Recreation and Leisure Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Dance/Movement Therapy for Dementia Caregiver Resilience: A Mixed-Methods Study
(University of Waterloo, 2025-07-08) Champagne, Eden
As Canada’s population continues to age, more individuals will be living with neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia and caring for loved ones with these conditions. The Government of Canada estimates that in 2022-2023, over 400,000 people were living with diagnosed dementia, and close to 99,000 were newly diagnosed that year (StatsCan, 2025). Most individuals living with dementia are taken care of by a family member (romantic partner/spouse or adult child). However, individuals who step in to take on this role often become burdened and distressed due to the grief associated with the losses their loved one is going through (relational, physical, cognitive) and the compounded strains of caregiving. Once dementia emerges and continues to progress, the negative impact on caregivers’ health and well-being is greater than on other caregiving groups (Kim & Schulz, 2008). Thus, it is imperative to explore how caregiver well-being can be maintained despite the ongoing losses with their loved one. The majority of caregiver support programs which have been developed and evaluated are based on stress-process models, aiming to mitigate impacts of illness-related stress through learning communication skills, coping skills, and information about dementia (Schulz et al., 2020). While some of these programs have shown reductions in caregiver depression, most have minimal effect sizes (Schulz et al., 2020) and focus on reducing dysfunction (e.g., burden), rather than promoting holistic resilience factors (Palacio et al., 2020). Resilience literature suggests that taking a strengths-based approach to caregiver support may offer meaningful pathways to caregiver well-being, by promoting malleable factors such as positive affect, self-efficacy, and ways of coping (Palacio et al., 2020). Despite evidence of how the creative-arts therapies (CATs) such as dance/movement therapy (DMT) can promote positive aspects of well-being such as mood and coping in other populations, they remain underexplored for caregivers in their own right (Irons et al., 2020). CAT programs which have been explored often include the caregiver as a co-facilitator of the activity, alongside their loved one with dementia, and thus they may experience burden rather than respite (Irons et al., 2020). Importantly, proposed therapeutic mechanisms of DMT inherently correspond to resilience factors for caregivers (Champagne, 2024), providing a rationale for how DMT may help caregivers to focus on their own needs and build resources. However, scant if any research has designed or evaluated the benefits of DMT for caregivers. The purpose of this exploratory research was to design, facilitate, and evaluate the impact of a 6-session, theory-driven DMT program on resilience for dementia caregivers and to understand their experiences of this program. The objectives and activities in the DMT sessions were informed by resilience theories and previous work on DMT for resilience in other populations. A pretest-posttest convergent mixed-methods design was used. Outcome measures included caregiving burden, resilience, and psychological flourishing. Weekly quantitative measures of active creativity and DMT therapeutic factors were also distributed to consider therapeutic mechanisms of the program. Qualitative data was captured through post-session journal entries and semi-structured debrief interviews. Online survey data was collected at two time points from 10 dementia caregivers (before and after the DMT program). Repeated-measures t-tests were used to examine the changes in caregiver burden and well-being from before to after the DMT program. Results indicated that caregiver burden was significantly reduced from baseline to follow-up, as expected. However, increases in benefit finding, resilience, and psychological flourishing were not statistically significant. Pearson correlations of key study variables indicated that higher resilience immediately following DMT caused significantly lower caregiver burden at follow-up and was significantly associated with higher resilience at follow-up. Additionally, experiencing more DMT therapeutic factors was negatively associated with burden at follow-up, and positively associated with resilience and psychological flourishing at follow-up, with a medium effect size, but these correlations did not reach statistical significance. Thematic findings from qualitative interviews and post-session journals revealed that the DMT program offered participants experiences of holistic engagement, liberation, and meaningful connection with others, which led to benefits of enhanced coping. Participants described their caregiving experiences as exhausting and overwhelming. They reported feeling constrained and that it was hard to find time for self-care. Participants contrasted their experiences in DMT with preexisting caregiver programs and emphasized how creative movement elicited benefits such as feeling “lighter” and empowered, gaining an attitude of acceptance, and emotional regulation. These findings suggest that DMT programs should continue to be designed and offered on a continual basis for dementia caregivers, for the unique ways in which movement provided a needed “release” and “liberation” which promoted experiences of emotional expression and improved coping. Participants suggested that future iterations of the program should have more sessions, longer sessions to enable more deep processing and debriefing, and more social time. Together, the quantitative and qualitative findings suggest preliminary evidence of the potential for DMT to foster resilience factors and benefit caregiver well-being and coping. Participants in the present study emphasized their own surprise at how useful the modality of DMT was for their needs and urged for more DMT programs to be accessible to them.
