This study was concerned with the investigation of both the leisure orientation and the outdoor recreation participation of two samples of Utah residents. One sample consisted in part of Professional, Manager and Laborer nonfarm respondents. The other sample consisted of farm respondents, who were both full and part-time farmers. The part-time farmers also held other full-time Professional, Manager and Laborer occupations. The author had three major objectives in this study: (1) to examine the leisure orientation of the respondents from an occupational perspective; (2) to examine the participation in outdoor recreation activities from an occupational perspective; and (3) to examine the enjoyment level of the outdoor recreation activity also from an occupational perspective. Four hypotheses were formed. These were: (1) nonfarm respondents will be more leisure oriented than farm respondents; (2) nonfarm Professionals will have high participation rates in outdoor recreation activities; (3) nonfarm Managers will have high participation rates in outdoor recreation activities; and (4) nonfarm Laborers will have low participation rates in outdoor recreation activities . Leisure orientation was measured by a modified Burdge leisure orientation scale. The citations for validity and reliability of the scale are indicated in the study. The measures of outdoor recreation participation in various activities and the level of enjoyment of the activity are defined operationally. Two of the four hypotheses were supported by the data. The first hypothesis was supported that nonfarm respondents will be more leisure oriented than farm respondents. A mean score of 20.6 was found for the nonfarm respondents and a mean score of 18.6 was found for the farm respondents. The second and third hypotheses were not supported by the data. That is, the nonfarm Professional and Manager were not found to have "high" participation rates in outdoor recreation activities as defined operationally. The fourth hypothesis was found to be supported, with the nonfarm Laborers having "low" outdoor recreation participation rates as defined operationally.

This thesis examines the formal and conceptual framework of my artistic practice as it culminated in the installation of my thesis exhibition, Prime, Perform, Recover. My exhibition seeks to operate as an analysis and critique of the separation inherent in media presentation and rhetoric surrounding natural disasters. I utilize the aesthetics and vocabulary of disaster capitalism and prepping culture in order to pose direct questions about ecological and social change. I examine the role of images within mass media image production as an all encompassing Now-Time. In this paper I describe frameworks that my practice proposes as potential solutions to these problems, and I position my research in the context of artists and artworks that have influenced me and operate within similar channels as my own.

Stigma proves to be a serious barrier for individuals living with mental illness, and research has shown that the media heavily contribute to and support damaging stereotypes about individuals with mental illness. This study examined how current films feed into fears about mental illness, especially the stereotype that individuals with serious mental illness are violent. A population of films released from 1990--2010 containing a character with schizophrenia or a related disorder was compiled and 30 films were randomly selected for viewing from this list. The films were scored for acts of violence committed by characters with and without mental illness, and the acts of violence were coded for severity. This study found that characters with mental illness committed significantly more acts of violence than characters without mental illness did. The significance of these findings along with recurring themes found in the movies are discussed in this paper.

The notion of leisure is subjective and contradictory, therefore attempts to organise, manage and measure leisure experiences may be described as paradoxical. The evaluation of recreation and leisure services has been focused on performance indicators associated with specific programmes and facilities. At a macro level, evaluation from the broader perspectives of organisational effectiveness and leisure theory is a neglected area of research. This study examines a model of organisational effectiveness criteria as a way of exploring the "leisure management paradox" in local government recreation services. The focus of the research was local government recreation services in Western Australia.This study had two major purposes. The first purpose was to identify a range of criteria that are appropriate for evaluating organisational effectiveness in local government recreation services. Secondly, the study investigated the perceptions of these criteria held by recreation staff in different local government recreation services in Western Australia.The specific research objectives focused on the issues of effectiveness in local government recreation services, namely:1. To identify criteria for organisational effectiveness relevant to local government recreation services in Westem Australia.2. To develop a conceptual model of organisational effectiveness criteria.3. To test the developed model to confirm the appropriateness of the selected criteria for assessing local government recreation services.4. To determine if there are differences in the perceptions of organisational effectiveness held by different groups of recreation workers in different types of local government settings.The findings revealed that perceptions of the importance of organisational effectiveness criteria held by recreation workers in local government in Western Australia are relatively homogeneous. ++ / Differences appeared to be associated with geographic location, availability of resources, and the perceived organisational culture of the local government authority. These findings offer a practical framework for managers of recreation services and provide a benchmark for further research in local government and recreation services generally.

