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The Interrelationship of Leisure and Play: Play as Leisure, Leisure as Play PDF

183 Pages·2015·1.644 MB·English
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Leisure Studies in a Global Era Series Editors: Karl Spracklen, Professor of Leisure Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Karen Fox, Professor of Leisure Studies, University of Alberta, Canada In this book series, we defend leisure as a meaningful, theoretical, framing con- cept; 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, con- versely, 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 understand- ing wider debates about identity, postmodernity and globalisation in contem- porary 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. Titles include: Brett Lashua, Karl Spracklen and Stephen Wagg (editors) SOUNDS AND THE CITY Popular Music, Place and Globalization Oliver Smith CONTEMPORARY ADULTHOOD AND THE NIGHT-TIME ECONOMY Karl Spracklen WHITENESS AND LEISURE Robert A. Stebbins CAREERS IN SERIOUS LEISURE From Dabbler to Devotee in Search of Fulfilment Soile Veijola, Jennie Germann Molz, Olli Pyyhtinen, Emily Hockert and Alexander Grit DISRUPTIVE TOURISM AND ITS UNTIDY GUESTS Alternative Ontologies for Future Hospitalities Udo Merkel (editorr) IDENTITY DISCOURSES AND COMMUNITIES IN INTERNATIONAL EVENTS, FESTIVALS AND SPECTACLES Neil Carr (editorr) DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND LEISURE Robert A. Stebbins THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF LEISURE AND PLAY Play as Leisure, Leisure as Play Leisure Studies in a Global Era Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–310323–6 hardback 978–1–137–31033–0 paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England The Interrelationship of Leisure and Play Play as Leisure, Leisure as Play Robert A. Stebbins University of Calgary, Canada © Robert Alan Stebbins 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51301-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-57602-9 ISBN 978-1-137-51303-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137513038 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stebbins, Robert A., 1938– The interrelationship of leisure and play : play as leisure, leisure as play / Robert A. Stebbins. pages cm. – (The interrelationship of leisure and play) Summary: “In the scientific studies of play and leisure there has been an unfortunate tendency for the enthusiasts of one to ignore the contributions made by their colleagues in the other. This book shows what the two fields have been missing because of this isolation. The new idea of augmentative play enables us to examine how and where play and leisure are often vitally dependent on each other. Augmentative play is a special activity that aids substantially the pursuit of a larger, encompassing leisure activity. This approach to the study of play is unique. It recognizes the hundreds of activities in which play and leisure come together, sometimes to produce deeply fulfilling experiences and outcomes for participants, other times to produce more fleeting enjoyment for them”— Provided by publisher. 1. Leisure—Social aspects. 2. Play—Social aspects. 3. Sports sciences. I. Title. GV14.45.S83 2015 306.4’812—dc23 2015019848 Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 The Scientific Studies of Play and Leisure 7 2 The Serious Leisure Perspective 15 3 Play as Casual Leisure 43 4 Play in Art and Entertainment 65 5 Scientific Play 89 6 Play in Sport 111 7 Hobbyist Play 129 8 Whither the Interdisciplinary Study of Play and Leisure? 151 Notes 167 References 171 Index 181 List of Figures 2.1 The serious leisure perspective 16 6.1 SLP involvement scale 113 vi Acknowledgments My sincere thanks go to Sylvia Anand and SPi Global team for fine copy-editing of the text and to editors Harriet Barket and Amelia Derkatsch for efficiently shepherding it through the various stages of acquisition and production. vii Introduction In this book, I examine play as a special activity that aids substan- tially the pursuit of a larger, encompassing leisure activity. This approach to the study of play is unique. It recognizes the hundreds of activities in which play and leisure come together to produce deeply fulfilling experiences and outcomes for the participants as well as for the consumers of the inventive products of this union. Many of these experiences are short, even fleeting. But, whatever their duration, their importance in the broader fields of play and leisure is extraordinary. Play – consciously or semi-consciously gen- erating, identifying, and weighing ideas and choices for action – is in this, its essential sense, invariably imaginative and creative. Therefore, play can contribute hugely to the rewarding pursuit of those eudaemonic leisure activities that encourage it, resulting in, for instance, a wonderfully written passage of poetry, a brilliantly executed set of athletic maneuvers in basketball, or an exquisitely flavored sauce in cooking. Scientific interest in leisure’s core activi- ties should include these playful moments, their inspiring, fulfilling ramifications, and what all this means for consumers of the partici- pant’s creative products. This recipe for augmentative playy – challenging circumstances (cid:111) inventive solution (cid:111) continued activity – is not, however, followed only in such complex pursuits as just mentioned, but also at times in some simpler activities, which are essentially hedonic. This latter set comprises the vast realm of casual leisure. Be the activity simple or complex, these circumstances are challenges that arise while pursuing a leisure activity that calls for an inventive solution. This invention 1 2 The Interrelationship of Leisure and Play is born of play. It may not be, given the challenge, the best invention possible, but the participant nonetheless continues in the activity. It is also possible that play never occurs at this point, the partici- pant being more or less completely stymied in face of the challenge. The recipe for augmentative play as just described will guide analysis throughout, in Chapter 3 on casual leisure and in Chapters 4 through 7 on many of the types of serious leisure. Volunteering (casual and career) is omitted from consideration in this book, primarily because its immense diversity and broad scope defy, at this time, making any generalizations about augmentative play there. Project-based leisure is briefly discussed in Chapter 8. Augmentative playyis the playful activity engaged in while following the recipe for it during an actual occasion of leisure (e.g., in a tennis match, a session of quilting, an afternoon of reading stories to chil- dren). Whereas a more elaborate definition is set out in Chapter 1, note here that such play is intended to enhance or augment an ongo- ing leisure activity. That is, augmentative play is both an immediate end in itself and a means to the more distant aims of the unfold- ing leisure activity. Such play appears to be most prevalent in adult and adolescent activities of the serious and project-based varieties. By contrast, augmentative play during casual leisure seems to run the entire age gamut (once young children are mentally old enough to follow a simple recipe for augmentative play). The recipe for augmentative play fits in nicely with Csikszen- tmihalyi’s (1996, pp. 79–80) wider, five-step “creative process.” The first step is preparation, or “becoming immersed, consciously or not, in a set of problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curi- osity.” Second comes the period of incubation. Here ideas bump against each other, sometimes giving birth to unexpected combi- nations. Third, if there is to be creativity, then insight occurs – the “ah ha moment” (Baumgartner, 2009). In our scheme this is where the recipe for augmentative play enters the picture. In the fourth step the creative insight is evaluated according to whether it is worth- while and worth pursuing. This step is alluded to in the preceding paragraph in the observations about the adequacy of the inventive solution. Fifth comes “elaboration,” or the integration of the creative product into the larger activity (my term not Csikszentmihalyi’s) of which it is a part. The “continued activity” phase of the recipe for augmentative play is part of this elaboration.

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