Leisure Policy, Post-Fordism and Local Government

Abstract

The discussion of the role of leisure professionals in leisure policy in Chapter 5 focused on the `internal’ workings of the local authority, and on the actors involved in policy development. However, one should recognise that although policies may be effected by the actors involved, they are likely to be affected by other factors, including those external to the authority itself. The structural location of local governments in Britain vis-à-vis central government, the European Community and the international economy, are important factors in defining the resources for, and limitations of, the action of local government politicians and professionals. In this final chapter, therefore, we return to a discussion of the wider political, economic and cultural context of leisure policy decision-making, before going on to consider the development of new policy responses to the situation of the late 1980s and early 1990s in a metropolitan mistrict.