Emerging cultural paradigms and changes in leisure sciences.

The world is changing. Emerging concepts and theories from other fields offer an exciting opportunity for social and leisure scientists. The information gleaned from this research also has implications for new insights into human and leisure behavior that can be instructive to practitioners and educators as well as researchers.

The changes in society and the revolution in the social sciences was the theme of the 1993 NRPA Leisure Research Symposium Opening Session, keynoted by Barbara McDonald of the USDA Forest Service in Athens, Georgia. Participants in the opening session discussed how changes in science were affecting leisure research, leisure education, and leisure practice and policy. The implications of these changes can be seen in the 100 papers that were presented during the three days of the 1993 Leisure Research Symposium.

McDonald presented eight assumptions/points about the scientific community. These points described assumptions of research and potentials for change. Many of the subsequent papers presented at the symposium illustrated these changes. This Research Update will focus on some of the papers presented at the Leisure Research Symposium in light of the eight points that McDonald made.

While the Scientific Revolution has contributed a great deal to our understanding of the world, it also locked us into a rigid scientific method and way of thinking that reduced our ability to see the world in its complexity and diversity. It also fostered a heavy reliance on the use of dichotomies and a need to establish superiority.

A number of presenters demonstrated how non-traditional and multiple research methods can address emerging research questions. Gaylene Carpenter in her paper entitled "Perceptions of One's Leisure and Life Experiences within the Context of Major Illness and Death" described how using various research methods including both quantitative and qualitative approaches might help us learn about leisure during a particular part of the lifespan. This research project allowed a better understanding of the complexity of dealing with death and dying in how it affects one's leisure.

In a different context, Marcus Stemerding, Harmen Oppewal, Theo Beckers and Harry Timmermans presented a paper entitled, "The Application of Qualitative Methods to Identify Attributes and Constraints on Leisure Travel Decisions." They were interested in exploring the likely effects of policies aimed at influencing mode-choice behavior related to recreational trips. The paper describes the application of two qualitative methods to elicit influencing attributes, to examine the form of the decision making process, and to identify market segments in the context of park choice decisions.

Additionally, Mark Searle and Russell Brayley presented "Revising the Jackson and Dunn Model of Leisure Decision-Making: Accounting for Latent Demand." This paper challenged the current model by building a revised one of decision-making that could be tested across the lifespan.

The United States has internalized the principles of the scientific paradigm and has become the symbol for an extreme individualism, resulting in a culture characterized by ego, independence, self advancement, dichotomies and power over others.

Val Freysinger explored the community of a family as opposed to individualism to determine what leisure with children meant to mothers and fathers in her paper entitled, "Leisure with Children: What it Means to Mothers and Fathers." She found that leisure activities done as a unit were a way to affirm the family, a context for teaching and learning and a parental role responsibility. Other factors such as gender, marital status and marital satisfaction also affected the meaning of leisure activities with children.

Deb Jordan and Jane Mertesdorf also addressed the need for going beyond individualism as related to their paper on "The Effects of Goal Interdependence of Leisure Service Supervisors and Employees." They concluded that supervisors who had a cooperative goal approach effective influenced their employees, but that employees were not necessarily able to perceive that they had power in the situation. Powerful supervisors relied on both collaborative and directive styles of influence and were viewed as effective influencers and as contributing to employee success.

Communities have also remained an important part of American life, but until recently the emphasis on the individual seemed to have outweighed the emphasis on community.

Kevin Lyons and Diane Samdahl, in their philosophical paper entitled" The Fallacy of Freedom: The Preoccupation with Individualism and Freedom in American Leisure Studies," directly addressed individualism. They suggested that the emphasis on individual freedom and a social psychological framework may restrict our understanding of the broader dimensions of leisure. They recommended that leisure research ought to balance notions of individual freedom with the dynamics of membership in a group or culture. These researchers concluded, as did McDonald, that this balancing may be a future challenges.

Robert Pfister and Alan Ewert were interested in examining the impact of cultural group attributes and community in their paper entitled "Ethnicity and Environmental Concerns of Forest Visitors." They identified differences in value orientations among groups. They recommended that these value orientations based on culture must be considered in managing lands to reflect not just individual, but cultural concerns.

The rights and communitarian movements of the last 30 years indicate what might be called the beginning of a return to a community orientation and a more balanced individualism that finds expression in partnerships, empowerment and liberation, which is the freedom to create one's life, while simultaneously contributing to the whole.

An emerging line of research by Linda Heyne, Stuart Schleien and Leo McAvoy was presented in the paper entitled, "Friendship Development between Children with and without Developmental Disabilities in Recreation Activities." For two years, a group of five children with disabilities and 19 nondisabled peers participated together in recreational activities in school, home and neighborhood settings. Data were collected using interviews, focus groups, and observations with children and parents over that period of time. The children reported many benefits from their relationships. The parents of children with disabilities reported empowering characteristics such as improved self-esteem, friendship skills, communication and social skills, and a sense of well-being. The parents of the nondisabled children reported an enhanced acceptance of differences and greater self-esteem.

Linda Ralston's paper, "The Relationship Between the Need for Affiliation and Travel Motivations" also addressed the need for community and balanced individualism. She sought to develop a conceptual framework that identified a positive relationship between travel motivation and interaction with others through meeting affiliation needs.

