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Tic, Toe, the Game is Locked and Nobody Else Can Play!

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David Scott at Texas A&M University
David Scott
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Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.
... Without the centralized support of the entire agency, in terms of both human and financial resources, such events were often viewed as paying lip service to certain populations by respondents (Allison & Hibbler, 2004). Scott (2000) argued that inclusive policies may conflict with emphases on financial return or service quality. Practitioners who emphasize improving service quality may focus on responding to the needs of existing customers at the expense of underserved audiences (Scott, 2000). ...
... Scott (2000) argued that inclusive policies may conflict with emphases on financial return or service quality. Practitioners who emphasize improving service quality may focus on responding to the needs of existing customers at the expense of underserved audiences (Scott, 2000). Allison (1999) interviewed 18 recreation professionals with an average of 21 years of experience in the field, 10 of which were people of color and 8 were White women. ...
Implementation of Promising Practices for LGBTQ Inclusion: A Multilevel Process
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2017
Recreation professionals have moral, fiscal, and legal incentives to ensure that individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) have access to safe, beneficial services which respond to their unique needs. Scholars have responded to these needs by developing a set of recommendations to create safe, welcoming recreation experiences with LGBTQ youth such as supportive policies or stopping instances of harassment. However, current promising practices for LGBTQ inclusion are generally not reflective of the complex challenges to enabling inclusion experienced by recreation professionals. Recommendations to develop anti-discrimination policies lack attention to the ways a prejudicial organizational culture or resistance from employees may undermine that policy. Therefore, practitioners who utilize promising practices for inclusion may unintentionally reinforce LGBTQ discrimination. In this overview of education, social work, diversity management and leisure studies literatures, the author presents potential constraints and supports that may arise during the implementation of promising practices for LGBTQ inclusion. Those factors are organized according to Ferdman’s (2014) multilevel inclusion framework. At the individual level, participants’ perceptions of inclusion are shaped by the ways their various identities are experienced in recreation contexts. Practitioners who focus solely on LGBTQ identities may miss opportunities to support participants through significant challenges such as racism or ableism. At the interpersonal level, heterosexuals are often motivated by past experiences with discrimination to advocate with LGBTQ youth. However, some heterosexual employees may require training to effectively advocate with LGBTQ youth. At the group level, recreation professionals should expect both resistance to and support for inclusion initiatives. Understanding resistance and points of support within and outside of the organization may prepare practitioners for roadblocks and assist them in leveraging points of support. At the leadership level, recreation administrators exert unique influence on inclusion initiatives by modeling desired behaviors and establishing organizational priorities. Administrators who lack experience or comfort with LGBTQ populations may unintentionally stall inclusion efforts. At the organizational level, administrators must be cognizant of both who an organization has historically served and how organizational culture can support or undermine inclusion programs. At the societal level, cultural norms about LGBTQ identities influence who is authorized to speak and how LGBTQ participants should be treated. Recreation practitioners who intentionally disrupt these norms by implementing promising practices may frame their program as a site for social justice. Practitioners who pursue inclusion in light of the above issues may be able to enhance the intended outcomes of promising practices and avoid unintended consequences.
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... Our review of the history of public parks suggests that institutional discrimination is deeply embedded in the cultural and political landscapes of many park agencies, so it tends to obscure and maintain elitist White hegemony. Indeed, Scott (2000) argued that institutional discrimination is prevalent within public leisure service, and many agencies have historically been ineffective in serving disenfranchised groups because of their entrepreneurial management approach, emphasis on maintaining a loyal customer base, lack of diversity in the workforce, and the optimistic belief that recreation resources are fairly distributed to all constituents. Similarly, Santucci et al. (2014) mentioned that some NPS units not only held conservative cultures that restricted new managerial approaches but lacked clear policies and support for diversifying visitor demographics. ...
Slow violence in public parks in the U.S.: can we escape our troubling past?
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2022
Previous studies on environmental justice have paid limited attention to procedural injustice in parks. Using the concept of slow violence, this paper interrogates the ideological and philosophical foundations of American public parks in order to unearth enduring structural patterns of procedural injustice. The paper illustrates that community, state, and national parks in the U.S. were founded upon the elitism, eugenics, and racism of affluent and powerful White conservationists and social reformers. To materialize their own interests, the White elite defined, built, and managed public parks by displacing, excluding, and criminalizing the Indigenous, the poor, people of color, and immigrants. As such, many of today’s park injustices, such as inequitable park availability and quality, gentrification, and non-visitation of people of color, originated from the beginning of the public parks in the 19th century and have been sustained ever since. The paper discusses corrective justice strategies to alleviate the enduring slow violence in parks.
