Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed the growth of a masculinity-in-decline narrative which posits a world in which (white) masculinity is increasingly under siege by a variety of cultural forces. This narrative has been particularly prominent in depictions of the contemporary work world, once an overwhelmingly masculine province, where both the increasing presence of the female bodies of women workers and the increasing “feminization” of work practices (such as preferred approaches to managing employees) have been perceived in some quarters as posing a distinct threat to masculinity’s centrality. Against this backdrop, in 1997 the Miller Brewing Company began to air a series of advertisements designed to resuscitate its High Life brand of beer – a brand that pioneered the overuse of masculinity as beer advertising tactic, but which had experienced a very real decline in sales since the late 1970s. The campaign, which lasted until 2005, invoked, in ironic fashion, the narrative of masculinity-in-decline through the mythical character of the “High Life Man.” This essay offers a critical examination of the manner in which these ads offered a “solution” to the crisis of masculinity by reasserting an excessive “manliness” in leisure to compensate for the threats to masculinity at work. In doing so, the ads both conformed and transformed the generic conventions of beer advertising that the brand helped establish in the first place, simultaneously reinscribing and critically satirizing hegemonic masculinity in the process.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: This paper explores ren, the eastern concept of “human heartedness” as an ethical principle in Confucian philosophy. The discussion includes consideration of ren as an aesthetic activity wherein west meets east.

Hegel’s understanding of aesthetics is situated in the mind and related to sensation or feeling that artfully portrays the human spirit. In Hegel’s aesthetics there is a disinterestedness that permits one to contemplate and experience the world inside the self. When this happens one no longer wants to externally consume or end the experience; rather, one wants to find pleasure and wonder within the contemplation of the-thing-itself.

Using Hegel’s aesthetic theory, ren implies ethical human communication and conduct. Since there is no consumption of the thing in ren, there becomes an interconnectedness, the li. Ren leads to li, the interconnectedness of the self to other selves: li is an outcome of ren. Revelation of the art reveals the absolute and spirit of the human being. Ren guides one’s ethical communication in the tension between corporeal exteriority and interiority.

A person can engage a multitude of activities in the doing of philosophical leisure. Whether the activity is traditionally western, like baseball, or a traditionally eastern activity, like meditation, philosophical leisure is the act of the contemplative play—the amazement of learning and appropriating that learning into a transformation. Philosophical leisure enriches one’s ability to contribute to a conversation in an ethical and positive way that will move ideas forward.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper critiques the traditional assumption – reproduced in both Tourism Studies and International Relations – that tourism and war are separate practices. Indeed, framing tourism and war as historically separate is also about controlling, projecting

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This article examines differences in participation in selected leisure activities for black and white Americans. It proposes a typology that classifies leisure activities according to their social definitions and the perception that they may be sites of potential discrimination. That typology is tested empirically against two common theoretical perspectives (Marginality and Ethnicity), and is shown to be a better predictor of leisure differences. As predicted by the typology, the results show that the participation gap between Whites and Blacks is widest for leisure activities with a White identity that occur where there is a lack of social controls, narrower for activities with a White identity with social controls, and narrower still for activities with a race-neutral identity. These results take into account differences in socioeconomic status and life-cycle stage, and for one activity, differences in preference for that activity.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Excerpted from a larger project on the moral culture of American teens during the first year after high school graduation, this paper summarizes results from 125 in-depth interviews with American teens and one-year of field research. It reports on the ubiquity of teen employment, the character and context of teen work, the American teen lifestyle and its impact on teen money use and general economic life of teens, the distinct leisure preferences of teens, the impact teen leisure preference have on teen work patterns and money behaviors, and the ways teens adjust their work, money, and leisure practices during the first year after high school. Particular attention is given to similarities and differences across gender, race, and class, and to the role of socializing agents such as the family, religion, and local community. This paper argues: 1) that most American teens view work as a necessary nuisance, money as a lifestyle essential, and leisure as a purchased commodity, 2) that most American teens are blinded to their conformity to these American patterns of consumption, and 3) that American teens have learned these patterns from their families, their religious communities, and their local communities -- not because these communities send these messages explicitly, but do so implicitly as they pattern their own behaviors along these lines.