While the theory of serious leisure has gained considerable traction with researchers studying in the realm of leisure, it has not been widely used in the study of sport. Sport sociologists have, however, studied sport subcultures in a way that is comparable to serious leisure. In both realms, issues of identity and commodification have been raised in the relation to sport tourism.
Issues of identity
At the core of both areas of study is the belief that the leisure activity, be it sport or some other form of leisure, plays a central role in the development of identity. Under the serious leisure approach, identity formation is imbedded in the six defining qualities that Stebbins (1982) outlines. From a sport subculture perspective, the idea of a career-like structure and a distinct ethos related to the activity is emphasized. Sport sociologists like Donnelly and Young (1988) used similar terminology to describe how recreational athletes involved in climbing and rugby used the respective sport subcultures for the construction and confirmation of their identities while focusing primarily on sport tourism. Green and Chalip (1998) drew heavily on the sport subculture literature in their study of a women’s football tournament in Florida. In contrast to existing studies in sport sociology, however, they consciously considered the role of place in the identity making process associated with the subculture of women’s football in the United States. At the heart of this identity building process was the provision of a stage or encapsulated space within which to celebrate one’s identity as a female football player. They concluded that in this instance, the attraction of the event was the
celebration of a subculture rather than the place, the hosts or even the sporting activity itself.
Although the compact geography of Key West certainly facilitates social encounters, nothing that goes on at the tournament depends on the Key’s geography or location.Site and culture may be facilitative, but they are peripheral. The fundamental attraction is neither the place nor its people; the fundamental attraction is the other players who attend. The event itself is more important than the destination.
(Green & Chalip, 1998:286)
Similar studies are needed of other types of participatory sporting events to see if this result holds true across a broad range of sport tourism activities, thereby confirming the transportability of such events.
Serious leisure scholars and those who study sport subcultures tend to agree that while identity may be strongly influenced by one’s leisure or sport avoca- tion, this is moderated by the other social roles that an individual may hold. For example, in their study of serious leisure related to dog sports, Gillespie, Leffler and Lerner (2002) note that considerable identity negotiation may be necessary around the boundaries of ‘real life’ and these ‘greedy avocations’.
Serious leisure generates its own social identities, including patterns of time allocation, expenditures, family relationships, and norms. Its demands and those of the ‘real world’ sometimes conflict. In these conflicts, priorities, rules and relationships are actively negotiated by participants, sometimes leaning toward the demands of the dominant culture, sometimes not.(Gillespie et al., 2002:300)
The implication of this from a sport tourism perspective is that sport travellers are not simply reinforcing a countercultural identity through their activities. In fact, they are simultaneously resisting and reproducing domi- nant culture.
Much of the identity making power of serious leisure and sport subcul- tures is based on insider and outsider groups or the dichotomy between us and ‘others’ as raised in Chapter 4 (Culture and identity). However, there appear to be a few cracks in this basic dichotomy. Michele Donnelly (2006) criticizes sport subculture literature for its tendency to define insider authenticity based on a presumed core of insiders. She sees this as contra- dictory in as much as subcultures themselves are born on the margins of dominant society. Margins of a subculture are, therefore, deserving of more in-depth study and may very well be dynamic regions of identity formation, which reveal the error in the oppositional nature of insider/outsider catego- rization that has dominated the literature to this point. In a sport tourism
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context, the complexity of these insider/outsider identities is highlighted by the layers of subculture and geographic insider/outsiderness that interact when subculture members participate in their sporting activities while they are away from home.
Wheaton (2007) adds to this critique of the sport subculture literature by suggesting that the traditional ways of defining a subculture in terms of difference and resistance are being eroded in a post-modern society.
Neo-tribes suggest a postmodern ‘pick and mix’ world of consumer choice in which we are free to choose identities, ignoring the structural constraints that underpin identity choices and create lifestyles.(Wheaton, 2007:290)
She describes the emergence of post-subculturalists who shift between sporting subcultures, thereby problematizing the basis on which sport scholars have been defining subculture and de-centring identity. Tourism, with its ability to facilitate the escape from the social roles that one is expected to fulfil at home, along with its convenient packaging of sport, provides an accessible realm for such de-centring of identity. It provides individuals with an opportunity to experiment with their sporting identities in ways that are not possible at home.
