Sheppard: RPTA 180 Class Notes 1
SEMANTICS: LEISURE, RECREATION & TOURISM
leisure (l¶“zhr, lzh“r) n. 1. Freedom from time-consuming duties, responsibilities, or
activities. See Synonyms at rest1. --attributive. Often used to modify another noun: leisure
time; leisure travel. --idiom. at (one's) leisure. When one has free time; at one's
convenience: I'll return the call at my leisure. [Middle English, from Norman French leisour,
from Old French leisir, to be permitted, from Latin lic¶re.]
recreation (rk”r¶-³“shn) n. Abbr. rec. Refreshment of one's mind or body after work
through activity that amuses or stimulates; play.
tourism (t‹r“¹z”m) n. 1. The practice of traveling for pleasure. 2. The business of providing
tours and services for tourists.
(Source: The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd Ed.). CD-ROM
Houghton Mifflin/Infosoft - 1992/1994.)
Semantics
In departments such as ours, we deal constantly with issues of semantics
concerning these and other terms. You will learn, or have already learned,
about the various and conflicting definitions within our field for these
concepts. However, to understand our subject matter and the semantics of
what it includes, this section provides a few basic ideas and relationships.
This section has its own included reference section.
Leisure, Recreation and Tourism
Any discussion of the inter-relationships (if any) between leisure, recreation
and tourism is clearly dependent on the chosen definitions for each of the
three.
What is Leisure?
There has been much consideration, discussion and argument concerning
the meaning and nature of leisure. A hypothetically average person on the
street is likely to define leisure as free time; whatever time is left over after
doing all of the things that one is obliged to do. This real world definition,
not surprisingly, is also found in dictionaries. However, it is certainly not
the only interpretation that has been given.
Kelly and Godbey (1992, pp 14-15) cited the following three general
definitions of leisure:
Nonproductive consumption of time. (Veblen, 1899)
Leisure is a state of being in which activity is performed for its own
sake or its own end ... And we call final without reservation that which
is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.
Leisure stands in that last class by itself. (de Grazia, 1964)
Leisure is activity - apart from the obligations of work, family and
society - to which the individual turns at will, for either relaxation,
diversion, or broadening his spontaneous social participation, the free
exercise of his creative capacity. (Dumazedier, 1967)
Godbey (1994, p. 5) adds:
Leisure has one and only one essential criterion, and that is the
condition of perceived freedom. Any activity carried out freely,
without constraint or compulsion, may be considered to be leisure.
To leisure implies being engaged in an activity as a free agent and of
ones own choice. (Neulinger, 1974)
Kelly (1996, p. 17) cites six types of leisure (Murphy, 1974) including an
“antiutilitarian” definition, “leisure as an end in itself, not secondary to work,
as self-expression, and as self-fulfilling satisfaction.” He also cites the
definition used in The International Time Budget Study (p.18) as “doing
things that are not connected with employment or with maintaining home
and self.”
Leisure as a state of being can seem rather exclusionary; "Leisure refers to
a state of being, a condition of man, which few desire and fewer achieve"
(Pieper cited in Kelly & Godbey, 1992, p. 18). To be in a state of leisure
implies a long term or continual "absence of necessity" (Godbey, 1994,
p.8).
Thus, leisure is variously defined as time, activity, state of mind, or state of
being, but an underlying sense of freedom of choice or discretion is
common to all, whether it be free time, free choice of activity, sense of
freedom, or sense of being free. Godbey (1994, p.11) proposed his own
definition,
Leisure is living in relative freedom from the external compulsive
forces of one’s culture and physical environment so as to be able to
act from internally compelling love in ways which are personally
pleasing, intuitively worthwhile, and provide a basis for faith.
An attempt at an inclusive, generalized definition might be stated as
follows:
Leisure is any combination of - the time in our lives when we are
relatively free to choose our activities (including no activity) both
physical and mental, the actual activities that we so choose, the way
the activity itself makes us feel, the way we feel about being free to
make such a choice and the manner in which we reach that choice,
and the way we feel about knowing that we will be and have been
free to make such choices.
This is in turn a reflection of my views regarding subjectivity, in this case an
individual would be at leisure when they believe themselves to be so,
because of some combination of the above.
Recreation
Definitions of recreation can be all encompassing enough as to match
definitions of leisure, or be simply “activity in free time” where leisure is
simply free time. But there seems some consensus in making it somewhat
more limited, still as activity, but as beneficial leisure activity that has a
restorative effect in a manner that is somewhat more organized than simple
leisure. Kelly and Godbey (1992, p.20) cited Cheek and Burch (1976) who
had said, “Broadly conceived, recreation is rationalized leisure; it is the
routinization of enjoyment.” Kelly and Godbey’s own definition defines
recreation as “voluntary non-work activity that is organized for the
attainment of personal and social benefits including restoration and
cohesion” (p.21). Kelly (1996, p.12) cited Doel and Fitzgerald (1954) for
whom recreation activities were “morally sound, mentally and physically
uplifting, respectful of the rights of others, voluntarily motivated and [which]
provide a sense of pleasure and achievement.” In short, recreation seems
to be active, positive, structured leisure - leisure as “good” activity.
