wright, D. (2009). Culture, class, distinction. London: Routledge. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Bourdieu, P., & Darbel, A. (1991). The love of art. European art museums and their public. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1979). The inheritors: French students and their relation to culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bygren, L. O., Konlaan, B. B., & Johansson, S. E. (1996). Attendance at cultural events, reading books or periodicals, and making music or singing in a choir as determinants for survival: Swedish interview survey of living conditions. BMJ, 313, 1577–1580.

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Lamont, M., & Swidler, A. (2014). Methodological pluralism and the possibilities and limits of interviewing. Qualitative Sociology, 37(2), 153–171. Miles, A., & Sullivan, A. (2012). Understanding participation in culture and sport: Mixing methods, reordering knowledges. Cultural Trends, 21(4), 311–324. Miller, D. (Ed.). (2001). Home possessions: Material culture behind closed doors. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Oishi, S., Graham, J., Kesebir, S., & Galinha, I. C. (2013). Concepts of happiness across time and cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(5), 559–577. Peterson, R. A., & Kern, R. M. (1996). Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore. American Sociological Review, 61, 900–907. Purhonen, S., Gronow, J., Heikkilä, R., Kahma, N., Rahkonen, K., & Toikka, A. (2014). Suomalainen maku. Helsinki: Gaudeamus. Silverman, D. (2014). Interpreting qualitative data. London: Sage. Stebbins, R. A. (2009). Personal decisions in the public square: Beyond problem solving into a positive sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Stebbins, R. A. (2020). Positive sociology. An overview. In S. Kono, A. Beniwal, P. Baweja, & K. Spracklen (Eds.), Positive sociology of leisure: Contemporary perspectives on sociology of leisure. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Wheatley, D., & Bickerton, C. (2017). Subjective well-being and engagement in arts, culture and sport. Journal of Cultural Economics, 41(1), 23–45. Wilkinson, A. V., Waters, A. J., Bygren, L. O., & Tarlov, A. R. (2007). Are variations in rates of attending cultural activities associated with population health in the United States. BMC Public Health, 7, 226. Wilkinson, S. (1998). Focus group methodology: A review. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 3(1), 181–203. Willekens, M., & Lievens, J. (2016). Who participates and how much? Explaining non-attendance and the frequency of attending arts and heritage activities. Poetics, 56, 50–63. Yaish, M., & Katz-Gerro, T. (2012). Disentangling “Cultural Capital”: The consequences of cultural and economic resources for taste and participation. European Sociological Review, 28(2), 169–185.

6 An Evolving Leisure Practice: Home Climbing Walls as a Case Ko Fan Lee, Daniel Peretti, and Piin Shiuan Wu

Introduction Modern rock climbing encompasses a variety of formats, each with different body techniques and gear requirements. Formats such as buildering (i.e., climbing buildings) and indoor climbing integrate climbing with urban lifestyles (Brighenti & Pavoni, 2018). Rock climbing, like many other adventure sports, requires enthusiasts’ direct participation to acquire capital needed to develop one’s status and identity in a community (Wheaton, 2014). Gaining capital implies an enthusiast’s ongoing process of learning skills, knowledge, and experiences and the use of h ­ er/

K. F. Lee (*) University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. Peretti Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada P. S. Wu Oxford, MS, USA © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_6

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his capacities to accomplish milestones that honor one’s development. This learning-using process is the central feature of becoming serious when pursuing a leisure activity (Elkington & Stebbins, 2014). While extensive studies have explored serious leisure experiences in various leisure activities,1 work needs to be done regarding how enthusiasts know which objectives they want to pursue and what actions to be taken to achieve objectives. Specifically, interactions between enthusiasts and other social units play a crucial role in fostering personal learning experiences in adventure sports through a variety of communication channels (Strauss, 1978; Unruh, 1980). Communication channels in rock climbing have been discussed. Rickly (2017) has found that, in addition to the direct, embodied interactions between climbers and rock surfaces, knowledge regarding a climbing space is (re)produced through person-to-person communication and through texts, such as guidebooks (see climbing sites as social places in Kulczycki, 2014; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014). Traditional media, such as TV programs and magazines, and subsequent integration of the new media (e.g., YouTube™ and blogging platforms), have dramatically altered the nature of rock climbing and other adventure-based activities and the consumption experience (Dumont, 2017; Wheaton, 2014). Further, new media empower climbers to share their prosumption2 experiences with others (Dumont, 2017). In other words, in addition to climbing, whether it be for recreational, educational, or business purposes, some climbers also use new media to diffuse produced knowledge regarding climbing, such as route development and techniques, to other enthusiasts (Dumont, 2016, 2017). The multiplicity of communication channels mentioned above indicates that mediated interactions in climbing, a crucial component in binding together a social world and regulating actors’ behaviors (Unruh,  A summary of studies exploring and examining qualities and outcomes of serious leisure experiences, careers in a serious leisure pursuit, and other related studies can be found in the website of The Serious Leisure Perspective (n.d.): https://www.seriousleisure.net/ 2  In Dumont (2017), the term “prosumer” is used to describe freeskiers who can produce and consume skiing experience. The new media provides them a venue to post and share their ski adventures to other skiers or general public. In the climbing world, sponsored athletes or serious climbers also prosume their climbing experiences (e.g., a documentary video of their climbing projects) and post them on channels run by themselves or other organizations. 1

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1980), have become more prevalent and imply unprecedented opportunities for a climber to learn about new practices and discuss them with others. In this chapter, we will use the development of the home climbing wall (HCW; also called a woody) as a case with which to explore mediated interactions between climbers, organizations, manufacturers, and media (see Climbing Business Journal, 2016). The HCW acts not only as a climber’s individualized object, but also as a catalyst facilitating one’s recurring interactions with the climbing society to (re)interpret and (re) produce the meaning of this wall. We hope this exploratory study will expand knowledge regarding social practices facilitating modern climbers’ commitment and identity (Lee & Ewert, 2019). Also, we will highlight that the pursuit of climbing and other adventure sport activities goes beyond risk and sensation-seeking, but involves learning and development, which significantly contribute to participants’ well-being (Elkington & Stebbins, 2014; Houge MacKenzie & Hodge, 2019; Kono, Ito, & Gui, 2018). Finally, this study aims to generate questions for future research.

Conceptual Framework Representations of rock climbing have been discussed extensively in recent years. Different climbing practices entail different embodied interactions with climbing areas, such as climbing movements, gear placement, and the development of climbing routes and areas (Bogardus, 2012; Holland-Smith, 2017; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014; Langseth & Salvesen, 2018; Lewis, 2004; Rickly, 2017). While appeared later than its outdoor counterpart, indoor rock climbing gained its popularity because of its compatibility with middle-class and urban lifestyles (Holland-­ Smith, 2017; van Bottenburg & Salome, 2010; Wheaton, 2014). Indoor facilities can also become a social place cultivating both climbers and non-climbers through physical and virtual experiences (Dumont, 2017; Holland-Smith, 2017; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014). Today, rock climbing has become an umbrella term indicating distinctive, yet somewhat overlapping ethos and thus enabling climbers’ diverse interpretations of and attitudes toward rock climbing (e.g., see different attitudes toward retrobolting in Bogardus, 2012).

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Potential Meanings of a Home Climbing Wall While past studies have explored or compared the meanings emerging from participating in various climbing situations (Kulczycki, 2014; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014; Lewis, 2004), those studies analyze climbing experiences that occur in public areas (i.e., climbing gyms and crags) but not in private places. The meaning of a woody is polysemous, but unexplored. A woody is located in a garage, attic, basement, backyard, or other home spaces and can be various sizes and shapes (e.g., Lane, n.d.; Williams, 2015). The place meanings of a woody emerge through embodied experiences of making and climbing (Jackson, 2013; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014). Unlike patrons of a climbing facility, the owner of a woody is also responsible for its maintenance, which involves (re)building the wall, (re)purchasing materials, and (re)making and (re)setting routes to satisfy owners’ and users’ climbing needs (Crowder, 2017a; Lane, n.d.). To illuminate the polysemous nature of a woody, we must discuss the motivations for their construction. While indoor climbing facilities are conceived as an accessible alternative to and simulation of outdoor climbing experiences (Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014; van Bottenburg & Salome, 2010), indoor climbing has become a distinct sport, given how the climbing experience is reconstructed with a greater control of risk factors, different climbing styles (see Ashley, 2018) and symbolic systems (e.g., tapes with different colors are used to mark the route and its difficulty), and social space for both climbers and non-climbers (Climbing Business Journal, 2016; Holland-Smith, 2017; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014). With a relatively safe and modifiable space, climbers are able to experiment with difficult routes and various climbing styles without the risks inherent in outdoor climbing; thus they can improve their climbing performance efficiently (Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014; Thomas, 2016). Yet the place meaning also emerges as a climber works on a woody over time. The woody becomes a context similar but not directly related to the serious home workshop. Jackson (2013) highlights how makers are fulfilled through “the experience of making, and the material interaction” possible in the workshop context (p. 177). A maker’s development progresses with both more sophisticated products and an evolving workshop

