RPTS 601
Objectives and Discussion Questions
Readings
1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Enjoyment and the quality of life. In Flow: The psychology of optimal
experience (pp. 43-70). New York: Harper & Row.
2. Kelly, J. R., & Freysinger, V. J. (2000). Leisure, play, and recreation. In 21st century leisure: Current
issues (pp. 14-23). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
3. Stebbins, R. A. (2005). Choice and experiential definitions of leisure. Leisure Sciences, 27, 349-352.
4. Urry, J. (1990). The tourist gaze. In The tourist gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies (pp. 115). London: Sage Publications.
Objectives
1. We will learn how leisure, recreation, and tourism have been defined.
2. We will examine the social and historical contexts underlying various definitions of leisure, recreation,
and tourism.
3. We will examine critically the utility of different definitions of leisure.
Discussion Questions
1. What key factors help us understand the meaning of leisure, recreation, play, and tourism?
2. I have never found a precise definition of tourist gaze. What do you think the term means?
3. Urry stated that for a place to develop a distinctive tourist gaze, “there must be certain aspects of the
place… which distinguish it from what is conventionally encountered in everyday life” (p. 11). In what
ways do objects or places become distinctive?
4. In what ways are leisure, recreation, play, enjoyment, and tourism similar? In what ways are they
different?
5. Which definition of leisure works best for you? Why?
6. Think of a recent event that you found enjoyable. What made it enjoyable? Did it include the elements of
enjoyment summarized by Csikszentmihalyi?
7. From a research perspective, how would you go about measuring enjoyment?
8. In what ways do leisure, recreation, and tourism embody freedom and free choice? What does freedom of
action mean in the context of leisure, recreation, and tourism?
9. How much of your leisure and tourism is recreation?
10. From Stebbins' point of view, how important is choice in defining leisure? In what ways are leisure
choices contextualized?
11. What does Stebbins mean that experiential leisure is "uncoerced behavior"? How useful is Stebbins'
definition of leisure compared to more traditional definitions?