Role Determined Leisure
Kelly (1996) also discusses what might be viewed as a lesser form of
leisure; one where choice is not total. Role determined leisure
encompasses those activities and times spent in an apparently
discretionary way, but while fulfilling family type (non-work) obligations.
This would include such activities as attending a child’s school play (when
would not have gone if a child was not involved). This argument could
logically be extended to role-determined recreation (e.g., coaching little
league, father-son/mother-daughter games) and role-determined tourism
(e.g., visiting friends and relatives).
Generic Recreation and Travel
Let us go one step further and consider recreational-type activities and
travel at their most generic level. It is possible to participate in the same
activities as in freely chosen recreation in a family setting (role-determined
recreation as above) and also in a work setting (e..g, the company softball
league). Similarly the generic term travel (or trip, to avoid commuting) can
involve business travel.
Models of the Inter-Relationship
Figure 1a depicts a simple model with one dimension divided into work and
non-work (labeled free time) time or activities (can be viewed either way),
and a second dimension divided into “home” and “away” (works as either
set distance, overnights, or subjective viewpoint). Thus home+work is
employment, home+free time is leisure, away+work is business travel, and
away+free time is tourism. Figure 1b extends this with the concept of roledetermination between work and free time (making the “free” in free time
purer) based on obligations of a family nature (could also include non
remunerated social responsibilities - volunteerism).
Figure 1a
Figure 1b
Figure 2 incorporates recreation into the model, without allowing for roledetermination. Thus the pale gray field incorporates all obligated
time/activities/states (whichever viewpoint is taken) with the leisure circle
being the only area that is truly discretionary/unobligated. Here the generic
level travel circle overlaps leisure to form tourism and recreation at a
generic level also overlaps leisure to form a “truer” freely chosen
recreation. Within the leisure domain (ignoring the rest of the model)
tourism and recreation are seen to be overlapping areas.
Figure 2
Greek Semantics
Remember, many of the semantic arguments and theorizing are dependant
upon translation from ancient Greek texts and their subsequent copies. We
are, of course, considering Greek words somewhat adrift on a sea of
contextlessness. Three hundred years of linguistic translation and
semantic drift can only further muddy these already murky waters.
However, many of our reference points and comparisons are by necessity
linguistically and temporally further removed from their home ports. In
considering the Greeks, for example, we must trust generations of hearsay
evidence, transcription, and translation in a historic game of Chinese
Whispers. We only have to consider our present semantic world, where it
is often good to be bad and cool to be hot, to appreciate the inherent risks
of such a course.
Where leisure is referred to as activity, for example, it has been equated
with schole, a Greek word meaning "serious activity without the pressure of
necessity" (Goodman cited in Godbey, 1994, p. 4). This argument relies on
this linguistic equation.
Godbey pointed out that one should not confuse leisure (as schole) with
recreation as the Greeks had another word for recreation or "playful
amusement to pass the time." But time-passing playful amusement is a
loose fit for any concept of recreation that assumes a more directed
attempt at physical or mental renewal. In direct linguistic descent, schole
has translated itself into school.
There may, however, be some confusion between leisure as activity and
leisure as a state of mind as Dare, Welton and Coe (1987, p. xvii) referred
to paidia and anapasis as amusements and recreation respectively.
Godbey (1994, p.4) seemed to be referring to paidia as recreation, whereas
Dare, et. al. used anapasis. Dare, et. al. also referred to schole (skole), but
as a state of being rather than an activity, so it is hard to accept one
definition/translation.
Departments and Programs Such As Ours
Clearly, there are multiple and overlapping definitions for some of our key
terms. At Sac State, we have a concentration in Commercial Recreation
that incorporates classes in Travel & Tourism and Resort Administration.
At Clemson University, for example, the Travel & Tourism concentration
includes a class in Commercial Recreation, as well as a Resorts class.
With the Resorts classes, hospitality is therefore included in either
commercial recreation or travel & tourism. In some schools, a hospitality
department might include tourism and/or recreation classes. For example,
at UNLV, the Harrah College of Hospitality Administration includes a
program in Tourism and there is a totally separate department that includes
leisure and recreation studies. We are clearly playing games of semantics.
Similarly, programs such as these may fall into schools or colleges of
Health and Human Studies, Human Development, Education, Business,
Agriculture, Forestry, Family and Consumer Sciences, etc. Much of the
semantics debate at each school is determined by the who, when and why
of the program's inception. Programs that are heavy in traditional leisure
theory are often in human development colleges, programs that are
oriented towards natural resource management are often associated with
forestry and agriculture programs, and commercially oriented and tourismheavy programs are often aligned with hospitality programs.
All of this is intended to give you a better understanding of where you and
your degree fit into the world of your peers at other schools. You diploma
will state that you have a degree in Recreation and Park Administration and
you may list your specific concentration on your resume.
References for the Semantics Section
Dare, B., Welton, G., & Coe, W. (1987). Concepts of leisure in western
thought: A critical and historical analysis. Dubuque, IA: Kendal/Hunt.
Godbey, G. C. (1994). Leisure in Your Life: An Exploration. State College,
PA: Venture.
Kelly, J. R. (1996). Leisure (3rd Ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn &
Bacon.
Kelly, J. R., & Godbey, G. C. (1992). The Sociology of Leisure. State
College, PA: Venture.