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with increasing material capital, which is gained through a maker’s refining interactions with the space and tools. Thus the maker can function adequately in the workshop. Entering this ordered place enables a maker to escape temporarily from the quotidian and express her/his creativity (e.g., Stalp & Conti, 2011). The momentary experience provides psychological pleasure (Jackson, 2013) and enables a maker to celebrate her/his creativity, problem-solving skills, and individuality (Kuznetsov & Paulos, 2010). Similarly, the sustainability of a woody mirrors an owner’s effective arrangement and use of her/his home wall and accessories to achieve her/his goals. As Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981) state, “things embody goals, make skills manifest, and shape the identities of their users” (p. 1). While a woody manifests one’s commitment and identity as a climber, it also manifests the influences of climbing worlds on the climber’s construction and use of it. For example, the owner may physically or virtually (e.g., Home Climbing Forum on Facebook™) consult other climbers or route setters in a commercial climbing gym to gain insights of route-­ setting (Crowder, 2017; Williams, 2015). This person may also adopt accessories similar to those installed in commercial facilities, such as training systems. The adopted ideas and technologies become beneficial as a climber strives to achieve certain goals and higher status (e.g., progressing one’s climbing ability from V0 to V5 in 3 months3). Therefore, a home wall has a potential socializing function (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981) that manifests as a climber communicates with others in person or online to share questions, show work progress and products, provide know-how, and/or debate the best practices with other enthusiasts and stakeholders. The above discussion reveals that the meaning of a home wall emerges as the owner interacts with it through the making and using experiences to affirm her/his climbing identity, while juggling multiple social roles and obligations, such as being a parent and/or having a full-time job potentially distant from climbing places. While scholars have studied the  V scale is used to define the difficulty of a bouldering route. The higher the number, the more difficult a route is. Climbers also use the v scale to assess their climbing ability. Bouldering is a climbing practice which climbers climb short routes. When climbers fall from the route, they fall on crash pads and are protected by other climbers’ spot. 3

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meaning of indoor and outdoor climbing places (Kulczycki, 2014; Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014), the place meaning of a home wall may imply leisure experiences, resources, and barriers that cannot be easily identified in other climbing places. Moreover, when interacting with a woody, a climber/maker interprets its entailed meaning (e.g., what is it and what is it for?; see Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981, p.  50) in the context of relevant social or subworlds. Subsequently, those meanings are integrated with his/her values, and thus a specific woody becomes uniquely meaningful to its owner. This interaction recurs as she/he (re) develops the woody and routes to meet, again, changing leisure and life situations. This chapter will rely on media data to develop a preliminary understanding of the practices and underlying meanings of woody development from the perspectives of woody makers and manufacturers, or the “socially constructed symbolic universe” (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981, p. 50; also see Strauss, 1978) and how this social system fosters one’s leisure pursuit and wellbeing.

Methodology: Studying Mediated Interactions David Unruh (1980) theorizes mediated interactions as a feature of involvement in a social world. As many have argued (Shibutani, 1955; Strauss, 1978; Unruh, 1980), a social world consists of “amorphous and diffuse constellations” (Unruh, 1980, p. 277) and thus requires effective communication to facilitate socialization, specifically, through mediated interactions (Dumont, 2017; Hughes, Hallo, & Norman, 2016; Strauss, 1978; Unruh, 1980). Traditional and new media deliver information that enables actors and other social units to build and share knowledge with their affiliated world (Hughes et al., 2016). In the process, some climbers become celebrities, developing an image and lifestyle that others can emulate. These climbers, who may be professional or unsponsored, use media in “producing and disseminating this image and representation” (Dumont, 2017, p. 3), specifically through new media (Dumont, 2017), films (Heywood, 2006), and guidebooks (Rickly, 2017). Meanwhile, media content analyzed in this chapter enables us to observe the signs and symbols conveyed by materials (i.e., home walls and accessories, such

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as climbing holds) and how climbers interpret and use those materials to establish their engagements in rock climbing, connections with climbing communities, and, perhaps, knowledge about the evolving practices and cultures of the climbing world.

Analyzing Documents and Videos To build a preliminary understanding of the home wall experience, we purposively selected data from two US-based climbing-related magazines and from climbers’ blogs. The first author’s research expertise in adventure sports was paired with two other authors’ background in material culture and place making to assess the relevance and richness of content. Guided by the concept of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), we started our data collection and analysis with Rich Crowder’s three-part “Home Wall Primer” (Crowder, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c). Reviewing those articles generated keywords related to each phase of the woody development, such as home climbing wall, woody, and DIY, for further searches in these magazines. Six articles, including three by Crowder, and two internet videos were transcribed. We coded the data, generated themes, and discussed different perspectives between us to reach consensus. This step of analysis identified themes related to climbers’ actions taken when constructing, designing, and using their walls. More importantly, we looked into possible considerations that can influence their actions. For example, a traditional climber may find that building a crack system meets her/his need better.4 Those possible considerations indicate the meaning of a woody emerged as a climber uses it to achieve her/his climbing, family, and social needs. Therefore, we purposively searched and analyzed another seven blog articles to ensure the recurrence of themes and build the conceptual framework of the home wall experience. In sum, 15 climbers’ narratives (13 documents and 2 videos) were analyzed. These data were published between 2009 and 2017, though one narrative has  Traditional climbing requires climbers to place their protections into the natural crack on climbing routes and jam their body parts, such as fingers, arms, and legs during ascending. A home crack system thus creates a simulated place resemble to their climbing projects. 4

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no publication date (Lane, n.d.). The majority of these narratives present climbers’ interpretations, adoptions, and negotiations of practices, products, technologies, social networks, and other resources useful to develop a home wall suitable for their living situations. Moreover, these articles show how, once built, a home wall provides opportunities to (re)affirm one’s climbing identity in everyday life.

Results The climbers’ narratives included in this data present their interpretations of how practices, products, social networks, and other contingencies can be employed to initiate and develop home walls that accommodate their negotiated climbing goals and needs. While a home wall may resolve situations that limit one’s participation in climbing, it can become a place, either “dusty relics” (Crowder, 2017a) or “fun and effective” (Williams, 2015). Various possible consequences of a home wall thus raise our interest in exploring mindsets and (inter)actions climbers undergo to plan and construct their home walls.

Why a Home Climbing Wall As several climbers have stated, the primary motivation for building a home wall is because outdoor climbing is not always available, which may happen for any of several reasons, such as poor weather conditions (Crowder, 2017a), distance from climbing gyms (Williams, 2015), or outdoor climbing places (Johnson, 2015). For some, a home wall provides an instant remedy when they need to balance leisure with other life obligations. In an interview with Tommy Caldwell (Outside, 2016), for example, the home wall was created to accommodate his multiple roles as a father and a professional climber. According to Bisharat (2016), his “home training dojo” provides a place where he can temporarily escape from obligations and work out when visiting the gym or outdoor crags is infeasible. The development and use of a home wall can be goal-oriented. Johnson (2015) recalls that building and using crack systems help him, “a climber

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from the flatlands of Oklahoma,” prepare for outdoor trips to Indian Creek in Utah, a famous climbing destination. Others have also discussed the training value of an HCW. Williams (2015) indicates that working out at home frees him from the distractions of the climbing gym (e.g., waiting for other climbers to finish, getting drawn into conversation) and enables him to target specific training goals. Bisharat’s (2016) narrative attributes his improved physical condition to “a few months of pounding iron and pulling plastic in #BisharatEffect” (i.e., his home gym). In addition to opportunities for efficient, effective, and regular training sessions (see The Metolious Team, 2015), having fun is an equally important factor contributing to commitment to climbing. First of all, training provides rewards when a climber sees her/his own progress and is able to use new techniques and strengths to enjoy outdoor climbing experiences (Rodden, 2012; Williams, 2015). Second, the experience of making a woody, including setting routes and crafting objects, enables climbers to exercise their creativity to produce novel routes and exercises (Davis, 2016; Earl, 2015). Third, climbers can make their climbing more enjoyable by improving the environment (e.g., better lighting and air conditioning; Crowder, 2017a), applying challenging yet fun rules and restrictions to existing routes (Crowder, 2017c), and playing music to facilitate concentration (Williams, 2015). Finally, a home wall can foster social experiences. The presence of friends and family members may bring in fresh energy for training as well as different perspectives on using and making the spaces and routes (Crowder, 2017a, 2017c; Davis, 2016). Based on the above findings, a home wall provides a potential solution to the problem of balancing leisure with other life activities through immediate access to regular and systematic sessions. Meanwhile, a home wall also presents the opportunity for people to create a place accommodating their leisure goals and needs. In other words, a home wall shapes the climber’s performance, connectivity, and identity when confronting various life situations. Additionally, a woody which actualizes one’s goals and needs also reflects its owner’s ability to interpret and select products or practices suitable for both her/his climbing needs and life situations. For example, people build a free-standing woody when mounting a home wall is not possible, for instance, in a rented apartment.

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Interactions with Home Climbing Walls Despite the potential benefits to leisure commitment and identity, a home wall may fail to meet its owner’s expectations and thus discourage people from using it. The discrepancies between one’s expectations and the final product result from limited space, budget, energy, and so on. Making a home wall that resembles a commercial climbing gym may be an unrealistic goal. Using gigantic climbing holds, which is a trendy practice in commercial gyms, can limit the full use of the wall and cause financial burdens (Crowder, 2017b). In addition to the limited resources a home environment provides, climbers can also become demotivated when a woody becomes unmanageable or loses its appeal (see Davis, 2016). Both motivators and demotivators initiate climbers’ discussion of practices they have used and observed when developing their woodies. Several climbers have discussed practices and variations at the planning and construction stage, including, but not limited to, the minimum dimension of a wall, the most versatile angles of a wall (e.g., 20 ~ 50 degree), materials and costs (e.g., Crowder, 2017a; Davis, 2009). Further, considerations behind those practices are explained. For example, woody with a 45-degree angle is easy to build and has more training value than a vertical wall (e.g., physical and technique demands of climbing on steep walls). Other communicated know-hows include the criteria of choosing holds (Crowder, 2017b), assessment of training systems (Bisharat, 2016), targeted exercises (Rock & Ice, 2010; Williams, 2015), and route-setting (such as the X approach in Crowder, 2017c; Davis, 2016). The online discussion of practices indicates resources available to accomplish tasks. For example, Johnson (2015) uses the building guidelines (see The Metolious Team, 2015) as a reference to explain that exposed beams (i.e., the existing structure) in an unfinished room can easily become a part of the crack system. External links to other climbers’ works and commodified products are frequently found. Moreover, climbers also assess what practices and products fit their situations. Bisharat (2016) assesses several training systems installed in his home gym based on the functions, cost, and benefits to his climbing performance. Another example is Williams’ (2015) decision of the size and types of her home wall by taking her needs and living situation into consideration. As she

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describes it, her wall is “an exercise in minimalism. One angle: 30 degrees (chosen to provide the maximal length between my floor and my ceiling fan) and only 8′ by 8′.” Human creativity and imagination inform the process of woody development. Some examples can be found in how climbers modify practices or products to fit their home environments (Bisharat, 2016), how they craft unique objects (Earl, 2015; Lane, n.d.), and how they create a place encouraging regular use (Crowder, 2017a). For example, Dave Patton (in Lane, n.d.) turns tree growths into cost-effective large climbing holds. These holds serve as obstacles/features on the climbing wall, which stimulate creative climbing moves and present “an aesthetic pleasure.” This is an example of assemblage, the use of whatever materials a creator has at hand (Santino, 1983). In addition, accessories like an extra storage room, lighting, and a “mini fridge with bottle opener (Crowder, 2017a),” while not directly related to climbing, contribute to climbers’ enjoyment. Finally, advancing practices and technologies applied to commodities bring in fresh climbing and training experiences. For example, apps have been developed for climbers to share and archive routes they create (Bisharat, 2016). In summary, these common and creative practices demonstrate knowledge built upon climbers’ hands-on experiences interpreting and negotiating the ethos5 relevant to woody and other climbing communities.

