Leisure, Positive Development and Optimal Functioning in a Changing World: Volume II

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Background

This Research Topic is the second volume of the Research Topic "Leisure, Positive Development, and Optimal Functioning: Improving Growing and Ageing". Please see the first volume here

In addition to the field of leisure sciences/studies, leisure is a topic of interest in many fields of study, such as psychology (including social and developmental), geography, economics, sociology, community development, social justice, ethics, prevention science and health promotion (public health), and so on. A range of scholars defines leisure as a complex psycho-social-ecological phenomenon supporting a continuous expansion of definitions and meanings about leisure. Although long a topic of philosophical debate and interest dating at least back to Aristotle and Plato, leisure behaviors and experiences, as well as opportunities to engage in leisure, closely affect and are affected by societal, cultural, economic, political, and global changes and transformations.

Over the past decade or so, and certainly over the past couple of years, several changes and challenges have caused disruptions and affordances to the way humans desire and experience leisure. Still central to the public discourse is the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and all the ways it affected leisure behavior. Other contemporary issues include other public health issues such as overweight and obesity, mental, and environmental health. The rapid evolution of digital technology has transformed people’s behavior and expectations. The topics just presented are but some examples and issues of social justice, inclusion, and diversity are intertwined within all these topics. Leisure, as an experience, activity or context is sensitive to these changes.

Leisure research has contributed to understanding how individuals and societies flourish and thrive and how developmental complexity over the lifespan is enhanced and optimized through leisure. Empirical research suggests that leisure creates opportunities for strengthening individuals and communities by empowering relationships and sustaining natural environments, thus making life worth living. As the world has grappled with the pandemic and other changes, it has become even clearer that there is a close link between what people do in their leisure, or are not able to do because of structural, environmental, or political constraints, and their well-being, mental, and physical health. Furthermore, these challenges have illuminated how people have reacted to adversity, many of whom have responded with resilience and innovative strategies to cope with their changing world. Others, however, have responded with despair, pain, and anger.

This Research Topic offers a space for scholars from all fields of study to contribute papers that examine contemporary leisure activities, contexts, and experiences of people in relation to challenges and affordances for positive development and optimal functioning across the lifespan. From this perspective, this topic offers an opportunity to examine the capacity of individuals to regulate themselves, within daily life and across the course of life, in order to engage in meaningful lives. Within this scenario, we encourage papers that help to understand, explain, and counsel others about how leisure activities, contexts, and experiences contribute to building optimized life trajectories balancing vulnerabilities and strengths, crises and opportunities. We envisage contributing to the understanding of human functioning, traversing from individual experiences to contexts and environments. We welcome scholars and researchers to submit original empirical or conceptual papers from any methodological and/or theoretical framework.

Keywords: leisure, positive development, balanced life, #CollectionSeries

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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