Department of Tourism, Sport and Society

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The disciplinary backgrounds and fields of study within the Department of Tourism, Sport and Society range from national parks management and outdoor recreation to history, sociology, and geography, to urban recreation, sport management, and tourism in all its forms.

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 714
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    User perception and acceptance of softshell headgear amongst youth rugby players
    (Asociación Española de Análisis del Rendimiento Deportivo, 2024-03-12) Heward-Swale, AG; Kabaliuk, N; Spriggs, N; Henley, S; Hamlin, Michael; Draper, N
    This study investigated the attitudes, preferences, motivations and acceptance of softshell headgear among youth rugby players. Female and male rugby players (ages 13-17) were surveyed regarding headgear use during training and matches, discontinuation reasons, preferred brands, motivations for use, and reasons for non-use. We assessed confidence without headgear, head injuries, familiarity with specifications, and awareness of benefits/risks. Most (86%) didn't wear headgear during training; 74.4% abstained in matches. Reasons for discontinuation included discomfort and perceived ineffectiveness. Parental advice (78%) and injury protection (52%) drove headgear use. Non-use reasons: lack of ventilation (67%), bulkiness (50%), discomfort (44%), non-compulsory use (36%), and lack of consideration (36%). 44.2% believed headgear protects against head injuries; 30.2% were unsure. The results of this study indicate a range of attitudes among youth rugby players towards the use of headgear. Understanding their motivations and concerns is crucial for improving player safety. While some players see headgear as a valuable protective measure, others are deterred by factors such as discomfort and lack of ventilation. There is a need for greater awareness and education about headgear benefits and risks among rugby players, potential modifications to headgear design to enhance comfort and ventilation should be explored and further research conducted to explore the benefits that headgear has for head impact protection.
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    A world without scarcity?
    (Routledge, 2017) Dawson, MC; Rosin, Christopher; Wald, N; Dawson, MC; Rosin, Christopher; Wald, N
    What should be very apparent at this point is that the availability—or perhaps more accurately the accessibility—of resources is a topic that attracts the attention of a wide range of professionals, scholars and activists. In the resulting discourse, global resource scarcity is often regarded as a catalyst for conflict; yet, paradoxically, such scarcity also underlies some of the most important international collaborations. While some natural resources are irrefutably essential for life and human survival, others are more important for livelihoods and economic prosperity. Some resources derive their significance and value from how difficult they are to ‘capture’ and control, while ‘market forces’ determine the worth of others. The fact that natural resources underlie existing conceptions of economic security and achievement makes the capacity to control their access and exploitation highly desirable.
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    Introduction: Resource scarcity between conflict and cooperation
    (Routledge, 2017) Dawson, MC; Rosin, Christopher; Wald, N; Dawson, MC; Rosin, Christopher; Wald, N
    This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book talks about the relationship between what are perceived to be scarce natural resources and the tendency for access to them to lead to international conflict or cooperation. The diversity of forms and levels of engagement with resource scarcity and its implications for international relations poses particular problems when one attempts to provide a summary, but insightful, overview to those with more general interests in scarcity or politics. The scarcity of resources and the likelihood of such scarcity leading to international conflict is a common feature of public discourse and speculation. The potential for scarcity to initiate forms of international collaboration or cooperation is a much less common element of how we understand the world. In a global context framed by increasing attention to environmental issues and concerns readily appreciated international implications.
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    Outdoor recreation experience of mainland Chinese students in New Zealand : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University
    (Lincoln University, 2023) Qin Qin
    This thesis investigates the changing role of the culture of origin as a constraint in Mainland Chinese students’ outdoor recreation experience in New Zealand. It aims to better understand their experience by further exploring the influencetial mechanism of one’s cultural background in a cross-cultural scenario. Different countries have different understandings of and ways of practice regarding outdoor recreation. Therefore, when differences arise in cross-cultural scenarios, scholars often turn to culture to seek explanations. In the pursuit of understanding how the culture of origin influences outdoor recreation in cross-cultural scenarios, two explanatory perspectives emerged in previous research. The first perspective regards the role of the culture of origin as the decisive constraint that contributes to the culturally coherent differences in one’s recreational involvement. In studies using this perspective, a set of cultural barriers including traditions and social norms were identified to comprehend what one needs to overcome to participate in cross-cultural scenarios. Meanwhile, the second perspective suggests that the role of culture is not this straightforward, as non-culturally coherent differences also emerge within the same cultural group. Studies from this perspective indicate that different situations, such as local support and social status, can counter the effect of cultural influence as a decisive barrier to outdoor participation. There appears to be a mechanism through which culture changes its role between decisive and situation-interfered influences in one’s practices. Yet, limited attention has been directed toward comprehending this mechanism in the research area. This research