Leisure

Lecture 1
The importance of leisure for (Dutch) society and economy:
 Source of personal development/well-being
 Vehicle for social integration
 Stimulus for urban and regional development

Leisure may be:
 Everything that is not work – ‘non-obligatory’ time
 Free choice, exercising ‘free will’
 Extra-ordinary, not the daily routine
 Doing something valuable / Meaningful experiences
 Pleasure, amusement, excitement
 Re-creation, relaxation
 Boring, wasting time

Defining leisure
- Free from obligations, routines or the ordinary stuff of daily life
- Free to engage in pleasurable valuable activities

1.) Time-based
Time use studies
Opposite of work; time left after obligations (objective)
+: objective, measureable, comparable through time and across countries
-: does not say anything about quality of life

2.) Activity-based
Undertake an activity selected by free will
Sport, culture, volunteer work, family visits

3.) Experience-based
A. Attitude. Leisure as a state of mind can occur any time, also during work
Individual perception defines what leisure is
B. Quality. Quality time provides an opportunity for play and for personal and social development

1.) Time based objective
2.) Activity-based objective / subjective
3.) Experience-based subjective

Wippler 1968: Leisure is all the time not devoted to regular work or other regular daily activities,
going to and coming from work (-like activities), sleep, eating and personal care

Knulst 1977: Leisure is the sum of activities that do not belong to paid work, education, household
and physical needs

Neulinger 1981: Leisure has one essential criterion, and that is the condition of perceived freedom.
To leisure implies being engaged in an activity as free agent and of one’s own choice

,Study leisure from different disciplines:
 History: changing meaning of leisure, changing leisure activities
 Psychology: experience, flow, feeling busy, stress, well-being, health benefits, cognitive,
social and emotional development
 Sociology: time is structuring society, collective rhythms, leisure can unite or divide
 Geography: time geography, time and distance
 Economics: time is money, leisure is a large economic industry, leisure expenditure, leisure
employment
 Politics: public investments, promoting desirable leisure behavior, reduce negative leisure
impacts

Leisure activities on offer + individuals and their preferences = leisure behavior

Lecture 2
History of leisure
Primitive societies:
 ‘Time’ was cyclical
 No clocks, no hours, no calendar
 Nature-based rhythm of life (tides, moon, sun, seasons)
 F.i.: When do we start working? At sunset
 No clear segregation between work and leisure
 There was not such a thing as ‘leisure’
 ‘Leisure’ activities: playing games, joking, music, dance, storytelling

Classical times:
Ancient Greek philosophers’ leisure ethic
Despite work; work is done by slaves
Leisure activities: music, talk, philosophy, self-development
- Leisure as opposed to work
- Leisure as freedom
- Leisure as a social and cultural activity

Roman Empire:
Abundant leisure, the good life
Thermae, spas, baths
Development of coliseums, theatres: events and spectator sports (gladiator, horse racing)

Middle ages – medieval era: 500-1400 AD
Labour was task-oriented
Blurring of work and leisure

Christian calendar as determinant of leisure
Festival and event-based activities of nobility and knights
‘Dancing, feasting, other pleasures of the flesh’
Men: drinking, gambling
Women: socializing
Travel to other cities for business purpose: alehouse (now: pub)

, Renaissance – reformation
Protestants: work is an end in itself
The Protestant work ethic

Question the value of leisure
 Leisure is idleness, lazy, useless

Also here and now: ‘Protestants have lower participation in most of the leisure activities, except
singing and making music, which they do more than the average’

Industrial societies
- The mechanical clock decides rhythm of life
- F.i.: When do we start working? At 8am
- Factory system transformed people’s lives
- Separation of work (factory) and leisure (home)
- Migration to cities
- Labour became time-oriented (12-14 hours per day)
- Leisure became opposite of work
- Capitalism: work is more productive than leisure

20th century: Post-industrial / Post-modern societies
- 1919 – 1935
 ‘Quest for leisure’ Demand 8-8-8
 Rise of annual holidays and day trips
 Rise of mass leisure
 Cinema, dance halls, spectator sports
 State intervention: parks, swimming pools, libraries
- 1950s – 1960s
 State provision of leisure services
 Rising standards of domestic consumption
 Emergence of youth culture: 60s flower power, hippy, bohemian lifestyle,
large outdoor festivals
- 1970s – 1980s Rise of consumer society
 Leisure and consumption dominate over work ‘the consumer society’
 Women enter labour market: Dual-job family
 Harried Leisure Class (Linder)
 Economic recession
 Declining state involvement
 New commercial leisure services (shopping malls)
- 1990s – now
 Continued decline of state involvement
 Individualization of leisure
 Experience economy
 Hedonistic activities (pleasure, entertainment, casual leisure)
 Schor 1991: Work-and-spend cycle
 More fluid work-leisure boundaries: work during leisure, leisure during work

Leisure is s complex phenomenon