ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the processes recreationists use to define the social order of their recreation setting. To integrate outdoor recreation into multiple land-use planning and management, agencies such as the USDA Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management, have developed rational systems based on objective inventories of resource conditions, recreation uses and use levels, and managerial inputs and infrastructure. Two basic problems that must be solved for social order(s) to develop in recreation settings are, cooperation problems and coordination problems. Cooperation problems are concerned with finding solutions to disputes where the parties involved are likely to establish negotiating positions not conducive to finding an optimal solution. A Prisoner's dilemma arises when individual recreationists' pursuit of their own self interest, defection from the Pareto-optimal solution, results in a collective sanction. In these situations when one or several individuals violate the negotiated solution all other members of that activity group or class are punished by the external agent.