Modern theories emerging from the hard sciences suggest that this rebalancing of individual and community orientation is the natural tendency of the universe to: engage in a dance of integration and autonomy; balance itself dynamically; increase in complexity, communication, interconnections and diversity; act as parts and the whole simultaneously; and generally evolve slowly, but also to experience seemingly sudden transformations.

Leandra Bedini and Karla Henderson addressed the dual implications of internal and external barriers in their study entitled "Leisure and Women with Disabilities: Challenges to Leisure Service Providers." They indicated that although individual barriers due to a disability limit one's involvement in recreational activities, it is external elements such as accessibility, the social and psychological comfort of individuals with disabilities as well as others, and participation opportunities in the community that need to be addressed. The results of this research suggests that involvement is a matter of balancing both individual and community elements.

Also related to individual and community concerns is the role of tourism in rural community development as described by Steven Burr and Jeffrey Walsh in their paper, "An Interactional Approach--Sustainable Tourism in Rural Community Development." They suggested that local efforts and actions directed towards sustainable tourism development in rural communities can contribute to long-term sustainability of those communities. The interactional approach in a community, however, must be considered in the implementing of a policy of sustainable tourism development.

The dynamic relationship of the individual to self and to others expressed by systems theories is in fact the emergence of spirit, that is, the overcoming of duality, and the proper understanding of the self's relationship to itself and to others.

A study about humor by Jesse Dixon and Mary Williams entitled "The Application of Written Humor Materials to Therapeutic Recreation Service" addressed how humor can be used for fun and as a medium for therapeutic change. The researchers suggested that humor may provide a system for helping people enjoy life as well as may contribute to the treatment process.

Robert Madrigal studied personal values as determinants of human and leisure behavior. In his paper, "Personal Values, Personality and Tourism Behavior" he explored how differences in value systems are related to personality type and how these predicted travel behavior. He concluded that personal values are better predictors of behavior than are personality measures.

The difference between extreme individualism with its trappings of power and a partnership can be practically expressed for the social and leisure science professions as the difference between a career and a calling.

One important example of a partnership approach was described by Tammy Buckley in her paper on "Differences between TR Educators and TR Practitioners regarding their Expectations of the Beginning Student Intern." She suggested that the findings of this study have implications for both educators and practitioners in providing quality internships. Increased communication is necessary to understand the joint goals that each group shares in preparing students for not just a career but a calling.

Individualism also has an impact on professions as Nancy Oleson and Michael Blazey found in their study, "The Relationship between Leisure Attitude Scores and the Ranking of Physical Education Objectives among Physical Educators." These researchers found that a clear consensus existed that leisure time activities are considered a valuable component in the physical education curriculum. It appeared that a course in leisure education as a part of the preparation given to future physical education teachers would be received in a positive light and regarded as highly beneficial. The study had implications for partnership approaches in our professions.

Although the old paradigm of dichotomies, extreme individualism and power still finds expression in the leisure profession, we have already begun to recognize the opportunities inherent in a partnership and communitarian approach that can be based on understandings gleaned from systems theories. We need to examine business as usual, identify the old limitations and create ways to welcome the new approach in our social and leisure sciences, education and practice.

John Hultsman and William Harper provided a critique 6f higher education in their paper entitled, "The Decline of the Experience of Education." They raise the concern that institutions of higher education have become more concerned with technical schooling than meditative being. They claim that trivializing education also trivializes leisure and that as researchers, educators and practitioners we must counter these types of trends.

The design of the 1993 Leisure Research Symposium itself offered a new and different way of presenting research. In addition to the traditional oral presentation of papers, this year poster sessions were also presented. For those who are not familiar with a poster session, the researcher puts his or her paper on a large bulletin board that can be read by those passing by.

During designated times, the researchers are also available to discuss their research study one-on-one with passers-by. This offers a more informal way to provide research information to those who are interested.

McDonald's eight points illustrated by these studies include but a sampling of the ways that the 1993 Leisure Research Symposium addressed research. As new paradigms emerge, we will discover new ways of understanding leisure behavior and new approaches to providing leisure services.

Alan Watson of the Leopold Institute of the USDA Forest Service and Carol Cutler Riddick of Gallaudet University are to be commended for their efforts in co-chairing the 1993 Leisure Research Symposium. Copies of the abstracts for these papers described in this article as well as all other papers presented are available from the National Recreation and Park Association bookstore.

The 1994 Leisure Research Symposium will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from October 13-15. Alan Watson (USDA Forest Service) and Valeria Freysinger (Miami University in Ohio) will coordinate the sessions. Deborah Chavez (USDA Forest Service) will coordinate the poster sessions. Abstracts are due on March 11, 1994. Further details about abstract submission can be obtained from NRPA

The emerging issues in leisure research are an exciting area from the viewpoint of researchers, educators and practitioners. The foundation for our profession and an understanding of leisure behavior is based on the research that is conducted. The changing world in which we live suggests the need to examine how our research is or ought to be changing as well.

We hope that this overview of the opening session and the sampling of the papers presented in 1993 give some sense of what's new in leisure research.