Justin Harmon

Community, family and leisure immersion

ABSTRACT This study explores the ambiguous term ‘community’ and how close groups of people come to form one. By extracting two core elements, often attributed to designations of community, mutual affection and shared appreciation, this study elucidates how fans of the rock band Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons established close bonds referred to as family through their lengthy and passionate involvement in the leisure outlet of a music scene. Due to extensive personal involvements in various music scenes, fans ultimately came to find the music and coterie of Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons as a place where they could address their individual needs in the comfort of like-minded others who, over time, came to define the closeness of their relationships as family through shared love of music, interaction and care for each other’s well-being.

Growing in place: the interplay of urban agriculture and place sentiment

In this investigation, we drew from social constructivist understandings of place to explore both the meanings participants of an urban garden project in Austin, Texas, ascribed to place and the sentiment they attached to those meanings. Specifically, we asked participants to articulate the ways in which their participation was shaped by and/or had subsequently affected their feelings toward a given garden plot, neighbourhood, city, and/or the region of Central Texas. Our findings illustrate that participation in the gardening project shaped their place meanings and sentiment through two principal processes: (1) a sense of connection to the different garden plots through the resulting produce and the physical transformation of the site, and (2) a sense of connection to and identification with the community at large via links to other individuals who are involved in Urban Patchwork activities.

Extended Leisure Experiences: A Sociological Conceptualization

ABSTRACT Our interest in this research reflection is to introduce what we call extended leisure experiences—activities that leisure participants engage in following the completion of a primary leisure activity. Our approach is largely descriptive and exploratory as we outline some properties of the concept and then flesh them out using observations gleaned from participation in the social worlds of contract bridge and music scenes. An understanding of extended leisure experiences will broaden our appreciation of how different phases of leisure activity are connected with one another and provide insight into how participants create meaning from their involvement in different pastimes.

Positive emotions and passionate leisure involvement.

Music is commonly linked to moments of remembrance, joy, celebration and bonding. This paper explores how middle-aged participants in a music scene use the various aspects of their involvement to create and store positive emotions cultivated through music appreciation, friendship building and maintenance, and shared moments of ecstasy and catharsis. Due to the prevalence of significant life events and transitions in this age cohort (relationship, career and health changes), isolating how people use their involvement in leisure activities can be integral to learning how people build and maintain a high quality of life, as well as how they draw on those positive associations to cope with potential hardships that may arise.

Spirituality, fan culture, and the music of Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons.

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a qualitative study with passionate fans of the rock and roll band, Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons. The study looked at how fan involvement in the music scene enhanced quality of life through the ability to access a personal sense of spirituality. While the majority of participants (87%) had been raised in religious households, most of those (93%) had intentionally abandoned religious affiliation only to come to embrace a language of spirituality and religion to describe their attraction to the music. This study fills a gap by exploring how aspects of spiritual language and sensations can be embraced in a secular context after departure from a formal religious upbringing.

Extending the leisure substitutability concept

ABSTRACT Leisure commitment has been studied for several decades now, but few attempts have been made to look at how leisurists benefit from participation in one activity when it comes to selecting another, but related, activity. The concept of leisure substitutability has been helpful in understanding what is entailed in switching activities, but does not address an important issue: how one leisure activity can potentially set up or introduce other leisure activities. The current work seeks to build on the leisure substitutability concept by showcasing the importance of past experience in making future leisure choices. The existence of a high level of participation in a leisure activity can create a space for the development of knowledge, skills or interests which may lead to a more fulfilling activity that better suits the individual’s life circumstances at that particular point in time, and may provide justification for abandonment or lessening of the former activity or affiliation.

Couples and shared leisure experiences

ABSTRACT This paper explored how romantic couples’ involvement in a music scene affected both individual and mutual enjoyment during participation which stimulated the desire for future shared leisure experiences. As all aspects of involvement were seen as largely positive, shared music scene participation served as a vehicle to grow together and strengthen relationships. Through joint participation couples were able to affect their collective well-being in three ways: (1) participation on an individual level led to accrued happiness through lengthy and frequent involvement in an activity that was significantly meaningful and a high priority in each participant’s life; (2) participation and interaction with their significant other in the activity that had high value for both led to shared happiness and (3) the shared participation led to greater well-being for the union of the partnership through the existence of mutual friendships, meaningful music and positive experiences of release, recharging and catharsis.

Building a life note-by-note: music and the life course

ABSTRACT Music is an omnipresent component of many peoples lives. On an individual level it is used to set moods, mark milestones, and connect to ones personal history. At a collective level music marks the concerns of cultural heritage, national holidays and days of remembrance, and brings people together by serving as a conduit to engage in fellowship, as well as an immediate point of shared interest or experience that helps to form bonds. While popular music is characterized by a degree of ephemerality in terms of its immediacy in popular culture, its roots extend deep into the soil of the cultural fabric and the people who embrace it. As will be displayed in this paper, the ubiquitous social qualities of music that are foundational to the development of personal identity, meaning making, and community formation are integral to life course development in music fans. Using the lens of the broaden-and-build theory, we demonstrate how people build a life through music, note-by-note.

Intentional Sub-communities and Identity Continuity Among Baby Boomers: Grateful Dead Fans

In this chapter, we discuss intentional communities and their role in maintaining identity continuity and facilitating successful aging. An intentional community is a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. According to contemporary theory, successful aging is achieved when older adults maintain as much continuity as possible. To compensate for age-related changes, they modify their behaviors and environments, optimize their resources, and focus on selected priorities, such as living in a community with like-minded people. Some baby boomers are discussing one type of intentional community as a potential retirement option—a community organized around lifestyle preferences such as musical taste. We examine the potential for the development of such lifestyle communities organized around shared musical taste by focusing on the aging fans of one band, the Grateful Dead. Although we argue that having a Deadhead identity alone is not likely to be an adequate basis for an intentional residential community to support successful aging, we do see potential for the formation of such communities among smaller, more homogeneous, and tightly-knit sub-groups of Deadheads. It is thus possible that the potential exists in other fan bases as well.

Tuesdays with Worry: appreciating nature with a dog at the end of life

ABSTRACT Dogs have been called ‘social lubricants’ for their uncanny ability to help people with serious illnesses and trauma find brief moments of catharsis, create meaningful relationships when there are none and connect with healthcare providers and other support team members for those with serious illnesses. In this paper, the therapeutic qualities of human–dog interactions will be demonstrated by focusing on one woman’s terminal cancer diagnosis while in end-of-life care through her shared leisure experiences with a dog in a natural environment. This auto/ethnography sought to exhibit the simple importance of a dog to the meaning-making process for someone coming to terms with their mortality. Complementary therapies and support are essential to those receiving medicalised care, but for those beyond the treatment stage, the important and necessary support is to be found in the relationships and activities that are of the most significance. As is demonstrated, dogs can provide this necessary kind of therapeutic support that may not be found elsewhere.