Information activity in serious leisure

Background. In the past decade, scholars of information science have started to conduct research on information behaviour in serious leisure. Presently, these studies lack common concepts and terms and empirical discoveries are not easy to assemble into theory. Aim. This conceptual and methodological paper surveys the aforementioned research area and introduces Anders Hektor’s model of information behaviour in conjunction with the serious leisure perspective as a means to systematically study information behaviour in serious leisure. Method. Three methods are employed. The first is a selective literature review and intellectual history of research into information behaviour in serious leisure. The second is a conceptual analysis of Hektor’s model that relates its key features to the serious leisure perspective. The third consists of a deductive audit of three forms of serious leisure (the liberal arts hobby, amateur musicianship, and the hobby of running), utilizing the frameworks, concepts, and terms outlined in the paper. Results. Studies of information behaviour in serious leisure have increased and deepened in the past decade, largely through ideographic case studies. Hektor’s model of information behaviour, with its locus in everyday life and precise delineation of eight information activities, can complement such research designs. A deductive audit guided by Hektor’s model illuminated information activities within the three forms of serious leisure and enabled comparative observations. Conclusions. When combined with the serious leisure perspective, Hektor’s model enables research that is comparative and more precise. However, the extent to which this model captures physical or embodied information should be further examined

Advanced Mental and Behavioral Health: Community-Based Practice

The purpose of this Masters project was to emphasize community psychosocial practice through collaboration with a local mental health organization by conducting a needs assessment, implementing a project at the community site, and evaluating the outcomes. Prior to collaboration with the organization, a literature review was conducted analyzing the role of occupational therapy working with individuals with serious mental illness. From this, it was found that occupational therapists can work with individuals with serious mental illness to engage in meaningful occupations, increase a sense of accomplishment, competence, and satisfaction, and participate in community living. Additionally, it is within occupational therapy\u27s scope of practice to provide resources and equip individuals with serious mental illness with the tools necessary to engage in social participation, community engagement, and leisure. From the information gathered in the literature review and needs assessment, it was determined to create and implement an activity resource binder and activity leader board to increase community engagement and leisure participation and provide leadership opportunities for the residents living at the community site. Overall, the resource binder and leader board received positive feedback from the stakeholders. It is anticipated that the community site will continue to use the activity resource binder and activity leader board for the long-term as we believe it will increase their leisure participation in diverse activities in their community and with one another

Collaborative auto-hermeneutics: Methodological openings and possibilities for studying information experience

As the conceptual interests and cultural import of information science continue to expand, it is important for the field to be open to information-related phenomena that are not captured by extant frameworks. In recent years, there is increasing theoretical interest in alternate ways of knowing and becoming informed, such as collaborative information behaviours (Foster 2010), serendipitous information discovery (Toms 2000; Erdelez et al, 2016) information as instinct (Spink 2010), and knowing in practice (Savolainen 2009). Information experience is another area of conceptual interest, which is defined as the way in which people experience or derive meaning when they engage with information within their everyday lives (Bruce et al., 2014). To be open in this way requires us to embrace new methodologies, particularly those that are exploratory. We take inspiration from Robert Stebbins’ serious-leisure perspective (SLP); this perspective provides a common ground for researchers – not unlike other serious leisure pursuers – who pursue a career volunteer activity that captivates participants with its complexity and many challenges and embodies unique qualities such as earnestness, sincerity, importance, and carefulness, with profound, long-lasting, and substantial skill, knowledge, or experience which provides them with common grounds for conversing and building togetherness (Stebbins 2001). The social inclusion developed from participating in leisure activities attracts cultural richness, notably for its shared goals, problems, values, experiences, and costs and rewards (Stebbins 2011). We hope that information science can experience a similar opening and renewal through this approach within our own exploratory research. As one such exploratory methodology, Gorichanaz (2017) proposed auto-hermeneutics for the study of information experience. In our full paper proposed for this conference (Latham, Narayan, & Gorichanaz, 2017), we utilise auto-hermeneutics in a novel way: as collaboration. In this roundtable discussion, we discuss methodological issues and challenges of conducting collaborative auto-hermeneutics. We connect it to the idea of intrinsic motivation, or participation in an activity for its inherent satisfactions. Although, in one sense, intrinsic motivation exists within individuals, in another sense intrinsic motivation exists in the relation between individuals and activities (Ryan & Deci 2001). Because intrinsic motivation exists in the nexus between a person and a task, it is often defined in terms of the task being interesting or the satisfactions a person gains from intrinsically motivated task engagement (Ryan & Deci 2001). We propose the use of practice theory (Gherardi 2009) to build upon the concepts of serious leisure and intrinsic motivation in the study of information experience as a creative experience

