Research On Citizens’ Well-being Based On Leisure Studies

Happiness is the ultimate goal that human being has been pursuing. National happiness has already become the criterion to evaluate the government performance because it is helpful to construct harmonious society and promote the economic development. Thus, well-being has aroused extensive concern from the academic community and society. Now, well-being has been discussed and elucidated in the area of philosophy, psychology, sociology and economics, however, there’s no report to investigate and analyze it from the aspect of leisure studies. This paper focuses on the citizens of Hangzhou, adapting theoretical method as well as empirical research to discuss the relationships between leisure and well-being from academic level in order to construct the theory of citizens’well-being. The results showed that the four dimensions of leisure motivation (stimulus avoidance, competence mastery, intellectual and social) all have a higher level and more than72%citizens describe themselves as "happy". Intrapersonal constraints are the major factors to prevent citizens from taking part in leisure activities. Leisure satisfaction of citizens in Hangzhou is generally high. By thorough analysis, leisure needs and leisure motivation are found to be the source of well-being, leisure experience is the practice of well-being, leisure constraint is a double-edged sword of well-being, leisure satisfaction is the representation of well-being. Only when citizens take part in leisure activities by the drive of leisure needs and leisure motivation, they can overcome the leisure constraints, obtain leisure satisfaction and then feel happiness in the leisure activity. The research has enriched the dimensions for evaluating the citizens’ well-being and the accurate results are easy to obtain by the plural research methods. In the future, constructing the index system of citizens’ well-being will be the strive direction to discuss well-being.The fundamental structure of this thesis can be summarized as follows,In chapter1, we first investigated the background, discussed research significance on the study of citizens’ well-being, then reviewed the status of abroad and domestic research for well-being, and summarized the headlines as well. The research method, design and innovations were also described.In chapter2, we first discussed the relationship between leisure needs, leisure motivation and well-being. Leisure needs and leisure motivation are found to be the source of well-being and they are both conflict and conversion. After that, we examined the leisure needs and leisure motivation of citizens in Hangzhou by interview and scale, and put forward that multiple leisure products should be introduced to satisfy the different leisure needs of the various classes of citizens, the leisure consumption concept of citizens should be piloted to improve their leisure satisfaction and enhance the well-being index of citizens.In chapter3, we clarified the status of leisure experience, discussed the aesthetic, harmonious, initiative, integrity and value of it, and then discussed the levels of leisure experience deeply. In this chapter, we also analyzed the factors that affecting citizens’ well-being on the basis of current status of citizens’ well-being, and investigated the current situation of Hangzhou citizens’ well-being. At last, the problems that exists in the leisure experience and well-being were explored, the ideal paradigm for leisure and well-being was proposed and outlined.In chapter4, we criticized and reflected on the study of leisure constraints on the basis of fully understanding the domestic and foreign research, and explicited the predicament and outlet of leisure constraints. In this chapter, we also discussed the nonlinear relationship between leisure constraints and well-being, that is, leisure constraints and well-being are both consistent and conflict. The consistency and conflict can convert to each other. The consistency for leisure constraints and well-being identifies with the virtue and life changes. The conflicts of leisure constraints and well-being comprises the direct conflict and indirect conflict. Then we took Hangzhou as an example to study the condition of citizens’leisure constraints, and proposed the countermeasures to overcome leisure constraints and promote well-being.In chapter5, we first discussed the Chinese characteristics of leisure consumer satisfaction, the relationship between leisure satisfaction and quality of life, and enlightenments of the study on leisure satisfaction in North America to us. On this basis, we expounded the relationship between leisure satisfaction and well-being, that is, leisure satisfaction is the predictive factor and presentation of well-being. The countermeasures and suggestions to improve the citizens’ leisure satisfaction were advanced according to the investigation of the leisure satisfaction of citizens in Hangzhou.In the last chapter, the dialectical relationship of leisure and well-being was first explored and discussed. In our research, it was found that leisure could enhance well-being from individual, social and cultural level. While leisure alienation has negative effect on the well-being, which reduces the index of citizens’ well-being. At the same time, well-being is very important for leisure, it is the subjective feeling for the leisure satisfaction, and happiness index is also the subjective measurement for leisure quality. In the end, the shortcomings of the thesis were pointed out, and the follow-up research was proposed.