XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

255

Interrogating Leisure and Development

RC13 Sociology of Leisure (host committee)

Language: English

Leisure for many is a time for relaxation, to free the mind and to be at peace within and without. Leisure, nevertheless, has not been considered perceptively as an important variable for estimating the level of a society’s development. Historical cases of Greece where the people engaged in various leisure activities with limited labour output may be identified as a possible case study of how leisure may lead to the downfall of a society. Likewise the classification of leisure into “good leisure”, which often encourages relaxation of the body, spirit and mind (as with the case of indoor and outdoor games), as against “bad leisure”, which often results in the damage of the body, spirit and mind (as with the case of drug and alcohol intake that leads to addiction) are variables that can be used to examine a society’s development. This session, thus, intends to interrogate common/prominent leisure practices of various societies, or an analysis of the transformations of leisure based on factors such as colonialism, cultural hegemony, modernity/globalization, migrations, economy etc. in analysing a society’s development. Papers presented may be theoretical, case studies or empirical studies that may lead to a better understanding of leisure and development within societies.