Older women and men were participants in this qualitative research of three case studies of community theatre. Their stories, gathered through in-depth interviews and participant observation of the theatre projects over a four year period, informed the development of a theoretical model of leisure as process. Through devising and presenting their theatre pieces, 50 older people, ranging in age from 45-8 5 years, with differing cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, reflected on personal experiences, negotiated their own processes for working collaboratively, and presented the stories of theft lives publicly in a way which affirmed their actions and understandings of themselves and theft world. Interviews with more than 30 of these people allowed an analysis of the ways in which older people negotiated the processes of play-building and constructed meaning in their lives at a time when the social structures of paid work and family were becoming less central as people moved into their third age. This research has located the study of individual agency through leisure in the context of the social structures which shape constraints to leisure and in turn limit individual agency. As such, the research has been concerned both with the self and with social relationship and has theorised leisure as a process of negotiation. Since process implies change over time, the research methods used and the leisure context selected for study were also process oriented. The research methodology was emergent and took on qualities of action research as the study progressed. By focusing on community theatre as the social context for leisure, the nexus between community development, community theatre and action research was examined and found to inform a broader understanding of leisure as process. The research has also expanded knowledge of community theatre as a collaborative process which draws on individual and collective reflections to build public presentations of issues of concern to participants. The processes of community theatre have received no attention to date in the leisure literature. The negotiation of self takes place in different social contexts for women and for men, for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, for old and young, and for people from different socio-economic backgrounds. This research demonstrated that changes in personal situations as a result of the aging process, changes in family context and changes in work context are associated with changes in the negotiation of self, and these changes are expressed through leisure activity as well as other involvements less clearly classified as leisure. Purposive aspects of leisure assumed greater significance as people grew older and this was expressed in the culture of busyness and a pride in 'never being home'. Older women, in particular, developed friendships and community networks outside the family unit as relationships with husbands and children changed. These social connections were found to facilitate difficult transitions such as divorce or the death of a spouse. Community theatre supported the development of community networks, and presented an opportunity to claim a voice in the public arena and challenge the invisibility of older age. The research added to knowledge about constraints on leisure involvement by older people, and identified personal, social and material constraints. The most significant of these were the personal constraints of fear and of ill-health. However, participants in this research continued to negotiate a path through constraint in order to live their lives to the full. Analysis of their stories indicated that whilst constraint sometimes operated as a hierarchical process of control pushing people into isolation, people who were supported in their efforts to negotiate constraint through the development of community networks gained self-confidence and a heightened sense of agency. The processes of community development used in community theatre were found to facilitate the negotiation of constraint by developing personal skills and strengthening social support. The constructivist orientation of the research acknowledged the dialectical nature of knowledge construction and the possibility of social change through research. Aspects of action research were demonstrated in the processes of community theatre, which also seeks social as well as personal change. The research has a political motivation in that it seeks to strengthen the position of participants. Concern with the power relationship between researcher and researched facilitated a deeper understanding of the role of power in the process of leisure. The research opens up one small window on the processes whereby people may continue to live life to the full through active engagement in life and leisure.

Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This dissertation is an historical anthropology investigating the late 19th century liturgical landscapes of the National Camp‐Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness, an organization of Methodist clergy who sought ecclesiastical and social reform primarily through camp‐meeting revivals promoting the experience of entire sanctification. National camp meetings drew from the liturgical and architectural traditions of early 19th century frontier revivalism, yet, as this dissertation argues, these meetings were not simply an appropriation of the structure of Second Great Awakening revivals for the purpose of promoting holiness theology in decidedly more urban areas of the Northeast and Mid‐Atlantic. Rather, these meetings were a (re)imagining of the cultural practice of the camp‐meeting through a Victorian system of symbolic meanings, a middle‐class, (ex)urban geographic context, and a distinctive set of liturgical performances, social interactions, and cognitive‐environmental and architectural cues designed to elicit a changed subjectivity among attendees. Each of these transformations shaped the social space, architectural configuration, and site selection of the liturgical landscapes of the National Camp‐Meeting Association, and it is these spatial and material traces that offer a substantial body of data for the interpretation of past religious and ritual landscapes in North America. Such interpretation of revival landscapes is possible through a process of cross‐mending archival sources (diaries, autobiographies, biographies, historic correspondence, newspaper reports, sermon texts, organizational documents, maps, photographs), material culture, archaeological reports, geo‐spatial and environmental data to reconstruct and thickly interpret the ritual landscapes of three early meetings of the National Camp‐Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness – Vineland, New Jersey, Manheim, Pennsylvania, and Round Lake, New York. In its results, this dissertation argues for a significant connection between Methodism, geographic regions, and 19th century holiness practices, and an interpretation of holiness revivalism as a means of renegotiating moral orders amidst industrialization, urbanization, vacationing, and changing social fault lines in the church including race and gender.

