i want some article about sociology and leisure time?

Answer 1

A Definition of Leisure


"Leisure is free time that is qualitatively transformed as a result of engaging voluntarily in freely chosen, intrinsically satisfying activity that is conducted under conditions of relative freedom from both internal and external constraints"


Copyright (C) by A. Yiannakis, 1993, 1999

NOTE

This is a brief handout that I disseminate to my students for the purpose of introducing and defining the concept of leisure. While we examine several definitions of leisure, the above-stated definition is the one that I employ in teaching my sociology of leisure/leisure behavior classes


Definition of Terms

Free Time


Time unencumbered by any forms of constraint (internal or external).


Qualitatively Transformed


The introduction of several attributes to free time qualitatively transforms the nature of the experience. Participants experience pleasure, satisfaction, involvement, absorption, immersion, time distortion and, with more serious forms of leisure, a sense of personal accomplishment.


Voluntary Involvement


Voluntary involvement is characterized by a feeling that you are engaging in the activity because you want to. Voluntariness is essentially characterized by the freedom to terminate the activity at will without serious repercussions or consequences.

Freely Chosen Activities


This focuses on the notion that the choice of activity is truly made by the individual without feeling as though obligations or expectations are guiding or influencing that choice. The choice truly reflects what the individual wishes to engage in.


Intrinsically Satisfying


Activities that are intrinsically satisfying possess attributes which are capable, in and of themselves, of satisfying the needs of the individual. In fact, satisfaction is derived solely from the process of engaging in the activity itself. Such activity does not serve as a bridge to rewards external to itself such as medals, peer recognition, media attention or money. While the focus is on the attributes of the activity itself, we must also recognize the fact that an individual must be intrinsically motivated to be drawn to, and derive pleasure from the benefits of intrinsically satisfying activities. Putting it another way, if an individual is extrinsically motivated he/she is likely to derive little pleasure from engaging in activities that provide no tangible extrinsic rewards. That is simply not what extrinsic types look for. In fact, it may be argued that extrinsic types have no leisure in their life! Under such conditions a good case may be made for leisure counseling because some individuals may need to be taught (or re-taught) how to create leisure opportunities in their life.


Relative Freedom


In sociology we refer to relative freedom rather than perceived freedom (as psychologists are wont to do) because the focus is not primarily the individual but the social unit, the team, the clan, the community, the institution and so on. Thus the term relative freedom refers to what is determined through group consensual validation rather than on the perception of a particular individual. While individually perceived internal and external constraints often vary from individual to individual, by studying the aggregate views of the group we are able to identify patterns and trends of constraints that are so perceived by the vast majority as being so. The study of patterns and trends enables us to understand the larger picture, to compare differences among groups with certain attributes (e.g., by gender, by religiosity, by occupational status, and so on) and to predict future trends. Such understanding informs practice at the group or community level and helps shape policy and social action. This is quite different from the perspective of the psychologist who wishes to understand how the individual feels, perceives and responds. While we do not wish to totally exclude the individual from the equation, the sociological perspective focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on those broader patterns and trends that reflect group structures and processes.


Internal Constraints


Individuals often impose constraints on themselves by unwittingly converting their leisure pursuits into extrinsically based activities. That is, instead of enjoying the intrinsic characteristics of the activity itself they attempt to add elements that serve as connections to sources of external reward. Thus, if they enjoy reading novels they set goals for themselves to read a certain number of books every month. Their satisfaction is then primarily derived from achieving that standard, rather than from the satisfying properties of the books themselves. People who attempt to transform intrinsically satisfying activities into extrinsically satisfying ones either don't know what the leisure experience is supposed to feel like or they are extrinsically motivated types who need to find more suitable extrinsic-type activities to engage in.

What an individual perceives as internal constraints (psychological perspective) is very different from the way a sociologist (anthropologist or economist, among others) would view it. To a psychologist, what a particular person perceives to be internal constraints becomes operating reality. And this perhaps is as it should be for psychologists because the way one goes about investigating psychological phenomena (the paradigm, if you like), and the actions suggested by such a paradigm (as in therapy, for example), have the individual and his/her perception of the problem as its central focus. Not so in sociology, however, where solutions and methodologies are employed (the paradigm) to understand not how one individual sees a particular constraint but how groups, communities, or organizations see it. Thus, if enough people see a particular constraint as an issue or problem, the kind of action that's suggested manifests itself at the level of policy, institutional change, social change and the like. This type of change affects many people, not just one. Psychological solutions, on the other hand, mostly apply to one individual at a time and place the focus on therapeutic modalities intended to transform the person (in order to help him/her better cope).