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... It is not suggested here that Critical Leisure Studies become a curriculum in pursuit of a demarcated degree, but it is important for it to have an articulated existence as a fully formed and established body of scholarship for curriculums to consider in areas of student specialty, course work, and readings within courses. To even consider 'traditional' leisure without the integration of the role of leisure to exploit, discriminate, and subjugate reveals a disingenuous state of affairs (Pendleton, 2000;Reynolds, 1991;Richmond & Johnson, 2009;Scott, 2000Scott, , 2013Shahzadi, 2018). It is part and partial to an endorsement of neoliberal influences on degree production and credit hour accumulation, and not the production of critical thinkers and innovators of social change for a field that has had important historical moments of serving the social good (Bocarro & Stodolska, 2013;Glover, 2015;McLaren & Farahmandpur, 2005;Spracklen, 2014;Warren, 2002Warren, , 2005. ...
A People's History of Leisure Studies: A Historiography of Four Traditions of Critical Leisure Studies
Article
  • Apr 2021
Recent calls for papers in numerous academic journals within leisure studies have focused on a global and nation-specific climate that leans towards autocratic policy development, fascist rhetoric as the norm, and a greater expansion of a neoliberal philosophy. A critical leisure approach critiques leisure studies and leisure research for what the construction of leisure is in its origin and in its function. The aim of this discussion is to present counter, critical narratives to leisure studies. Two hundred and ninety-two texts that focused on the 'critical' in leisure were read and analyzed through critical discourse analysis and political discourse analysis. The analysis resulted in a historiography that articulates four key alternative or counter traditions: Critical Leisure Studies; New Leisure; Post-Leisure Studies; and Anti-Leisure, which could aid leisure studies into taking on a role as a 'new' cultural studies.
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... As Bright (2000) explained, there is a stigma associated with marketing being a tool used solely for increasing profit and market share. Taken too far, this logic might influence a leisure service provider to focus on current consumers at the expense of minoritized populations (Scott, 2000) or compromise the goodwill of stakeholders while seeking short-term profit (Godin, 2010). Further, marketing is sometimes utilized to manipulate individuals into purchasing goods, services, and experiences they do not need. ...
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... Those barriers included discontinuation of staff members and organizational policy/practices, most diversity efforts being symbolic rather than substantive, inequitable hiring and promotions practices, and negative attitudes and stereotypes held by some managers. Scott (2000) argued that traditional business models of public leisure service have been ineffective in catering to the needs of disenfranchised groups because of their entrepreneurial approaches, emphasis on maintaining a loyal customer base, workforces that do not resemble diverse constituents, and the optimistic belief that recreation resources are fairly distributed to all constituents. These three studies suggested that some organizational barriers are deeply embedded in the everyday functioning of many leisure service agencies and continuously disenfranchise nontraditional user groups of public parks and recreation. ...
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... Similarly, African Americans' opinions have been neglected in the decision making surrounding tourism development plans (Gallardo and Stein 2007). Given this history of neglect and marginalization, it is questionable whether the industry is truly ready to address this issue or capable of serving this historically disfranchised population group (Scott 2000). ...
Racial Discrimination and African Americans' Travel Behavior: The Utility of Habitus and Vignette Technique
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2017
  • J Trav Res
This study investigated African Americans’ travel behavior using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. In-depth and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 middle class African Americans. Vignette technique was used during the interviews. The study identified four salient themes: (1) racial discrimination during traveling, (2) storytelling and safety instructions, (3) fear of racism and its reproduction, and (4) race-related travel choices. The findings showed that informants’ strong fear of discrimination is manifested in their distinctive travel behavior. They affirmed that African Americans’ travel patterns need to be conceived as a defensive mechanism against potential racial discrimination. Implications for research methods and tourism management are discussed.
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... A more nuanced approach suggests that African Americans' underrepresentation in outdoor recreation does not stem directly from experiences with racism. Rather, it may originate from African Americans' perceptions and beliefs that recreational professionals are not welcoming or committed to providing culturally relevant experiences (Allison, 2000;Scott, 2000). For example, practitioners often assume that the majority of park visitors are White, so park stories tend primarily to focus on Caucasian culture. ...
Bourdieu and African Americans’ Park Visitation: The Case of Cedar Hill State Park in Texas
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2016
This study used Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice to understand African Americans’ underrepresentation at Cedar Hill State Park (CHSP) in Texas. Archival methods, site visits, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 local African Americans. Four salient themes related to African Americans’ under-representation were identified: (1) racial conflict within the field, (2) CHSP as a racialized space, (3) African American leisure habitus, and (4) lack of relevant attractions. These themes were closely related and together showed that perceived racial discrimination was a common factor which explained nonvisitation at CHSP.
