Contents: The Aging Journey; Theoretical Perspectives on Aging; Biological Processes; Cognitive Processes; Psychological Aging; The Importance of Leisure; The Leisure Experience -- Motivation Factors; Time and Activities in Retirement -- On Being or Becoming Ulyssean; Ethnicity and Gender -- Impact on Leisure for Older Adults; Living Environments; The Long-Term Care Facility; The Community Environment.
Leisure and Aging: Theory and Practice provides students and professionals with a balanced perspective of current knowledge as it presents cutting-edge research in both fields. Supplemented by online ancillaries, this text offers a wealth of knowledge on various aspects of life for older people and the role of leisure in their lives.
Serious Leisure offers a comprehensive view and analysis of the current state of the sociology of leisure. Defining and differentiating the way people use their free time, Stebbins divides such activity into categories of serious, casual, and project-based leisure that he further separates into a variety of types and subtypes. Together they comprise what he calls "serious leisure." In this perspective, serious leisure constitutes systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity sufficiently substantial and interesting in nature and requiring special skills, knowledge, and experience. Casual leisure, though immediately, intrinsically rewarding, is by contrast a relatively short-lived pleasurable activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. Project-based leisure is a short-term, reasonably complicated, occasional creative undertaking carried out in free time. Stebbins sets out the basic concepts and propositions that make up the three forms, focusing on their essential elements. He takes stock of the serious leisure literature as well as that for casual and project-based leisure. Stebbins sees "serious leisure" realized by way of a set of foundational concepts--organization, community, history, lifestyle, and culture--and several of their component areas. He reviews the history and background of the concept of serious leisure and then adds historical commentary on, first, casual leisure and, then, project-based leisure. Finally, he examines the future and the importance of the serious leisure perspective in a globalizing world, and some of its critical links with other fields of knowledge and practice, notably the nonprofit sector and preventive medicine. Together with its original insights, Serious Leisure offers a single, handy, coherent, comprehensive resource. It will be of interest to sociologists, labor studies specialists, and economists.
This book analyses leisure choice as a complex concept, made more complicated in later life than at any other time. The author posits that there are many unanswered questions about the new booming generation of healthy, older people, and this book asks what it is really like to be old at the beginning of the 21st century in the United Kingdom, analysing leisure in older people in the context of the subtle politics of the day to day. Throughout the chapters, the author highlights the often missing depictions of older people who enjoy and enact bold, informed agency as part of their everyday lives. Drawing upon secondary data from the Mass Observation Archive, a social thesis of leisure and ageing emerges that challenges the individualism inherent in ‘active ageing.’ It is proposed that the idea of ‘active ageing’ creates complex constraints to leisure as people strive to measure up to cultural expectations. The stories in this book advocate for an appreciation and re-evaluation of passive leisure in later life, and the enjoyment and freedom it can bring. The project is therefore useful to students and researchers of leisure studies, gerontology and sociology of ageing.
In this volume, leading contributors from both gerontology and leisure studies discuss the importance of various kinds of activity to health, social integration and the quality of later life. Each chapter discusses the history of research and theory on a specific issue, current formulations and some implications for the future. The volume addresses such issues as productivity, social bonding, persistence in exercise and specific activities in retirement communities and senior programmes.
This edited collection explores Positive Sociology of Leisure (PSL) as a subfield relating to leisure studies, sociology of leisure, and sociology of happiness. Defined as an area of research that examines social aspects of leisure life with a focus on the optimal functioning of relationship, group, community, organization, and other social units, PSL differs from more critical forms of sociology in that its starting point is social positives. The contributions draw on a range of diverse disciplinary backgrounds to consider various meanings of leisure across themes such as: ageing; sex, sexuality and family; community, youth, and education; and arts and creativity. Positive Sociology of Leisure will be a key reference within the field of sociology of leisure, as well as an important introductory book for those interested in leisure studies.
This book promotes a critical reflection about the research conducted so far in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with older people, whose predominant perspective focuses on decline, health, and help. It introduces a new (or different) perspective, which is grounded in interdisciplinary research on older people and digital technologies. Key elements are to (i) address topics that include, but also go beyond decline, health, and help, such as leisure, fun, creativity and culture, to delve more deeply into the role of digital technologies in multiple facets of older people’s lives; (ii) focus on doing research and designing technologies with and for older adults, and their communities, to avoid and fight against negative social conceptions of ageing; and (iii) examine older people’s life course, strengths, interests, and values, as well as their limitations and needs, to design technologies that not only help but also empower them, extending their abilities and acquiring new knowledge, beyond technology use. This perspective aims to help us better understand, design, and evaluate older people’s interactions with digital technologies in the early 21st century.
"Leisure is everywhere, but its impact on people's lives is often overlooked. Leisure is more than “doing nothing” or “hanging out.” It has implications for society, affecting economics, politics, business, health, and the environment. On an individual level, it offers multiple opportunities for personal growth and development. And it contributes to a better quality of life for individuals and communities as a whole. With Dimensions of Leisure for Life: Individuals and Society, students will learn to understand and appreciate leisure and explore the ways that their leisure choices can help them lead happier, more balanced lives both now and in the future. ... With contributions from 22 leading professors, the book examines the following: the concept of leisure, including the various ways in which it has been defined and described, the benefits associated with it, the scope of the leisure industry field, and the basis for studying leisure as a social science; the impact of leisure on quality of life, health, physical activity and stress levels, and overall happiness and well-being; the social significance of leisure, including the interaction of leisure with history, contemporary society, technology, the environment, economics, and politics and public policy; the factors that influence each individual's leisure choices and level of involvement in leisure activities, such as awareness of local options, barriers of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status, geographic distribution of leisure spaces; and maturity level and stage of development."--Publisher.
Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.