When Relations Matter Most: Death and Dying Personifications and Experiences from the Perspectives of Recreation Therapists
(University of Waterloo, 2025-05-01) Delaney, Erin Paige
ABSTRACT Over the past 200 years, death has been heavily medicalized within Global North healthcare settings, no longer positioned as naturally occurring but as a failure of medicine. In modern society, death is hidden between the four walls of our hospitals and care facilities, resulting in healthcare workers developing a closer, more persistent relationship to death than the general public. This phenomenon was emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing healthcare workers’ overexposure to death. The silencing of death creates barriers to care and emphasizes the need for comprehensive death education and better support for healthcare professionals when experiencing death in their workplaces. Guided by phenomenology and expanding personification theory, this study aims to capture the unique experiences and perspectives of death from a healthcare professional group often overlooked in the literature, recreation therapists, by exploring the following questions: 1) How is death understood and experienced by recreation therapists? 2) How is death personified by practicing recreation therapists? What do these personifications tell us about understandings and experiences of death? 3) How might personifications of death and the experiences of death shared by recreation therapists inform us on what recreation therapists need to support their experiences of death and dying? How might death education benefit recreation therapists? This study recruited nine recreation therapists across Canada to participate in a two-step data collection process. Step one used arts-based research methods to capture participants’ personifications of death utilizing collaging and painting. Step two involved four small group virtual research conversations. The research conversations provided opportunities to share and explore the artistic personifications of death outlined in step one and delve deeply into the experiences of death for recreation therapists. A phenomenological analysis process was used to analyze and interpret both the personifications of death and the transcripts of the research conversations. This project demonstrates the entanglement of beauty and darkness in the experience of death and dying from the perspectives of recreation therapists. The findings highlight the impact of relational approaches in end-of-life care and reveal the need for more support to combat burnout and expand the role of recreation therapists in caring for the dying. This project highlighted the participants’ navigation of the emotional and relational challenges of death in healthcare, with artistic personifications reflecting the tension between solace and finality. There is a shared hope for greater support in environments that lack adequate resources, emphasizing the need for systemic change in end-of-life care. This research integrates recreation therapy into the conversation on death and dying, highlighting the essential role of recreation therapists at the end-of-life. Methodologically, it contributes by combining phenomenology and personification to explore the essence of experience through visual art. The findings offer practical implications for recreation therapists, healthcare organizations, and educators in supporting staff and incorporating recreation therapy centered death education.
Exploring Social Citizenship in the Context of Leisure in Residential Care Settings
(University of Waterloo, 2025-04-29) MacTavish, Erica
Dominant stigmatizing narratives of dementia emphasize tragedy, the loss of self, and portray people living with dementia (PLwD) as ‘unagentic’ and ‘failed’ aging subjects. Due to this stigma and the medicalized structure of long-term care (LTC) settings, recreation and leisure are often focused on therapeutic goals or managing “difficult behaviours,” rather than recognizing residents’ desires and aspirations. A social citizenship framework challenges these deficit-based views by recognizing PLwD as active agents with rights, histories, and competencies, while relational citizenship highlights the role of relationships in shaping agency. Although leisure has the potential to either support or undermine social and relational citizenship, existing research has focused almost exclusively on community-based settings, leaving LTC contexts largely unexplored. This study addresses this gap by using an ethnographic approach to narrative inquiry and narrative citizenship to support PLwD in telling their own stories, an opportunity they are often denied in research due to stigma and assumptions about capacity. More specifically it explored how leisure practices in LTC shape social and relational citizenship for PLwD living in these settings. Through fieldwork in a LTC institution in Southern Ontario, I conducted participant observation of leisure programs and research conversations with both PLwD and recreation staff. Four stories reflect the experiences of PLwD and the staff who support them in this LTC setting: Holding onto Selfhood, The Right to Choose, Beyond Isolation, and Negotiating Freedom and Care. This study provides insights into how LTC environments can be reimagined through a relational model of care that intentionally supports the social and relational citizenship of residents by prioritizing interdependence, shared agency, and reciprocal relationships over individualized, person-centred approaches.
Justice is the Real Medicine: The Tensions & In(tensions) of Radical Thinking in Liberal Institutions Across the Medical Industrial Complex
(University of Waterloo, 2025-04-24) Sivasubramaniam, Arany
This dissertation navigates the tensions that arise when radical, political, approaches intersect with the liberal frameworks of health institutions and organizations. Grounded in the interdisciplinary methodology of research-creation, this study interrogates how systems of care, equity, and justice are negotiated, disrupted, and re-imagined within institutional boundaries. Drawing from critical social theories and concepts, the research utilizes pragmatic methods including the plugging-in technique, critical friend collaborations, radical workshops, emergence, affirmative refusal, and skill-sharing, to mobilize knowledge and foster collective insights. The study reveals how liberal, health spaces such as hospitals and long-term care homes often constrain radical political praxis, requiring actors to navigate a delicate balance between complicity and resistance. Through research-creation, it emphasizes the transformative potential of collaborative, creative, and reflexive practices in making visible the affective and structural forces that sustain complicity to white institutionalization. By employing affirmative refusal and emergence as methodological strategies, this research highlights the generative possibilities of refusing predetermined pathways while remaining attuned to the unforeseen. Moreover, radical workshops served as spaces of collective learning and experimentation, fostering community-based knowledge production and challenging state-sanctioned, institutional norms. This work contributes to scholarship on radical politics, health justice, and research-creation by offering practical and theoretical tools to disrupt and reimagine the boundaries of care and well-being within liberal organizations. Ultimately, it argues for the necessity of holding tension as a productive site for transformation, where institutional critique and creative praxis coalesce to envision more just futures.