Evolving Woody Practices Turning a part of a home into a meaningful climbing place requires commitment. In addition, investment is a critical factor associated with the usability and longevity of a home wall (Bisharat, 2016; Crowder, 2017a). Climbers often wait until they have enough resources to develop a quality  The term “ethos” is borrowed from Robert Stebbins’ serious leisure, which indicates the “spirit” of a leisure activity (Elkington & Stebbins, 2014), which includes values, norms, standards, actions, (his)stories… and so on. The communication of ethos connects people involved in this activity and sustains the social world built around this activity (Unruh, 1980; Strauss, 1978). Interpretations and negotiations with ethos stress that, while climbers learn common practices during construction or designing their home walls, they may not be able to perfectly duplicate those practices due to limitations or some other considerations (e.g., their kids also use home walls) and thus they have to modify the learned information. 5

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home wall (Davis, 2009). Patton describes his mindful actions to accumulate sufficient skills (i.e., by helping friends build a home wall), materials, and key people (e.g., friends who work for manufacturers) before building his woody (Lane, n.d.). Moreover, while our data usually provide tips for building sustainable woodies, climbers also share the stories of their past woodies and how their capacity for woody construction evolves as they continue to climb (Lane, n.d.; Rodden, 2012). Rodden (2012) recalls her first wall as “plywood screwed to the walls and ceiling rafters of my parents garage… I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do more than two or three moves in a row without hitting the ceiling.” Similar to Patton, Rodden modifies her home wall in conjunction with accumulated capacity and resources, and she eventually builds new walls, including “an outdoor wall in Yosemite.” The evolving home walls become a means by which climbers gradually clarify their needs and limitations. Rodden’s (2012) enormous hold collections and routes indicate her need to diversify the styles of routes while keeping herself free from injury. Williams (2015) suggests that a home wall located in a tight space requires a keen eye for route-setting and thus is not suitable for climbers with little or no knowledge-base on which to build their training goals. Indeed, route-setting on a home wall provides valuable learning opportunities for climbers to ponder the moves and sequences of a route. As Kenny Matys (in Davis, 2016) suggests, “Route setting is a workout in itself…You will be a better climber from the experience.” To conclude, a woody presents convenient climbing opportunities, especially intended for times when climbing in the gym and at outdoor crags becomes a luxury. On the one hand, climbing a woody engages people in fun, regular, systematic, and injury-free sessions that help them achieve personal goals. On the other hand, the making experience creatively engages people in the design of a climbing place that supports their goals and needs. The making experience enables people to constantly assess how the practices, technologies, and products found in commercial climbing gyms and other home walls can be used in their own walls. Ultimately, individual and specific knowledge is generated by increasing experience interacting with the home wall, and this knowledge shapes the ethos of the woody world as climbers publish and disseminate their prosumption experiences.

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Discussion This chapter explores the meaning of home climbing walls by using climbers’ narratives collected from magazines and blogs. A woody and its surrounding space reflects its builder’s effort to transform a living space into an environment suitable for systematic training, socializing with other climbers, and expressing creativity through craftsmanship and activities such as route-setting. This transformative process entails climbers’ interpretation and employment of resources (e.g., practices, commodities, technologies, and physical and virtual social networks) useful to sustain their leisure commitment and identities in everyday life. Their woody experiences, when published and disseminated in the climbing world through communication channels, contribute to the establishment of the ethos of woody practices. Therefore, the climbers’ narratives in this chapter indicate that cyclical social interactions in the climbing world as well as knowledge of woody development are (re)produced through climbers’ direct embodied interactions and through their verbal and textual communication (Rickly, 2017). Consistent with the findings of Kulczycki and Hinch (2014), a home wall provides a convenient means for climbers to improve their techniques and fitness (Williams, 2015), prepare or appreciate their outdoor climbing experience (Johnson, 2015; Lane, n.d.; Outside, 2016), and find social support (Williams, 2015). The HCW’s privacy provides a solution for those who need a solitary session when climbing gyms become overcrowded (Kulczycki & Hinch, 2014; Williams, 2015). The process of making, nonetheless, is a unique feature of the woody experience. A woody offers an opportunity for climbers to create personal and personalized climbing places, objects, and routes (Crowder, 2017a; Lane, n.d.); the woody becomes a part of the user’s personhood. The concept of personhood is valuable here because it roots the individual’s concept of self in goals determined by progress made in relation to things (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981, p. 1). Such personhood is celebrated as climbers use their woodies for both negotiation and development. Our data indicate that climbers negotiate life transitions (e.g., becoming a climbing parent; Bisharat, 2016),

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injuries (Rodden, 2012), limited space, budget, and energy (Crowder, 2017a; Williams, 2015) to continue their climbing more mindfully. To create a woody accommodating their needs, climbers adopt and modify existing building guidelines, route-setting principles, training systems, practices of space arrangement, and innovative technologies to make a climbing place functional and sustainable. Moreover, woodies evolve as climbers gain a better understanding of their needs (Crowder, 2017a), strengths and weaknesses (Williams, 2015), and the resources available (Davis, 2016; Rodden, 2012). In this sense, a woody and related experience, similar to do-it-yourself endeavors (Jackson, 2013; Kuznetsov & Paulos, 2010), display climbers’ problem-solving skills, creativity, and self-­expression while providing an escape from daily obligations. To conclude our discussion, a sustainable and evolving home wall demonstrates material evidence of Stebbins’ concept of serious leisure (see Chap. 2). A woody is not a static object, but a dynamic project reflecting how a climber employs and modifies resources and information relevant to home wall construction and design to meet climbing goals and negotiate situations hindering her/his commitment to climbing. While each climber experiences different life events, home wall provides a context for them to pursue serious leisure activities. In this chapter, we have observed that home walls are often arranged sophisticatedly to foster regular, systematic, or injury-free training sessions, especially by climbers who are aware of their climbing styles, corresponding techniques, and restrictions. In addition to fulfilling personal climbing needs, the woody development also reflects climbers’ actions to negotiate with their changing social roles in leisure and other life aspects. Through this preliminary study, we have observed that home walls are used to (re)define their climbing goals, actions, and the meaning of climbing in their daily life.

Implications While the benefits of woodies are recognized in our data, the consequences of “dusty relics” cannot be overlooked (Crowder, 2017a). While a woody can be an asset used to improve a climber’s performance and elevate his/her status, a lack of the knowledge, resources, and energies

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needed for the woody development and maintenance can turn this asset into a debt. Our preliminary results reveal the standards and guides presented by experienced woody prosumers, but they offer a limited representation of those who are less experienced or resourceful. Nonetheless, our results can also map the direction for future research to explore the relationship between a woody—either a satisfying or a frustrating product—and its owner’s climbing self, her/his networks in the climbing world, other members at home, the space uses and arrangement, and other life stages and situations. Further studies might conduct surveys and interviews to expand the knowledge base regarding how owners and users interact with their HCWs. This study has only examined the narratives themselves; in addition, researchers might use the comments sections of blog posts and videos as well. This study reveals the importance of understanding climbers’ negotiation and development in the process of woody construction and use. Such experience can be observed when climbers seek, use, and assess how commodities, practices, standards, technologies, and information can enhance their climbing and overall life experiences. These explorations, thus, can help us understand “positive problems” (see Chap. 2) climbers address to continue their leisure pursuits. Interactions with materials and spaces present in a home climbing wall also manifest as physical evidence of how people modify their environment to display and reinforce their leisure devotions (Hartel, 2010; Jackson, 2013). The following are some possible research questions that can inform future investigations: 1. Motivation: Why do people build a home wall? What makes a climber keep using a home wall over time? 2. Leisure pursuit: How does a woody enhance or hinder the climbing experience (i.e., performance, identities, and connectivity)? 3. Making experience: How do climbers learn to build a home wall, make crafts, and set routes? Where do they look for information (e.g., local gyms and social media)? 4. Leisure-life experience: How does the woody affect the climber’s life? How do they live with and feel about this place? 5. Social Worlds: How does the woody affect the climbers’ interactions with other people with whom they climb or communicate about climbing through social media?

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Conclusion In this chapter, we have used climbers’ narratives collected from mediated communication channels available to other members of the climbing world to explore the meaning of home walls. Our preliminary findings have shown motivations, barriers, (inter)actions, and creativity related to woody development. A woody experience represents both a climber’s negotiation of various life situations and the opportunity for climbers to continue their leisure pursuits and develop their climbing identities. Moreover, climbers’ narratives have revealed that information and practices related to the woody experience are circulated, tested, and evolved through communication channels. The recurrence of those narratives exemplifies the “universal discourses” (Strauss, 1978) that define the woody development as a climbing practice and perhaps a subworld in the climbing community. In this case, an individualized, solitary climbing place indicates its owner’s connection with other climbers with shared interests, an understanding of home wall practices, and the expression of a climbing identity.

