SLP Notes (Comprehensive Study)

Overview

  • The Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) is the theoretical framework that bridges and synthesizes three forms of leisure: serious leisure, casual leisure, and project-based leisure.
  • Research began in 1973 on serious leisure and has continued since; work on casual leisure and project-based leisure followed later.
  • The SLP is not a claim that serious leisure is superior; the label reflects its historical origin as the first focus of study and is the “godfather” in terms of intellectual development.
  • A map of the SLP is available on the SLP Diagrams page.

Core Definition of Leisure

  • Leisure is defined as un-coerced, contextually framed activity engaged in during free time, which people want to do and, using their abilities and resources, actually do in either a satisfying or a fulfilling way (or both).

Serious Leisure

  • Definition: the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that is highly substantial, interesting, and fulfilling and where, in the typical case, participants find a career in acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience (Stebbins, 1992, p.3).
  • The adjective "serious" signals earnestness, sincerity, importance, and carefulness. It is a folk term that highlights the importance of these activities in everyday life and the potential for deep self-fulfillment through pursuit.
  • Three-way system: Amateurs, hobbyists, and professionals are connected with each other and with the public, forming interrelated relationships within and around the activity.
  • Amateurs: Found in art, science, sport, and entertainment; linked to professionals; participate in a three-way system of relations with professionals and the public.
  • Hobbyists: Lack the professional alter ego of amateurs, though they may have commercial equivalents and often have small publics.
  • Professionals: Defined in economic terms as workers who depend on income from an activity that others pursue with little or no remuneration as leisure.
  • Hobbyists’ five categories:
    1) collectors
    2) makers and tinkerers
    3) activity participants (noncompetitive, rule-based pursuits such as fishing and barbershop singing)
    4) players of sports and games (competitive, rule-based activities with no professional counterparts like long-distance running and competitive swimming)
    5) enthusiasts of liberal arts hobbies (primarily reading)
  • Volunteers: Provide un-coerced help, formally or informally, with little or token pay, for the benefit of others beyond the volunteer’s family.
    • Competing conception in nonprofit sector literature treats volunteering as unpaid work (absence of payment for livelihood), which bypasses motivation questions central to volitional conceptions.
    • A theoretic typology exists in Reflections 16 (Digital Library); maps are available in the SLP Resources.
  • Occupational devotees: People inspired by “occupational devotion” — strong, positive attachment to a form of self-enhancing work where the sense of achievement is high and the core activity is so engaging that the line between work and leisure is almost erased. “Devotee work” is serious leisure from which the worker gains a livelihood.
  • Serious pursuits: The umbrella concept that encompasses serious leisure and devotee work.
  • See the SLP map in Resources for the visual representation.

Distinguishing Features: Serious vs Casual Leisure

  • Serious leisure is distinguished from casual leisure by six characteristic features:
    1) need to persevere at the activity
    2) availability of a leisure career
    3) need to put in effort to gain skill and knowledge
    4) realization of various special benefits
    5) unique ethos and social world
    6) an attractive personal and social identity

Casual Leisure

  • Definition: immediately, intrinsically rewarding; short-lived; requires little or no special training; fundamentally hedonic; pursued for the significant level of pure enjoyment or pleasure found there.
  • It includes types such as:
    • play (including dabbling)
    • relaxation (e.g., sitting, napping, strolling)
    • passive entertainment (e.g., TV, books, recorded music)
    • active entertainment (e.g., games of chance, party games)
    • sociable conversation
    • sensory stimulation (e.g., sex, eating, drinking)
  • Casual volunteering is a type of casual leisure, as is "pleasurable aerobic activity"—casual leisure that requires effort sufficient to raise respiration and heart rate.
  • Casual leisure is considerably less substantial and does not provide a career path as serious leisure does.
  • In broad, colloquial terms, casual leisure could be seen as doing what comes naturally; nevertheless, it remains important for personal and social life (Stebbins, 2001b).

Project-based Leisure

  • Short-term, moderately complicated, either one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertakings carried out in free time.
  • Involves planning, effort, and sometimes skill or knowledge, but is not of the serious leisure variety nor is it casual leisure.
  • The adjective "occasional" describes widely spaced undertakings tied to regular occasions such as arts festivals, sports events, religious holidays, individual birthdays, or national holidays.
  • The adjective "creative" stresses that the undertaking results in something new or different, showing imagination, skill, or knowledge.
  • Most projects appear to be pursued until completion, though interruptions for several weeks, months, or even years are possible.

The Heart of the Serious Leisure Perspective

  • The foregoing constitutes the heart of the SLP—a view of its basic concepts drawn from the Basic Bibliography.
  • The broadest, detailed presentation is in Stebbins (2007) Serious leisure: A perspective for our time.
  • For a somewhat fuller summary, see Leisure Reflections 13 in the Digital Library.

Basic Bibliography (Selected References)

  • Rojek, C. (1997). Leisure theory: Retrospect and prospect. , , 383-400.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (1979). Amateurs: On the margin between work and leisure. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (1982). Serious leisure: A conceptual statement. , , 251-272.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (1992). Amateurs, professionals and serious leisure. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen's University Press.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (1996). Volunteering: A serious leisure perspective. , , 211-224.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (1997). Casual leisure: A conceptual statement. , (1), 17-25.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2001a). New directions in the theory and research of serious leisure. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2001b). The costs and benefits of hedonism: Some consequences of taking casual leisure seriously. , (4), 305-309.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2002). The organizational basis of leisure participation: A motivational exploration. State College, PA: Venture Publishing.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2004a). Pleasurable aerobic activity: a type of casual leisure with salubrious implications. , (4), pp. 55-58.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2004b). Between work and leisure: The common ground of two separate worlds. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2005). Project-based leisure: Theoretical neglect of a common use of free time. , , 1-11.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2007). Serious leisure: A perspective for our time. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Stebbins, R. A. (2012). The idea of leisure: First principles. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

Additional Resources

  • SLP diagrams, maps, and related resources are available on the SLP site (Diagrams, Map of the SLP, Resources, Digital Library).