While it is generally accepted in the leisure field that leisure has a role, perhaps even a key one, in wellness and wellbeing, this is largely at odds with the operations and funding frameworks of contemporary healthcare systems. Governments spend much less on leisure than they do on healthcare systems which are focussed on biomedical interventions.
While government frameworks and global entities such as the WHO increasingly include mention of non-biomedical understandings of health (incorporating wellness, quality of life, social and leisure frameworks of understanding ‘health’) the reality is that the dominant understanding of health continues to be on disease, illness and infirmity (Becker and Rhynders 2013), a tension personally experienced by leisure practitioners who work in health settings. Health fields which are more aware of the social nature of wellness and wellbeing are peripheral to the dominant healthcare system and when funded are commonly constrained to focus on disease and illness prevention or reduction (Smith and Herriot 2017). This stands in sharp contrast to broader understandings of health as a resource (WHO 1986, Kleiber, Hutchinson and Williams 2002) and flourishing through leisure (Anderson 2012), and wellness and wellbeing (Henderson 2014, Cleary 2017) as understood by the leisure field.
How can the health creating benefits, enabling discourses and applied understandings of leisure have impact in the complex, self-perpetuating discourse of health as pathology and the spaces that continue to dominate health/illness funding?
This special edition focuses on the intersection between health and leisure. We seek papers that may include (but are not constrained to):
- How is leisure viewed in the health system?
- How can leisure be a voice/heard/considered within health?
- How can leisure advocate for health as per, or outside of, biomedical understandings?
- What does leisure need to hear from healthcare experts – academics, practitioners (health professionals, leisure therapists in health settings), policy makers, health educators and analysts among others
- What theoretical frameworks can be used to bridge the health – leisure understanding gap?
- Examples of health and leisure fields working together. Case studies exploring and/or reflecting upon intersections of health-leisure practise. What are the dilemmas encountered in trying to apply leisure understandings to health?
- International comparisons and examples (across the global north and south) that explore the health- leisure interface are highly welcome
Anderson, L. and Heyne, L. 2012. Flourishing through leisure: An ecological extension of the Leisure and Well-Being Model in therapeutic recreation strengths-based practice, Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 46(2):129-152
Becker, C. and Rhynders, P. 2013. It’s time to make the profession of health about health, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 41: 1-3
Cleary, A., Fielding, K., Bell, S., Murray, Z. and Roiko, A. 2017. Exploring Potential Mechanisms Involved in the Relationship between Eudemonic Wellbeing and Nature connection, Landscape and Urban Planning, 158:119–128 doi:10.1071/HEv28n1_ED2.
Henderson, K. 2014. Promoting health and well-being through leisure: introduction to the special issue, World Leisure Journal, 56(2): 96-98.
Kleiber, D. A., Hutchinson, S. L., & Williams, R. 2002. Leisure as a Resource in Transcending Negative Life Events: Self-Protection, Self-Restoration, and Personal Transformation. Leisure Sciences, 24(2): 219-235.
Smith, J. A. and Herriot, M. 2017. Positioning health promotion as a policy priority in Australia. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 28: 5–7.
World Health Organization. 1986. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Geneva, Switzerland.
Special Edition Editors
Dr Janette Young, Lecturer (Health Promotion), School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia.
Ms Nicole Peel, Associate Lecturer – Therapeutic Recreation, School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney.
Dr Hazel Maxwell, Bachelor of Health and Community Care (BHCC) Coordinator & Graduate Research Coordinator (GRC), School of Health Science, Faculty of Health, University of Tasmania.
Professor Tess Kay, Dean of Research, Brunel University, London.
Proposed Time frame
6th July 2018 –Abstracts due
1st August 2018 – Abstract authors invited to submit full papers
1st December 2018 – Full papers received for review
March 2020 – Publication of special edition
Expression of interest
Please send proposed paper title, name of author/s and an abstract of no more than 300 words to the guest editor, Janette Young (janette.young@unisa.edu.au) by July 6th 2018.