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Part II Ageing

7 The Complexity of Sport-as-Leisure in Later Life Julie Son and Rylee A. Dionigi

Sport for adults aged 50 and older intersects several leisure-based sociological issues and perspectives, such as class, gender, race, and politics. The growth of sport participation in later life is due in part to the aging of many global populations (United Nations, 2013), as well as shifting social and cultural dynamics about the role and meaning of sport in society, including notions of “successful” and “productive” aging (Dionigi & Gard, 2018; Dionigi & Son, 2017). The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review and commentary pertaining to the positive sociology of later-life sport-as-leisure in Western societies. “Sport” refers to organized, competitive, individual or team events, such as cycling, track and field, tennis, hockey, volleyball, basketball, and football/soccer. Sport is differentiated from physical activity, which is any bodily movement (including housework, gardening) and exercise, which is structured physical activity, J. Son (*) University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. A. Dionigi Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_7

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typically with the purpose of increasing fitness, strength, or functionality (e.g., an aerobics class or weights/resistance training). Sport, exercise, and physical activity can be viewed as a continuum of activities across which people may participate in or experience as they age. Such activities are collectively understood as different types of physically active leisure pursuits (see Dionigi, 2017). In the recent past, sport was primarily the domain of youth. Today, many politicians, academics, and professionals deem regular participation in sport, exercise, and/or physical activity as an appropriate way for older adults to maintain their health, independence, socialization, and quality of life (Dionigi, 2016; Dionigi, Baker, & Horton, 2011; Horton, Dionigi, & Bellamy, 2013). Consequently, more communities provide and promote physically active leisure pursuits across the lifespan, with increasing numbers of older adults choosing to participate in sport as a leisure pursuit (i.e., “sport-as-leisure”). Therefore, this chapter will focus on possible opportunities and dilemmas of sport participation for this demographic and society at large, keeping in mind that one’s choice to engage in sport (or not) is dependent upon many personal, circumstantial, economic, political, and cultural factors. In this chapter, we use the term “sport-as-leisure” to convey a perspective of sport as a form of leisure that contributes to later-life growth and meaning. From the sport-as-leisure standpoint, sport is just one form of leisure that can provide benefits to individuals and society, but these benefits are not the purview of sport alone. Rather, from the position of sport-as-leisure, other forms of leisure also provide meaning, fulfillment, and healthful benefits—including cognitive leisure (Andel, Silverstein, & Kåreholt, 2014; Ferreira, Owen, Mohan, Corbett, & Ballard, 2015) and social leisure (Cohen, 2004; Umberson, Crosnoe, & Reczek, 2010), among others. We discuss the following topics in this chapter: (a) The privileged nature of sport participation—both the positive “affordance” and the negative marginalization of sport in later life; (b) Meanings of sport across the lifespan, focusing on gendered perspectives; (c) The paradox of older adult sports, whereby sport participation fits normative ideals of “successful aging” and yet ageist societal stereotypes of deficiency and dysfunction persist; (d) The implications of sport promotion in health-related

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(neoliberal) policy for individuals and society; and (e) future directions of sport-as-leisure in later life. Sport-as-leisure in later life provides fertile ground to expose societal privilege and power issues, as well as celebrate individual resilience and a sense of community.

 port-as-Leisure in Later Life: Facilitators S and Constraints and What Is Said and Not Said About Privilege and Marginalization There has been interest in older adult physical activity for decades—one case in point being the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity (JAPA). Although there has been some research detailed in JAPA that focused on sports in later life, the majority of the studies have been laboratory-based exercise interventions. That is not to say this research has not been worthwhile. It is only to say that the interest in older adult sport has gained traction fairly recently, particularly over the past 10–15 years. Much of the recent research on sport-as-leisure in later life has described athletes who compete in Masters (Veteran’s or Senior) sport (see Dionigi, 2016, for a review). Such research has focused on older age groups (over the age of 55 years) at events such as the World Masters Games. Additional studies have described older women’s team sports (Kirby & Kluge, 2013; Liechty, West, Naar, & Son, 2017; Litchfield & Dionigi, 2012; Wong, Son, West, Naar, & Liechty, 2018), and participants’ experiences in Senior Games (Cardenas, Henderson, & Wilson, 2009; Kelley, Little, Lee, Birendra, & Henderson, 2014). Generally speaking, Masters and Veteran’s sports (across Australasia and Europe) are for those who wish to compete at ages past the peak performance level for that sport, which is 35 years for team sports and track and field, with Senior sporting events (typically in North America) for those aged 50 years and over (see Weir, Baker, & Horton, 2010). In 2017, we were privileged to have the opportunity to serve as guest editors for the Annals of Leisure Research two-part special issue on “Critical Perspectives on Physical Activity, Sport, Play and Leisure in Later Life,” resulting in nine articles on older adult sports. We would like to review and discuss some of these research findings.

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One notable finding across many of the studies on older adult sport is the coexistence of both constraints and facilitators (i.e., affordances or “enablers”) to participation. As with other age demographics, older adults face a variety of barriers to sport participation. These constraints include lack of family and friend support, lack of people with whom to participate, non-sport leisure interests, lack of opportunities, financial constraints, and health issues (Dionigi, 2016; Kennelly, Moyle, & Lamont, 2013; Kirby & Kluge, 2013). For instance, Kirby and Kluge found that there were a number of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community constraints and enablers to participation in a university-based volleyball team for women aged 65 and older. Some of the constraints included fear of failure, fear of injury, and lack of support from family and friends. Enablers included positive encouragement from students and coaches, watching peers compete, social support of team members, opportunity to be a role model, and free facilities, equipment, and coaching. Similarly, Liechty et al. (2017) found that social support of coaches and team members was central to older women’s competitive softball. Unlike the older women in Kirby and Kluge’s study, the women in Liechty et al.’s study did not describe constraints and even resisted the notion that they had faced constraints—which may be an indicator of their “privileged” personal and societal position, as discussed below. Instead, they described constraints in the context of having to resist ageist beliefs about older women engaging in sports, and in resistance to being allocated sub-par field space and playing opportunities compared to younger people. In both of the studies mentioned above, the older female participants described how they wanted to be role models for others—other older adults as well as children and adults—in terms of physical activity and health-related behaviors. Along these lines, Horton et al. (2013) described how older female Masters athletes might be effective role models for highly active older women over the age of 75 years (and perhaps the younger generation); however, they were not the most appropriate role models for moderately active and inactive older women. Two groups of 75 years and older women in Horton et al.’s study were inspired in terms of health-related behaviors (including regular physical activity) by “personal acquaintances who were only slightly more active than they were themselves” (Horton et  al., 2013, p.  43). These findings highlight the

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complexity of sport, physical activity, and health-related needs and practices among older women in the context of wider public health messages that promote physically active leisure across the lifespan, a point to which we return later in the chapter. Unlike constraints, affordances of older adult sport are not as readily identified. Instead, affordance is beneath the surface of these studies. Taking the study by Kirby and Kluge (2013) as a case in point, there are no demographic data provided to judge the race, education, and income of the participants. It appears that the study used a snowball sample from a university sampling frame, but it is unclear whether the sample was a predominantly white, highly educated and financially comfortable. The authors note that the study started as a result of a current faculty member training a retired faculty member for the Senior Games, which resulted in several medals. We also learn that another participant medaled in Masters track and field. In the study by Liechty et al. (2017), only 42 of the 64 participants completed the demographic information so it is difficult to discern the accuracy of the demographic results. Those who did were predominantly white, more than 50% had completed college or a graduate/professional degree, and all indicated adequate finances “most of the time” or “always.” Although several demographic characteristics of these two study samples were unclear, both studies investigated an under-­ researched topic, older women’s team sport—a topic that was largely missing from scientific discourse prior to 2010. The affordance of sport as a leisure opportunity is more apparent in some studies than others. For instance, in Wheaton’s (2017) study of older surfers, the author noted that the surfers were white, able-bodied, heterosexual, and relatively affluent. Minello and Nixon’s (2017) article entitled, “‘Hope I Never Stop’: Older Men and Their Two-Wheeled Love Affairs,” described the sample of road cyclers as mostly white, affluent older men and noted the expense of road cycling as a constraint to participation even in this relatively high income group of older men. In an edited book by Dionigi and Gard (2018), attention is drawn to the over-­ representation of white, middle-class, “already physically active” older people in Masters/Veteran’s/Senior sport. There are also gendered aspects of privilege and affordance in older adult sports, particularly from the standpoint of Title IX gender equity in

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sport and women’s participation. As one example, Wong et  al. (2018) provided a life course analysis using the same data of older women competitive softball players as that presented in Liechty et al. (2017). They described several life course issues including trajectories and timing, historical context and place, and social embeddedness—similar to pathways to Masters sport described by older men and women who were sport continuers, returners to sport, or later-life sport beginners (Dionigi, 2015). A primary finding of the Wong et al. study was that the “younger” (aged 55–64) older women who grew up during Title IX had more community-­based resources than the “older” (aged 65 and over) older women who attended high school and college pre-Title IX. Even so, the pre-Title IX group described the importance of informal opportunities to play ball (mostly with male siblings) as well as formal opportunities (through church teams). Several women mentioned the social pressures “to not play ball” due to gender stereotypes and traditional gender norms for proper female etiquette and behavior during their formative years of development, as well as during child rearing years. Simultaneously, highly active older women have expressed a sense of personal empowerment in resisting gender norms and establishing an identity as an athlete through competing in sport (Dionigi, 2013, 2015). The pathways to participating in sport in later life are not straightforward, even among those who have access or opportunity.

 eaning-Making in Sport-as-Leisure: Spotlight M on Social Connectedness In addition to constraints and facilitators to participation, another common theme across research on older adult sport-as-leisure has been how it provides social meaning to individuals’ lives—a topic that aligns well with a positive sociology of leisure perspective. The research reviewed above identified many meanings, including those of embodiment and masculinity (Drummond, 2008; Minello & Nixon, 2017), identity (Liechty et al., 2017; Wheaton, 2017), and competition (Dionigi et al., 2011). One common denominator across most studies appears to be the