The Weight of Leaving: Gender, Identity Shifts, and Health Challenges in the Post-Competition Lives of Women Bodybuilders
(University of Waterloo, 2025-04-15) Matharu, Amarjit
Drawing from my own experience as a bodybuilder in the bikini division, the purpose of this research is to explore the retirement transition for women bodybuilders. More specifically, this study explores how women bodybuilders are influenced by gendered ideologies and how these ideologies affect their transition experience in relation to identity, health, and well-being. There is limited literature exploring bodybuilding retirement, and no literature exploring women’s experiences during this transition. Guided by a sport feminism theoretical orientation, I conducted reflexive dyadic interviews with 15 women who retired, or were thinking of retiring, from bodybuilding. I used narrative inquiry to guide the methodological process and observed online spaces including Instagram and Reddit. I constructed five composite characters to represent the diverse experiences of my participants and to present the findings, I crafted a series of narratives, authored by these characters, while also including my own narration to provide context throughout the series of stories. The narratives are organized into two parts. Part one highlights the impact of retirement on the women’s physical health, mental health, and well-being, while part two reveals the influence of gender ideologies on the retirement experience regarding gendered expectations both inside and outside of the industry. I conclude that gender plays a significant role in the retirement transition as gender ideologies are engrained deeply within the industry and society, leading to a dynamic experience impacting identity, health, and well-being during the transition, unique to women. This research is the first of its kind to address women’s bodybuilding retirement in the academic literature, sheds light on an understudied topic and offers insights that may resonate and validate women who share this experience.
Heartworks: Feminist Encounters with the Gendered Selves of Young Divorcées
(University of Waterloo, 2025-04-14) Valtchanov, Bronwen L.
Compelled by personal connections to women in my life experiencing the gendered complexities of divorce, this study explores how young, divorced women (in their 20s and 30s), without children, were influenced by different gendered ideologies—including femininity, coupledom, and pronatalism—along with other social, cultural, and relational contexts and pressures, all of which can be variously experienced, reproduced, and resisted within leisure. Aligning feminist theory with narrative inquiry, I conducted one-to-one interviews and group interviews with 12 young, divorced women. I represented the findings using Creative Analytic Practice through a variety of literary forms, including monologues, social media posts, and researcher field notes. The findings elucidate women’s experiences within a framework I conceptualize as the Heartworks, which details the heart-work of women’s divorce processes and the feminist research praxis it fosters. Collectively, the findings highlight the challenges women faced as they navigated the “shattering” of their married selves and engaged in “re-creating” distinct post-divorce selves against the sociocultural backdrop of gendered ideologies. This research expands current conceptualizations of identity, grief, transition, and transformation. It also adds complexity to our thinking about women’s relationships as a shifting cultural nexus where leisure contexts both confine and expand notions of femininity and love. As a feminist social justice project, this research exposes the marginalization and stigmatization faced by young, divorced women and shares new understandings of their complex, lived experiences, including possibilities for resisting and re-creating limiting narratives of women’s divorce through counter-narratives of (re)claimed agency, solidarity, and empowerment.
Exploring Tourism Inclusion: Perspectives of Older Adults in St. Jacobs
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-01) Liang, Jianing; Boluk, Karla
The profit-driven and pro-growth tourism industry, driven by capitalist models, has long exploited resources from communities and caused inequities (Fletcher, 2011; Becken and Kaur, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic’s interruption of tourism has not only revealed its vulnerability, but also created an opportunity for researchers to reconsider its problematic practices and advocate for a potential shift toward greater sustainability and resilience (Ma et al., 2020; Becken and Kaur, 2022; Bellato et al., 2022). One approach is regenerative tourism, which prioritizes the well-being of destination communities by leveraging tourism resources for regeneration (Pollock, 2019). Acknowledging the unique characteristics of each community, regenerative tourism promotes collaboration among all stakeholders to address diverse community needs inclusively (Becken and Kaur, 2022). Existing literature on regenerative tourism suffers from a notable gap in the limited attention given to the involvement of older adult residents as community stakeholders in tourism. The ways in which tourism can benefit older adult residents remains relatively unexplored (Chang et al., 2022). Therefore, this proposed research seeks to explore the tourism needs and participation of older adult residents in St. Jacobs Village, aiming to promote inclusive stakeholder engagement for a marginalized group. To achieve this, Arts-Based Research methods, focus group, and individual interview were employed to gain insights from older adult participants and facilitate the sharing of their experiences and perspectives on St. Jacobs Village’s active engagement in tourism.
Hospitality in Crisis: Maybe Care is the Answer
(University of Waterloo, 2024-09-23) Vacalopoulos, Peggy (Panayiota); Mair, Heather
The hospitality industry is in crisis, and maybe care is the answer. As a 25-year veteran of the hospitality industry, I know firsthand what makes the sector undesirable, what makes it attractive, and what makes it worth saving. In 2019, the Covid pandemic brought the tourism sector to its knees, and hospitality came down with it. At this time, many scholars suggested Covid offered the perfect opportunity for us to rethink how we engage with the restoration and regeneration of the sector. During this time, an emphasis was placed on caring for one another. However, that did not trickle down to best business practices. Consequently, the labour shortage amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic continues today as hospitality organizations struggle to attract and retain a talented workforce. In this narrative inquiry, I explored the lived experiences of six frontline restaurant staff before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting semi-structured interviews. My findings revealed nothing's changed in the industry, it is still as toxic and undesirable as it ever was. Guided by Critical Theory and a feminist ethic of care lens, I formulated the idea that perhaps care can interrupt the invasive neoliberal individualistic attitudes that have dominated hospitality narratives thus far. By incorporating relational care as the foundation for best business practices hospitality outlets will regain their ability to sustain the workforce that fuels hospitality encounters. Maybe then, we will have an opportunity to ensure decent work and economic growth for all.
