Introduction

Abstract

In societies dominated by instrumental rationality and secularism, where lives are suspended between deadlines and dead-ends, leisure assumes extraordinary ideological significance. Paid employment and family life may be regarded as the main part of ‘normal’ adult existence. However, leisure, it is said, is the ‘necessary’ counterpart to work, the ‘reward’ for effort, the prerequisite for a ‘healthy’ and ‘balanced’ lifestyle. It would be absurd to suggest that Western culture presents paid employment and family life as a purgatory of self-denial. On the contrary, it can be said safely that paid employment and family life are widely seen as affirmations of adulthood — that is, people do not think of themselves as real grown-ups until they get a steady job and start a family. However, the pleasures of work and family life, great as they may be, are moderated by the sense of responsibility and self-discipline which both require. In work and family life we may satisfy and surprise ourselves. However, only in leisure are we said to be ourselves.