The last four decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a significant growth of leisure hours for a growing number of South Australians, particularly working class males; it was accompanied by an upsurge in both organised and informal recreation activity. The upsurge owed much to major advances in communication during the period – in transport by rail, steamship and late in the century, the bicycle, to the network of telegraph stations which by the mid 1870s, spanned much of the colony, the country and finally linked the colony to much of the wider world, and to the growth of local and daily newspapers and specialist journals. Industry, government and commerce drove these advances, but recreation benefited from all of them and came to be a major element of commercial activity itself, as some activities generated not only participants, but spectators and audiences. These developments in turn stimulated a demand for facilities, both indoor and outdoor, which came to be met by private groups, public authorities and commercial operators, or combinations of the three. However, not all sections of the South Australian community looked favourably on aspects of these developments. Some social, religious and political forces, both separately and later as an alliance, combined to target elements of the recreation activities which emerged within the new leisure, particularly those of the working classes. They feared a return to public disorder arising from unseemly and licentious behaviour which accompanied many of the activities of the occasional pre-industrial seasonal leisure periods. These forces drew on contemporary programs in America and Britain in their campaign to quell ‘social evils’ including intemperance, gambling and what they regarded as inappropriate behaviour on Sundays, the Lord’s Day. They advocated the uses of statutes to constrain, if not eliminate what many in the community regarded as acceptable recreational activity. Others from the reforming forces determined on ‘rationalising’ the recreation of the working classes by introducing programs which they regarded as educational and self-improving, based essentially on their own middle class experience. A further restraint were contemporary conventions which determined matters of dress, conduct and behavioural expectations affecting areas of recreational activities; they were particularly severe on women. Other conventions affected full participation by men in a small number of sporting activities. The thesis examines the origin, nature and conduct of these forces in South Australia each of which sought to discipline aspects of mainly working class recreation of the period. It concludes with an assessment of the outcomes as they appeared at the time of Federation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2010

The last four decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a significant growth of leisure hours for a growing number of South Australians, particularly working class males; it was accompanied by an upsurge in both organised and informal recreation activity. The upsurge owed much to major advances in communication during the period – in transport by rail, steamship and late in the century, the bicycle, to the network of telegraph stations which by the mid 1870s, spanned much of the colony, the country and finally linked the colony to much of the wider world, and to the growth of local and daily newspapers and specialist journals. Industry, government and commerce drove these advances, but recreation benefited from all of them and came to be a major element of commercial activity itself, as some activities generated not only participants, but spectators and audiences. These developments in turn stimulated a demand for facilities, both indoor and outdoor, which came to be met by private groups, public authorities and commercial operators, or combinations of the three. However, not all sections of the South Australian community looked favourably on aspects of these developments. Some social, religious and political forces, both separately and later as an alliance, combined to target elements of the recreation activities which emerged within the new leisure, particularly those of the working classes. They feared a return to public disorder arising from unseemly and licentious behaviour which accompanied many of the activities of the occasional pre-industrial seasonal leisure periods. These forces drew on contemporary programs in America and Britain in their campaign to quell ‘social evils’ including intemperance, gambling and what they regarded as inappropriate behaviour on Sundays, the Lord’s Day. They advocated the uses of statutes to constrain, if not eliminate what many in the community regarded as acceptable recreational activity. Others from the reforming forces determined on ‘rationalising’ the recreation of the working classes by introducing programs which they regarded as educational and self-improving, based essentially on their own middle class experience. A further restraint were contemporary conventions which determined matters of dress, conduct and behavioural expectations affecting areas of recreational activities; they were particularly severe on women. Other conventions affected full participation by men in a small number of sporting activities. The thesis examines the origin, nature and conduct of these forces in South Australia each of which sought to discipline aspects of mainly working class recreation of the period. It concludes with an assessment of the outcomes as they appeared at the time of Federation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2010

The purpose of this project was to examine interaction patterns in various campground settings and to elaborate on camping literature which has suggested that the campground is a social event with high rates of interaction. In exploring this phenomenon, this report utilized observational techniques to document the temporal, spatial, familiarity, numerical, and behavioral dimensions of the observed interactions. The data suggested that young adults and middle-aged persons were observed to be involved in, and initiated the highest proportions of, interactions. In general, males displayed far greater proportions of initiations than females. The highly developed campground exhibited higher proportions and rates of social interaction than the less developed campground; but the overall sociability of the campground was blunted by the tremendous extent of “no interaction” in both types of campgrounds. Besides the differences in population size and density of the two campground types, the non-demographic properties of the campground were also shown to be an influencing factor in interaction behavior. The major finding of this report was that regardless of the type of campground, having and not having previously existing acquaintances within the campground played a prominent role in influencing the patterns of interaction. The total interaction proportion was much higher for units with previously existing acquaintances than for units without previously existing acquaintances in the campground. The report also demonstrated that social interactions were predominantly between units who knew each other from outside the campground. The data also suggested that while population size and density, and the ecological field of a setting, played roles in influencing interaction patterns, it was the familiarity dimension that yielded the most fruitful insights and played one of the more prominent role s in influencing campground interactions.

Social contact norms are used by managers to establish standards for regulating visitation of wilderness areas so that visitors can attain adequate experiences of solitude. This study expanded on current conceptions of social contact norms to provide a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding how such norms are formed. Using person perception, stereotyping, and socialization theory and the concept of cognitive schemata, a conceptual framework was built to explain how visitors come to judge certain groups as appropriate or inappropriate in a wilderness area. Seven research hypotheses were proposed and tested using a database consisting of responses to a mail questionnaire survey of 800 permit requestors and 95 interviews with visitors at Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, Arizona. The first hypothesis, that wilderness visitors would regard some types of groups as appropriate and other types of groups as inappropriate in the wilderness area, was supported. Norms for encountering 13 types of groups were estimated from written questions and drawings, and paired picture comparisons allowed ranking of six types of groups. Encounters with lone hikers, small groups, medium-sized groups, birdwatchers, youth groups, school classes, and rangers were considered more appropriate than encounters with hunters, horseback riders, packstock users, and nude bathers. Logit and multinomial logit models were used to test the six remaining hypotheses, which concerned the influences of socialization and other processes on development of social contact norms. To test the hypotheses, norms for encountering six types for groups were predicted from demographic and other variables. The results indicated that norms for encountering small groups were not affected by social class or race; affiliation with a small group during a wilderness visit was associated with a dislike of large groups, membership in a conservation organization had no such association; members of conservation organizations preferred fewer encounters with hunters; membership in a conservation organization also prompted the respondents to dislike encounters with horseback riders; females, older visitors, and people with children disliked encountering nude bathers; and inexperienced and less self-reliant visitors enjoyed encounters with rangers. Theoretical, managerial, and social implications of these results were then discussed.