Abstract
One approach to reflective leisure would simply note that today ‘leisure’ means something very different, that the world has moved on and leisure developed in ways that take account of new realities and modern societies’ needs. That the world has moved on from the 1950s and leisure changed radically is undeniable.1 The move has been towards readier access to leisure, encroachment of certain leisure activities (for example, TV watching and shopping) over more and more of our lives, identification of key fashionable activities with leisure activity, and more immediate, guaranteed fun through leisure. Yet mass leisure, because it has largely depended upon making money for providers who sell leisure opportunities to consumers, has also diminished choice and obscured the appeal of leisure activities that cost little and may give few quick thrills, but do provide longer term investment, a gradual sense of understanding and contentment, and sustained personal recreation.
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Notes
See John Kelly and Geoffrey Godbey Sociology of Leisure (State College PA: Venture, 1992), Ch. 8 for the development of mass leisure and the problems caused by commodification and democritisation of leisure.
Martin Davies ‘Another Way of Being: Leisure and the Possibility of Privacy’ in C. Barrett and T. Winnifrith (eds) The Philosophy of Leisure (London: Macmillan, 1989), p. 117.
John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey Time for Life: the surprising way Americans use their time (University Park PA: Pennsylvania University Press, 1997).
Gerald Fain ‘Moral Leisure’ in Gerald Fain (ed.) Leisure and Ethics (Reston, VI: American Association for Leisure and Recreation, 1991).
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Flow: the psychology of optimal experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990).
Flow is ‘a psychological state based upon concrete feedback which acts as a reward in that it produces continuing behaviour in the absence of other rewards’, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Beyond Boredom and Necessity (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1975), p. 23.
Josef Pieper Happiness and Contemplation (London: Faber and Faber, 1958), pp. 76–9.
Elizabeth Telfer ‘Leisure’ in J. D. G. Evans (ed.) Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Problems (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1987), p. 154.
Cf. Mary Midgley Heart and Mind (London: Harvester, 1981), p. 144: ‘play is found pervading our most important concerns; play insists on being taken seriously.’
Hugo Rahner Man At Play, Or: Did You Ever Practice Eutrapelia? (London: Compass, 1964), p. 65.
Rowan Williams Lost Icons: reflections on cultural bereavement (Edinburgh: T & T Clarke, 2000), p. 56.
Julie Edwards and Nicole Rotaru (eds) I Will Remember These Things Forever (Melbourne: Outreach Grief Services, 1999), p. 1.
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© 2005 Hayden Ramsay
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Ramsay, H. (2005). Reflective Leisure. In: Reclaiming Leisure. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230512825_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230512825_3
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