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social opportunities and social connectedness sport-as-leisure provides. These social opportunities appear to be paramount in encouraging and maintaining participation and provide another benefit—social opportunities support mental and physical health outcomes (Toepoel, 2013). Social meanings of sport appear to transcend sport types; a wide array of sports are associated with social meaning-making—from team sports such as softball and volleyball to individual sports such as road cycling and swimming (see Annals of Leisure Research, 2017, Vol. 20, Issues 1 and 3). In one relatively early study of the social meanings of women’s sport, Heuser (2005) studied older women lawn bowlers in Australia, a sport with most members aged 45 and older. She compared women’s lawn bowling to a career, noting that involvement progressed from sport introduction, skill development, playing in events and tournaments, management (organizing events and tournaments), and then physical retirement from play. Of particular note, unlike work retirement, most retired lawn bowlers were still involved socially with the community of lawn bowlers. The continuity of the social network even after retirement was also noted in Liechty et al.’s (2017) study of older women’s softball. They found that older women continued to go on social outings such as going out to dinner even when they had ceased playing. These off-the- ballfield experiences were highlighted by study participants as demonstrating the lasting friendships (“sisterhood”) that were forged. This sense of community via sport was the focus of another study on older adult sports. In a qualitative study of Masters athletes, Lyons and Dionigi (2007) described four aspects of sense of community for the participants, including having a shared sporting interest, social support with others to continue the sport, feeling that one has a relevant life purpose, and giving back to others and the sport. These results suggest that even when a sport is individualized, social meanings may be an important key to participation. Moreover, this social support may be sustained over long periods of time and may be deeply meaningful to the athletes in terms of life purpose and friendship. Similarly, Minello and Nixon (2017) found that older male road cyclists fostered and experienced camaraderie through road cycling and, as a result, “experienced a deep feeling of community and friendship” (p. 84).

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The social opportunities of sport appear to be of central importance among the multifold meanings of sport-as-leisure. This cross-cutting finding suggests that older athletes seek meaningful social experiences well into late life, a finding that is in alignment with socioemotional selectivity theory, in which older adults focus on the most important social relationships because of the feeling that time is of the essence (Carstensen, 1992). However, as Choi et  al. (2018) underscore, sport engagement may lead to an increased number of relationships, rather than a reduction, and the nurturing of new friendships developed via sport participation may be just as likely as the nurturing of longstanding friendships. The key is that these relationships are meaningful and purposeful to the individuals in question—key aspects of a positive sociology of leisure as described in Chap. 2 of this volume. Finding meaning through leisure in later life is an important area of ongoing investigation, as not all meanings of sport are positive.

 ormative Ideals, Resistance, and Sport N in Later Life There is a paradox of older adult sports, whereby sport participation fits normative ideals of aging such as using sport to keep mentally, physical, and socially activity to “age well.” At the same time, there are persistent, ageist societal stereotypes of deficiency and dysfunction in old age, as well as neoliberal conceptualizations of agency and productivity which position sport participation as a health imperative for everyone (Dionigi, 2016). On the one hand, there is a “new moral panic” (Pike, 2011) that one must be physically active to age well. This cultural, political and scientific push for everyone to be active for the “good of society” and for “their own good” marginalizes and/or medicalizes those who do not have the ability, resources, or desire to play sport, exercise regularly or remain physically active (Dionigi & Gard, 2018). At the same time, those who are active in later life are often either: held up as “old age exemplars” without any mention of their privileged position; patronized or celebrated in the media; or exploited, marketed and/or regulated by private

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and public interest groups to serve their own (neoliberal) agendas (Gard, Dionigi, & Dionigi, 2018). At the individual level, promoting sport to all to “improve the health of a nation” and “reduce the burden of the ageing population” can conjure feelings of guilt and embarrassment among non-participants of sport and exercise, while some older sport participants consider non-sport participants as lazy and causing a strain on the healthcare system (Gard et al., 2017). These findings indicate that as a society we still do not value older age, idle leisure, or diversity in the various ways people can age and live their lives, as discussed in more detail in the following section on policy. On the other hand, societal pressures to age certain ways abound, including condescension to “just act your age” or “perform your gender” and concerns over taking facilities and field time “away from” youth due to limited resources and infrastructure. For example, taking a post-­ structural perspective, Dionigi (2018) describes how the choice to participate in sport is shaped by (and shapes) societal ideals about appropriate types of behaviors according to age and gender. In other words, personal and cultural practices and understandings of sport and leisure are linked to power relations in society. Dionigi (2018) found that being older, female and athletic allowed women to resist traditional norms that portray the older, female body as frail and weak, thereby helping the women to establish and/or maintain an identity as an older sportswoman, despite their older bodies and chronic conditions. At the same time, these women were conforming to cultural norms (and related policy agendas) which fear ageing, celebrate competitiveness, youthfulness, strength, and ability, and promote the health benefits of sports participation across the lifespan. The women’s stories and experiences reflect how sport is being used as a political instrument to “improve the health of the nation,” which has positive and negative implications for individuals and societies, as explained in the next section.

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Sport Promotion in Health-Related Policy While it is acknowledged that sport participation has many physical, mental, and social health benefits for individuals and society, the fact remains that sport is not (and perhaps never will be) accessible (or of interest) to everyone, due to an array of factors that vary according to age, class, and gender (Dionigi & Gard, 2018). Furthermore, attempts “to promote mass sport participation and increase physical activity levels [for health reasons] across the lifespan [e.g., since the 1975 Life Be in It campaign in Australia] have not proven to be successful” (Dionigi & Gard, p.  6). Despite this reality, since the 1990s, policies related to health, aging, and sport, that use physically active leisure pursuits as tools to encourage individual behavior change, have become more prominent, for example European Sport for All charters, Canadian Sport for Life movements, Sport Australia’s Move it AUS campaign, and the World Health Organization’s Active Ageing and Healthy Aging policy frameworks. Such policy developments raise contentious moral and ethical issues, including establishing ideals about how to age (Gard et al., 2017), shifting responsibility for health and ageing from the state to the individual (Dionigi, 2017), and targeting and exploiting older people as consumers of sports and leisure (Dionigi, 2016). There is also a concerning trend of using public funds that privilege sport at the expense of investing in non-­ sport programs which affect health, such as care services, public housing, safe neighborhoods and communities, education, and welfare support (Gard et al., 2018). Moreover, initiatives claiming to increase sport and physical activity levels to improve population health outcomes and reduce so-called “lifestyle diseases” (e.g., obesity, heart disease), particularly among older people, “are problematic due to the randomness of many age-related diseases, the inevitability of the physiological ageing process and the social-cultural determinants of health outcomes” (Dionigi & Gard, 2018, p. 4). The idea to promote and make sport accessible to all may be admirable and well intentioned. However, it opens up the opportunity for public and private entities to value and support certain ways of living life and “doing leisure” and to marginalize or demonize other ways of

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experiencing health and ageing, such as passive leisure pursuits (Dionigi, 2017; Gard et al., 2017). Gard et al. (2017) describe how older Masters athletes disparage sedentary behavior in old age, fear ill health in later life, and distance themselves from those living in nursing homes/aged care or from “others” who are “choosing” to be “on the couch” with little recognition of individual circumstance. This demarcation of athletes from “other” non-active older people is supported by events such as the Masters Games, because they have become a commodified space for older athletes to mingle and compete with like-minded others who are of a similar social class and physical ability (Dionigi & Gard, 2018). On the one hand, sporting events enable a sense of community and feelings of personal empowerment among older athletes, as described earlier in this chapter. On the other hand, they can create class divisions between those who have the means, ability, and desire to play sport and those who do not (see Dionigi & Gard, 2018; Gard et al., 2017). More broadly, neoliberal policies have resulted in increased wealth and social inequality and an increasing fragmented populace (Sandel, 2009). Sport participation in later life, and its associated practices and policies, are not immune to the effects of neoliberalism, as argued by Gard et al. (2018): Policies are examples of culture in action—in this case, a culture that values sport and fears ageing…Under neoliberal capitalism, which is itself a contradictory and contested ideology, sport, and in particular the Sport for All mantra, is both a site of resistance and a site of conformity, an attempt to address growing health concerns while simultaneously creating new social issues, as well as a creator of new communities and a contributor to the erosion of the public sphere. (p. 83)

The above findings raise the following questions: as academics, policy-­ makers, and sport-as-leisure service providers, and in our pursuit to “improve the health and lives of older people,” are our words and actions prejudicing the very people we are claiming to help? Moreover, are we really valuing and providing the conditions to enable all forms of leisure and ways of ageing?

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Future Directions and Conclusions Another area of leisure (and/or competition) is the growing world of eSports, that is, “electronic sports, virtual sports, cybersports, competitive computer gaming or video game playing, [that has] evolved from the arcades in the 1980s and 1990s to the Internet era…” (Gard et al., 2018, p. 7). eSports as a Title IX sport may provide a unique opportunity and challenge for older adult sport. This new direction in sport may provide a counterbalance to the neoliberal focus on physical activity for all described above, and thus support another interpretation of sport-as-­ leisure in later life. Additionally, eSports may be a boon for older adult sport as younger gamers age into later life and want to continue to participate competitively. Gaming as a sport provides another space for competition—some older adults who have physical limitations that might otherwise limit their sport participation might be able to participate in video gaming, particularly with equipment modifications. eSports might provide social opportunities as well. On the other hand, video gaming could limit older adults’ physical activity and/or exposure to nature, both of which are associated with mental and physical health benefits (Capaldi, Dopko, & Zelenski, 2014; Netz, Wu, Becker, & Tenenbaum, 2005; Sun, Norman, & While, 2013). Therefore, the future of eSports as a sport opportunity for older adults is unclear and further research in this area is warranted. Despite constraints to participation, including traditional societal viewpoints that older adult sport is non-normative, interest in older adult sports has been growing (Litchfield et al., 2012) and, according to Gard et al. (2017), late-life sport participation is becoming normalized in policy and the Masters sport context. With advances in medical care, and increases in discretionary income of the baby boom generation, older adults are healthier and more active than previous generations. Sport in later life is, therefore, likely to grow. It is possible that increasing numbers of older adults will want to participate in sports and will expect opportunities and access. There are also increasing numbers of older women engaged in sport than in the past. As a result, one might expect to see increases in older women sports and co-ed older adult sports. One