Many leisure researchers have examined the recreation specialization construct with the belief that recreationists progress along a specialization continuum, from low to high, the longer they participate in an activity. Building on other researchers' conclusions that recreationists do not necessarily progress over time, this study sought to better understand whether people truly desire to progress. Competition, sociability, and skill development variables were proposed as measures that would more accurately describe an intermediate career trajectory of specialization. This intermediate career trajectory of specialization was called flatlining, because recreationists progress to their desired level of specialization and then maintain a flat, or non-progressing, style of involvement on the specialization continuum. Behavior, skill and knowledge, and commitment variables were also used to measure recreation specialization. A three-level self-classification measure was used to predict group membership, and this classification was used to evaluate both groups of variables. The behavior, skill and knowledge, and commitment variables did a very good job of predicting level of specialization. The competition, sociability, and skill development variables did a good job of predicting the high and low levels of specialization, but did a very poor job of predicting the flatlining level of specialization. Motivations to participate were also studied. This study's failure to accurately predict the flatlining career trajectory highlights the need for further research on the phenomenon.

Literature within the tourism discipline emphasized the importance of destination image due to its effect on both supply and demand sides of marketing. Gunn’s seven-stage model illustrated the process and evolution of image formation of a destination has been used as a guiding model in the study. The purpose of this study is to explore the coherence and the difference between pre-conceived images and post-images of China holding by the North American tourists. Purposive sampling was adapted to reach the target participants who fit the study criteria. Qualitative data were collected from eight interviews with participants from Canada and America. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted during October and November 2011. Essences were developed from the analysis of the interview data by conducting initial coding and focused coding. Findings of the study were concluded into three parts: before visiting China; actual travel experiences; and after visiting China. Consistent with Gunn (1972)’s seven-stage theory, findings of the study showed a clear change between pre-conceived images and post-images holding by participants. Images involved from simple, vague, mythical, and stereotypical to comprehensive, realistic, and holistic. Moreover, advantages and problems of the international tourism in China emerged with the progress of data analysis. The findings reflected the perceptions of China in the eyes of North American tourists; consequently, it could contribute to the future tourism practitioners who aim to promote China to be a desirable international tourism destination.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees. Likewise, pedagogues at the centers have the theoretical knowledge of how they can help children with difficulties, but the working methods that is designed to work for all children is diverse. Practical things to consider in work concerning children with attention difficulties is to always have well-planned activities and it is important to have a good approach to these children. / Syftet har varit att undersöka fritidshemmets faktiska arbete kring barn med koncentrationssvårigheter. Dessutom har syftet varit att synliggöra fritidshemmets arbete i relation till deras uppdrag, samt studera hur fritidshemmet arbetar kring dessa barn i jämförelse med vad forskningen rekommenderar. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av tre stycken explorativa intervjuer med fritidspedagoger, och tre stycken observationer på fritidshem på tre olika skolor fördelat på två län.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att skolorna försöker skapa tydliga rutiner, men att de lyckas i varierad grad. Likaså har pedagogerna teoretiska kunskaper i hur de kan underlätta för elever med koncentrationssvårigheter, men att fritidshemmens arbetsmetoder som är utarbetade för att fungera för alla barn på fritidshemmet är varierande. Praktiska saker att tänka på i arbetet kring barn med koncentrationssvårigheter är att alltid ha en välplanerad verksamhet, samt att det är viktigt med ett bra förhållningssätt till dessa barn.