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Re-Conceptualizing Recreation-Based Social Worlds, Matthew D. Hughes

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Social worlds are a distinct form of human organization in which individuals organize themselves by using communication channels to spread knowledge and culture around a shared interest. Over the past thirty years, the leisure sciences have increasingly used the social world vernacular to describe population samples of recreation-based groups. While important to the leisure and recreation disciplines, social world vernacular can be confusing, often leading to improper use. This research returns to the original definition of social worlds created by Shibutani and reexamines what social worlds were intended to be in the context of recreation and tourism. By reexamining the …