explores this mechanism to enhance our understanding of people's outdoor recreation experiences by applying the logic of Archer's analytic dualism concerning the role of culture in cultural encounters. This logic suggests that the role of culture changes based on whether it exerts ideational or practical influence. The ideational influence of culture provides decisive guidance for one’s subsequent actions. Still, once such actions are undertaken, these guidelines turn into practical influences that are affected by other factors, determining the extent of such practices. This logic provides a way to explore the change in the role of the culture of origin embedded in the coexistence of homogeneity and heterogeneity, furthering our understanding of cultural influences. To narrow the scope of this research inquiry to a feasible scale, the outdoor recreation experience of Mainland Chinese students (MCS) in New Zealand was selected. New Zealand and China developed different contexts for understanding and practising outdoor recreation. These differences make outdoor recreation in New Zealand a potential subject for studying the role of the culture of origin. Meanwhile, MCS hold a significant position in the local economy and labour market. A better understanding of how the cultural background affects their outdoor recreation would benefit interested parties aiming to improve the overseas experience of Chinese students or boost revenue in the recreation sectors. Therefore, by focusing on the outdoor recreation experiences of MCS, this research employs in-depth interviews to collect data on cultural influences and their engagement with outdoor recreation. The aim is to establish a connection between the role of culture and their involvement in outdoor recreation. The results indicate that the outdoor experiences of MCS exhibit culturally coherent interpretations of outdoor recreation and situational diversity in practising it. Influenced by their culture of origin, MCS interpret the local way of outdoor recreation as the "Kiwi way," differing from the Chinese way in three aspects: value orientation, way of practice, and the sense of outdoor settings. These cultural differences generate three types of tensions that MCS need to overcome for their participation: 1) dealing with differences in values, where MCS need to maintain their original values while engaging in outdoor activities; 2) addressing variations in the way of practice, requiring them to acquire new knowledge to participate in local outdoor activities; 3) coping with differences in the perception of outdoor environments, necessitating finding adaptable approaches. Moreover, through a comparison of MCS's actual practices, the research results demonstrate that the shared interpretations at the ideational level do not decisively constrain MCS's practices. Their specific activities depend on whether existing resources can alleviate or exacerbate the cultural tensions affecting their engagement in outdoor activities, leading to diversity at the individual practice level. These findings indicate that the changes in the role of culture depend on whether it involves interpreting or practising outdoor recreation. Based on Archer's theoretical logic, it suggests that the influences of culture can be understood as a dualistic constraint role, involving a guiding constraint at the ideational level and a causal constraint at the practical level. At the ideational level, the role of culture involves distinguishing differences and, based on the attributes of these differences, generating diverse practice-oriented constraints. However, at the practical level, the execution of guiding constraints is influenced by environmental factors, leading the role of culture to transform into a coexisting causal constraint with other societal factors. This research investigates how culture influences outdoor recreation, specifically among MCS in New Zealand. Using Archer's analytic dualism, the study reveals a new way to look into cultural influence as a constraint. This enriches theoretical discussions on the interplay between culture and recreational behaviour, paving the way for further exploration in cross-cultural studies. Practically, the findings have implications for enhancing the overseas experience of Chinese students and optimizing the recreation sector.
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    Intermittent hypoxic exposure with or without exercise improved cardiopulmonary functions in people with cardiovascular risk factors
    (Khon Kaen University, Research and Technology Transfer Affairs Division, 2024-01) Saengjan, W; Muangritdech, N; Namboonlue, C; Tong-Un, T; Manimmanakorn, N; Hamlin, Michael; Sumethanurakkhakun, W; Manimmanakorn, A
    This research aimed to explore the effects of intermittent hypoxic exposure (IH) with or without exercise on lung function, lipid profile, and a 6-min walk in people with three cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension stage I, hyperlipidemia, and obesity). Thirty participants were randomly allocated into 3 groups: a control group (CON, n=11) received no training, an intermittent hypoxic exposure during rest group (IHR, n=9), and an intermittent hypoxic training group (IHT, n=10) who combined IH with walking. Both IHR and IHT performed 8 sessions of 3-min of hypoxic breathing (14% O2) alternated with 3-min of normoxic breathing (21% O2) for 48-min per day, twice a week, for 6 consecutive weeks. All participants were measured before and after 6 weeks of theexperimental period. After training, IHR group significantly increased vital capacity (p=0.038) and forced vital capacity (p=0.025) compared to baseline. Similarly, compared to baseline, participants in the IHT group revealed significantly increased vital capacity (p=0.030), forced vital capacity (p=0.031), and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (p=0.042). Compared to CON, only IHT showed a significant increase in forced vital capacity of 8.6 ±4.5% (p=0.034) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second of 7.0 ± 3.9%, (p=0.033) after 6 weeks. Both the IHR and IHT participants demonstrated a significantly increased 6-min walk distance (p=0.048 and p=0.004, respectively) compared to CON. The study demonstrated that IH programs can improve lung function and cardiopulmonary fitness which indicates that IH with or without exercise improves some cardiopulmonary functions in at risk patients.