Meanings of Leisure - RLS 100 PDF

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Elizabeth Halpenny, PhD, discussed the historical topic of the meaning of leisure...

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Wednesday, September 5/18 Chapter 1 - Meanings of Leisure 3 Major Ideas of the Meaning of Leisure: 1. How Leisure is Reflected Through Humanities ● The humanities are areas of creation whose subject is the human experience. ● It includes the study of: ○ Literature ■ Narratives (or stories) that carry us away or “transport” us to somewhere else ■ Narratives (or stories) also let us learn about the negative side of human experience, and provide insight into people’s emotions, personalities, and personal relations (Onega & Landa Garcia, 1996, call this “telling”) ■ Narratives often also involve drama, where the focus is on cause and effect (Onega & Landa Garcia, 1996, call this “showing”) ■ With mysteries - “What happened?” ■ With tragedies - “How could it happen?” ○ Art ■ “Art mirrors what we consider to be both beautiful and important” (Russell , p. 3). ○ Music ■ “Music is perhaps the most universal activity of humankind.” (Russell, 4) ■ Important to both expression and identity ■ Eminem is describing rappers as providers of what Levitin (2008) calls “comfort” (b/c you’re not alone) ■ Music gives us a central feeling of: ● Friendship (and social bonding) ● Joy ● Knowledge (information, reminder) ● Religion (including rituals) ● Love (wanted, found, and lost) The Non-Humanities Link ● Literature, art, and music are all clearly key aspects of leisure, but leisure has ties to other areas besides the humanities: ○ Kinesiology/P.E., through amateur sports ○ Medicine (e.g., Alzheimer’s & puzzles)

○ Nutrition (e.g., food & relaxation) ○ Business (e.g., tourism world’s #1 economic sector) ○ Education (e.g., play & learning)

Friday, September 7/18 Chapter 1 - Meanings of Leisure 2. Leisure Historically ● Leisure legacies from ancient cultures: ○ Hunter Gatherers ■ Time is circular and seasonal ■ Religion, leisure, and work and intertwined ■ This type of culture may have had more leisure/free time than later agricultural based cultures (Chick, 1986) ● Classical Histories: Ancient Greece ○ Peak of cultural and philosophical development (Athens and “democracy”) ○ The Athenian ideal was the “good life” which required knowledge, right choices, and moral conduct ○ Socrates - knowledge was required to lead the good life and choose wisely the "best pleasures" ○ Plato - believed in developing the person through education, philosophy, music, and gymnastics ○ Aristotle - a life of contemplation was the best use of leisure, but also need to take responsibility for enhancing the individual and the community ○ Wrote in Politics that happiness: “…belongs to those who have leisure.” ○ Also, in terms of happiness, expanded upon the idea of eudaimonia ○ Asceticism - using self-discipline and hard work to improve one's self or the community ○ Schole - Greek term for leisure - means to use free time wisely for oneself (root of school, scholar too) (see p. 7) ■ Leisured citizens were only about 20% of the population - an elite class of males supported by the work of slaves ● Classical Histories: Ancient China ○ A similar view of leisure may have existed in ancient China ○ Hsiao Yao (show yow) (Yeh, 1993) ■ Freedom from hardship ■ Carefree state of being (in harmony) ■ Selfless contemplation ■ Schole and Hsiao Yow only for the intellectual and affluent elite ○ Wang and Stringer (2000), though, thought Daoism (4th century BCE) key to Chinese leisure.

