WORK AND LEISURE

Leisure often studied related to culture and identity. It's more important as people have more free time and money.

DEFINING WORK AND LEISURE

S. Parker (1983) offered the following definitions:

  • Work, is paid employment, often in a set place away from home.
  • Work obligations, are work related activities performed outside working hours and usually not in the workplace.
  • Existence time, is fulfilling essential needs, like eating and sleeping.
  • Non-work obligations, domestic duties like chilldcare and housework.
  • Leisure, free time.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK AND LEISURE

  • Parker said linked.
  • The extension pattern, leisure similar to work, with the function of 'developing the personality'.  This is common where the work is the 'central life interest', and associated with workers who enjoyed thier work eg. musicians.
  • The neutrality pattern, leisure different to work. Usually when works not satisfying. The function of leisure is relaxation. Assosiated with office of factory jobs.
  • The opposition pattern, leisure very different to work, with the function of escaping. Associated with extreme occupations eg. mining.

Evaluation and Alternative Explanations

  • Leisure defined as time away from work, applies more to men in full-time employment. Parker saw education and the amount of time available as also relevant.
  • Rapaport and Rapaport (1975_ said age, family lifestyle, class, gender and health as potential influences.
    Roberts used the term 'domestic age' to combine the idea of age with family relationships and responsibilities. Adolescence was unique in that the family were not the main focus.
  • Deem (1986) replicated the Rapaport's study with women in Milton Keynes. She identified four life stages that influenced leisure, and saw sexual orientation and ethnicity as factors influencing the extent to which boys were the major leisure interest for teenage girls.

Feminist Criticism

  • Housework is real work.
  • Women may not have free time, and enjoy leisure while working, i.e. park with kids.
    Age, marriage and children influence leisure. Single and childless women are more likely to work, have more money and free time. 
  • Women's movement may be restricted, i.e. safe and unsafe places to go.
  • Deem said leisure might be a state of mind, e.g. cooking and eating could be work or not, depending on why they are done.

Marxist criticism

Leisure isn't really free time because it usually has to be paid for and involves social control.
It requires things, like fishing kit, to buy.
It's social control, e.g. to keep the unemployed off the streets. Many things are controlled by the state, eg. where you can drink etc.

Extra Information
  

Parker's work is useful in answering questions about leisure.

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