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

183 Pages·2015·1.644 MB·English

by  Robert A. Stebbins (auth.)

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
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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
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First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978-1-349-57602-9 ISBN 978-1-137-51303-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137513038
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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.