JS-71
Leisure for a Livable Society

Friday, 20 July 2018: 08:30-10:20
Location: 201D (MTCC NORTH BUILDING)
RC13 Sociology of Leisure (host committee)
RC55 Social Indicators

Language: English

There has been a growing interest among social psychologists in the relationship between leisure and happiness (e.g., Kuykendall, Tay, & Ng, 2015; Newman, Tay, & Diener, 2014). However, such understanding often limited to individual lives, leaving social aspects of the relationship between leisure and happiness underexplored. This means that we lack in an understanding of how social factors influence the relationship between leisure and individual well-being; and more importantly, the relationship between leisure and the quality of societies (i.e., the social equivalent of individual quality of life) remains understudied. Recently, we have seen more sociological research on this issue (e.g., Nawijn & Veenhoven, 2013; Stebbins, 2015). The purpose of this joint session is to further speed up this trend by bridging two research committees that play crucial roles in this line of research: RC 13 Sociology of Leisure and RC 55 Social Indicators Research. We hope to see submissions that help systematic development of theories, present relevant evidence, and inspire new research directions. The term “livability” instead of happiness or well-being (Veenhoven, 2000) is intentionally used in the session title to welcome submissions that not only address leisure’s effect on individual happiness, but also speak to how social factors affect this relationship and what roles leisure can play in the pursuit of the improved quality of societies. We also look forward to seeing submissions from researchers across diverse disciplines, including (but not limited to) sociology, leisure studies, happiness studies, social psychology, and economics
Session Organizers:
Shintaro KONO, University of Alberta, Canada, Robert STEBBINS, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada and Robert BIJL, Netherlands Inst Social Research, Netherlands
Chair:
Maliga NAIDOO, University of KwaZulu Natal, Department of Biokinetics, Exercise and Leisure Sciences, South Africa
Co-Chair:
Vicki HARMAN, University of Surrey, United Kingdom
Oral Presentations
Labor, Leisure, and Well-Being from a Historical and Empirical Perspective
Jiri ZUZANEK, University of Waterloo, Canada; Alexander GRAHAM, University of Waterloo, Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, Canada
Picturing Midlife Body Image and Physical Activity: “It Changes with Every Little Environment”
Lisa PETTY, Brock University, Canada; Kimberley GAMMAGE, Brock University, Canada
Manning up and Manning on: Masculinities, Hegemonic Masculinity, and Leisure Studies
Luc COUSINEAU, University of Waterloo, Canada; Corey JOHNSON, University of Waterloo, Canada