The World Has More Leisure! so What?

The sociology of leisure (and leisure studies more generally) were born amid confidence that leisure would continue to grow and become a larger component of people’s lives. This confidence has proved justified. Leisure has grown in time, spending on leisure goods and services, and hence participation rates in many leisure activities. Meanwhile, researchers have identified and distinguished the various ways in which leisure plays a role in people’s lives. Apart from re-creation – restoring body and mind to states fit to return to other social roles – leisure can enhance well-being (or ill-being), it can be a source of social bonds and belonging, identity, and capabilities that enhance performance in other social roles. However, this paper argues that the sole sense in which its growth has made leisure functionally more important is economic – as an object of investment and consumer spending, and as a source of employment. The paper explores the implications for leisure’s additional functions, and its future in the twenty-first century.