Older Adults Experiencing Social Isolation and Loneliness During Covid-19: Resilience Through Leisure
(University of Waterloo, 2024-08-28) Atabakhsh, Victoria; Glover, Troy
The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the role of leisure as a resilience strategy to combat social isolation and loneliness among older adult women who lived alone in Kitchener-Waterloo during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was guided by the following research questions: (1) how did public health restrictions affect older adults during the pandemic; (2) what does resilience mean to older adults and what resilience strategies did they use to stay socially connected during the pandemic; and (3) what role, if any, did leisure play as a resilience strategy in addressing the threats of social isolation and loneliness during COVID-19? The research approach that was taken was a narrative inquiry using semi-structured, one-on-one interviews held over the phone to collect data from participants. Many participants experienced heightened feelings of social isolation and loneliness due to physical distancing measures and government mandates (i.e., stay-at-home orders) (Lee et al., 2020). Older adults, particularly those living alone, were at higher risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to restrictions on gatherings, physical distancing measures, and concerns about their health and safety (CDC, 2020). The closure of community centres and other social venues further limited opportunities for participants to engage in activities and connect with others. Many relied on regular social interactions for companionship, emotional support, and a sense of belonging, all of which were disrupted by the pandemic. This research shows that extraverts and introverts had contrasting experiences during the pandemic due to their differing social needs and preferences. While both extraverts and introverts faced challenges during the pandemic, their experiences were shaped by their distinct social preferences and coping mechanisms. Extraverts struggled with reduced social interaction, while introverts navigated a balance between solitude and the need for connection. Similarly, both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals navigated unique challenges and considerations throughout the pandemic based on their vaccination status and individual circumstances. Unvaccinated participants expressed experiencing more judgement, shunning, and ostracism than vaccinated participants. Every participant, regardless of extraversion, introversion, or vaccination status, demonstrated resilience. Using technology to stay connected during a time where face-to-face interactions were near impossible, older adult women exercised their resilience to make it through the pandemic. Older adult women demonstrated remarkable resilience during the pandemic by employing various leisure strategies to mitigate social isolation and loneliness. Through findings, 5 dimensions of resilience arose encompassing what resilience meant to participants. The dimensions included acceptance, perseverance, adapation, perspective and, and positivity. Further, three major themes of how leisure was exercised to stay resilient arose, which included using leisure to stay connected, to stay distracted, and to stay active. By engaging in leisure, older adult women not only exercised their resilience and coped with social isolation and loneliness but also demonstrated resilience.
Understanding Consumers’ Intentions to Purchase Technological Innovations in the Context of Sport
(University of Waterloo, 2024-07-05) Selvaratnam, Vinurshan; Snelgrove, Ryan
Researchers have studied innovation adoption in various sport contexts, including digital ticketing, sport team mobile apps, fantasy sports league websites, and smart-connected sports products, to name a few. However, researchers have yet to examine consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro. This is primarily because the Apple Vision Pro is a new technology that was just introduced to the public in February 2024. Understanding consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro is warranted since anecdotal evidence suggests it can positively impact the fan experience. In this dissertation, I conducted three studies to better understand sport consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro by applying and extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a theory widely used to study innovation adoption. For all three studies, online surveys designed through Qualtrics were used to collect data (n=272) from Prolific Academic, an online crowdsourcing platform used for behavioral research. In study 1, I included team identification into the TAM to explain why and how sport consumers accept the Vision Pro. To analyze data, structural equation modeling was used and the findings showed that private evaluation and cognitive awareness, two dimensions of team identification, had an indirect positive effect on purchase intention through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude. As such, I recommend that marketers and technology developers implement strategies highlighting the usefulness and ease of use of technologies such as the Vision Pro. I also recommend targeted marketing strategies that appeal to the emotional and cognitive aspects of team identification, leading to purchase intentions among sports fans. In study 2, I included constructs from innovation diffusion theory into the TAM to better understand consumers’ acceptance of the Apple Vision Pro. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. The findings showed that compatibility, trialability, and observability positively and indirectly influenced purchase intention through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude. As such, I argue that marketing strategies for the Vision Pro should not only focus on demonstrating its unique features and benefits but also emphasize its compatibility with users' lifestyles, offer new opportunities to try the technology for sports fans, and showcase the benefits accrued by existing users. Finally, in study 3, I included perceived monetary value and financial risk into the TAM to understand sports consumers' acceptance of the Vision Pro. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. The findings showed that perceived financial risk indirectly influenced purchase intention through attitude. This suggests that while perceived financial risk directly influences consumers' attitudes, these attitudes then significantly shape consumers’ purchase intention of the Apple Vision Pro. As such, I argue that marketers should focus on enhancing the positive aspects of the Vision Pro to promote favorable attitudes among sport consumers. For instance, showcasing the unique features of the Vision Pro and emphasizing its benefits in enhancing the fan experience can enhance positive attitudes and offset the negative impact of perceived financial risks. Theoretically, this dissertation extends the TAM by showing the value of integrating other theories and concepts relevant to the study of innovation adoption. This dissertation also advances understandings of technology acceptance in the context of sport by revealing one of the unique features of sport, namely team identification, and its role in adoption. Therefore, exploring the complex interplay of various factors influencing the adoption of the Apple Vision Pro not only validates existing theories but also provides new insights and perspectives, thus paving the way for further research.
