HOST 174 - Serious Leisure: Sport, Play, Recreation, & Parks

5 Credits

This survey course begins with an analysis of the leisure studies field. This field includes things such as recreation, leisure, sport, and play in general. Leadership in these fields requires a business acumen, comprehension of government involvement, and approaches to resource management such as park development and recreation programming. Those who make this field a career are often referred to those involved in serious leisure as professionals. The attributes that community leaders overseeing serious leisure need to make communities better places to live, work, and play are focal points of discussion and learning. We critically analyze resources, their usage (e.g., leisure, play), sustainability, and the conservation / preservation continuum (especially in recreation and park settings such as national parks). Finally, fundamental concepts of recreation and leisure and their roles in modern society and the global context are discussed and analyzed.

Fees

Quarters Typically Offered
Spring Online

Designed to Serve Students interested in history, sport, recreation, park, ecotourism, and tourism. The course is particularly important to students interested in conservation of societies and cultures, communal well-being, sustainability, and American history.
Active Date 20260408T15:01:10

Grading Basis Decimal Grade
Class Limit 20
Shared Learning Environment Yes
Contact Hours: Lecture 55
Total Contact Hours 55
Degree Distributions:
ProfTech Course Yes
Restricted Elective Yes
PLA Eligible Yes

Course Outline

Understand how the history of leisure studies as a discipline (e.g., tourism, play, sport, recreation, park) informs the present.
Analyze the role of parks and public spaces around the world, beginning with the first national parks being founded in the USA and including even stadiums and their development globally.
Probe the socio-cultural and geo-political importance of leisure to community well-being.
Comprehend financial realities such as neoliberalism and resource limitations such as tragedy of the commons to understand leisure’s future including the public and park spaces that make up leisure settings.
Describe play and leisure as distinct components of societies.
Understand the continuum of preservation/conservation in the context of spatial awareness and sustainability
Grasp the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., people, planet, and profit) as they relate to socio-cultural elements such as heritage and tradition.

Student Learning Outcomes
Analyze the historical importance of leisure studies including tourism, sport, play, recreation, parks, and green spaces.

Identify the social, cultural, geographical, and political significance behind human experiences in/of leisure settings.

Execute the role of professionals tasked with crafting experiential programming within leisure settings.

Assess integral concepts to leisure studies such as play and sport while programming, leading, and interpreting leisure settings (e.g., parks, stadiums).

Program sustainability from within case studies that include people, planet, and profit in public spaces and forums.

Predict the role leisure will play in the future of humans.