scholarly journals How to Be a Serious Leisure Participant? (A Case Study)

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Utku Isik
Keyword(s):  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Serious Leisure ◽  
Pitch Organization ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Technique ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Main Ideas

The benefits of serious leisure activities demonstrate the significance of serious leisure participation. This study is thought to contribute to literature on how leisure time participation can be generated and sustained. This research presents a case study analysis on how an individual can be a significant leisure participant. In line with the purpose of the study, an “Astro pitch” organization was done which was originally started by the researcher but later continued by participants themselves willingly without any intervention. This organization continued on Mondays and a total of 14 participants (7 in each team) participated in the activity for about 8 months. Semi-structured interview technique (a qualitative technique) was used during data collection. While the games continued (they are still going on), the participants were first informed about serious leisure activities and they were asked whether this organization was considered as a serious leisure activity by them. Later, the researcher prepared a theoretical framework to ask participants how the organization was born, how it continued non-stop with the same participants and the general benefits of this organization. The main ideas obtained by the researcher were analyzed in terms of content by using Maxqda program and codes, categories and themes were obtained. According to themes found in this study; a leader is required for the participants to be a serious leisure participants and to sustain the activity; the activity should include opportunities for the individual to stand out, there must be rapport in the group, and the activity should be enjoyed.

scholarly journals Human security as biosecurity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Craig Albert ◽  
Amado Baez ◽  
Joshua Rutland
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Research within security studies has struggled to determine whether infectious disease (ID) represents an existential threat to national and international security. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), it is imperative to reexamine the relationship between ID and global security. This article addresses the specific threat to security from COVID-19, asking, “Is COVID-19 a threat to national and international security?” To investigate this question, this article uses two theoretical approaches: human security and biosecurity. It argues that COVID-19 is a threat to global security by the ontological crisis posed to individuals through human security theory and through high politics, as evidenced by biosecurity. By viewing security threats through the lens of the individual and the state, it becomes clear that ID should be considered an international security threat. This article examines the relevant literature and applies the theoretical framework to a case study analysis focused on the United States.

Motivations for music information seeking as serious leisure in a virtual community: exploring a Eurovision fan club

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Bronstein ◽  
Danit Lidor
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Mass Medium ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Serious Leisure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eurovision Song Contest

PurposeThis study aims to examine the motivations of a group of music fans of the Eurovision Song Contest to seek information about the competition and to participate in a virtual community of fans.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws from the uses and gratifications framework to understand the needs that a particular mass medium fulfills for its users. Fifteen Eurovision fans were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interviewees were asked to talk about how they seek information about the competition, to relate their engagement and participation with the virtual community and to reflect on the role that the community of fans and the Eurovision have in their lives.FindingsContent analysis revealed four themes that reflect the motivations that shape many aspects of participants lives, relating to seeking information about the Eurovision Song Contest, fulfilling the need for serious leisure, making social connections, finding a sense of belonging and forming an identity.Social implicationsThe study examines the motivations of a group of people who share a common interest that shaped the ways the seek information, related to others, view themselves and construct their identity and make social connections, all to satisfy their love and admiration for the competition, and this regardless of the societal stigma that the competition might carry.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on serious leisure information seeking by exploring the role that information and social media play in different aspects serious leisure activities.

Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa: A Criminological Case Study Analysis Exploring a Life-Course-Persistent Pathway for Serial Rape and Murder

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110535
Author(s):  
Nigel Bradely Bougard ◽  
Anni Hesselink
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Psychosocial Services ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Life Course Persistent

Child sexual abuse and the criminogenesis thereof are notably not perpetrated in isolation from physical and emotional abuse – although empirical evidence suggests that the most profound impact thereof revolves around a desire to escape (as a coping mechanism) into a world of deviant sexual fantasy, rape and murder. The article explores a phenomenological case study analysis of a serial rapist and murderer from birth to early adulthood, prior to incarceration – and it depicts an existence driven by fatal sadistic sexual desires, hate and lethal intent. The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with the participant comprising of three one-hour interviews, with the aid of a semi-structured interview schedule. The study highlighted the need for a proactive response in rendering psychosocial services to the abused child.

