Work and Leisure

202 Robert A. StebbinsCareer volunteers provide a great variety of services in education, science,civic affairs (advocacy projects, professional and labour organisations), spiritualdevelopment, health, economic development, religion, politics, government(programmes and services), human relationships, recreation and thearts. Some of these volunteers work in the fields of safety or the physicalenvironment, while others prefer to provide necessities (e.g. food, clothing,shelter) or support services. Although much of career volunteering appears tobe connected in one way or another with an organisation of some sort, thescope of this leisure is sometimes even broader, as when it includes the kindsof voluntary helping devoted individuals do for social movements or forneighbours and family. Still, the definition of serious leisure restricts attentioneverywhere to volunteering in which the participant can find a career, inwhich there is continuous and substantial helping, rather than one-timedonations of money, organs, services and the like.Serious leisure is further defined by six distinguishing qualities (Stebbins1992: 6–8), qualities found among amateurs, hobbyists and volunteers alike.One is the occasional need to persevere, such as in confronting danger, managingstage fright or dealing with embarrassment. Yet, it is clear that positivefeelings about the activity come, to some extent, from sticking with it throughthick and thin, from conquering adversity. A second quality is, as alreadyindicated, that of finding a career in the endeavour, shaped as it is by itsown special contingencies, turning points and stages of achievement orinvolvement.Careers in serious leisure commonly rest on a third quality: significantpersonal effort based on specially acquired knowledge, training or skill, and,indeed, all three at times. Examples include such characteristics as showmanship,athletic prowess, scientific knowledge and long experience in a role.Fourth, eight durable benefits, or broad outcomes, of serious leisure have sofar been identified, mostly from research on amateurs: self-actualisation,self-enrichment, self-expression, regeneration or renewal of self, feelingsof accomplishment, enhancement of self-image, social interaction andbelongingness, and lasting physical products of the activity (e.g. a painting,scientific paper, piece of furniture). A further benefit – self-gratification, orthe combination of superficial enjoyment and deep satisfaction – is also oneof the main benefits of casual leisure, to the extent that the enjoyment partdominates.A fifth quality of serious leisure is the unique ethos that grows up aroundeach instance of it, a central component of which is a special social worldwhere participants can pursue their free-time interests. Unruh (1980)developed the following definition:A social world must be seen as a unit of social organization which isdiffuse and amorphous in character. Generally larger than groups ororganizations, social worlds are not necessarily defined by formal