This is the first issue of 2016 and as such we are happy to introduce a new feature for papers written by authors whose English is not their mother tongue. To increase the internationalization of the journal, we asked those authors to provide their papers’ title, abstract and keywords in their own language. In this issue we have one paper with a Swedish title, abstract and keywords and we are looking forward to have a growing number of these contributions in the future.
We begin with a guest contribution written by John R. Tower and Jo An M. Zimmermann who will be editing a special issue on leisure management. The authors highlight the fundamental role that leisure management plays in delivering community, nonprofit and governmental leisure services. Based on a review of recent leisure journals and an examination of global trends in leisure management, the authors raise the growing need for more research and application papers in this area. We would like to encourage readers to contribute to this upcoming special issue. The call for papers is at the back of this issue.
The first research paper is written by Anna Westberg Broström who also included the title, abstract and keywords in Swedish. Focusing on the Scout movement which offers leisure activities for children and adolescents, the author examined the transition process of young people from participants to leaders within the Swedish branch of the Guide and Scout Movement. Data gathered through interviews with both educators and participants taking part in scout leadership courses led to the identification of two phases of the transition process: becoming a leader, and developing a new attitude towards the leadership position. While the author highlights the significant role of this process in developing adulthood, she also stated that “through becoming a leader, the scout is able to stay a scout and concomitantly; to stay youthful”. The observation contributes to the understanding of older participants’ involvement within youth cultures which are developed during leisure pursuits.
Hung-Ling (Stella) Liu, Michael J. Bradley and Brooke Burk report on their study on female roller derby participants in the USA. They investigated the impact of participants’ demographic characteristics on their perceptions of roller derby as a serious leisure and on their leisure identity. Results of their study indicated that the level of seriousness was not affected by most of the demographic characteristics and participants were similar in their leisure identity related to roller derby participation. Drawing on their findings and in view of the barriers for female participation in sports and recreation programmes, the authors call for more offerings and better facilitation of roller derby as a means to increase female engagement in sports.
In the third research paper, Ewa Jarosz examined the relationship between social class characteristics and four dimensions of leisure on time-use data of Poland. The study indicated the effect of occupational class and education on both quantitative and qualitative dimensions highlighting the existence of social differentiation in leisure among this post-socialist society. In light of the Polish findings and the possible associations between leisure inequality and well-being, the author raises interesting questions related to leisure duration, diversity and social status which could inform future studies within different contexts.
The research note by Melissa K. Tibbits, Linda L. Caldwell, Edward A. Smith, Tania Vergnani and Lisa Wegner reports on a study which examined the relationship between active leisure participation and risk behaviours among South African youth. The researchers identified patterns of active leisure participation among male and female students from 8th to 10th grades and examined their relationship with various types of risk behaviours. Results of their study indicated gender differences suggesting that active leisure may bring more benefits to females than to males. Based on their study the authors draw some practical implications with regard to active leisure pursuits for males and highlight the need to better understand barriers to active leisure participation among females in order to enhance it among South African youth. This need which the authors regard “a high research priority” is also acknowledged by the authors of the second paper in this issue based on their study in USA. Both studies provide additional evidences that females’ barriers to leisure participation go beyond geographical boundaries and thus require global attention.
There are two pieces of contribution in the News and Notices section. In the first piece, Roger Coles, Chair of World Leisure Organization reports on the 2nd World Leisure Games held in Qingdao, China between 12 and 21 September 2015, under the theme of “In Leisure In Nature”. Regarding this event as “an amazing Games with some amazing results”, Roger states that all the planned objectives were successfully achieved with mass participation in a wide range of games and related activities.
The second contribution is made by André Thibault, Program Manager of the World Leisure Commissions. André reminds us of the significant role of the Commissions as global networks of knowledge transfer and its related expectations to contribute to research, information dissemination and advocacy. He proposes several channels through which the commissions could successfully fulfil their roles with the support and facilitation of World Leisure Organization. In addition to active participation in World Leisure Congresses, André also regards World Leisure Journal (WLJ) as a good platform for dissemination. We, at the Journal Editorial, welcome this suggestion and extend our invitation to Commissions’ Chairs to contribute regularly to the Journal by sharing their commission's vision, initiatives and activities.
The issue concludes with acknowledgements to those who contributed to the Journal as reviewers in 2015. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our reviewers for undertaking this process, providing meaningful comments to authors and maintaining the quality of WLJ.