Small scale housing unit developments

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Altmann
Keyword(s):  
Governance Structure ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Future Market ◽  
Market Penetration ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Housing Developments ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – Some multi-owned housing developments do not appoint an external strata manager. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how governance is negotiated when there is no strata manager in place. Design/methodology/approach – A semi structured interview was conducted as a case study to contrast and highlight issues that occur where no strata manager is in place. Findings – The lack of a manager presented particular difficulties when negotiating outcomes. A market gap is identified highlighting implications for how strata managers may increase future market penetration. Research limitations/implications – The number and spatial occurrence of strata titled complexes operating without a formal governance structure in situ is not known. Further research needs to be undertaken in this area. Practical implications – The resilience of Australia’s densification policies is dependent on how owners perceive and adjust to additional layers of governance. Difficulties arise for the individual and the scheme as a whole where no formal mechanism is operational. Social implications – As cities become more dense, multi-owned property is increasing. Where governance mechanisms fail, or fail to be implemented, sound governance outcomes may be problematic. Originality/value – The issue of multi-owned property operating without or outside a governance structure has not previously been considered.

scholarly journals Case study analysis concerning social accountability management success factors

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 405-409
Author(s):  
Diana Dragomir ◽  
Florian Teleaba ◽  
Mihai Dragomir
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Corporate Citizenship ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Social Accountability ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Accountability Management

The article presents a case study dealing with two companies in Romania that have implemented social accountability management systems in accordance with the SA8000 standard and improved them over the course of almost a decade. The analysis is performed in the context of the need to formalize private sector approaches to corporate citizenship through CSR initiatives and frameworks. It involves a semi-structured interview in each of the companies and the use of the benchmarking tool to perform a comparison among them. The discussion is focused on identifying success factors conducive to each situation or overall, that could be disseminated as good practices to other companies interested in pursuing the same effort.

scholarly journals Trail Running: Exploring South Africa’s Serious Leisure Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1027-1043
Author(s):  
Liynsey McEwan ◽  
Tracey McKay ◽  
Melissa Baker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Serious Leisure ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Trail Running

A health-conscious mindset has grown rapidly among South African middle-class consumers. This can be seen by their embrace of sports watches, reward-based programmes, and participation in organised leisure activities such as cycling and running. Within this context, trail running is becoming increasingly popular; however, research on the nature of trail running in South Africa is limited. A theoretical understanding of the relationship that participants have with trail running, specifically the applicability of the serious leisure framework, could provide valuable insights into this emerging market. This study incorporated an exploratory case-study design. Quantitative data was collected using purposive sampling and an online survey to determine if trail runners undertook the activity as leisure careerists or not. The level of seriousness of respondents was measured using the six characteristics of serious leisure as defined in the Serious Leisure Inventory Measure (SLIM). The main findings were that many trail runners meet all six of the characteristics of serious leisure. ‘Perseverance’ and ‘Career’ followed by ‘Effort’ and ‘Identity’ were the most important factors to the trail runners. Motives of ‘Fun’ and ‘Sense of achievement’ were more important than ‘Fitness’ or ‘Social factors’, however. ‘Sense of achievement’ and ‘Social’ correlated the most strongly with respondents’ overall level of seriousness in the sport. Income impacted on motivations, however, with wealthier people more likely to report that they participated for Fun. In terms of gender, women were more likely to report that trail running boosted their self-image. In addition, trail running forms part of the serious leisure economy, as participants are prepared to spend substantial sums of money on related equipment and participation in events. This study provides valuable insights for marketing and design of trail-running events and contributes to the gap in the literature on serious leisure in South Africa.

Dance Marathons

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne Stroik
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Multiple Partners ◽  
Physical Abilities ◽  
Working Class Women ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The U.S

In a modernizing society undergoing rapidly increasing mechanization, industrialization, urbanization, commercialism, and consumerism, the dance marathons of the 1920s and 1930s reflected social developments of the era. Initially, competing dancers (working-class women in particular) would dance with and exhaust multiple partners over the course of a day or two. This practice altered the purpose of social dancing from being about the pleasure of the couple to being about the achievements of the individual. These women demonstrated their physical abilities through a leisure endeavor at a time when Prohibition sought to control embodied leisure activities. Later, dance marathons involved male–female couples dancing in competition with other couples. During the Great Depression, dance marathons functioned as a source of financial and symbolic opportunity for contestants and audiences. While dance marathons rewarded endurance, suffering, and survival, they also offered opportunities for financial gain (winners received cash prizes). What’s more, the competing dancers’ struggle to continue dancing mirrored the widespread struggle to survive everyday life. Dance marathons created local and national celebrities as well, thus generating opportunities for promoters to earn profits by commercializing and theatricalizing this new leisure activity. Dance marathons thrived until the U.S. economy began to recover during and after World War II.

