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An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. Conversely, an expert
Expert

An "expert" is someone widely recognized as a reliabilism source of wikt:technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their Peer groups or the public in a specific well distinguished domain....
 is generally considered a person with extensive knowledge
Knowledge

Knowledge is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation....
, ability
Aptitude

An aptitude is an innate, acquired or learned or developed component of a competency to do a certain kind of Labour at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical or mental....
, and/or training in a particular area of study, while a professional
Professional

A professional is a person who has completed a doctoral or law program or equivalent .A professional is someone who has a professional degree - a number one on the Hollingshead scale....
 is someone who also makes a living from it. Translated from its French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 origin to the English "lover of", the term "amateur" reflects a voluntary motivation to work as a result of personal passion
Passion

The term Passion may refer to:...
 for a particular activity.

As with any construct, amateurism can be seen in both a negative and positive light.






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An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. Conversely, an expert
Expert

An "expert" is someone widely recognized as a reliabilism source of wikt:technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their Peer groups or the public in a specific well distinguished domain....
 is generally considered a person with extensive knowledge
Knowledge

Knowledge is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation....
, ability
Aptitude

An aptitude is an innate, acquired or learned or developed component of a competency to do a certain kind of Labour at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical or mental....
, and/or training in a particular area of study, while a professional
Professional

A professional is a person who has completed a doctoral or law program or equivalent .A professional is someone who has a professional degree - a number one on the Hollingshead scale....
 is someone who also makes a living from it. Translated from its French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 origin to the English "lover of", the term "amateur" reflects a voluntary motivation to work as a result of personal passion
Passion

The term Passion may refer to:...
 for a particular activity.

As with any construct, amateurism can be seen in both a negative and positive light. Since amateurs often do not have training, amateur work can sometimes be seen as sub-par. For example, amateur athletes in sports such as basketball
Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet  high hoop under organized rules....
 or football are not regarded as having the same level of ability as professional athletes.

Alternatively, the lack of financial recompense can also be seen as a sign of commitment
Commitment

Commitment means to duty or pledge to something or someone, and can refer to:*Personal commitment, interaction dominated by obligations. These obligations may be mutual, or self-imposed, or explicitly stated, or may not....
 to an activity. For instance, until the 1970s most Olympic events required that the athletes be amateurs. Receiving payment to participate in an event disqualified an athlete from that event, as in the case of Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe

Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe was an United States athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic Games gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football at the collegiate and professional levels, and also played professional baseball and basketball....
. In the Olympic games, this rule remains in place for boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
.

Amateurs make valuable contributions in the fields of computer programming
Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language....
 through the open source
Open source

Open source is an approach to design, development, and distribution offering practical accessibility to a product's source . Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical Strategy element of their business operations....
 movement. Amateur Dramatics is the performance of either plays or musical theater, often to high standards but lacking the budgets of the professional West End
West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English language world....
 or Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 performances. Astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 and ornithology
Ornithology

Ornithology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds. Several aspects of the study of ornithology differ from closely related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds....
 have also benefited from the activity of amateurs.

Pursuing amateur activities to the same standards as professionals is sometimes referred to as professional amateurism.

See also


  • Volunteer
    Volunteer

    A volunteer is someone who works Community service or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so. The word comes from France, it can also be translated as "will" ....
  • Hobby
    Hobby

    A hobby is a leisure recreational pursuit....
  • Amateur astronomy
    Amateur astronomy

    Amateur astronomy, a subset of astronomy, is a hobby whose participants enjoy studying and observing celestial objects....
  • Amateur radio
    Amateur radio

    Amateur radio, often called Etymology of ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for Public services, recreation and self-training....
  • Amateur sports
    Amateur sports

    Amateurism . As a value system, amateurism elevates things done with self-interest above those done for pay . The term has particular currency in its usage with regard to sports....
  • Corinthian (disambiguation)
  • Home movies
    Home movies

    Home movies are films made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but availability of camcorders and data storage devices has made the making of home movies easier and more affordable to the average person....


Bibliography

Stebbins, Robert A. (2007) Serious Leisure: A Perspective for Our Time. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

External links

  • The Serious Leisure Perspective