Leisure-related mobility of elderly people: ways to sustainability

Owing to grown life expectancy as well as increasing financial scope, car ownership and possession of driving licences, the elderly of today have numerous opportunities regarding their leisure activities. Serious health problems and social constraints are generally infrequent before the age of about 80. Thus, the first 10-20 years of retirement are characterized by good health and the absence of occupational and/or family commitments, allowing for an active leisure life. Leisure-related mobility among the elderly relies increasingly on private vehicles. Car use is the basis for a wider activity space, including locations that are far away and/or badly accessible by means of public transport. The resulting increase in motorized leisure-related traffic has negative ecological impacts. Thus, the question arises of how the elder population's leisure mobility can take place in a more sustainable manner. Within the FRAME project, 4,500 people aged 60+ were interviewed regarding their leisure activities. The empirical results give detailed information about determinants of and motives for leisure-related mobility. While leisure activities are largely determined by individual factors like health or car availability, other factors like settlement patterns and local leisure infrastructure also have significant influence. Therefore samples were taken from urban, suburban and rural areas. The FRAME household survey shows in how far elderly people from diverse sample areas differ with regard to their leisure activities, means of transport and distances travelled. To start with, the results show differences between sample groups from urban, suburban and rural areas. In addition, there are also variations within these three spatial categories. The paper intends to illustrate to what extent leisure-related mobility of the elderly is influenced by diverse spatial structures as well as the personal situation. We will discuss how individual residential settings affect leisure activities. Moreover, we will investigate the relation between infrastructure (local offers in leisure activities, transportation, etc.) and participation in local leisure activities and the selection of distant localities respectively. The results show, not surprisingly, large variations due to diverse equipments with leisure facilities. Interestingly, we also found substantial qualitative differences between urban, suburban and rural facilities resulting in distinct spatial orientation patterns. The results illustrating the relationship between spatial context and leisure-related traffic are used to evaluate which settlement structure is favourable to sustainable leisure mobility. We will identify local settings minimising leisure-related traffic and thus pollution. This aspect bears particular importance as the recreational wants of the growing number of elderly people have to be supplied. Attempting to mediate ecological and social demands, the paper aims to identify a set of conditions for the location and design of leisure facilities. These should promote sustainable mobility.

"Being in a Knowledge Space": information behaviour of cult media fan communities

This article describes the first two parts of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, focusing on fans of cult media. A literature analysis shows that information practices are an inherent and major part of fan activities, and that fans are practitioners of new forms of information consumption and production, showing sophisticated activities of information organisation and dissemination. A subsequent Delphi study, taking the novel form of a 'serious leisure' Delphi, in which the participants are not experts in the usual sense, identifies three aspects of fan information behaviour of particular interest beyond the fan context: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging; and entrepreneurship and economic activity

Re-enactment and its information practices; tensions between the individual and the collective

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation of an impression, the dress, behaviours and accoutrements of the period, through the concepts of serious leisure and information practices. Design/methodology/approach–Re-enactment is a practical, information-based performative activity. In this paper, the research styles and decision-making processes developed and employed by its enthusiasts to create authentic impressions are examined through an ethnographic case study. Findings–The re-enactors are identified as “makers and tinkerers”, in Stebbins’s categorisation of serious leisure. Research, documentation and the sharing of information, knowledge and skills are common practices among re-enactors and acknowledged as integral to the processes of creating an impression to a collectively agreed standard of authenticity. Re-enactors’ “making” includes not only the creation of the impression but also the documentation of their process of creating it. They prize individual knowledge and expertise and through this, seek to stand out from the collective. Originality/value–Although communities of re-enactors are often studied from a historical perspective, this may be the first time a study has been undertaken from an information studies perspective. The tension between the collective, social norms and standards that support the functioning of the group in understanding authenticity, and the expert amateur; the individual with specialist skills and talents, encourages a fuller investigation of the relationships between the individual and the collective in the context of information practices

"I do it for the riders!" An Analysis of the Serious Leisure Framework Through Psychological Contract Theory

This thesis makes an empirical examination of the Serious Leisure framework using psychological contract theory, applying this to volunteers within Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA). Serious Leisure is a widely utilised way of understanding the behaviour of hobbyists, leisure participants and volunteers, and yet its conceptual limitations to date have not been significantly considered or challenged in the literature. By analysing the interaction between Serious Leisure and the psychological contract, this study extends the existing framework of Serious Leisure as applied to volunteers. An inductive, constructivist approach was used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-five volunteers in a long-established UK voluntary sport organisation. These exhibited varying lengths of service in a number of roles within RDA. Data generated were analysed using an ethnographic content approach, together with information from the organisation itself and academic literature, to address the aims of the study. The study establishes that the volunteers interviewed may be classified as serious leisure volunteers in Stebbins’ terms. It supports the hypothesis that Serious Leisure does influence the psychological contract. It explores the formative influences on the psychological content and maps the content of that contract from the perspective of the volunteer. It introduces the concept of ‘intentionality’, a pattern whereby the new volunteer exhibits characteristics of seriousness from the beginning. It is proposed that the volunteer’s acceptance of Serious Leisure characteristics sits alongside ideological factors in their psychological contract to create a high level of resilience and commitment to the activity. Finally, it proposes that volunteers are able to hold multiple psychological contracts with an organisation, simultaneously. These findings address significant gaps in the literature of volunteering and also have implications for psychological contract theory. The study suggests a number of areas for further work to develop its findings

Volunteers and volunteering in leisure : social science perspectives

Leisure has been widely examined within the context of social science theory; however, little work has considered the range of social science disciplines and applied them to specific phenomena located within the leisure field. This paper adopts such an approach to conceptualise and examine volunteers and volunteering in leisure settings. In a disciplinary sense, therefore, the sociological view focuses upon the conceptualisation of volunteering as leisure, the psychological view seeks to understand motivations driving volunteering while the perspective of economists tends to complement these standpoints in terms of why people volunteer and further examines the value of volunteer contributions. Comparative analysis of the perspectives enunciated within these key disciplines provides a picture of the status of research relating to leisure volunteers and volunteering. The purposes of this paper are to identify gaps in current knowledge, drawing out conclusions and their implications for an improved understanding of this area as well as to enhance comprehension of disciplinary contributions to the study of leisure phenomena

The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