Call for Case Study Submissions

Case study research has been shown to be extremely valuable for teaching students, particularly in applied disciplines (Yin, 1994). In recreation and tourism programs, where students are often taught how to address a complex array of management scenarios, case studies are invaluable yet often hard to find. It is not that good examples of practice are not available, rather, they are not always written up for classroom use.

In May of 2005, Malaspina University-College will host the eleventh Congress on Canadian Leisure Research in Nanaimo, B.C. The theme of the Congress is “Two solitudes: Isolation or Impact?” reflecting the relationship between research and practice. The Congress will be a perfect opportunity to profile case studies in recreation and tourism management that demonstrate the link between research and practice.

The Congress organizers would like to make available to all delegates, a volume of case studies that demonstrate a link between research and practice. To this end, this call for case studies is attempting to locate researchers or practitioners that would like to share written cases for inclusion in the volume.

Case studies should:

q Be on a leisure related topic (recreation, tourism, sports, arts and culture or parks)

q Provide background information on the organization(s) or stakeholders involved

q Identify an issue or problem and factors that have contributed to its existence

q Identify strategies used by an organization or stakeholders to address the issue or problem

q Demonstrate how research was used in practice (e.g. did the project originate from research? Was research conducted to guide decisions? Was research used to evaluate the project?

q Discuss the results

q Be between 3,000 to 5,000 words, not including support materials such as tables, pictures, etc. (see the Acadia link under resources for good examples of case studies)

The type of cases to be included in this volume will be intended for classroom use where students will analyse what was done and what results were obtained. To this end, case studies should be adequately supported with examples of forms, documents, statistics, etc used in the analysis. This will enable students to perform their own analysis on the case material.

If you are planning to contribute a case study, please respond to this call by the end of October with: a) author(s) names, and b) a title and short description of your case study. Completed case studies should be submitted electronically by January 7, 2005. They will be reviewed and edited for consistency of the final volume, with the final submission date is March 15, 2005.

Submissions can be sent to:

Dr. Nicole L. Vaugeois

University-College Professor

Department of Recreation and Tourism Management

Malaspina University-College

900 Fifth Street

Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5S5

Email: Vaugeois@mala.bc.ca

Resources:

q Basics of Developing a Case Study http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/casestdy.htm

q Models of Change in Municipal Parks and Recreation: A book of innovative case studies by Mark Havitz.

q Acadia Institute of Case Studies (AICS Online). http://aics.acadiau.ca