Institutional Norms and Evaluative Standards for Parks and Recreation Resources Research, Planning, and Management

Abstract

Researchers claim that the structural and evaluative standards approaches to determining acceptability of social and resource conditions in recreation settings are measures of social norms. This paper argues that structural and evaluative standards approaches do not constitute social norms. Social and resource conditions are not directly concerned with behavior and have not been shown to have sanctioning and self-correcting consequences. This paper proposes that social and resource conditions be recognized as institutional norms, that is, rules or standards formulated and implemented by administrative authorities and enforced by them through formal external sanctions. This definition recognizes the institutional utility of social and resource condition standards, while distinguishing them from social norms, which deal with social interactions and individuals’ behaviors.

Keywords:

• social norms
• institutional norms
• structural standards
• evaluative standards
• Return Potential Model
• sanctions

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Jeremy Bruskotter and Eric Toman for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.