Crosset and Beal (1997) suggest that the use of the term subculture in sport is most applicable in situations where a sport such as body building is marginalized within the dominant culture. The term becomes less applicable as these sporting activities are accepted as legitimate activities by dominant culture even though they are rather specialized. Subcultures are all in various stages of losing their countercultural status. As an alternative to the subcultures, Crosset and Beal suggest that cultural studies scholars should consider the merits of studying ‘social worlds and sub-worlds’, which is consistent with the serious leisure terminology used by Stebbins (1982, 2007). These social worlds are defined as large and highly permeable, amorphous and spatially transcendent forms of social organizations made up of people sharing common interests and common channels of communica- tion. As such, they offer advantages for inquiry into this dimension of sport tourism activity relative to the traditional focus on subculture.
Issues of commodification
Commodification has been a major theme in the sport subculture literature.
While subcultures were often reported to have originated as a form of resis- tance to mainstream sports characterized by high levels of consumption, these subcultures are often distinguished by their own form of consumerism.
For example, Wheaton (2000:261) argues that the ‘consumption of objectsdspecifically the equipment or kitdis central to windsurfing and other new individualized ‘lifestyle’ sports’. Despite this characteristic of consumption, she argues that members cannot ‘buy’ their way into a subculture. They must back up their consumer goods with a sport perfor- mance level that matches or surpasses the level of their equipment. Inter- estingly, her work suggests that different windsurfing sites have different standards of conspicuous consumption. This view suggests that sport subcultures have a geographic layer that is intertwined with their other cultural dimensions.
Wheaton and Beal (2003) highlight another aspect of this culture of consumption in extreme sport. They found that windsurfers and skate- boarders consumed subcultural media magazines in order to obtain insider information and therefore status. In particular, they were interested in travel advertisements. Featured locations were deemed to be authentic in terms of an idealized windsurfing lifestyle. Clothing advertisements depicted similar idyllic locations in an effort to sell their product lines. In his article titled
‘Shredheads go mainstream? Snowboarding and alternative youth’ Hum- phrey (1997) traced the evolution of snowboarding from its counterculture roots to its current position as a mainstream sport characterized by the consumption of travel, equipment and clothing. Even while members were focused on the development of a countercultural image, commercial ski resorts began to actively cater to the demands of this new ‘market’ (Hudson, 2003). Michele Donnelly (2006) points out that despite his countercultural rhetoric, Jake Burton who is recognized as the inventor of modern snow- boarding, is in fact a major beneficiary of the commodification of the sport as the owner of one of the most popular and profitable manufacturers of snowboards and snowboarding gear.
Tourism is a manifestation of commodification. The sport tourism industry packages sporting activities, place and the social interactions in return for a fee. The intent of the industry is to earn a profit by providing satisfying sport experiences to individuals away from their home environ- ment. While some (e.g., Heywood, 1994) imply that such commodification undermines the integrity of the activity, others (e.g., Green, 2001) simply recognize the existence of this process without suggesting that it undermines authenticity. In the latter instance, Green has argued that sport subcultures and identities can be effectively leveraged to promote sporting events like the Gold Coast Marathon and the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Event hosts who leverage events in this way not only enjoy higher net benefits in the destination but can potentially provide improved leisure experiences to the visiting sport tourists.
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While the concept of serious leisure suggests that individuals may expend significant amounts of money in the pursuit of their leisure patterns, there has been little exploration on the implications of this process. Yoder’s (1997) ethnographic study of the relatively new but increasing popular sport of competitive bass fishing is an exception. Yoder (1997:415) suggests:
Tournament bass fishing deviates significantly from the conventional model of serious leisure that consists of professional, amateurs and publics. It is a highly structured sport heavily dominated by national fishing organizations, event promoters, and the manufacturers and distributors of sporting goods and services.
He goes on to outline the emerging and significant role of commodity agents, such as equipment manufacturers and event sponsors, in terms of influencing the consumption of serious amateurs and the public associated with the sport. He also highlights the diversification of the professional ranks of the sport with the emergence of demonstration bass fishers along with those who earn their living from their competitive winnings. While he does not emphasize the spatial dynamic within the sport, it is clear that a geographic hierarchy exists from local- through to state-, regional- and national-level competitions in the United States. Yoder concludes:
The relationship between commodity agents and amateurs/publics fosters the development and maintenance of the sport’s unique ethos.