Internal constraints become an issue for sociologists when the problem manifests itself at the societal level as a problematic pattern. One solution that has been proposed by social scientists of leisure is to educate people to avoid "extrinsifying" their leisure. Some sociologists may go a step further and connect the issue to larger alienating social structures and forces such as capitalism, competition and commercialization. When seen in this light the issue becomes a political problem and solutions offered by sociologists may include various forms of response aimed at changing society rather than the individual.

Psychologists are likely to see this as a personal or individual problem (and not an issue connected with broader social structures) and may suggest individual therapy so that the individual will learn to disconnect the extrinsic influences of society from their leisure activities.


In my view the problem is not an either or situation. We live in a world which mostly devalue intrinsically satisfying activity and teach us instead to be extrinsically motivated (in the interest of achievement and productivity). Possible solutions must, therefore, address the problem both sociologically and psychologically.


External Constraints


Many of the issues addressed in the previous section on internal constraints pertain to this area as well. External constraints are factors outside the individual which serve as barriers to leisure behavior and enjoyment. They include such factors as the absence of facilities, inadequate transportation systems, cultural practices and values that deny opportunities to certain groups, and the like. From a psychological perspective not all external constraints are perceived in the same way by different individuals. In fact a constraint to one person may be an opportunity to another. However, we are not terribly interested in the infinite varieties of individual reality. As sociologists we are primarily interested, instead, on those external constraints which are seen to be so by groups, communities, neighborhoods and organizations (among other categories of social structure). And, to reiterate, we approach the study of leisure in this manner because our paradigm, unlike that of the psychologist, seeks explanations and solutions by attempting to understand broader patterns and elements of social structure. Such patterns and trends then enable us to formulate social action that takes the form of social policy, is passed into law, or, in certain situations leads to various forms of resistance against "the system."


Now, back to our definition of leisure. We stated earlier that leisure is free time that has been qualitatively transformed. The process of transformation begins when an individual engages voluntarily in freely chosen, intrinsically satisfying activity that is conducted under conditions of relative freedom from both internal and external constraints. Thus, by transforming free time into leisure an individual transcends the boundaries of everyday reality and enters the leisure state. This state is a product of the interaction between a chosen activity and process (approach the activity with an intrinsic motivational orientation) which results in a state of mind that is characterized by varying degrees of the following attributes:


Characteristics of the Leisure State


The leisure state should be conceptualized as possessing varying depths of consciousness that are characterized by the following elements:



Diffused (Casual Leisure) or focused Concentration (Serious Leisure)


Absorption


Immersion


Dissociation


Time distortion


A brief explanation of each of the above terms follows below:


Concentration


Concentration pertains to the focusing of consciousness and can be diffuse or

highly focused. In general, casual leisure demands mostly diffuse levels of concentration although brief lapses into deeper levels can occur. These deeper levels are not, however, sustained for any period of time, partly because of the nature of the activity involved and the conditions and mindset under which it is conducted. Serious leisure, on the other hand, because it requires higher levels of skill, commitment and/or effort (Stebbins, 1982) demands higher and deeper levels of sustained concentration.


Absorption


The intrinsic qualities of the activity grab the participant’s attention such that the individual gradually becomes absorbed by the activity.


Immersion


Intrinsically satisfying activities enable the individual to become more immersed in that particular activity. Immersion is a psychological condition suggesting depth of involvement. As this increases, peripheral environmental awareness decreases.

Dissociation


When absorption and immersion are of sufficient magnitude the individual disconnects totally from peripheral environmental stimuli. He/she loses all awareness of things going on around him/her.

Time Distortion


Time distortion occurs when adequate levels of concentration, absorption, immersion and dissociation have been achieved. The individual loses all track of time and is often surprised to find, upon termination of his/her leisure activity, that more time has passed than expected.


Practitioners of serious leisure activities generally achieve deeper levels and are able to sustain this state of consciousness for longer periods. Practitioners of casual leisure generally achieve lower levels which are sustained for shorter periods of time.



atp

Answer 2

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/07/does_europe_hav.html
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu93wsu1FPagA0sBXNyoA?p=%22leisure+time%22+nations+article+europe+usa+japan&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lab_wor_tim_mor_tha_40_hou-time-more-than-40-hours