Professor Tony Veal

Toohey, K.M. & Veal, A. 2000, The Olympic games: A social science perspective, CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.

Veal, A. 2013, 'Lifestyle and Leisure Theory' in Tony Blackshaw (ed), Routledge Handbook of Leisure Studies, Routledge, Abindon, UK, pp. 266-279.

Rojek, C., Shaw, S.M. & Veal, A. 2006, 'Introduction: process & context' in Rojek, C; Shaw, S; Veal, A J (eds), A Handbook of Leisure Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, UK, pp. 1-21.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2006, 'Economics of leisure' in Rojek, C; Shaw, S; Veal, A J (eds), A Handbook of Leisure Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, UK, pp. 140-161.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2006, 'Leisure and the economy' in Jackson, E L (eds), Leisure and the Quality of Life: impacts on social, economic and cultural development, Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou, China, pp. 119-127.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Cushman, G., Veal, A. & Zuzanek, J. 2005, 'Leisure participation and time-use surveys: an overview' in Cushman, G; Veal, A J; Zuzanek, J (eds), Free Time and Leisure Participation: International Perspectives, CABI, Wallingford, UK, pp. 1-16.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Cushman, G., Veal, A. & Zuzanek, J. 2005, 'National leisure participation and time-use surveys: a future' in Cushman, G; Veal, A J; Zuzanek, J (eds), Free Time and Leisure Participation: International Perspectives, CABI, Wallingford, UK, pp. 283-292.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Gratton, C. & Veal, A. 2005, 'Great Britain' in Cushman, G; Veal, A J; Zuzanek, J (eds), Free Time and Leisure Participation: International Perspectives, CABI, Wallingford, UK, pp. 109-126.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2005, 'Australia' in Cushman, G; Veal, A J; Zuzanek, J (eds), Free Time and Leisure Participation: International Perspectives, CABI, Wallingford, UK, pp. 17-40.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2004, 'A brief history of work and its relationship to leisure.' in Haworth, J T; Veal, A J (eds), Work and leisure, Routledge, London, pp. 15-33.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2004, 'Looking back: perspectives on the leisure-work relationship.' in Haworth, J T; Veal, A J (eds), Work and leisure, Routledge, London, pp. 107-120.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2013, 'Open space planning standards in Australia: in search of origins', Australian Planner, vol. 49, pp. 1-9.
View/Download from: Publisher's site

Veal, A., Toohey, K.M. & Frawley, S.M. 2012, 'The sport participation legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and other international sporting events hosted in Australia', Journal of Policy Research, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 155-184.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
View description>>

The legacy of an Olympic Games in a host city or country can take a variety of forms, including non-sporting benefits, such as enhanced urban infrastructure and national and international tourism profile, and sporting benefits, such as improved sporting facilities, strengthened sports organisations and potential increases in grassroots sport participation. This paper concentrates on the last of these, particularly in regard to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The paper examines claims by the Olympic movement concerning increased sports participation as a legacy and examines available evidence to consider whether the hosting of the Games boosted sports participation in Australia. While some estimates suggest that participation did increase following the hosting of the 2000 Olympics, the failure of relevant organisations to maintain an adequate and consistent data collection regime makes this conclusion extremely speculative. From 2001 onwards, with the existence of a more stable data collection system and increasing awareness of the idea of a sport participation legacy, it is possible to make more reliable estimates of the pattern of grassroots sports participation following the hosting of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. However, even when reliable and consistent participation data are available, the question of causality in the context of the wider sport development and participation system remains to be addressed.

Veal, A. 2012, 'FIT for the purpose? Open space planning standards in Britain', Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure & Events, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 375-379.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
View description>>

Open space is often neglected in academic discussion of leisure policy, yet local authorities in England are responsible for 94,000 ha of formal parks, 4400 ha of equipped playgrounds and 285,000 ha of other public open space, involving a net annual expenditure ú750m, which is greater than the expenditure on, for example, indoor sport and sport development (ú630m) (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy [CIPFA], 2009). Furthermore, visiting parks is arguably the most popular of publicly facilitated leisure activities after the use of public broadcasting (Veal, 2006) and with continued urban renewal, and population growth in England and Wales of a million every 4 years (Office for National Statistics, 2008), the provision of open space, as a component of new urban infrastructure, remains a significant public policy issue.

Veal, A. 2012, 'The Leisure Society II: the era of critique, 1980-2011', World Leisure Journal, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 99-140.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
View description>>

The ``leisure society thesis++ was developed primarily in the 1960s and 1970s and a recent paper in the World Leisure Journal summarised the relevant literature from that period and analysed contemporary recollections of it (Veal, 2011). This paper follows the story of the leisure society thesis since 1980. Set against the background of discussions of work and leisure in periods of high unemployment, the work ethic, working hours, post-work and work life balance, the paper reviews the post-1980 offerings of proponents, analysts and critics of the leisure society thesis. A four-fold typology of leisure society conceptualisations and reduced-work future scenarios is proposed, comprising: the current leisure society; the evolutionary leisure society; the leisure society as a political project; and other reduced-work scenarios/projects. The second half of the paper reviews literature that is analytical, ambivalent and/or definitional regarding the leisure society thesis and that which is critical. This involves discussion of the failure of paid working hours to fall in the second half of the twentieth century as had been predicted, and appraisal of a range of critical theoretical/conceptual issues. While the significance of the leisure society thesis as an early project of leisure studies is debatable, and it is clearly now an historical reference point rather than a current project, the question is raised as to why the leisure studies community has failed to join with others who are pursuing the cause of reduced paid working hours for all.

