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Positive Sociology: An Overview

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Positive Sociology of Leisure

Part of the book series: Leisure Studies in a Global Era ((LSGE))

Abstract

Study of the positive side of human life is in short supply in the social sciences, where fields like sociology revolve primarily around disagreeable problems. Explaining positiveness must rest on a non-problematic model, namely, the sociology of leisure. Among its basic concepts are activity and personal agency. They play a pivotal role in the approach known as the “serious leisure perspective.” As a complement to positive psychology, positive sociology centers on social meanings, interpersonal interaction, human agency, and the personal and social conditions. It also centers on the activities in their social milieu or their micro-, meso-, and macro-level contexts. We must avoid its fragmentation by ensuring that both big-picture and small-picture theory and research parallel each other as the field grows.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Nevertheless, the mainstream studies the problem of imbalance in this area, usually in work vis-à-vis family (e.g., Emslie & Hunt, 2009), while a positive sociology explores how people find an acceptable lifestyle balance through leisure activities (e.g., Kelly & Kelly, 1994).

  2. 2.

    Parts of sociology are neither positive nor negative, as these terms are used here. The discipline, especially in its early years, has also been given to describing in neutral language, such phenomena as social organization, demographic patterns, and group culture.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Robert A. Stebbins

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  1. Robert A. Stebbins
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Correspondence to Robert A. Stebbins .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Shintaro Kono

  2. Government Meera Girls College, Rajasthan, India

    Anju Beniwal

  3. Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India

    Priyanka Baweja

  4. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Karl Spracklen

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Stebbins, R.A. (2020). Positive Sociology: An Overview. In: Kono, S., Beniwal, A., Baweja, P., Spracklen, K. (eds) Positive Sociology of Leisure. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41811-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41812-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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