Multispecies Leisure

Multispecies Leisure: Human-Animal Interactions in Leisure Landscapes seeks to ‘bring the animal in’ to the leisure studies domain and contribute to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, interwoven multispecies phenomenon. The emerging multidisciplinary field of human-animal studies encourages researchers to move beyond narrow focus on human-centric practices and ways of being in the world, and to recognise that human and non-human beings are positioned within shared ecological, social, cultural and political spaces. With some exceptions, leisure studies has been slow to embrace the ‘animal turn’ and consider how leisure actions, experiences and landscapes are shaped through multispecies encounters between humans, other animals, birds and insects, plants and environment. This book begins to address this gap by presenting research that considers leisure as more-than-human experiences. The authors consider leisure with nonhuman others (e.g. dogs, horses), affecting those others (e.g. environmental concerns) and affected by the non-human (e.g. landscape, weather), by exploring the ‘contact zones’ between humans and other species. Thus, this work contributes to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, multispecies phenomenon. The chapters in this book were originally published as a Special Issue of the Leisure Studies.

Multispecies Leisure: Human-Animal Interactions in Leisure Landscapes seeks to 'bring the animal in' to the leisure studies domain and contribute to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, interwoven multispecies phenomenon. The emerging multidisciplinary field of human-animal studies encourages researchers to move beyond narrow focus on human-centric practices and ways of being in the world, and to recognise that human and non-human beings are positioned within shared ecological, social, cultural and political spaces. With some exceptions, leisure studies has been slow to embrace the 'animal turn' and consider how leisure actions, experiences and landscapes are shaped through multispecies encounters between humans, other animals, birds and insects, plants and environment. This book begins to address this gap by presenting research that considers leisure as more-than-human experiences. The authors consider leisure with nonhuman others (e.g. dogs, horses), affecting those others (e.g. environmental concerns) and affected by the non-human (e.g. landscape, weather), by exploring the 'contact zones' between humans and other species. Thus, this work contributes to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, multispecies phenomenon. The chapters in this book were originally published as a Special Issue of the Leisure Studies.

In the era of technology and big data, advanced and innovative research methods and conducting effective research to solve emerging problems in tourism and hospitality is critical, making Advanced Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism a necessity for academics and practitioners.

This book examines the concept of ‘lockdown leisure’ as closely related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a range of inter-disciplinary chapters, the volume unpacks leisure life in lockdown contexts through a range of empirical, conceptual and theoretical contributions. In many countries, a key response to the global Covid-19 pandemic was the implementation of national, regional or local lockdowns. Focusing on the diverse medium and long-term socio-cultural impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, this book examining how various forms of lockdowns impacted leisure activities, industries, cultures and spaces across a variety of transnational contexts. It contains original chapters on topics including but not limited to physical activity, cultural participation, recreation and green spaces, technology, and social exclusion. And so, it shows how Covid-19 lockdowns transformed existing, and produced new, leisure activities. This book is a fascinating reading for students and researchers of leisure studies, sociology, media and cultural studies, youth studies, and educational studies. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, Leisure Studies.

This diverse, global, and interdisciplinary volume explores the existing research, practice, and ethical issues pertinent to the field of human-animal interactions (HAIs), interventions, and anthrozoology, focusing on the perceived physical and mental health benefits to humans and the challenges derived from these relationships. The book begins by exploring the basic theoretical principles of anthrozoology and HAI, such as the evolution and history of the field, the importance of language, the economic costs and current perspectives to physical and mental wellbeing, the origins of domestication of animals, anthropomorphism, and how animals fit into human societies. Chapters then move onto practice, covering topics such as how animals help childhood and adulthood development, pet ownership, disability, the roles of pets for people with psychiatric disorders, the links between animal and domestic abuse, and then more widely into the therapeutic roles of animals, animal-assisted therapies, interactions outside the home, working animals, animals in popular culture, and animals in research, for leisure, and food. Including chapters on a wide range of animals, from domesticated pets to wildlife, this collection examines the benefits yet also reveals the complexity, and often dark side, of human-animal relations. Interweaving accessible commentaries with revealing chapters throughout the text, this collection would be of great interest to students and practitioners in the fields of mental health, psychology, veterinary medicine, zoology, biology, social work, history, and sociology.

This volume examines sport’s relationship with the environment in the context of the ongoing climate crisis. Contributors examine how sport is implicated in environmentally damaging activities,how decisions are made about how to respond to environmental issues, who benefits most and least from these decisions.

Sport has come to have an increasingly large impact on daily life and commerce across the globe. From mega-events, such as the World Cup or Super Bowl, to the early socialization of children into sport, the study of sport and society has developed as a distinctly wide-ranging scholarly enterprise, centered in sociology, sport studies, and cultural, media, and gender studies. In The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society, Lawrence Wenner brings together contributions from the world's leading scholars on sport and society to create the premier comprehensive and interdisciplinary reference for scholars and students looking to understand key areas of inquiry about the role and impacts of sport in contemporary culture. The Handbook offers penetrating analyses of the key ways that today's outsized sport is integrated into the lives of both athletes and fans and increasingly shapes the social fabric and cultural logics across the world. Featuring 85 leading international scholars, the volume is organized into six sections: society and values, enterprise and capital, participation and cultures, lifespan and careers, inclusion and exclusion, and spectator engagement and media. To aid comprehension and comparison, each chapter opens with a brief introduction to the area of research and features a common organizational scheme with three main sections of key issues, approaches, and debates to guide scholars and students to what is currently most important in the study of each area. Written at an accessible level and offering rich resources to further study each topic, this handbook is an essential resource for scholars and students as well as general readers who wish to understand the growing social, cultural, political, and economic influences of sport in society and our everyday lives.

Horses are perhaps the most common non-human animal to feature in planned events, but although there is considerable research on equestrian sport, there is virtually none on equestrian events. This book begins to address this gap, using the National Championships of the Icelandic Horse as an extended case study to explain in depth the process of managing an event, as well as the larger theoretical implications of events management. Drawing on diverse viewpoints and theoretical perspectives, the book draws wider comparisons to connect events management to larger themes in the social sciences, such as human-animal relations; nationalism; place branding; event impacts; event experience; and inclusion and exclusion. The book is a contribution to two fields. In relation to human-animal studies, it focuses on how the Icelandic horse breed is marketed and celebrated through top-tier competition; whereas from an events management perspective, it considers the role of the event in community building, the practical and theoretical aspects of running a sustainable equestrian event, and the issues that arise in multispecies event contexts.