Gratton, C. & Veal, A. 2011, 'International Comparisons of Sports participation in European countries: an Update of the COMPASS Project', The European Journal for Sport and Society, vol. 8, no. 1/2, pp. 99-116.
View/Download from: UTSePress
View description>>

COMPASS (Coordinated Monitoring of Pmticipation in Sports) was a jointly funded initiative of the UK Sports Council, English Sports Council, and the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), the aim of which was to examine existing systems for the collection and analysis of sports participation data in European countries with a view to identifying ways in which harmonisation may be achieved, so that greater comparability of data from different European countries would become possible. The COMPASS report (UK Sport, Sport England and CONI, 1999) was published in 1999 and provided comparative data on sports participation for seven European countries, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The comparisons were made using an analytical framework that categorised participation into seven participation groups related to intensity of participation, club membership and whether participation was competitive or not. Despite the difficulties in making cross-national comparisons in sports participation across European countries, the COMPASS report has shown that there is evidence of an emerging European profile of sports participation. This paper attempts to build on the original COMPASS results and analyse what lessons can be learned for making comparisons of sports participation across European countries today.

Veal, A. 2011, 'Leisure participation patterns and gender: the survey evidence on Australian adults', Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 14, no. 2-3, pp. 120-142.
View/Download from: UTSePress
View description>>

In recognition of the principle that quantitative methods have a role to play in gender-related studies of leisure, alongside qualitative methods, this paper draws on past and current official Australian national surveys to examine men+s time use and leisure participation patterns. Three frequently asserted observations on leisure and gender, and men+s leisure behaviour in particular, are addressed. First, the proposition that early survey-based leisure research was `gender blind+ is shown to have not generally been the case in Australia. Second, it is shown that, while it is broadly true that men have more leisure time than women, this is not the case for some key socio-demographic groups. Third, the observation that men have higher levels of participation in leisure activities than women often relies on data on sport and physical recreational activities only, but when a comprehensive definition of leisure is adopted, including such categories as cultural activity and informal outdoor recreation, and when frequency of participation is taken into account, it is found that, while leisure patterns of men are different from those of women, the quantum of participation does not significantly favour men. The paper also addresses the issue of change over time, showing that gender-related patterns of time-use and leisure participation in Australia have changed over recent decades, suggesting that observations based on quantitative empirical data should be reviewed from time to time as new data become available. Finally, the paper examines the life-time distribution of time, revealing a remarkable similarity between men and women.

Veal, A. 2011, 'Planning for leisure, sport, tourism and the arts: goals and rationales', World Leisure Journal, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 119-148.
View/Download from: UTSePress
View description>>

On the basis of a review of some 82 sets of official, professional and academic English-language guidelines, this paper! evaluates eight rationales, goals and associated planning approaches for planning for leisure, sport, tourism and the arts: (1) meeting standards; (2) providing opportunity; (3) managing (natural/ heritage) resources; (4) meeting demand; (5) satisfying stakeholder groups; (6) meeting needs; (7) meeting participation targets; and (8) providing (net) benefits. A number of the approaches are found to suffer from limitations that are generally overlooked by the guidelines reviewed. While guidelines are often strong in providing advice on data collection, they are invariably weak in regard to data analysis and the relationships between goal setting, data analysis and policy formation. A single solution to the difficulties identified is not offered, but it is concluded that a yet to be developed demand/participationlbenefits-based approach to planning would offer a way forward.

Veal, A. 2011, 'The leisure society I: myths and misconceptions, 1960-1979', World Leisure Journal, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 206-227.
View/Download from: UTSePress | Publisher's site
View description>>

Recent discussion in the World Leisure Journal has raised the issue of the place of the "leisure society thesis" in the development of leisure studies. Some have argued that the thesis was a key, but misconceived, "project" of the early phase of leisure studies which has done lasting damage to the leisure studies brand. Others argue that the thesis was a passing preoccupation which has long since been superseded and is no longer of relevance. In this paper, it is noted that recollections of the leisure studies thesis in its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s are often unspecific and at times ill-informed. The paper is not a defence or critique of the leisure society thesis but an attempt to establish a more accurate history through discussion of fivemyths: I. that portrayals of the leisure society in the 1960s and 1970s invariably involved visions of the future; 2. that there was a consensus within the leisure studies community concerning a future leisure society; 3. that the thesis was a significant feature of the early leisure studies literature; 4. that definitions of the leisure society were based on predictions of falling working hours; and 5. that leisure society proponents themselves predicted reductions in working hours.

Veal, A. 2006, 'The use of urban parks', Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 245-276.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2003, 'Tracking change: leisure participation and policy in Australia, 1985-2002', Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 245-277.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2002, 'Education for tourism: the challenge of a multi-disciplinary curriculum', International Journal fo Tourism Science, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 9-17.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2002, 'Leisure studies at the millenium: intellectual crisis or mature complacency?', Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 37-45.
View/Download from: UTSePress

Veal, A. 2002, 'Leisure, culture and lifestyle', Society and Leisure, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 359-376.
View/Download from: UTSePress