Information activities in serious leisure as a catalyst for self-actualisation and social engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yazdan Mansourian
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Serious Leisure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wide Range

PurposeThis paper reports findings from a research project about human information behaviour in the context of serious leisure. Various forms of information activities in this context have been identified and categorised to depict common patterns of information seeking, sharing, using and producing.Design/methodology/approachThe project adopted a qualitative approach in an interpretive paradigm using a thematic analysis method. Data-collection technique was semi-structured interview and 20 volunteers were recruited via a maximum variation sampling strategy. The collected data was transcribed and thematically analysed to identify the main concepts and categories.FindingsThe participants have been experiencing six qualities of serious leisure during their long-term engagement with their hobbies or voluntary jobs and their experiences can be fully mapped onto the serious leisure perspective. The findings also confirmed serious leisure is a unique context in terms of the diversity of information activities embedded into a wide range of individual and collective actions in this context. Information seeking and sharing in serious leisure is not only a source of personal satisfaction for the participants, it also can provide them with a sense of purpose in a meaningful journey towards self-actualization and social inclusion.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalisability of the findings needs to be examined in wider populations. Nonetheless, the existing findings can be useful for follow-up research in the area.Practical implicationsThis study will be useful in both policy and practice levels. In the policy level, it will be beneficial for cultural policy makers to gain a better understanding about the nature of leisure activities. In the practice level, it will be helpful for serious leisure participants to understand the value of information seeking and sharing in their leisure endeavours. Also, information professionals can use it to enhance the quality of their services for the serious leisure participants who are usually among devoted patrons of libraries, museums, archives and galleries.Social implicationsLearning about serious leisure can provide new insights on people preferences in terms of choosing different entertaining and recreational pursuits – such as indoor and outdoor hobbies – in their free time.Originality/valueThe informational aspects of serious leisure is an emerging and evolving ground of research. This paper provides empirical evidence on this topic from a specific context in the regional areas in Australia.

Understanding Renaissance Faire Travel Participation: An Assessment of Leisure Loyalty Frameworks

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-360
Author(s):  
Susan L. Slocum ◽  
Yung-Kuei Huang ◽  
Jacqueline McDowell
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Serious Leisure ◽  
Harmonious Passion ◽  
Obsessive Passion ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
Renaissance Festivals ◽  
Demographic Effects

Renaissance festivals are a growing phenomenon that situates patrons in a fantasy world of rural medieval life. It offers an opportunity to escape modern realities and construct an alternate persona and identity. These activities frequently result in committed behaviors that bring about extensive travel and offer opportunities to enhance skill development, build lasting friendships, and share a unique world view. Renaissance activities are denoted as forms of leisure loyalty, such as serious leisure, based on qualitative assessments. Using the Sherwood Forest Faire held in Austin, Texas as a case study, this article attempts to test the applicability of leisure loyalty frameworks, specifically, serious leisure, obsessive/harmonious passion and memorable experiences, for involvement in Faire, explores demographic effects on involvement in Faire, and assesses the spillover effect of Faire involvement on a selected set of Renaissance-related leisure activities. The results show that a better framework for travel involvement to Faire may fall within the concepts of harmonious/obsessive passion and memorable experience.

Rake policies of for-profit and non-profit online poker sites: A case study

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-31
Author(s):  
Björn Lantz ◽  
Anders Isaksson
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Individual Player ◽  
Corporate Goals ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privately Owned

How does governance affect the operative behaviour of gambling sites? We conjecture that differences in governance primarily cause pricing differences among gambling sites. This paper presents an analysis of the purpose and implications of rake policy differences between privately owned for-profit and state-owned non-profit poker web sites. Specifically, the paper comprises a comparative case study analysis of Svenska Spel Poker, owned by the Swedish state, and the commercial site PokerStars. The analysis focuses on the range of different types of single table Sit and Go tournaments offered at each site. We observe two main differences between the sites with respect to rake. First, PokerStars uses a rather complex formula to determine the rake percentage based on variables such as tournament speed, stakes, and size while Svenska Spel uses the same rake percentage for all Sit and Go tournaments regardless of speed and stakes but with a 50 percent discount if the tournament is played heads-up. Second, PokerStars charges less rake than Svenska Spel except for the lowest stakes. We discuss the effects and purpose of these rake policy differences from four different perspectives: 1) the individual player, 2) the player collective, 3) the poker market, and 4) society. The overall conclusion is that these different perspectives cause conflicting opinions on the 'goodness' of the sites. Our study also highlights the difficulties experienced by a state-owned gambling site in balancing social and corporate goals.

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