Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Low travel horizons, or a person's fear of travelling outside their own
environment, is also connected to social exclusion. Mohan (2002: 66) illus-
trates this with the example of marginal owners-occupiers in Swindon, who,
'facing severe pressure on household budgets, found that their everyday lives
were concentrated around their homes, which had almost become prisons'.
Different studies report that, on average, unemployed people (one of the
groups more liable to be socially excluded) spend 51-52% of their waking
day at home. Television is the major leisure pursuit, consuming two to three
hours a day as a main activity and another hour or two alongside other
activities (Glyptis, 1989). This suggests low involvement in social leisure
activities and indicates isolation. Leary also describes the psychological
effects of social exclusion and 'links the concept to social anxiety, jealousy,
loneliness, depression and low self-esteem' (Leary, 1990: 221).
Cohen and MacCartney (2007) highlight four ways in which families
can be linked with inequality:
(1) Families may reflect inequalities. Poverty, for example, may lead to people
having to live with their extended family. Single parents in many cases
may be forced to share their living space with others, or to live with
their relatives at least temporarily, in which case the lone-parent family
becomes part of a wider extended family (Dallos & Sapsford, 1995).
(2) Families may contain and reproduce inequalities. The division of labour
and resources within the family often privileges men. Larson
et al
.
(1997), for example, highlight that the term 'family leisure' is often an
oxymoron for women, as they generally take on caring and supporting
roles even during leisure times.
(3) Unequal outcomes may result from different family forms. Lone-parent
families, for example, are particularly exposed to poverty because of the
necessary trade-off between earning and childcare (Walker & Collins,
2007).
(4) Family relationships may offer responses to inequality and hardship.
For example, good family relationships are linked to better educational
performance and greater family resilience.
If good family relationships can indeed offer responses to inequality and
hardship, then this function is of particular importance to disadvantaged
families. This chapter examines the value of social tourism as a potential
measure to increase the social and family capital of the family as a unit, and
of individual family members.
Disadvantaged Families, Tourism and Leisure
Zabriskie and McCormick (2001) report that researchers have examined
recreation and leisure patterns in families for many decades and have
