Exploring the leisure-health nexus : continuing an important global conversation

![CDATA[Arguably focus on the connections between leisure and health have weakened over time with the growth of academic and applied specialisation across both fields. However, a number of authors have argued that intersectional,multi-disciplinary foci are needed to bring connections between leisure and health together again (Rojek, 2010;Watson and Scraton, 2013; Peel et al., 2021, Maxwell et al., 2022). In this workshop participants will be able to become part of an international conversation that has been occurring across the Leisure Studies Association (LSA - funder), World Leisure Organisation (WLO), and the Australian & New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) and teammembers other networks on the intersections of health and leisure. To date discussions have included topics of disability, ageing, children and young people, humananimal relationships, art and the arts. Discussions have been cross disciplinary and transdisciplinary with colleagues from health, community services, veterinary sciences, leisure studies. Conversations have included colleagues in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the UK. Our focus has been on howtaking leisure seriously, as foundational to health andwellbeing can transform health understandings. For example, engaging with pets can be fundamentally groundingwhen people face life changing events such as impaired communication post stroke; laughter moves life saving exercise from boring to fun; and leisure time engagement learning deaf sign language can prompt deep desires for communicative justice. Our workshop will present the key themes identified across two online webinars and invite participants to comment on and add to these. In addition, delegates attending this session will be provided opportunities to discuss future information dissemination and networking/ collaborations. Academics and practitionersworking across a variety of fields including clinical healthcare, health promotion, public health, sport, recreation, the arts and human-animal leisure intersections are encouraged to join and add to this global conversation.]]