The first book to integrate the social science literature on outdoor recreation has been completely updated to reflect current research and new concerns. The book is a standard text in courses and an invaluable reference for park and recreation managers.
The benefits of being outdoors in a leisure context are widely acknowledged across a range of disciplinary perspectives (including tourism, therapeutics, education and recreation). These benefits include the development of: health and wellbeing; social skills; leadership and facilitation skills; personal, emotional and reflective abilities; confidence and identity creation. Drawing on a variety of perspectives, geographies and approaches, this book explores the opportunities that leisure in the outdoors provides for learning, developing and challenging. The authors in this collection challenge dominant discourses of outdoor leisure through their selection of outdoor activities, theoretical approaches and modes of representation. All offer fresh insights and thinking into how leisure in the outdoors can be understood. The book covers a range of outdoor conceptualisations that challenge the reader to think deeply and broadly about the common threads which bind the broad field of outdoor leisure together. The experiences explored in this book range from suburban outdoors to wild places, surfing to mindful reflection, and trail walking to Nordic skiing, and encompass a broad spectrum of people.
The global popularity of outdoor recreation and ecotourism is on the increase. At present, there is little systematic information on the management practices that have been successful in National Parks. This book presents the issue of how to manage outdoor recreation in ways that protect the integrity of park resources and the quality of the visitor experience. Using case studies drawn from the U.S. National Park System, it illustrates a range of successful management approaches that can be applied worldwide.
An essential resource for those wishing to understand the key factors behind the operation of an adventure tourism company and how to be able to deliver a profitable as well as a sustainable product. It discusses important factors such as how the use of technologies and the current importance of environmental impacts and climate change are areas that are key to adventure tourism firms. To remain profitable companies need to address these issues along with the important elements of risk and safety. Created from the author's experience in delivering adventure tourism courses over the last 20 years, this long-awaited book is aimed at both university courses on adventure tourism and outdoor recreation as well as those working within the industry.
Adventure and outdoor sports - from rock climbing to freestyle kayaking – are a modern social phenomenon that can tell us much about the relationship between sport, culture and contemporary society. In this engaging new introductory text, adventure sports are used to illustrate key concepts in social theory and to demonstrate why an understanding of social theory is essential for any student taking a course in sport, adventure, or outdoor education. Each chapter in the book introduces a key ‘classical’ or modern social theorist, including Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Elias, or a universal topic or issue in social theory, such as sustainability, commodification or identity. Within each of those chapters the theorist or topic is brought to life through case studies of adventurous activities and lived experiences, helping the reader to connect their own sporting and adventurous interests with the frameworks we use to understand wider culture and society. Concise and full of cutting-edge contemporary examples, Outdoor Adventure and Social Theory is the perfect companion for any module on the sociology of sport, adventure or outdoor recreation.
"Whether you are working in a public, private, or nonprofit setting, Outdoor Program Administration: Principles and Practices is your essential guide as an outdoor program administrator. Using this reference, you will improve your skills and enhance your programs." -- Back cover
An authoritative guide to managing the ecological impacts of recreational activities on natural resources. The challenges facing today's recreation resource managers are both complex and daunting. Accommodating rapidly growing numbers of recreational visitors without sacrificing the ecological integrity of wildlands is a major challenge. Determining and planning for the limits of acceptable change and expanding services with little or no growth in natural resources or funding are major issues. Wildland Recreation, Second Edition provides solutions to these and other crucial recreational resource problems. Based upon its authors' extensive firsthand experience as well as their exhaustive review of the world literature on the subject, it provides up-to-date, detailed coverage of today's wildland recreation management issues, including: Ecological impacts of recreational activities on wildland resources Spatial and temporal patterns of recreational impacts Environmental durability, visitor use, and other key factors The limits of acceptable change, long-term monitoring, and impacts on wildlife Social and economic factors associated with managing impacts Alternative approaches to wildland recreation resource management Recent trends in satisfying increased demand for outdoor recreational opportunities International perspectives on recreational wildland management and ecotourism Like its best-selling predecessor, Wildland Recreation, Second Edition is a valuable working resource for wildland recreation management professionals and a comprehensive course text for students of forest and natural resources recreation, park management, environmental conservation, and related disciplines.
This textbook presents a comprehensive overview of the environmental impacts of various types of outdoor recreation, and how these can be best managed. As a field of study, recreational ecology is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, and the authors seek to develop a deeper understanding of both the role and function of the factors that influence visitor numbers and their impact. An accessible and comprehensive textbook, it features numerous types of outdoor recreational activities including hill walking, rock climbing, mountain marathons, skiing, scuba diving and more. Drawn from several global case studies, the authors estimate the current and future numbers involved in outdoor recreation, and how best these numbers can be managed. Effective visitor impact management actions arise from collaboration between recreation ecologists, social scientists, experienced recreation managers, recreation stakeholders and the recreationalists themselves: as such, this book will be multi-disciplinary in scope. This practical and engaging textbook will be invaluable to students and scholars of outdoor recreation and adventure tourism as well as practitioners and managers working in the field.
Outdoor Adventure Education: Foundations, Theories, Models, and Research steeps students in the theories, concepts, and developments of outdoor adventure education, preparing them for careers in this burgeoning field. This text is based on author Alan W. Ewert’s pioneering book Outdoor Adventure Pursuits: Foundations, Models, and Theories. Ewert and Sibthorp, both experienced practitioners, researchers, and educators, explore the outdoor adventure field today in relation to the changes that have occurred since Ewert’s first book. The authors present a comprehensive text on outdoor and adventure foundations, theories, and research that will provide the basis for the next generation of professionals.