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question that this future begs is, “Who will gain access and who will not?” The “haves” and “have nots” of sport is a policy issue that needs to be addressed by policy makers in parks and recreation, physical activity and sport, and public health. Another question this future brings to the surface is, “Will there be increased societal pressures on, and an associated disparaging of, older individuals who do not want to participate in sport and/or physical activity (Gard & Dionigi, 2016; Gard et al., 2017)?” Maintaining respect and value for the uniqueness of each person’s aging process and leisure interests is of paramount importance (Dionigi & Gard, 2018; Dionigi & Son, 2017). The purpose of this chapter is to consider some of the opportunities and issues surrounding sport-as-leisure during later life and to highlight some key societal and individual implications of this growing phenomenon. Although not intended as a comprehensive review of all of the issues associated with this topic (which could be an entire book on its own), our aim was to provide some broad strokes regarding some of the overarching research findings to date, as well as to underscore some issues that have been underrepresented in the literature. The phenomenon of sport participation in later life reveals the significance of societal privilege and power in shaping personal and cultural meanings and experiences of leisure and ageing. At the same time, sport in later life can be a celebration of individual resilience, pleasure, identity, and a sense of community. Sport-as-leisure in later life will continue to change as society changes and, therefore, it will remain a relevant topic as long as sport and society persist.

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Netz, Y., Wu, M. J., Becker, B. J., & Tenenbaum, G. (2005). Physical activity and psychological well-being in advanced age: A meta-analysis of intervention studies. Psychology and Aging, 20(2), 272–284. Pike, E. C. J. (2011). The active aging agenda, old folk devils and a new moral panic. Sociology of Sport Journal, 28(2), 209–225. Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What’s the right thing to do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sun, F., Norman, I. J., & While, A. E. (2013). Physical activity in older people: A systematic review. BMC Public Health, 13, 449–466. Toepoel, V. (2013). Ageing, leisure, and social connectedness: How could leisure help reduce social isolation of older people? Social Indicators Research, 113(1), 355–372. Umberson, D., Crosnoe, R., & Reczek, C. (2010). Social relationships and health behavior across the life course. Annual Review of Sociology, 36(1), 139–157. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2013). World Population Ageing 2013. ST/ESA/SER.A/348. Weir, P., Baker, J., & Horton, S. (2010). The emergence of Masters sport: Participatory trends and historical developments. In J. Baker, S. Horton, & P. L. Weir (Eds.), The Masters athlete: Understanding the role of sport and exercise in optimizing aging (pp. 7–14). London: Routledge. Wheaton, B. (2017). Surfing through the life course: Silver surfers’ negotiation of ageing. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(1), 96–116. Wong, J., Son, J., West, S., Naar, J., & Liechty, T. (2018). Life course perspectives on older women’s competitive softball. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. https://doi.org/10.1123/japa.2017-0193

8 Leisure and Late Adulthood: Examining the Benefits of Participation during Retirement Thomas Sweeney and Jennifer Zorotovich

Many Americans hope to retire following a successful and rewarding career. The Social Security Act of 1935 laid the groundwork to achieving this dream and made retirement a viable option for many, thanks to the additional financial resources it provides. However, retirement has changed considerably in subsequent decades, and contemporary aging patterns reveal the current life expectancy at age 65 is approximately 19 years (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2018). This is an increase from 1940 when those aged 65 could anticipate living approximately 13 more years (Social Security Administration, n.d.). Moreover, the number of adults living to the age of 90 and older has almost tripled over recent decades, a group that is predicted to T. Sweeney (*) Faculty of Recreation and Tourism Management, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Zorotovich Faculty of Child and Family Development, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_8

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continue growing in the future (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). This means that some individuals can anticipate spending several decades in retirement. The financial buffer that Social Security provides is further amplified by contemporary sociocultural views on postsecondary education, specifically the heightened value placed on college degrees and advanced credentialing. The result is an increase in the number of conferred college degrees leading to more competitive forms of employment accompanied by greater financial resources. Postsecondary education has also become more accessible to certain subgroups that, in years past, may not have had the opportunity to pursue them. As education and financial well-being are inextricably linked, a cohort of older adults who are highly educated and more financially stable going into their retirement years has emerged. Although many Americans desire retirement, many do not realize the complexity that accompanies this time in life. The work of Atchley (1976) provides a well-established model used by scholars for decades that highlights the intricate process of retirement. Applying this framework, it becomes clear that retirement begins early in life, oftentimes prior to entry into the workforce. Preretirement, as it is known, involves the confirmation of wanting to retire in the future and setting expectations for that time in life (Atchley, 1976). Moreover, the actual cessation of work does not mark the end of the retirement process as many find themselves having to adjust to a completely new lifestyle. After the novelty of retirement wears off (i.e., disenchantment), new ways to occupy time freed from a busy work schedule must be explored (i.e., reorientation) and a new routine implemented (Atchley, 1976). The act of being productive and generative during adult life is a major human developmental phenomenon (Erikson, 1980) and work provides many with an outlet to gain empowerment and self-growth beneficial to overall well-being (Hagler, Hamby, Grych, & Banyard, 2016). As individuals transition from structured and productive environments of work to the freedom of retirement, many are faced with the challenges of adjusting to new circumstances in their lives. Leisure is beneficial across the lifespan and can serve as a support during developmental transitions. During childhood, play is critical to healthy outcomes in multiple facets of development including:

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personality, cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development (Ginsburg, 2007). Moreover, out of school time activities can help foster a positive self-image and aid in identity exploration during adolescence (Feldman & Matjasko, 2005; Maggs, Schulenberg, & Hurrelmann, 1997). Although benefits during youth are clear, less attention has been given to the ways in which leisure can influence continued adult development. Research has indicated that leisure provides opportunities for physical activity and social engagement, serves as an outlet to escape work-related stressors and cope with other demanding tasks (Caltabiano, 1994, 1995; Coleman, 1993; Driver, Brown, & Peterson, 1991; Hull & Michael, 1995; Iwasaki & Mannell, 1999, 2000; Patterson & Coleman, 1996; Zuzanek, Robinson, & Iwasaki, 1998). Furthermore, leisure is effective in reducing anxiety, depression, and a myriad of physical health issues (Iso-Ahola & Park, 1996; Iwasaki & Smale, 1998; Zuzanek et al. 1998). The complexities within the transition to retirement create changes in a person’s life that have not been experienced previously. This may be partially due to the American culture of work that heavily emphasizes the importance of employment. For many, work and career are deeply interwoven into identity, self-image, social status, and a means by which to obtain a suitable standard of living. When work is no longer presumed, individuals may find themselves struggling to accommodate substantial changes into now altered lives. Leisure can act as a gratifying alternative to replace some of the structure and social networks lost after exiting the workforce and it can serve as a support during a time of continued identity transformation. In sum, the bulk of the literature dedicated to leisure has been predominantly focused on younger cohorts, leaving the ways in which it continues to impact well-being across adulthood less clear. Considering the complex process of retirement and that more individuals are spending longer in retirement with better health, education, and financial resources demands attention to understanding the ways in which leisure is incorporated in the lives of contemporary retirees. The purpose of this chapter is to delve into the ways in which people spend their time freed from work-­ related constraints and explore the relationship between leisure and social networks to better understand the impact of leisure following retirement.

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Methodology Data were collected from individuals living in a naturally occurring retirement community located in the southeastern United States comprised mainly of individuals over the age of 55. A snowball sampling technique was utilized, with a recruitment email sent to residents within the community targeting those who were 60 years of age or older and identified as a retiree. These participants, in turn, were encouraged to forward the email to others who were eligible and willing to participate. As a result, the sample included a combination of participants with varying interests, backgrounds, and lifestyles. The final sample consisted of 21 participants ranging in ages from 60 to 77 with an average age of 67.8 years. Participants were split relatively evenly between women (n = 10, 47.6%) and men (n = 11, 52.4%), and the majority had a bachelor’s degree or higher (n = 16, 76.1%). Regarding work, all reported being fully retired with an array of previous work histories (e.g., registered nurse, educators, lawyer, electrician, personal trainer, etc.). Additionally, 81% (n  =  19) reported having at least one adult child and all identified as white and married.

Data Collection and Analysis A brief survey was used to collect demographic information from participants and focus groups were conducted to collect qualitative data on the ways in which leisure was represented in participants’ lives. Qualitative data collection techniques followed the suggestions of Spradley (1979) and Patton (1987). Semi-structured interview questions were used but were intentionally flexible to allow participants to guide the discussion while responding to questions in an organic way. Semi-structured questions focused on the role of leisure in the transition from work to retirement and the importance of participation on the formation of social groups within the community. A total of three focus groups ranging in length from 45 to 90 minutes were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

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To analyze the data, a two-cycle approach as described by Saldana (2013) was utilized. During the first cycle, the researchers independently examined the data and used simple descriptive coding to establish recurring themes and concepts related to the research questions (Saldana, 2013). The coded information was then placed in categories, and subcategories, based around major themes (Saldana, 2013). In the second cycle, pattern coding allowed for further thematic development, the examination of leisure and social group formation, and the formation of explanations within the theoretical construct of this study (Miles & Huberman, 1994). After both cycles were completed, the researchers met to compare and interpret the individual results, reach consensus of findings, and validate the information collected (Sousa, 2014).

Results Two major themes emerged among participants (i.e., community connection with social capital and failing retirement), which indicated the importance of leisure on the postretirement lives of participants. These themes demonstrated how leisure participation can be used to facilitate a smooth transition from work to retirement, through the formation of social groups within a larger community, and lead to the perception of being successful over the duration of retirement.