Leisure Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction: Examining the Mediating Roles of Self-Rated Physical Health and Mental Health
(University of Waterloo, 2024-05-30) Azam, Arefin; Potwarka, Luke R.
Researchers have studied leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction in different eras (Brown & Frankel, 1993; Neal et al., 1999; Ragheb & Griffith, 1982). A recent study demonstrated that leisure activities and life satisfaction correlate positively (Kim et al., 2022). However, limited information is available regarding the explanatory mechanisms underlying this connection. Drawing from the bottom-up spillover theory proposed by Andrews & Withey (1976), this research examines two potential explanatory mechanisms, self-rated physical health (SRPH) and self-rated mental health (SRMH), which could help explain the relationship between leisure satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. The current study uses population-level secondary data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) (n = 113,290). The research suggests three hypotheses: (i) that leisure satisfaction has a positive relationship with life satisfaction; (ii) that self-rated physical health will positively mediate the association of life satisfaction and leisure satisfaction; and (iii) Self-rated mental health will operate as a positive mediator in the relationship between life satisfaction and leisure satisfaction. Measures, such as leisure satisfaction (e.g., “How satisfied are you with your leisure activities?”), life satisfaction (“How satisfied are you with your overall life?”), SRPH and SRMH were obtained from the 2017-2018 CCHS. Results from the regression analysis revealed that leisure satisfaction was a significant predictor of life satisfaction. Self-rated physical and mental health also partially mediated this relationship. This research contributes to the growing knowledge of the intricate interplay between leisure, mental and physical health, and overall life satisfaction. Understanding these relationships has implications for interventions and policies to enhance individuals' well-being by considering the role of leisure activities and their impact on mental and physical health.
The ordinary Niagara Falls
(University of Waterloo, 2024-03-11) Stinson, Michela; Grimwood, Bryan
Tourism is a practice traditionally geared away from the ordinary; by virtue of its opposition from everyday life tourism is an act through which we see and do extraordinary things (Urry, 1992). Over time, tourism scholars have complemented and amended these conceptualizations of tourism as a spectacular practice, bringing in more nuanced understandings of tourism as a part of (and not apart from) ordinary life (Larsen, 2008). These orientations include situating the body in tourism (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994), turning toward the mundane and the proximate (Rantala et al., 2020), and positioning tourism as an ordered and assembled performance (Franklin, 2004; van der Duim, 2007). As Niagara Falls, Ontario remains a place dominated by material and discursive spectacle, I am drawn to considering the power of its “ordinary” aspects (Stewart, 2007) in the overall maintenance of its position in the global tourism landscape. Broadly, this dissertation argues that the construction of tourism at Niagara Falls is, indeed, ordinary, achieved not only thorough the larger representational work of advertising and marketing, but through the individual and collective actions of tourists, researchers, residents, and people living with/in and subsequently worldmaking (Hollinshead et al., 2009) with/in Niagara Falls, Ontario. This dissertation also argues that this ordinary work has extraordinary outcomes, and helps to locate tourism as enrolled in the further production of Canadian nationalism, settler colonialism, ruination, and state-sponsored reconciliation in Niagara Falls, Ontario. These are not new arguments, but they are arguments that I believe have urgency in the wake of accelerating climate crisis, global pandemics, and geopolitical conditions that are converging in the changing practices doing of “ordinary” tourism.
