This "First Principles" report begins with a brief assessment of the state of leisure in America today, before turning to the traditional understanding of the concept. In reconsidering the classical notion that leisure requires education, or, more radically, that the purpose of education is leisure, the report will focus especially on…

In the pages to follow, I propose a meditation on the concept of study, its place in our contemporary scene, and its relation to the classical notion of leisure. In general terms, we can define leisure as an extreme disposition or state in which our relation to the world remains indeterminate in some way. In this sense, leisure favours a radical…

In times of global tendencies on governance of the public sector, 'quality' has become a keyword, an ideal. In Sweden, all municipalities, school heads and teachers are required to carry out systematic quality work to meet the demand on goal attainment. Working with documentation is a crucial aspect of this process. The Swedish leisure-time centre…

Many recreation and leisure professionals are looking for opportunities to upgrade their skills and knowledge in the context of their work. For some professionals that involves returning to post-secondary education. Yet, most undergraduate degree programs are designed in formats for students who are assumed to have little prior professional…

The third edition of "A Career with Meaning" offers new perspectives on the field and updates on trends and research related to each career area. Of note is the renewed emphasis in our field and thus on understanding the role recreation and leisure play in promoting health and wellness, sustainability, and social justice. The book uses…

How the Swedish after-school leisure program pedagogy relates to special education is rarely the subject of research. The problematization of the special education concept in the after-school leisure centers will be the starting point of this analysis model. This has been constructed with the aim of investigating how actors in the Swedish…

This chapter considers leisure as a powerful agent for social change alongside the field of adult education in bringing to life the idea of learning cities.

The most significant change in this edition of "Leisure Education Program Planning" is the infusion of information gleaned from writings by some of the leaders of the positive psychology movement. These readings provide valuable perspectives and insights about concepts related to leisure and leisure education. The book is organized into…

This article explores the recontextualisation of systematic quality development work (Sqdw) in a leisure-time centre. Two teachers' processes of planning, organisation, documentation and evaluation were investigated, the aim being to explore the recontextualisation of Sqdw in practice. The study is thus a case study of these teachers' practice…

We examined whether a 12-week leisure education program could promote leisure autonomy and leisure competence and reduce stress in older adults. Forty subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Before the experiment, pretest data were collected using leisure autonomy, leisure competence, and stress scales.…

Noting that our field is minimally relevant to the multitude of ways the American public is engaged in leisure and recreation, Samdahl delves into our history in attempt to understand how this came about. She notes that the recreation movement as canonized in our textbooks ignores parallel efforts that led to community theaters, libraries, and…

This article deals with the relationship between adults' free time and further education. More specifically, the paper addresses the question of whether there are similarities and analogies between the leisure time that adults dedicate to non-formal educational activities and free time per se. A structured questionnaire was used to examine the…

The article focuses on how leisure-time teachers (LtT) in Sweden both confirm and resist the array of new demands related to leisure-time centres (LtC). The data consist of interviews with six LtTs. The results are interpreted as representing different parts of the LtT's professionalism and show that the LtTs through their tellings constructs…

"A Career with Meaning" is a tailor-made journey that enables individuals to match their core beliefs and values with numerous professional opportunities within the leisure industry. Leading experts provide detailed discussion and insight for 11 primary areas related to recreation, parks, sport management, hospitality, and tourism. Once…

As I embarked on my master's research in 1992, women's experiences and the meanings of these experiences as leisure were almost invisible in the literature comprising the field of leisure studies. When women's experiences of leisure did surface, these experiences were trivialised; women were classified as 'other' or as a problem group to be…