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A Comparative Analysis of Race and Mattering in Leisure Literature
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2021
The purpose of this study was to examine the progression of discourse on race within leisure studies scholarship through the lens of racecraft and the construct of mattering. The Journal of Leisure Research as well as Schole were examined within the periods of the 1990s (1989–2000) and the 2010s (2009–2019). Articles were chosen based upon their employment of the keywords of community recreation, youth development, and race within both time periods, yielding a total of 99 articles that were examined. A discourse historical approach (DHA) was utilized to assess the impact of the socio-political context on leisure research as well as the development of discourse on race. Through DHA techniques and the concept of racecraft, this study classified articles under five overarching themes: Faint mentions of race, racialization in the negative, improper terminology use, intentionality of race, and inadequate lens of problem/solution. Based upon the findings, leisure literature has displayed minimal progression in its conceptualizations of race. Leisure studies scholarship reflects the dominant discourse through its latent ideology of racism that maintains marginalization of various racialized ethnic groups. It is posited that, without institutional examination and targeted mitigation efforts, the field of leisure will continue to uphold a detrimental racial order with an underdeveloped political and historical stance on race.
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A Preliminary Study of the Correlates of Leisure Interests and Constraints Among Adults Residing in Public Housing
Article
  • Mar 2021
This preliminary study explored the correlates of leisure interests and constraints among 39 adult public housing residents from North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Most preferred activities included walking, volunteering, reading, cards, dining out, travel, movies, and music. Pearson and Spearman correlations revealed significant associations between education quality and leisure interests. Education quantity and quality, pain severity and interference, loneliness, and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with leisure constraints. With the growing number of adults depending upon public housing, it is imperative to understand leisure interests and constraints within these communities, to ensure the availability of appropriate community programs and services.
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Structural Inequalities in Outdoor Recreation Participation: A Multiple Hierarchy Stratification Perspective
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2001
The purpose of this study is to empirically test the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective on outdoor recreation participation. Data for this study are from a telephone survey conducted of 3,000 Texas residents in 1998. Logistic regression analyses provided strong support for the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective. The results show that elderly minority females who do not have a college degree, and who do not make more than $20,000 per year occupy the lowest rank in the hierarchy of outdoor recreation participation probability. In contrast, young Anglo males who have a college degree, and who make more than $20,000 per year occupy the highest rank in the hierarchy. The remaining groups fall somewhere in the middle. The results indicate that if equity is to be achieved, outdoor recreation managers and planners must make an effort to find ways to enhance outdoor recreation participation among multiple disadvantaged populations.
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An Analysis of Consumer Loyalty to Municipial Recreation Programs.
Article
  • Jan 1988
This study of participant loyalty to selected municipal recreation programs emerged from the consumer behavior literature on brand loyalty, applying the concept to a service‐oriented leisure agency. Using a two‐dimensional measure of loyalty, incorporating both a behavioral or repeat purchasing dimension and an attitudinal or commitment dimension, this study found that participants exhibited a high degree of repeat purchasing and only a moderate level of commitment to agency programs. Loyalty segmentation results demonstrated that loyal patrons were more likely to be older and have more agency experience than less loyal participants. Applications of the study to program marketing and to future research are discussed.
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Organizational Barriers to Diversity in the Workplace
Article
  • Mar 1999
The purpose of this study was to identify, from the perspectives and experiences of 18 professional women and people of color, how park and recreation agencies dealt with diversity issues and programs. In-depth interviews focused on the organizational climate and the institutional barriers these individuals perceived and/or experienced in the workplace. Guiding questions included: 1) What are the organizational policies, principles, and practices that guide diversity issues in the workplace? 2) What efforts have agencies taken to foster sensitivity toward diversity? What are the strengths of those efforts and where have agencies failed?, and 3) What barriers, if any, have agencies erected, often unwittingly, that inhibit open access to opportunities within the organization? Three main themes emerged from the data. First, a discontinuity existed between organizational policy and practice with regard to diversity issues. Most efforts could be characterized as symbolic rather than substantive. For example, although diversity training was thought to be an important strategy to enhance sensitivity to diversity issues, it was ineffectively and inconsistently administered. Second, institutional inertia characterized most diversity efforts. Many agencies were not responsive to change and new programmatic initiatives. Third, respondents identified consistent inequitable practices in hiring, promotions, and job placement practices based on race and gender. The findings from this research suggest that park and recreation agencies, like other human-service agencies, often unknowingly participate in inequitable and exclusionary behavior. More indepth organizational analyses are needed to develop and support meaningful policies and practices to protect and enhance workplace diversity.
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