Becoming-with More-than-human Protected Areas
(University of Waterloo, 2023-11-28) Hurst, Chris E.; Grimwood, Bryan
The planet is currently undergoing immense and permanent geological change and environmental decline, a period some scholars have referred to as the Anthropocene. Climate change and environmental events, biodiversity declines, wildfires, flooding, pollution, and pandemics are changing the ways in which we engage with the natural environment – as tourist and recreationist. Protected areas, and Parks in particular, are uniquely placed within this broader context of environmental crises in Canada on account of their dual mandate to both facilitate positive visitor experiences and to conserve the ecology and heritage of a site. Tethered to these mandate positions are anthropocentric separations or distinctions between humans and nature. The first, visitor experience, positions humans as visitors and nature as the backdrop for human recreation and tourism. The second mandate, conserving ecologies and heritage, assumes that humans as managers of these places can intervene in nature for particular outcomes, reinforcing ideas of human superiority over nonhumans and nature. Framed by posthuman philosophical, theoretical, and methodological approaches, the manuscripts, book chapter, and research note comprising this thesis work individually (and in combination) to disrupt, co-opt, challenge, and attend to concepts (i.e., anthropomorphism, affective reverberations, time, and agency) that have largely been subject to anthropocentric inscription and offer productive spaces for experimenting with different kinds of affective-sensory-material attunement practices in protected areas. The specific aims of this project are to contribute to building some of the conceptual foundations necessary for a more-than-human conservation ethic and practice premised on knowing-with, being-with, and researching-with nonhumans in nature-based tourism. With the exception of the research note, each chapter also experiments with more-than-human attunements borne of (re)enchantment (i.e., care as action) with concepts, integrating posthuman relationality and praxis with (re)presentational choices intended to evoke and affect (rather than represent per se). Each article simultaneously engages theory-methodology-(re)presentation as an iterative and entangled practice of being-with more-than-human places. Specifically, this research draws upon the sensory-attunements of walking methodologies, the methodological fluidity of methodologies without methodology, and the evocativeness of nonrepresentational methodologies, as an embodied practice of attending. Situated within more-than-human encounters in three Provincial Parks in Ontario, Canada, this thesis contributes to the growing interdisciplinary scholarship engaging with nonhumans as kin and invites us to care-with more-than-human temporalities, agency, and affectivity for more inclusive, responsive, and response-able tourism futures.
Unbearable Fruits
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-27) Moran, Robyn; Berbary, Lisbeth
Counter to my bodily instincts, abstract writing demands we make something evident in the interest of time (Loveless, 2019). I’ve been state power, settler colonialism, neighbourhood change and/or gentrification, queer politics, homonationalism, mobilities, and placemaking (or place-taking and place un-making). Accordingly, I have situated at the nexus of political economy (i.e., neoliberalism, rainbow capitalism, racial capitalism) and “the cultural politics of emotion” (i.e., affect theory). I've organized the fruits of this labour in three manuscripts (crucially, supported by a handful of addendums, audio-visual, and arts-based components). Across this work, I argue that although "gentrification" lacks consensus definition or measure, as we move towards a more entangled understanding, identification with neighbourhood change processes like 'gentrification' (e.g., an emerging sense of loss, fear of change, felt exclusion, attuning to power) may produce an uncomfortably self-aware political dissonance, where Canadian settler colonialism is operates quietly through the (re)production of queer space. This tension is well symbolized by the growing tendency to include Indigenous design motifs (e.g., a medicine wheel, purple symbolizing Two Row Wampum) as part of the now commonplace rainbow crosswalk. In our worried clammer for cultural sustainability, memorialization, and/or to save the gaybourhood and gay bar from its post-gay demise, have we ignored the ways queer placemaking may also be place-taking? With that in mind, I guess I am left wondering: Why would someone ever want to read this document? It's grievous stuff. “Unbearable,” insofar as the relief from one anxiety simply affords another, resulting in what Berlant (2022, p. 151) described as “a threat that feels like a threat.” I don’t want to be “here” (Jones et al., 2020, p. 402).
Exploring volunteering experiences of South Asian Indians and their intersections with community identity and daily life in Canada
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-19) Tewari, Aradhana; Smale, Bryan
There is abundant evidence that volunteering generates both positive and negative impacts on the daily lives of volunteers as well as individuals in the communities they serve (Cavanaugh et al., 2000; Han et al., 2020, p.1732). Volunteering experiences of immigrant communities like South Asian Indians (SAIs) in Canada are not well represented in Western volunteering literature, and this gap is especially concerning in times when there is a worldwide decline in volunteering retention (Stefanick et al., 2020, p.124). To help fill this gap, I interviewed SAIs in Canada to understand what it means to volunteer for them and what constitutes their volunteering experiences. Throughout the research, I became increasingly aware of the importance of a variety of contextual factors that shaped the volunteering experience. Adopting a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I was able to explore the ways in which different contextual factors influenced the volunteering interpretations, motivations, recognition of the SAI community identity, as well as the impact that volunteering created on daily life. The shared conversations with the SAI volunteers revealed four principal themes: (1) volunteering interpretations are different in the native and immigrant country, (2) settlement goals and leisure goals are primary volunteer motives, (3) the SAI community identity emerges when volunteers seek familiarity in the Canadian contexts, and (4) volunteering meanings, motives, and identities interact to have a possible impact on daily life. The findings highlight the interactions between the contexts, volunteers’ priorities, leisure outcomes of volunteering, and culture at the volunteering organization, thereby reinforcing the significance of considering the contextual factors in future research. In addition, the study presents volunteer participants’ suggestions that can support volunteering organizations in their work to improve volunteer welfare and volunteer retention.