■ Harmony/balance ■ Peace/tranquility ■ Solitude ■ Believed nature good way to achieve the above ● Classical Histories: Ancient Rome ○ Looked to Greek democracy as a model of political freedom (also borrowed Greek philosophy, art, and architecture) ○ Romans had a more practical notion about leisure (i.e., mass leisure) than Greeks ○ Leisure was a tool to be used for social control of a growing middle class ○ Mass recreation events and holidays - became increasingly important by 350 CE over 1175 public holidays ○ Citizens went from being active in sports and social life to being spectators ○ Leading to the idea of "bread & circuses" ○ Circus Maximus and the Colosseum were arenas for chariot races, mock battles, gladiator combats ○ Ludi - Latin word for "public games and festivals" (e.g., public baths, celebrations, sport events, parades) ○ Hedonism - pursuit of pleasure (and/or absence of pain) key goal ○ Licere - latin word for "to be free" in the sense of permission granted "to do something" ○ Gibbon thought that the misuse of leisure was a major reason for the decline of the Roman empire ○ And some have argued that modern North America is on the same path (i.e., mass entertainment → decline & collapse) ● Histories: European Reformation ○ Reformation was a movement started by Martin Luther – Protestantism took hold in Northern Europe ○ Work and asceticism - those who work hard are rewarded here in heaven ○ Leisure attitude was that: "idle hands are the Devil’s workshop" ○ Wealthy nobles sent sons on extended study abroad (beginning of the grand tour, and organized tourism as we know it today) ● Histories: Industrial Age ○ Leisure changes as society moved from primarily agricultural to industrial ○ Max Weber - argued that religious ideas can shape history. Coined the term "Protestant Work Ethic" ○ Most Extreme protestants (puritans, calvinists) had strict moral codes (singing, feasting, drinking, gambling, and dancing forbidden)

○ New England colonists stress "lawful recreation" as contributing to greater good ○ Adam Smith (economist) - Do the bare minimum of a job that authority will permit so that you do not wear yourself out doing work instead of leisure ○ Karl Marx - Recognized class distinctions and disparities due to the Industrial Revolution ■ Lower class works harder ■ Leisure began to be associated with simple activities such as drinking coffee or tea, smoking tobacco, or reading magazines ○ Novels became popular to pass leisure time because they were personal and domestic ○ Public entertainment like spectator sports, musical theatre, and train travel also grew in popularity ○ It became easier to exercise personal choice because: ■ Work habits changed = more time available ■ More leisure activities available ■ Increased affluence to engage in them (again, at least among the middle class) ○ Veblen (1899) coined the term “conspicuous consumption” (CC) to describe the upper class’ leisure ■ E.g., Not having to work, big mansions & yachts, showed one’s wealth & power ○ There was also an attempt to limit certain activities among the lower class ■ E.g., Bear baiting, dog fighting, drinking ■ This reflected increasing government involvement because the government didn’t think industrial age activities were necessarily helpful. They began taxing as a way to control its use, both in terms of: ● Controlling some opportunities, through: ○ legislation (e.g., opium, cocaine) ○ licensing (e.g., pubs) ● Providing certain other types of “recreation” opportunities ● Recreation Provision ○ From Latin, recreatio for restoration or recovery ○ Has extrinsic outcomes (e.g., stress relief, physical fitness, intellectual development) ○ Exists in part to promote social purposes (and political purposes too) ■ E.g., facilitation of public parks, libraries, museums, playground programs

■ Thought process that we needed some sort of access to recreation, not just work all the time ■ Romans were very controlling and very organized when it came to their recreation ■ Parks began in the late 1800s ■ Gyro playgrounds in Edmonton (Tipton park, 1920s-1940s) managed by Gyro club - men’s group. Delivering recreation to the underprivileged. In the 1940s-1960s, the city took over the management of the playgrounds ● So where are we historically? ○ Classic Aristotelian view - schole ○ Classic Roman view – mass spectacle and social control ○ Leisure as consumption (e.g., Veblen) ○ Leisure as personal choice or freedom to choose ○ Recreation ■ Recovery or restoration ■ Extrinsic goals ■ Social/political purposes 3. Meanings of Leisure Today ● Contemporary Leisure ○ Leisure is contextual and diverse – its meaning is dependent “on the place, the time, and the people.” (Russell, p. 16) ○ In contemporary Western society though, leisure is defined as 4 things: 1. “Free time” (e.g., after work) 2. A type of activity 3. A special attitude (i.e., “the good life”) 4. A psychological state of mind ○ (Russell seems to lump 3 and 4 together as “leisure as spirit” (Table 1.1) but I’d separate. Also, the third may be better seen as one’s “leisure philosophy”)...