Individuals, instinct and moralities: exploring multi-species leisure using the serious leisure perspective

Multispecies leisure: human-animal interactions in leisure landscapes

“…Although she reported the potential for the same strains as found in previous studies, she also found that multispecies leisure provided couples with a source of close engagement and bonding, between them but also, and importantly, with their dog(s). All of these studies illustrate what many people who live with dogs (and other companion animals) know: these multispecies leisure activities are meaningful and rich expressions of complex relationships between humans and dogs, often reflective of deeply held emotions and attachments (Nottle & Young, 2019). Human-canine leisure constitutes an important part of these interspecies relationships.…”

“…Many of the papers in this special issue, and numerous others in the wider literature, focus predominantly on the positive, beneficial aspects of multispecies encounters and leisure and reflect close bondseven loveacross species boundaries (Nottle & Young, 2019). Nickie Charles' research has posited that pets can be understood to be kinfamily members in many circumstancesand that they provide emotional support, comfort and security to many people (Charles, 2014;Charles & Davies, 2011) and often serve as substitutes for human relations.…”

“…In a departure from traditional human-centric leisure studies, the papers explore the personal lived experiences of interspecies encounters. Nottle and Young (2019) consider the intersection of animal leisure with human leisure in a reflective analysis of individual human-nonhuman animal preferences and personalities. Focusing on different approaches to 'fur parenting' and leisure lives, the authors observe their lives with their five dogs, framed within Stebbins' Serious Leisure Perspective categorisation (Elkington & Stebbins, 2014).…”

Everyday Life Construction, Outdoor Activity and Health Practice among Urban Empty Nesters and Their Companion Dogs in Guangzhou, China

“…3 feel that she is needed. Touching has been proven to be mutually beneficial, both physically and mentally, for owners and their pets [38]. Stebbins [39,40] powerfully supports the view that sensory stimuli, such as touch, are a leisure interaction.…”

‘Do horses cause divorces?’ Autoethnographic insights on family, relationships and resource-intensive leisure

“…Participants in dog agility, as with those in equestrian leisure, are predominantly, but not exclusively, female (Farrell et al, 2015), and so some of the pressures of competing priorities and negotiations over time and resources can be understood in relation to ideas about gendered leisure, outlined above. Much of the research on dog agility and related multispecies leisure deploys Stebbins' (1992) serious leisure framework to make sense of these intensive leisure practices (Nottle & Young, 2019), as did Stone (2019) in her consideration of the less well-known world of cat shows. There are clearly parallels with the equestrian contexts we discuss below.…”