Studies in Outdoor Recreation: Search and Research for Satisfaction

1. Search and Research for Satisfaction An Introduction to Outdoor Recreation Research

1 1 Search and Research for Satisfaction An Introduction to Outdoor Recreation Research Objectives of the Book An early paper in the outdoor recreation literature challenged researchers to demonstrate and strengthen the scholarly significance and practical implications of their studies. Pointedly titled “Recreation Research—So What?”, this paper called upon the research community to build a body of knowledge that would enhance our understanding of outdoor recreation and contribute to solving a variety of management problems (P. Brown et al. 1973). This book examines the outdoor recreation literature in an effort to meet that challenge. The primary purpose of this book is to review, synthesize, and integrate the literature on social science aspects of outdoor recreation. While social science research in outdoor recreation does not have a long history, a relatively large number of studies have been conducted and associated papers published over the past several decades. However, with the exception of normally cursory literature review sections at the beginning of most published papers, little effort has been aimed at integrating this literature into an emerging body of knowledge. The integrative study underlying this book is warranted for several reasons, all stemming from the inherent diversity of the field of outdoor recreation. First and foremost is the multidisciplinary nature of the subject itself. Issues in outdoor recreation are conventionally dichotomized into environmental science concerns (e.g., ecological impacts of recreation) and social science concerns (e.g., crowding and conflicting uses). While the environmental science literature (often called “recreation ecology”) has been summarized effectively in a variety of publications (e.g., Hammitt and D. Cole 1998, Leung and Marion 2000), the social science literature deserves equal attention. Moreover, there are important interrelationships between the environmental and social sciences that warrant an overarching, interdisciplinary perspective. 2 STUDIES IN OUTDOOR RECREATION Evenwithinthesocialsciencedomain,issuesmaybeapproachedfromavarietyof disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, psychology, geography, anthropology, political science, and economics (Burton and Jackson 1989). Integration of these discipline-based studies can be complex. Indeed, simply finding the research in the variety of journals and other publication sources in which it is reported can be challenging. (A guide to the social science literature in outdoor recreation is included as an appendix to this book.) Outdoor recreation research also tends to be isolated in space and time; studies are widely scattered geographically and are conducted over varying time periods. At least on the surface, an early study of developed campgrounds in an Eastern park can be difficult to integrate with a more recent study of wilderness use in the West. Yet they are both studies in outdoor recreation and will contribute more to a body of knowledge when integrated and synthesized than in isolation. Only recently has research in outdoor recreation matured to the point to be able to conduct more integrative studies in the form of comparative, meta, and time series analyses (Vaske and Manning 2008). Finally,outdoorrecreationhasbeensubjecttowidemethodologicaldiversity.Even though the dominant research approach has been to survey on-site visitors, there has been substantial variation in sampling techniques, the scope of such studies, the way in which important variables have been conceptualized and measured, and the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Attempts to integrate studies are often frustrated by these inconsistencies. Still, the basic thrust of such studies can often be brought together to build evidence for or against a relationship, hypothesis, or theory. Moreover, a large-scale synthesis is likely to highlight methodological inconsistencies and, ideally, enhance the comparability of future research. One result of this book, it is hoped, is a response to criticism that studies of outdoor recreation have few broad implications (e.g., P. Brown et al. 1973). Applied to individual studies, this observation may be largely true. But in a broad and interdisciplinary field such as outdoor recreation, this is probably how it should and must be. The essence of the scientific method is to divide issues into small and manageable components for study. Only after a critical mass of information has accumulated in this manner can the synergistic effects of the research process begin to emerge. The resulting body of knowledge then becomes more than the sum of its parts. In this book, the findings from a large number of studies are synthesized and integratedintoemergingknowledgeandunderstanding.Inthismanner,management implications begin to be apparent. The book is organized into 14 chapters, most of which focus on a major theme in the literature. Though the book is divided primarily by subject matter, it also has a historical bent. Emphasis on one theme often...