The 5th Biennial International Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS), in conjunction with the 3rd Women in Leisure International Conference was held in Fremantle, Western Australia in July 2001. The theme of the conference was: Leisure Futures, Leisure Cultures. The location of the conference reflected the theme. Fremantle offered delegates a unique experience of history, culture and a glimpse of the future.

This edited book contains fourteen refereed articles from over 100 paper, poster and workshop presentations made over a five-day period on leisure futures and cultures. As leisure remains prominent in the lifestyle debate, the papers address the increasing demands on modern society to achieve cultural diversity and harmony in constructed and natural environments. The articles debate the past, assess the present and contribute to our understanding of the future of leisure in its many forms and from diverse cultural perspectives.

This publication is organised in three sections: leisure through the lifespan; leisure tourism and the outdoors; and leisure and cultural issues.

Leisure through the lifespan
The section on leisure through the lifespan has four articles that deal with leisure experiences in mid-life, retirement, role-modelling for teenage women, and the relationship of public space to identity and personal leisure management of young women. The mid-life study examined the stability of leisure attitudes and perceptions. This is followed by definitions and experiences of how leisure was defined and experienced by retirement-aged women. The third paper found that role models of teenage girls were determined by their domain of interest. Finally, it was found that local public spaces were important to young women for social interaction as well as safe and accessible settings in which to take some risks.

Leisure, tourism and the outdoors

Five papers are presented in the section on leisure, tourism and the outdoors. The first paper examined the complex interconnections between the processes of migration, urbanisation and patterns of tourism. The second is an article that attempted to build a model using the positive aspects of eco-tourism. Concern about sustaining small neighbourhood parks was the subject of the third paper, but conjoint analysis was suggested as an avenue to solve the problem. The fourth paper in the section reflected on the leadership and early administration of national parks in New South Wales. The last paper promoted the idea of specific education programs that were necessary for appropriate visitor behaviour when interacting with wildlife in parks.

Leisure and cultural issues

The third section of the book has five articles that deal with leisure and cultural issues. In the first paper, the vexed question of funding elite versus broad-based community sport is argued. Within a larger socio-cultural context the role of leisure in youth suicide prevention is discussed in the second paper as one of the many aspects that are central to youth culture. The importance of researching leisure the indigenous way, as it applies to the Maori people in Aotearoa is explored in the third article of the section. This is followed by leisure satisfaction resulting from involvement in serious leisure. In the last paper the need for volunteers in leisure associations is stressed. Personal rewards by way of satisfaction are assessed for those who donate their time and services.

The papers in this volume represent views of leisure from a cross-section of cultures and sets of values within the lifespan and in the open environment. These papers will be engaging and useful for students, researchers and academics who have a serious interest in the study of leisure, tourism, the outdoors and issues of lifestyle and cultural diversity.