In return, the relationship is supported by the social world that develops around the ethos. Commodity agents depend on amateurs/
publics to consume their products. Amateurs/publics depend on the producers to supply them with goods and services they believe are necessary for participation.(Yoder, 1997:423)
One of the significant concerns Yoder raises is that there have been few rules established in the sport to ensure that competition outcomes remain difficult to predict and that they rely more on the fisher than the equipment. Essentially, he suggests that there is a conflict between the interests of equipment manufac- turers with their motivation to sell the latest technical innovations relative to the competitive essence of the sport. A similar concern exists more broadly in terms of the travel industry that supports sport tourism. The question must be asked as to whether the tourism trade will operate in a sustainable manner or will they promote overuse of a sporting resource, because it is in their short-term financial interest to do so?
Another challenge of the commodification of sport though tourism is the apparent contradiction between adventure and safety that exists in the context of adventure tourism. Kane and Zink’s (2004) study of international
kayakers participating on a package kayaking tour of New Zealand provides useful insight into this issue. They described the tour as follows:
.a consumable package of perceived safe experience from which participants could produce stories of adventure, implying unsafe experience. Specifically in their ‘way of thinking’ a package adventure tour was a mechanism to increase experience and critically create stories of ‘symbolic capital’, with the potential to improve their status in their serious leisure of kayaking.(Kane & Zink, 2004:342)
At some level, all of the participants or clients on the tour were purchasing a degree of safety in their adventure. However, this commodifi- cation of risk and safety was rationalized in the narratives of the experience that were being developed throughout the trip and that would be retold on their return home. Relatively safe events would become near disasters and professional guides would become just ‘a bunch of kayakers’. The question then becomes how the operator balances these conflicting demands for risk and safety. How do you ‘package’ extreme sport travel experiences in a way that is commercially viable?
CONCLUSION
Recreational athletes are an important consideration in the study of sport tourism. While they seldom have the high profile of elite athletes or the spectators who attend elite events, they represent a substantial portion of sport tourists. Leisure constraint theory provides a useful framework for understanding the travel behaviours of these individuals. One of the most insightful elements of this theory is the idea of negotiation – that even if the costs of travel are seen as a constraint, individuals can negotiate through or around these barriers. This is especially true for individuals who take their recreational sport seriously. Stebbins’ (1982, 1992, 2007) concept of serious leisure shows that qualities like perseverance and a strong identification with the sporting activity can help individuals to surmount obstacles, such as travel, that might otherwise prevent them from partici- pating. More work is needed to consider the relevance of this body of research relative to the subculture research found in sport. Green and Jones (2006) have moved in this direction. Their theoretical discussion of sport- based serious leisure and the associated travel to participate in sport tourism provides fresh insight into sport tourism due in part to their success at drawing on the sport subculture as well as the serious leisure literature.
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Serious leisure provides a very powerful framework for inquiry related to sport tourism of a recreational nature. One of the most promising lines of inquiry addresses issues of identity as raised in Chapter 4 (Culture and identity). The theory of serious leisure has intriguing parallels with investi- gations into subculture that have been popular in the realm of sport. An additional advantage that it offers is its potential to combine considerations of personal identity with considerations of place. It also offers the potential for insight into the changing patterns of mobility of recreational athletes. A second line of inquiry that is highlighted in the chapter relates to issues of commodification. While these issues are relatively transparent in profes- sional sport, they are much less so in terms of recreational sport travel.
Further consideration is required to develop insight into the nature and implications of commodification in this realm.
Finally, it should be recognized that serious leisure is but one major category of recreational sport. Stebbins (2007) presents a serious leisure perspective which recognizes the categories of ‘casual leisure’ and ‘project- based leisure’ in addition to ‘serious leisure’. These additional categories merit further attention by researchers as much recreational sport undertaken while travelling cannot be classified as serious leisure. Insight into these types of recreational activities will provide a more complete understanding of sport tourism phenomena.
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