Community Connection with Social Capital Many participants expressed a deep love for their community and felt that it was distinct from other, similar neighborhoods. This was attributed to the design of the neighborhood that allowed proximity to others without sacrificing personal privacy, as well as the warm and inviting nature of social interactions with neighbors. This was best captured in two participants’ descriptions of the area where they expressed the following:

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We’re different. Part of it is we have natural boundaries and are more physically separated, but we’re more like a small town compared to other places. You’re the only group that when I meet someone new they introduce themselves and say, “Hi, I’m [name of participant], and I live in [name of community].” Nobody else says that about the other neighborhoods.

The neighborhood offered an abundance of prescheduled, social, leisure activities, which afforded the residents the opportunity to be selective in the degree to which they participated. All participants indicated a high level of engagement by attending multiple activities regularly. Schedules were flexible in allowing for the introduction of new activities that met social desirability or demand. There is so much to do. So many groups. If you can’t find a group for a hobby that you love, you can form it and have twenty people signed up almost instantly.

These built-in opportunities for leisure provided residents with a platform to connect with one another, and for many, connections that were formed were deeply felt. Leisure, in this context, provided a consistent incentive for being involved with others and turned a would-be neighbor or friend relationship into more of a family kinship. You have to make friends and all our friends become our family. We are all different, but we are family.

Maintaining proximity to others with whom one felt a deep and meaningful connection, not only amplified how relationships were perceived but also created a network of access to others during times of need. This contributed to the overall culture of the neighborhood that again distinguished this community from others. Once, I brought a trailer of furniture from [another state], and it was pouring rain when I got here., I got the truck stuck in the yard. Not only did [name of other resident] come and pull me out, he spent two hours in the rain and cold helping me unload. Something like that is not uncommon. Because we’re like a small town, we know each other, we care about each other, and look out for each other. There’s a different culture.

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Failing Retirement Those who were not able to remain retired for a variety of reasons were viewed in the community as having failed retirement whether by choice or circumstance. In the context of the community, failing retirement was reflected in the inability of an individual to stay fully retired as well as psychologically removed from work. This could result in going back to working part- or full-time as well as incessantly talking about former employment. It’s funny because our new neighbors … he had the hardest time retiring. He failed. He was retired a month and they [former employer] called him to consult and he was on it. … But we’d laugh … and say ‘Oh he’s such a newbie at retirement’ because he would talk about his work, he would talk about what he did, he talked about it. Like the ones that talk about their work, ‘What I did for a living’ and so forth, they can’t let it go. It was so important to them and their life, you know, that they can’t’ let it go. And some of those people … move away, they go back to work, uh they can’t uh, they fail retirement, they really do. It’s a tough transition for some people, no question about it. Some people fail retirement, and they go back to work, or move to another community, or whatever, and that’s fine. In some people’s lives, their jobs defined who they were, and when you pull that job out from them they have no idea who they are.

Throughout conversations related to the transition from work to retirement, participants also spoke extensively of their desire to avoid failing retirement by successfully navigating the change. It became apparent that, for most, the perception of success in retirement was predicated on the ability to stay retired and be free from cognitive ties to former employment, but this was clearly no easy feat: You go from running 80 miles per hour to…done. Now what do I do? There’s definitely an unwinding process that takes place. You have to realize, it’s not about what you did, it’s about what you do now. The decision to retire wasn’t an issue, but there is an adjustment period.

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It was hard to walk away. The people I worked with were wonderful. It took me 6 months to wind down. You go from “work work work now now now” and you have to learn to wind down from that.

Discussed at length by participants in all focus groups was the ability of leisure to help in a successful transition and how participation was essential to avoid failing retirement. This community helps with that because there is so much going on, and the people who are here, it makes the transition so much easier. There are so many groups…groups for whatever you want to do, and that helps you wind down. From day one, I was looking forward to doing what I wanted to do, not what I was told to do or had to do because work required it. If I wanted to go out and do something, fine. If I wanted to read a book, fine. But I was going to do what I wanted to do, and here, I can.

Discussion This study sought to examine the ways in which leisure experiences and participation are integrated into lifestyles following retirement. It did so by analyzing participant responses to semi-structured interview questions related to activity participation, formation of social groups, and the transition from work to retirement. Results suggested the formation of subgroups within the community based around shared leisure interests, strong connections to the community itself, and social capital formation that transpired between residents. There was also a strong desire to avoid failing retirement, which could have happened in several ways. To effectively adjust to the changes associated with retirement, participants spoke at length about their reliance on leisure opportunities to achieve a successful transition. These findings are supported by previous research that emphasizes leisure as an avenue by which to successfully negotiate the transition from the workforce to retirement and aid in the establishment

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of social networks and social identities that may have been lost along the way (Kleiber & Linde, 2014; Nimrod, 2007). Participants in the current study relished the autonomy and freedom of retirement compared to the obligatory structure of the workforce, which had previously acted as a constraint to leisure participation. In the past, work-related obligations monopolized time, dictated schedules, and left little opportunity to pursue more enjoyable activities. In contrast, retirement allowed for a greater sense of autonomy and the ability to pursue passions central to personal interests. Given the expansion in opportunities to be self-focused in this manner, leisure also increased the likelihood of perceived success in retirement while avoiding perceived failure. Furthermore, the ability to pursue leisure activities has led to the establishment of relationships with those in proximity who have shared interests. These opportunities for meaningful engagement have helped to foster a sense of belonging and connection with others in the community and to the community itself. This is demonstrated by the development of close interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of community identity, trust, cooperation, reciprocity, and increased quality of life (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Coleman, 1988; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Helliwell & Putnam, 2004). Participation in leisure activities is extremely important to group formation and community connectedness, both of which provide support during retirement. The sample in this study valued the variety of activities provided in their community. The ability to claim ownership over activity development and scheduling was also beneficial as it created a sense of ownership in the leisure opportunities offered, which in turn contributed to a stronger community connection. This heightened sense of community connectedness transcended the boundaries of simply having access to physical leisure opportunities as it generated a psychological process marked by the creation of trust and emotional connections to others. Often these relationships were created through shared experiences, which is important considering that connections of this caliber can take the place of those lost or altered after leaving the workforce. As leisure can play a role in creating shared experiences of this nature, facilitating the development and implementation of leisure-based programming could be helpful in multiple settings.

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9 Life-Course Transitions and Leisure in Later Life: Retirement Between Continued Productivity and Late Freedom Anna Wanka

Introduction In her 1972 work The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvoir described the ways people imagine retirement as ‘either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection’ (p. 236). This dichotomy is clearly meant to be a simplification, and with increased longevity, as well as socio-structural and socio-cultural changes, ageing research has shown a growing diversification of retirement lifestyles (Scherger, Nazroo, & Higgs, 2011). With the ageing of the Baby Boomer generation, today’s older adults no longer commit themselves to the leisure activities previously associated with old age, like playing bingo or feeding pigeons in the park, but engage in a variety of different ‘old’ and ‘new’ leisure practices (cf. Gilleard & Higgs, 2013). Consequently, a vast body of research from both leisure studies and social gerontology has become concerned with later lifestyles and how they

A. Wanka (*) Goethe University, Research Group Doing Transitions, Frankfurt am Main, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 S. Kono et al. (eds.), Positive Sociology of Leisure, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_9

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contribute to the wellbeing of older adults. Against this backdrop, this chapter argues that we can develop the concept of positive leisure, that is rewarding, satisfying and fulfilling activities (cf. Stebbins, 2009/2012), further when looking at the work-free stages of life—among them, retirement. The transition from work to retirement is of particular interest to the study of leisure here, as questions about the meaning of work and leisure, activity and productivity, and fulfilment and pressure are re-negotiated. Transitioning from work to retirement, older adults need to find new projects and roles, build new identities, and, not least, allocate up to eight hours a day from paid work to other activities. With the increasing flexibility in workplaces, the boundaries between work and retirement are blurring. On the one hand, this might make it easier to maintain certain leisure activities across the life course (Wanka, 2019); on the other hand, productive work-like activities increasingly spread into retirement. Today’s older adults are expected not only to remain in the workforce longer but also to stay productive in their retirement leisure, for example, by engaging in volunteering or caring for grandchildren and elders (cf. van Dyk & Lessenich, 2009). This chapter will provide a more in-depth analysis of the transition from work to retirement and its consequences for positive leisure in later life, asking how everyday life leisure practices transform in this transition and how those changes are experienced, facilitated and evaluated by older adults. To approach these questions, this chapter first reviews existing research findings regarding leisure practices and subjective wellbeing in later life from both leisure studies and social gerontology (1) Drawing on mixed-methods data, the chapter then ‘zooms in’ (Nicolini, 2012) to the transition from work to retirement and the transformations of leisure practices and lifestyles evolving in the course of this transition. These transformations are exemplified by three practice vignettes: having breakfast, watching television and volunteering (2) Finally, the results are discussed in relation to the concept of positive leisure, arguing for a critical gerontological perspective on leisure that accounts for ageing discourses and age-based differences in performance and meaning of different leisure practices.

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 ositive Leisure in Later Life: Leisure Activities P and Wellbeing Among Older Adults Research on leisure in later life has a long tradition in both leisure studies and social gerontology, with both fields indicating that a high level of activity and engagement leads to increased wellbeing among older adults. Most of this research focuses on particular types of activities to which positive effects and health and wellbeing are attributed, favouring such leisure practices that are assessed as active instead of passive and serious instead of casual. In gerontology, this assumption manifests in concepts like active (cf. Havighurst, 1961), successful (cf. Rowe & Kahn, 1987) or productive (Butler & Gleason, 1985) ageing, all perceived as ‘royal roads’ to ageing well. Already in the 1960s, for example, gerontologist Bernice Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin (1961) wanted to find out which leisure activities are most beneficial for improving the health and wellbeing of older adults, and consequently rated the activities they observed on a scale from (beneficial) self-improvement to (potentially harmful) apathy. Drawing on this work, Mannell (1993) differentiated between three types of leisure activities that contribute to life satisfaction in later life: ‘high investment activities’ where ‘commitment, obligation, some discipline, and even occasional sacrifice’ is required (p. 127), ‘serious leisure activities’ in which ‘leisure may be no fun’ (p. 130) and ‘flow activities’ where skills and personal satisfaction matched the activity (p. 132; see also Katz, 2000, p. 141). This differentiation is in part similar to Stebbins’ (2007/2015) categorisation of serious, project-based and casual leisure. Naming concrete leisure practices, Fernández-Ballesteros (2011) propose a four domains model of ageing well, which comprises: regular physical exercise; a Mediterranean diet and refraining from smoking, drinking and eating too much; frequent cognitive training, memory training and physical fitness training; as well as social activity, social engagement and social participation. The European Active Ageing Index (AAI) similarly consists of, besides paid employment: unpaid productive activities, like volunteering; practices of care and political participation; and serious leisure activities like physical exercise, lifelong learning; as well as use of information and communication technologies.

