Career
After receiving his Ph.D.,Stebbins was appointed as associate professor of sociology at Presbyterian College,where he taught for one year before working at Memorial University of Newfoundland as an assistant professor from 1965 till 1968. For the next three years,Stebbins served as associate professor and head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and then taught as a professor from 1971 till 1973. He joined the University of Texas at Arlington as a professor of sociology for a three-year term. In 1976,Stebbins moved to Canada and joined the University of Calgary as head of the Department of Sociology till 1982 and then taught as a professor until 1999. In 2000,he was promoted to faculty professor and then to professor emeritus of sociology. He continued to contribute as a scholarly writer, mentor and speaker at academic events. [2]
Stebbins served as president of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association from 1987 till 1990 [4] and Social Science Federation of Canada from 1990 till 1993. [5] From 1997 till 2002,Stebbins was board director of the World Leisure and Recreation Association. [11] He became a senior fellow of the World Leisure Academy and vice-president of Research Committee 13 (Sociology of Leisure) at the International Sociological Association in 2010. [10] [12]
Stebbins was invited by the UK-based Leisure Studies Association to author the Leisure Reflections series,a collection of essays exploring diverse aspects of leisure. These essays provide insights into his theoretical and practical work,including the Serious Leisure Perspective. [13]
Research
Stebbins has conducted extensive qualitative research on humor,work,and leisure. Most of his work in leisure studies has centered on the serious leisure perspective (SLP),which is a term he coined in 1982 and elaborated on in 2007. [14] [15] [16] [17] The SLP framework has been widely adopted in leisure studies,providing insights into how individuals pursue structured and fulfilling leisure activities. [3]
A common subfield of his research is amateur musicians. Stebbins authored an article in 1969 about jazz musicians and role distance behavior. [18] In 1978,Stebbins researched the creation of high culture and the role of American amateur musicians,proposing a new method to analyze high culture. [19] His work has also delved into other leisure pursuits,such as stand-up comedy and barbershop singing,demonstrating the diverse applications of his theories. [20]
Stebbins has authored more than 60 books and monographs. In 1971,he published Commitment to Deviance:The Nonprofessional Criminal in the Community which was recommended in Social Forces to “professions which deal with the problems of publicly labeled deviants.” [21] Stebbins published Amateurs:On the Margin Between Work and Leisure in 1979;Marianne Gosztonyi Ainley writes for Isis that it “offers useful definitions for amateurs and professionals." [22] In 1991,Lori V. Morris reviewed Stebbins' book The Laugh-Makers:Stand-Up Comedy as Art,Business,and Life-Style,writing:“Anyone with a fan's curiosity about comedians would likely find this book interesting.” [23] In 1996,Stebbins published The Barbershop Singer:Inside the Social World of a Musical Hobby. Stan Parker of the University of Brighton called the book “short but highly readable." [24]
In The Serious Leisure Perspective (2020),Stebbins provides a synthesis of the 47 years of work on the SLP. [13] A website hosting information on the SLP was created in 2006 by Stebbins in collaboration with Jenna Hartel. [11]
Serious leisure perspective
Since 1973,Stebbins has made contributions to the field of leisure studies,particularly through his development of the Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP). This conceptual framework emerged from his field research on amateurs across various activities,such as music,theater,sports,and entertainment. The SLP provides a grounded theory of leisure,categorizing it into serious,casual,and project-based types. Stebbins' work has been foundational in organizing leisure studies in a manner akin to the classification of species in biology,offering an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to understanding free-time activities. [25]
Stebbins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for his contributions to leisure research. His work is widely shared through seriousleisure.net,founded in 2006,which hosts over 3,500 scholarly references on the SLP across fields like aging,tourism,and therapeutic recreation. [26]
His books have been published in multiple languages,and articles translated into Russian,Italian,French,and others. A key achievement is the Serious Leisure Inventory and Measure (SLIM) (2008),a widely validated tool for studying serious leisure,now used internationally to assess volunteerism,tourism participation,and leisure crafting. [27]
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