Sociology of leisure
1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias The sociology of leisure or leisure sociology is the study of how humans organize their free time.
The type of leisure activity is substantially influenced by the numerous more complex factors, such as presence or lack of family, religious beliefs and general cultural values one adheres to.
[2] Joffre Dumazedier distinguished four distinct definitions of leisure, which begin broadly and gradually narrow in scope.
[4] Further, among some occupational communities, such as police officers or miners, it is common for colleagues to be off-time friends and to share similar, work-based leisure activities.
For example, quantifying the results is difficult, as time-budget studies have noted that a given amount of time (for example, an hour) may have different values, depending on when it occurs—within a day, a week, or a year.
In the Marx and Engels Reader, an overview of the writings and theories of Marxism, the 'realm of freedom' and 'realm of necessity' were heavily elaborated on as it was a new concept at the time.
[5] The historical-theoretical approach studies the relation between leisure and social change, often from structural-functionalist and neo-Marxist perspectives.
[5] Sheila Scraton provided a different analysis, comparing North American and British studies.
[1] Rhona and Robert Rapoport studied the worklife balance and inequality in many countries, wrote many books in this area and help influence policy and legislation to change practices.
[8] Many sociologists have assumed that a given type of leisure activity[9] is most easily explained by socioeconomic variables such as income, occupation or education.
[2] As Kelly noted, "Predicting a person's leisure behavior on the basis of his socioeconomic position is all but impossible.
"[10] On the other hand, type of leisure activity is substantially influenced by the individual's immediate situation—whether he has a family, whether there are recreational facilities nearby, and age.
[2] There are different forms of leisure time and their benefits are not always clear, but generally, there is consensus that in moderation, they tend to have various positive effects.
In societies, substantial across the board rises in pay can increase the working hours of male blue-collar workers with young children but reduce those of middle class women with husbands in well-paid full-time jobs.
