Conventions, emerging norms, and norms in outdoor recreation

Abstract

Conventions, emerging norms, and norms are different ways that social life becomes ordered and regularized, and they make the social worlds of outdoor recreation knowable and predictable. These concepts represent a continuum of social regularities that is illustrated through the development of an evaluative model based generally on Jackson's (1996) return potential model. Social conventions are open behaviors based on common expectations and preferences, and social norms are behaviors bounded by obligations that are enforced through sanctions. When conventions become so important that more and more people see them as obligations, a social norm may be said to be emerging. Data are presented from a study of multiple‐use bike trail users who responded to both normative and non‐normative preference statements about bike trail behaviors. The normative preferences were contained in a 1993 questionnaire, and the non‐normative preferences concerning the same behaviors were contained in a 1994 questionnaire. For some of the behaviors, differences were found in normative and non‐normative responses. To clarify whether preferences are more normative or more non‐normative, a questionnaire format is suggested in which both normative and non‐normative preferences are included.