The Greeks took part in a variety of leisure activities and created the Olympic games, which still take place today. Although, not all were able to take part in such sports. Manual workers were thought of as incapable of participating in leisure. This is due to beliefs that they were unfit for the duties of citizenship. This meant that only a small proportion could take part in sports. The ancient Greeks started the philosophy of leisure that has passed through time to the present day. Many other eras also learnt from the generation of leisure.
The Romans also knew that leisure was important but in different ways. During the Roman period there was mass urban population that also consisted of a class structure. Leisure and sports were seen as important factors that maintained physical fitness for work and war. Due to the importance of fitness levels people were given lots of free time, “as many as two hundred holidays a year,” but this soon became a problem. The high cost of certain events and leisure buildings left the Roman Empire in a financial mess,
“The colosseum, built about AD 80, became the hub of life in Rome and large arenas, gymnasia parks and baths were built in most large towns”.
(Torkildsen.G: 2005:14)
Later cultures used the Roman Empire as an example of the problems that leisure could have.
The middle ages had a big impact on the development of leisure. Monasteries segmented people’s lives and preached about hard labour, good-works and self-deprivation. The Church also banned most kinds of leisure except those that related to worship, such as plays and music, “Work was glorified; idleness was evil.” (Torkildsen) During this period there was a big emphasis on work and that leisure always came second with the exception of “holy-day.” On this day there were public celebrations, which involved drinking, socialising and gambling.
The middle ages were based around the ideal of “leisure elitism, a modified Greek ideal for the landed gentry and political leaders.” (Torkildsen) As time passed the power of the church slowly declined, but Europe was still controlled by powerful monarchs.
Between the Middle Ages and the industrial revolution there has been movement away from medieval times to the modern world. This has now seen a decline in the power of the Catholic Church and a greater interest in humanity and performing arts.
During the industrial revolution there have been lots of changes in the development of leisure. Many cities grew around factories meaning there would be little space for recreational facilities. There was also still a class structure in place, which meant many of the working class would have no time to participate in leisure, “Time or lack of it was also a major restriction. The customary twelve to fourteen hour work day, six days a week, left little time for play.” (Baker) A big change came about when people influenced the government to adopt a half-day during the working week. This was seen as a turning point for leisure and also influenced an explosion in growth and participation of leisure.
“Workers even created their own holiday, St. Monday, when they refused to go to the factory, but instead stayed at home to recover from a weekend drinking spree.”
(Baker, W. 1988:105)
The present leisure industry is worth £1.7 billion per week. This is largely due to the development of leisure through the ages.
As time has passed through the eras there have been many different definitions of leisure, although there is not a “perfect” definition many can be linked together to form a relatively precise one.
Leisure can be viewed in many different ways, due to the many meanings it contains. There are a variety of definitions of leisure including, leisure as residual time, as activities, as functional and leisure as freedom and experience.
Leisure as residual time is seen as time left over from the obligations of work,
“Leisure time is the discretionary residual time that an individual has free from work and other duties that may be used for relaxation, diversion, social interaction or personal development.”
(Chandler, T. 2002: 115)
This statement suggests any time outside of working hours being used by an individual to relax is seen as leisure as residual time. Although this statement is partly correct there are difficulties in defining certain obligations, and also part of the community that is unemployed would argue this,
“Many unemployed persons might argue that such enforced time free from work does not provide them with true leisure, which many believe should encompass activities characterised by a feeling of comparative freedom.”
(Chandler, T. 2002: 115)
The main problem when defining leisure as residual time is that it identifies quantity and not quality of leisure.
Leisure as activities is linked to residual time. It is viewed as the range of activities people choose to take part in during their residual time. The problem with leisure as activities is that it ignores passive leisure such as reading as there is an emphasis placed on more active activities such as sport and arts.
Leisure as a function is seen as performing useful functions for individuals and society, and not necessarily for the person partaking in the activity, mainly focusing on the social consequences of leisure and not the individual.
Leisure as freedom and experience mainly focuses on the person, and the intrinsic rewards gained from the leisure activity. Freedom is about the choice and ability to participate in an activity which will bring the most rewards to the person performing.
“Leisure is a state of mind or mental condition in which we find freedom in a freely chosen activity that we undertake for its own intrinsic reasons.”
(Chandler, T. 2002: 116)
Due to the depth of each definition it is hard to combine all four and “invent” a definition that incorporates all. Generally leisure revolves around time, activities, function and freedom to partake in leisure.
There are many associated concepts of leisure that help build a general idea of leisure as a whole. Leisure and recreation are closely linked to each other due to similar meanings of free time and having the freedom to participate in an activity that renews and refreshes people for work.
Recreation has many meanings and can be viewed as a personal experience, as activities, as an institution, as a process and as a structure.
Leisure and tourism has no agreed definition but generally arises from the movement of people to places outside the normal home and workplace.
“Any person visiting a country other than that in which he has his usual place of residence for any reason other than following an occupation remunerated from within the country visited” (Theobold, W: 1998:10)
Leisure and play is an important aspect of everyone’s lives, and has a personal meaning for each person, as everyone has a different aspect of how they like to enjoy themselves and have fun. There is no all round definition of play or why people play, but some theorists say there is a link between stress levels and playfulness, therefore suggesting the more fun people have the lower their stress levels will be.
Parry 1977 suggests: “leisure is a social phenomenon itself, involves social constraint and social obligation and can best be thought of as being embodied in a whole way of life, such an idea immediately invokes the concept of culture.”
This suggests that leisure is affected by an individual, there choice of activities and affects the way they live their life.
Evidence to suggest that Torkildsen’s statement is correct and that leisure is not new, can be seen from the leisure industry being worth £1.7 billion per week. For the leisure industry to be worth this much, it would have had to build up over time. Therefore all historical eras have played a big part in the way today’s leisure can be defined.
With many new and exciting activities in the world today people can create their own meaning of leisure which is personal to them, this meaning would have been adapted through generations and will continue to flow through life.
