Leisure's Legacy

LEISURE STUDIES IN A GLOBAL Leisure’s ERA Legacy Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time ROBERT A. STEBBINS Leisure Studies in a Global Era Series Editors Karl Spracklen Leeds Beckett University Leeds, United Kingdom Karen Fox University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada In this book series, we defend leisure as a meaningful, theoretical, fram- ing concept; and critical studies of leisure as a worthwhile intellectual and pedagogical activity. This is what makes this book series distinctive: we want to enhance the discipline of leisure studies and open it up to a richer range of ideas; and, conversely, we want sociology, cultural geog- raphies and other social sciences and humanities to open up to engaging with critical and rigorous arguments from leisure studies. Getting beyond concerns about the grand project of leisure, we will use the series to dem- onstrate that leisure theory is central to understanding wider debates about identity, postmodernity and globalisation in contemporary societ- ies across the world. The series combines the search for local, qualitatively rich accounts of everyday leisure with the international reach of debates in politics, leisure and social and cultural theory. In doing this, we will show that critical studies of leisure can and should continue to play a central role in understanding society. The scope will be global, striving to be truly international and truly diverse in the range of authors and topics. Editorial Board John Connell, Professor of Geography, University of Sydney, USA Yoshitaka Mori, Associate Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan Smitha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College, USA Diane M. Samdahl, Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Georgia, USA Chiung-Tzu Lucetta Tsai, Associate Professor, National Taipei University, Taiwan Walter van Beek, Professor of Anthropology and Religion, Tilburg University, The Netherlands Sharon D. Welch, Professor of Religion and Society, Meadville Theological School, Chicago, USA Leslie Witz, Professor of History, University of the Western Cape, South Africa More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14823 Robert A. Stebbins Leisure’s Legacy Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time Robert A. Stebbins Department of Sociology University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada Leisure Studies in a Global Era ISBN 978-3-319-59793-5 ISBN 978-3-319-59794-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59794-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944037 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Johner Images/Getty Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Contents 1 Introduction: Leisure’s Legacy—Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time 1 2 The Nature of Leisure 7 3 Leisure’s Common Sense Images 19 4 The History of Today’s Legacy 31 5 Modern Complexity: Types of Leisure 53 6 What Do We Get from Leisure? Positive Rewards 63 7 What Do We Get from Leisure? Its Costs 81 8 Leisure in the Community: Contributions 99 9 Leisure in the Community: Negative Effects 119 v vi Contents 10 Personal Development Through Leisure 135 11 Devotee Work as Leisure 155 12 Leisure Lifestyle 173 13 Conclusion 193 References 203 Index 215 List of Figures Fig. 5.1 Typological map of the serious leisure perspective 55 Fig. 10.1 SLP Involvement Scale 139 vii List of Tables Table 6.1 A leisure-based theoretic typology of volunteers and volunteering 75 ix 1 Introduction: Leisure’s Legacy—Challenging the Common Sense View of Free Time As with some other complex ideas current in the modern world, that of leisure suffers at the level of common sense from an unfortunate legacy: a combination of oversimplification, moral depreciation, and in some quarters, even lack of recognition. Many people outside the compara- tively small circle of leisure theorists, researchers, and practitioners—this indictment includes other scholars and university administrators on the outside—might well greet this claim with: “who cares?” But leisure’s modern legacy is both profound and immense, despite approximately 45 years of steady research, application, and theory development. In other words, there is plenty of evidence to justify the central proposal in this book that the common sense view of free-time activities can and should be confronted. And who should do the confronting? That job falls to the leisure studies professors, researchers, practitioners, and their students; it is them for whom this book is written. Ideally, the vast world of common sense would also take an interest in these pages, but alas, the pages are probably too many and too complicated for most of the general public. Meanwhile, the first group needs to know much better the mentality of the people whom they study and how the second look on the free-time phenomena © The Author(s) 2017 1 R.A. Stebbins, Leisure’s Legacy, Leisure Studies in a Global Era, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59794-2_1 2 1 Introduction: Leisure’s Legacy—Challenging the Common... the first find so fascinating and important. How else can leisure science effectively get its word out to the general public than by knowing how they think about leisure? Let it be clear from the outset that this book is a study of the common sense view of leisure and not an exposition of the scientific field of leisure studies. Part of the latter—namely, the serious leisure perspective and certain other concepts—will nevertheless guide this study. Thus the leisure studies literature is invoked only to the extent needed to examine the common sense view and to the extent that this scholarly area has anything to say about this popular outlook. Unfortunately, the scientific writing on this view is extremely thin.1 The following chapters will show what this popular outlook is lacking and why it is important to tackle it. In general, the reasons for confronta- tion are the following. (1) Gatekeepers informed only by the common sense definitions of leisure while working in the institutions of higher education and funding agencies for research and teaching often fail to give research and education in leisure science its due. (2) The general population guided by certain common sense definitions suffers with its ignorance of how it could benefit from a more informed view of free time. (3) Some practitioners in fields where leisure has been shown to benefit clients still refuse to accept this approach. Certain common sense definitions would seem to be behind such thinking. (4) Leisure science’s weak reception in many of the mainstream social sciences (e.g., econom- ics and political science, Stebbins, 2012, pp. 20–22) suggests a similar shallow picture there of how people use their free time, why they do this, and why it is important that the general public acquire a more profound understanding of this vast domain of life. All this might seem like sour grapes: a-nobody-likes-me-but-they- should kind of argument. This retort might have more credibility were it based on a scientific understanding of leisure rather than a common- sensical one. In other words, a more informed response would be to try with data and logic to rebut the four points in the preceding paragraph. Meanwhile, however, this book contains evidence supporting them. Common sense is defined here as the faculty by which certain beliefs are accepted without philosophical or scientific enquiry or without influence from religious teaching (modified from the Shorter OED, 5th Leisure’s Legacy 3 ed., 2002, sense 4). Common sense and “popular image” will be con- sidered synonymous. This orientation is that of the general public, or the laity (non-religious sense), both also being used interchangeably.2 Additionally, in Chap. 3, this image will be further conceptualized as a kind of stereotype. Based on these definitions as applied in the 21st century, I address myself to two crucial concerns, which highlight the inadequacies of leisure’s popular image: what do the people of today get from their leisure activities and what effect do these activities and their enthusiasts have on the communities in which the enthusiasts live? The answers to these questions are complex and by no means always obvious (obviousness is a hallmark of common sense). The complexity is evident in the fact that casual, serious, and project-based leisure—three main forms of leisure—consist of a diversity of types and subtypes.3 They often diverge sharply in their content, effects on participants, and influence in the larger community.

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