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

JS-71

Leisure for a Livable Society

RC13 Sociology of Leisure (host committee)
RC55 Social Indicators

Language: English

There has been a growing interest among social psychologists in the relationship between leisure and happiness (e.g., Kuykendall, Tay, & Ng, 2015; Newman, Tay, & Diener, 2014). However, such understanding often limited to individual lives, leaving social aspects of the relationship between leisure and happiness underexplored. This means that we lack in an understanding of how social factors influence the relationship between leisure and individual well-being; and more importantly, the relationship between leisure and the quality of societies (i.e., the social equivalent of individual quality of life) remains understudied. Recently, we have seen more sociological research on this issue (e.g., Nawijn & Veenhoven, 2013; Stebbins, 2015). The purpose of this joint session is to further speed up this trend by bridging two research committees that play crucial roles in this line of research: RC 13 Sociology of Leisure and RC 55 Social Indicators Research. We hope to see submissions that help systematic development of theories, present relevant evidence, and inspire new research directions. The term “livability” instead of happiness or well-being (Veenhoven, 2000) is intentionally used in the session title to welcome submissions that not only address leisure’s effect on individual happiness, but also speak to how social factors affect this relationship and what roles leisure can play in the pursuit of the improved quality of societies. We also look forward to seeing submissions from researchers across diverse disciplines, including (but not limited to) sociology, leisure studies, happiness studies, social psychology, and economics