Communal Orientation and Employee Well-Being: Examining the Mediating Roles of Positive Relational Communication and Perceptions of Customer Interactions
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-15) Fu, Ying; Potwarka, Luke; Mock, Steven
Customer interactions can be a significant source of work-related stress for hospitality employees, which can lead to burnout and high employee turnover rates. However, adopting a communal approach to customer relationships may help reduce these stressors. This approach involves caring for others based on their needs and welfare, with less expectation of return. To investigate the potential benefits of having a communal orientation in the hospitality industry, the present study conducted a survey among 610 hospitality frontline employees in Hainan Island, China and examined the relationship between communal orientation and well-being outcomes. Additionally, the study investigated potential mediating mechanisms that could explain this relationship. Results suggested that higher levels of employee communal orientation were associated with lower burnout, greater work engagement, higher job satisfaction, and greater life satisfaction. These associations were all explained by employees’ perceived intimacy during customer interactions. Perceived social orientation also accounted for the positive association between communal orientation and work engagement. However, employee perceived information seeking suppressed the potential positive effect of communal orientation on the need for recovery. Positive relational communication behaviours did not explain the association between communal orientation and well-being. These findings contribute to the relationship literature by providing important evidence for the advantages of having a communal orientation in business relationship contexts. The findings suggest that hospitality managers can enhance employee well-being by acknowledging the significance of communal orientation and relationship intimacy. To achieve this, the managers could explore effective solutions such as frontline recruitment, intimacy-enhancing interventions, and investment in employee well-being.
Opportunities for Redress: Re-imagining Relations, Restoration, and Leisure for Uniformed Bodies serving as First Responders
(University of Waterloo, 2023-03-17) Leighton, Jaylyn Joanne; Lopez, Kimberly J.
In times of distress, uniformed first responders (UFRs) are the first formal line of care on scene and are responsible for providing care. Due to the obligations required of UFRs, they are considered to be at higher risk for experiencing traumatic stressors that may lead to concerns with their mental well-being (such as depression, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress, major depression, generalized anxiety, and sleep disorders) (Benedek et al., 2007; Bennett et al., 2004; Carey et al., 2011; Fullerton et al., 2004; Jacobson et al., 2008; Meyer et al., 2012). In the current climate of social activist movements (Black Lives Matter (BLM) and #Defundthepolice, in particular), the purpose of this research is to unpack and address the complex issue of care provision for first responders alongside these long overdue movements. Drawing from critical theories of disability, this research project was methodologically inspired by critical participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry (Clandinin, 2016). I partnered with a local organization (FF) – a community-based holistic wellness centre built for and by UFRs to offer wellness-based services in Southern Ontario. The PAR team (three individuals) recruited 11 participants (six police officers, four paramedics, and one corrections officer) to participate in a series of audio-recorded focus groups and semi-structured interviews (September to December, 2021). This work was guided by concepts of power, privilege, and culture to unpack what it means to identify as a UFR (i.e., the militant ideologies, power-laden relations and performances, and symbolic representations) By un-learning and re-learning how emergent care is provided in these situations, and how restorative justice and care can be re-centered, this work aims to resist systemic oppressions (i.e., capitalism, government-sanctioned power, and ableism), restore caring bodies, and reconcile power relations with the public. This work employs the concept of redress ¬– the idea of resisting, restoring, repairing, or reconciling – (similar to Amighetti & Nuti, 2015; Henderson & Wakeham, 2013; Spiga, 2012) to address: (1) parts of institutional culture that UFRs that perpetuate toxic resilience, (2) the lack of mental health care relations and support that exist within UFR cultures, and (3) the need for leisure spaces of care, compassion, and healing. Through a reflexive, interpretive analysis (Smith et al.,1999), three main threads are described as making up the material and symbolic constructs of the UFR uniform (relations of power, cultural habitus and performing the expectations and symbolic representation) (Bourdieu, 1990; Butler, 1990; Foucault, 1977; Holt, 2008). Interrupted by necessary reflections on ableism, capitalism, white supremacy, and power in relation to UFRs, the findings of this research provide conceptual and practical implications on how government-sanctioned power is strategically used to maintain toxic relations within institutions that govern UFRs. I also offer reflections on how UFRs and the public experience parallel tensions and systemic harms as a result of government-sanctioned institutions of power. Leisure as a space for coping with stresses and trauma(s) (Heintzman, 2008; Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000; Kleiber et al., 2002; Weissinger & Iso-Ahola, 1984) is then used to better understand how UFRs take up leisure to navigate the nuances of stepping into laborious caring roles. This research makes a case for how leisure as care, healing, and restoration can be used to begin to mend the broken systemic relations for UFRs and the public. The findings of this research are represented through a narrative (documentary inspired) script as a means to share the stories and lived experiences told by UFRs. Future research can build on this work by interrupting government-sanctioned institutions of power that continue to privilege processes of ableism, capitalism, and colonialism and enact systemic harms and violences on UFRs and the public. All persons are in need of care in our badly fractured systems. I believe spaces of leisure can be used to cope and heal from systemic oppressions by offering opportunities for care, healing, and restoration to better meet the communal needs of all members of the public, including UFRs.
