The 1997 Leisure Research Symposium

Parks & Recreation, May, 1998 by John Hultsman, M. Deborah Bialeschki, Asuncion T. Suren

The 1997 National Recreation and Park Association Congress in Salt Lake City, Utah, marked the 20th annual Leisure Research. Symposium (LRS). Along with the Opening Session, "Writing for Social Change," nearly 90 written presentations were featured. For the first time since the inception of the Leisure Research Symposium, the paper presentations were grouped thematically rather. than by the topical areas under which they were reviewed. This change allowed those attending who were interested in a particular subject (at-risk youth, marginalized groups, constraints) to attend a single session where all the presentations focused on that subject.

While the process of grouping papers was obviously subjective, and papers could certainly have been grouped in a number of different ways, the response to this change in format seemed, in general, to be quite positive.

Additionally, interest in the alternative poster format had increased considerably over last year, and, as a result, 19 papers were featured as poster presentations. In addition to the paper and poster sessions, the 1997 LRS featured two "Brown Bag Lunch" discussions. The first, chaired by Dan Williams of the University of Illinois, was a panel discussion featuring the editors of the journals in leisure and recreation. The second Brown Bag session, chaired by Peter Witt of Texas A&M University, focused on issues inherent in undertaking community-based research. Finally, a Research Roundtable, chaired by Deb Jordan of the University of Northern Iowa, was held again this year.

Opening Session

The theme for the 1997 Opening Session of the Leisure Research Symposium was "Writing for Social Change." The intent of the session was to hear from a panel of leading scholars about their personal perspectives on the writing that they do and how it reflects their research interests and commitment to bring about social change. Dan Dustin began the session with his talk, titled "Like Light Passing Through A Prism." Dustin talked of his life as a metaphor for examining who we are and how we came to be the writer, the thinker, the individual. Karla Henderson presented her paper as a dialogue with Jane Addams. In "Writing From My Heart: A Letter To Jane Addams," Henderson commented on issues of social change promoted by Jane Addams as she has interpreted them in her current scholarship. Geoffrey Godbey raised issues about the disparate views of social change and how change is accomplished in our field in his talk, "If You Write For Social Change and No One Reads It, You Can Only Change Yourself." Tom Goodale ended this section of the panel with his presentation, "A Would Be Faithful Witness," in which he voiced his concerns about our sense of commitment to social issues and change promoted as a result of our writing and research. The next segment of the session was completed by David Scott and Bertha Cato. These two researchers reported on their experiences of writing for social change as a result of working on collaborative research projects with practitioners. They raised issues regarding the benefits and costs of this type of scholarship and some of the challenges in working on collaborative efforts. The discussion throughout the afternoon dealt with issues of personal concerns and perspectives from the audience and opportunities to apply the speakers' perspectives to ourselves. The thoughts developed during the Opening Session provided a framework and point of reference for the remainder of the symposium.

Areas of Concentration

The 17 papers in the ethnic minorities, marginalized groups, women and older adults session reflected the growing interest in research on diverse populations. The papers looked broadly at the concept of leisure in a variety of settings and covered a wide range of topics. Karla Henderson's paper on issues in researching diverse populations set a framework for the papers in this topical area. Papers such as those presented by Tirone and Pedlar, McDonald and McAvoy, Stodolska and Jackson, and Pawelko, Drogin, and Graefe researched the effects of race and ethnicity on leisure and resulted in increased visibility to perceptions regarding racism, discrimination, and conflict. The role of leisure in the lives of stigmatized groups was addressed in papers presented by Kivel and Lyons, Pearce, and Francis. These researchers analyzed cutting-edge issues related to lesbian/gay/and bisexual youth, people living with AIDS, and women who had been in abusive relationships, and highlighted both the negative and positive aspects of leisure. Issues related to older adults, such as memory, cross-cultural differences in lifestyles, and travel habits, were discussed by Snyder and Singleton, Hawkins et al., and Gibson. Gender issues were addressed in many of the papers but were a particular focus in papers by Arnold, Klitzing et al., and Rehman. These papers focused on professional issues, such as inequity and the effects on women's professional development. Perhaps the most striking aspect in this topical set of papers was the degree to which the researchers were looking at the interrelationships among varied social factors. Rather than segregate the analysis into one arbitrary aspect, such as gender or race, the authors were often looking at multiple social factors and the interaction among the categories as a way to more realistically understand the lives of these culturally "subordinate" groups.