Abstract
Previous research indicates that leisure can provide alternatives for unsatisfying or missing jobs only if it is “serious” (Stebbins, 1982). Serious leisure is characterized by commitment on the part of participants. However, the terms commitment and leisure are not easily reconciled. Commitment, which denotes obligation, duty, restriction, and routine, may seem to negate essential elements of leisure such as freedom, individuality, spontaneity, variety, and pleasure. The article offers a conceptual discussion of commitment and its implications for the leisure sphere. Two concepts of commitment are derived from the sociological and social-psychological literature: External commitment and internal commitment, and the article analyzes their relationships with continuance, motivation, satisfaction, involvement, freedom, and routine. The analysis shows that, notwithstanding important differences between committed and uncommitted leisure, the concept of commitment is potentially useful for descriptive and explanatory frameworks of leisure behavior.
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