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Engagement in leisure practices is not static but changes across the life course. Longitudinal studies investigating changes in leisure practices often find some level of continuity with declining outdoor activities in older age. Decline in leisure participation is, hence, particularly intense for ‘active’, serious and project-based leisure activities as compared to casual leisure (for a review, see Scherger et al., 2011). Such decline may be, in part, due to age-related constraints, like health and mobility limitations, lower self-efficacy or social isolation (McGuire & Norman, 2005). However, not all older adults reduce their participation in leisure activities as they grow older: in a longitudinal study examining continuity and change in leisure practices of recently retired adults in Israel, Nimrod (2007) found persons who reduced, concentrated, diffused or expanded their leisure activities in the transition from work to retirement. Those who concentrated or expanded their leisure participation showed a higher life satisfaction. This is in line with gerontological continuity theory (cf. Atchley, 1989), which suggests that establishing continuity in one life domain (e.g. leisure) helps individuals better handle changes in another field of life (e.g. work), and ultimately increases wellbeing (cf. Wang & Shi, 2014). However, not all (active and serious) leisure activities that might increase health and longevity also increase subjective wellbeing or life satisfaction. Based on the Israeli national survey, Nimrod and Adoni (2006) identified four late-life leisure styles—‘company seekers ’, ‘media consumers’, ‘culture enthusiasts’ and ‘sophisticated choosers’—but only the former two showed a significant positive correlation between leisure participation and life satisfaction. Adams, Leibbrandt and Moon (2011) reviewed studies on the relationship between subjective wellbeing and different leisure practices in later life and found that most reviewed studies reported a positive relationship with informal social participation, such as visiting friends, and wellbeing. The positive effect of other serious leisure practices, like productive activities, intellectual, cultural and physical activities, however, is not that straightforward. It rather seems to depend partly on individual characteristics, such as gender or age, and partly on the subjective assessment of the activity, such as choice, individual meaning or perceived quality of the activity. This indicates that not all of the initially listed activities for ageing well, like physical exercise or volunteering, are subjectively perceived as meaningful by older adults.

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Conversely, older adults might find such activities enjoyable, rewarding and fulfilling that do not necessarily contribute to health and physical wellbeing. Put bluntly, they (as many younger adults, too) might prefer an hour of watching television over an hour of doing sports. Katz (2000) emphasises three kinds of leisure activities in particular that might be subjectively satisfactory to older adults but are neglected by most research on leisure and wellbeing in later life, calling them ‘anti-activity activities’ (p. 143f.): 1. passive activities: activities that do not pass the necessary threshold of (physical or cognitive) activity, like napping or watching television 2. immoral activities: sexual activities, drinking, gambling or other forms of ‘deviant behaviour’ 3. conceptual activities: all activities that are not suitable for the public performance of active ageing, like theorising and sense-making activities Finally, even if older adults wanted to engage in active, serious and productive leisure that increases their health and wellbeing, the possibilities to do so are highly socially stratified. The term ‘paradoxon of leisure in later life’ by Nimrod and Shrira (2016) describes the paradoxical situation in which those older adults who benefit most from leisure involvement are precisely the ones who face the greater number of constraints to leisure. Analysing time use data, researchers have found that large shares of older adults conduct hardly any productive activities, like caregiving or volunteering, because they are lacking the necessary resources (cf. Burr, Mutchler, & Caro, 2007; Mergenthaler, Sackreuther, & Staudinger, 2018). Based on the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Jivraj, Nazroo and Barnes (2012) found health and income to be the central predictors of social participation in retirement. Various studies have also found that the level of education influences the likeliness to volunteer or engage in educational activities in later life (cf. Burr et al., 2007; for Germany, see Mergenthaler et al., 2018). And gender plays a significant role as well: older women do not only spend more time on unpaid labour but also stay inside the house, whereas older men take over volunteering or gardening and hence spend more time outdoors (Klumb & Baltes, 1999; Wanka, 2017). In summary, research on leisure and wellbeing in later life favours certain types of leisure, namely activities assessed as active instead of

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passive and serious instead of casual. Such activities are assumed to enhance health and physical wellbeing but are not necessarily those that are most meaningful and fulfilling to older adults themselves. Moreover, they require a certain amount of social, economic, health and timerelated resources to participate in, consequently excluding parts of the older adult population. Although we already know much about how participation in leisure practices changes across the life course, we know little about how these changes are experienced by adults. This is mostly due to the fact that the majority of qualitative studies in this field are not longitudinal. This chapter hence aims to contribute to the question of how everyday leisure practices transform in the transition from work to retirement and how these changes are experienced and facilitated by older adults, on a more in-depth basis.

 merging Lifestyles: The Transformation E of Leisure Practices in the Transition from Work to Retirement To address the above questions, this chapter uses empirical material from the project ‘Doing Retiring—The Social Practices of Transiting into Retirement and the Distribution of Transitional Risks’ (2017–2021).1 Employing a mixed-methods design, the study combines a secondary data analysis of the German Time Use Study (GTUS) with qualitative longitudinal data, following 29 older adults between the ages of 52 and 72 years from before retiring to three years thereafter. In the course of this period, yearly episodic interviews are conducted and participants are asked to keep an activity and photo diary for seven days per year. Interviews lasted between 60 and 180 minutes, with 90 minutes being the average duration. Interviews were fully transcribed and coded using the data analysis software MAXQDA 12. Detailed sample characteristics of quantitative and qualitative data are portrayed in Tables 9.1 and 9.2.  The project is part of the DFG-funded interdisciplinary research training group ‘Doing Transitions—The Formation of Transitions over the Life Course’ based at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the University of Tübingen, Germany. 1

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To allow for making quasi-causal assumptions in a non-longitudinal dataset, a matched sample of working and non-working persons aged 55 years and older was constructed by case-control matching.2 The matching Table 9.1  Socio-demographic characteristics, non-matched and matched sample 55+ years, German time use data 2012/13

Average age1 Gender (female) Marital status Partnership Separated/ single Widowed Education ISCED 0–4 ISCED 5+ Occupational status Self-employed White collar Blue collar Unemployed Retired n (unweighted)

Working (all 55+)

Not working (all 55+)

59.16 years 41.8%

69.79 years 56.2%

60.36 years 51.8%

60.46 years 51.2%

70.9% 25.8%

62.0% 21.6%

69.7% 26.4%

71.3% 25.2%

3.3%

16.4%

3.9%

3.5%

49.3% 50.7%

65.6% 34.4%

57.5% 42.4%

56.5% 43.5%

19.7% 62.7% 17.6%

2.607

4.5% 82.7% 12.9% 6.228

Working Not working (matched 55+) (matched 55+)

23.8% 59.5% 16.7%

457

19.5% 40.6% 39.9% 462

The age distribution ranges from 55 years to 85+ years among the non-working group of the whole sample and from 55 years to 84 years among the working group of the whole sample and both groups of the matched sample 1

 Case-control matching is a statistical procedure used to construct quasi-experimental designs and hence interpret relations as quasi-causal. Matching confounding variables accounts for pre-existing differences, reduces selection bias and improves internal validity. Matching is generally used to account for selectivity in certain events and to answer questions about the conditionality of these events taking place. Constructing a matched sample of working and not-working adults aged 55 years and older allows for approaching the question regarding which changes in everyday life practices might occur if the respondents who were still working by the time the survey had been taken would retire. Hence, matching is used to allow for a quasi-longitudinal analysis despite being limited to cross-sectional data (cf. Lewis & Michel, 1990). To obtain a matched sample, employment status was dummy-coded into ‘working’ (1, including all types of paid work) and ‘not working’ (0, including retired, unemployed and other non-working persons). Age, gender, marital status and education were defined as matching criteria. Matching criteria should consider variables that are, based on the literature (see above), most likely to influence the outcome in question; in this case, retirement lifestyles. 2

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Table 9.2 Socio-demographic characteristics, qualitative longitudinal study 2017–2021, project ‘Doing Retiring’ Socio-­ demographic variables All Years of birth Gender (female) Family background No partner No children Residential area < 5,000 inhabitants 5,000–100,000 inhabitants > 100,000 inhabitants Occupational status

Former occupation Pathway to retirement

29 1948–1965 16

8 9 3 16 13 Working full-time (12) Working part-time/marginal employment (4) Passive stage of partial retirement (2) Not working, not yet retired (11) Researchers, teachers, head of development, bank clerks, IT personnel, self-employed, administrative, social workers, shift foremen, mechanical engineers, journalists Partial retirement (7) Early retirement (5) Disability pension (4) From unemployment (4) From full-time to retirement (2) Worked past retirement age (2)

procedure resulted in a sample of 919 persons aged 55 years and older, 457 of them working and 462 not working. Respondents included in the matched sample spent on average 10.76 hours a day on personal activities (sleeping, eating/drinking, personal hygiene), 3.30 hours on household chores and family care, 3.29  hours on media use, 3.02  hours on paid work, 1.24 hours on social activities, 1.22 hours on traveling, 0.74 hours on hobbies and other leisure activities, 0.39 hours on volunteering and informal work and 0.03 hours on education.

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How does time allocated to these everyday activities then change in the course of retiring? Based on Chi-Square tests, data show significant differences between working and not working respondents of the matched sample for all mentioned activities (p