Sacred Memories, Decolonial Futurities
(University of Waterloo, 2023-02-02) Fortin, Kendra; Grimwood, Bryan
Employing a collective memory work research methodology, this thesis narrates discussions between four Settler-Christians as they grapple with notions of travel, tourism, Christianity, divinity, and settler colonialism. Informed by settler colonial theory and postcolonial theology, the purpose of this collective memory work study was to collaborate in understanding, critiquing, and ultimately enhancing Indigenous-Settler relationships as storied in and through the travel experiences of Settler-Christian students at a Canadian university. Memory texts demonstrated how notions of divinity are tied to broader Christian discourses, specifically relating to divinity as connected to service, land, evangelism, and material expressions of religiosity. Analyses revealed the ways in which memory texts both do and undo settler colonialism in tourism contexts. Participating in the collective memory work process encouraged co-participants to consider the diversity of Christian theology and religious interpretation, thus creating space for the emergence of theologies oriented to uplift Indigenous ways of being and Indigenous expressions of Christianity. This study also demonstrated how theological inquiry might be deployed in tourism research to enrich and complicate analyses, especially those related to religious tourism experiences.
The Influence of Shared Leadership in Positive Youth Development Through Sport
(University of Waterloo, 2022-10-03) Crane, Nathaniel; Misener, Katie
Leadership research has begun to expand and develop, with scholars attempting to understand which leadership styles may be the best fit for their own specific research contexts. Currently, leadership research is starting to explore shared leadership, a form of leadership that is bringing about positive impacts on non-profit and various sport organizations (Jones et al., 2018; Ensley & Pearce, 2000; Pearce et al., 2004; Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). Organizations are beginning to adapt strategies to help foster the connection and communication between paid staff and unpaid volunteers, board members, and even participants (Shilbury & Ferkins, 2011). Leadership research also has looked at understanding how leadership styles can impact youth development in sport (Vidic & Burton, 2011). However, there is a specificity missing in the current and past leadership research that is available, mainly to do with context. Sport-for-development (SFD) and positive youth development (PYD) are two key characteristics that must be kept in mind when conducting leadership research as it provides significant implications for the context of studies. Although leadership research is said to be important, scholars still cite that there is oversight from sport organizations when developing programs on leadership and implementing the correct style (Svensson et al., 2017). This is a clear gap in the literature pertaining to leadership research, and is an area that, if researched and developed, could provide practical implications to sport organizations. Given the listed emphasis on previous research, and the gaps that exist, the purpose of this study is to understand how shared leadership assists Adventure4Change, a local non-profit organization, in achieving its desired outcomes. This study is framed in a case study context and is developed using theory from concepts such as positive youth development, sport-for-development, and shared leadership. Various characteristics of Adventure4Change are explored including the impact that shared leadership has on areas such as PYD and organizational capacity, while also ensuring that the tensions and challenges are critically examined throughout the study. This qualitative study illustrates the process of a local non-profit implementing a youth soccer program and how utilizing a specific leadership strategy in shared leadership can impact the outcomes of that program. To understand the outcomes of the program and how leadership shaped those, both semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used. Eight individual semi-structured interviews were conducted along with two focus groups to collect data. The participants of the interviews and focus groups included staff, volunteers, parent of program participants, and youth participants; 17 individuals in total were spoken to across these interviews and focus groups. Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop themes from the interview data in order to draw final findings and conclusions. A number of themes were developed across the different areas of focus for the study. The themes spanned a number of topics such as the roles of staff in shared leadership, how shared leadership specifically impacts organizational capacity, how shared leadership effects positive youth development, and the tensions and challenges that an organization must navigate through the shared leadership process. The findings suggest that shared leadership is important in developing a level of trust between Adventure4Change and the community it is serving, trust that spans across ethnic and racial diversity, diversity in roles and responsibilities, and the safety of program participants. Areas of organizational capacity such as financial, resources – both human and physical, and building program sustainability were found to be positively impacted by shared leadership. Youth felt inspired and valued, trusted by their leadership, and were enabled to be leadership and share responsibility of the programs they were involved in. The families felt closer and more connected to their community and felt safe in the spaces that their children were involved in. The topics of sustainability and gathering feedback were the main areas that were found to be most challenging for the organization, but it was found through the data that early signs of sustainability were forming, and feedback may have to be gathered in a strategic way by building trust between organization and community. The end of the study offers recommendations for practice for Adventure4Change, the organization under study. It also provides a direction for further research as leadership research, specifically shared leadership research, is a developing sector that shows much promise in its early outcomes.
A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Experiences of Community Reintegration for Women Leaving Prison
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-12) Momi, Preet; Mair, Heather
Women are a small, yet growing, increasingly diverse and complex group out of the overall Canadian prison population. From 2005 to 2015, the population of people in Canadian prisons rose by approximately 10% and most of this growth can be attributed to the increase of visible minorities, individuals of Indigenous descent and women in prison. Presently, more than 50% of the women are under supervision in community, thus in need of support as they attempt to socially reintegrate. Unfortunately, in comparison to the average Canadian, formerly incarcerated women carry a greater rate of mental health and substance abuse issues and are more likely to have a history of sexual or physical abuse. In comparison to men, women are often more vulnerable and likely to experience negative outcomes from incarceration, including continuous stigmatization while re-entering the community. Thus, women leaving prison may face a wide array of constraints to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Thankfully, decades of research have shown that relationships hold great value in helping women achieve a sense of normalcy in their lives during their transitions from prison into community. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of women reintegrating into community after imprisonment. To do this, I performed a feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) on a data set of longitudinal transcribed interviews with six women who have experienced incarceration at the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI). The women took part in a community-based restorative justice program, known as Stride Circles, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

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