DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Cultural Basis of Leisure Participation

Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, University Park PA

Investigators

Abstract

This study will examine a leisure activity that appears to have all but faded from American culture, an agricultural encampment and fair in central Pennsylvania that has existed since 1873. The project involves dissertation research by a student in the leisure studies department of Pennsylvania State university. The project will describe and document the culture of the fair, and to understand why participants attending the fair chose to do so. Thirty-six informants will be sampled from three age cohorts. Data from participant observation and semi-structured, in-depth interviews using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique will be used to create a mental map of the fair for each informant. The new knowledge to be created will further our understanding of expressive culture and its significance to a rural American community. In addition the research will contribute to the training of a young social scientist.