Terms Of Leisure Research Articles

THE SOCIETY OF LEISURE: MYTH AND REALITY

ABSTRACT A definition of the future of leisure in terms of the inexorable growth of institutionalized sports practices is more ideological than theoretical. The practice of leisure has been increasing constantly since the 19th century, and one of its more recent manifestations is the astronomical growth of sports activities. This could of course be only a temporary situation. The author feels that it is too simplistic to base predictions of the emergence of a leisure civilisation on such observations and proposes that in addition to studies on leisure practices and the people involved, studies be undertaken of leisure behavior as revealed by participation in various other specific activities. The choice of a particular activity is the result of a whole system of social relationships involving other areas of an individual's life. An understanding of the present leisure situation and its possible future requires the creation of leisure behavior models based on the social reality experienced by different social classes.

Toward 'A Rational Immigration Policy': Comments and a Proposal

In a recent article in this journal, Star (I975) attempted to develop 'a rational immigration policy.' He claimed that immigration policy has either economic or humanitarian objectives but, as an economist, he felt he could address himself only to the question of its economic desirability. He mentions various costs imposed by immigrants on Canadians (for example, congestion), but focuses on the displacement of Canadians from potential employment. His proposal was that, for a given immigration to be allowed, it should raise (or presumably at least not reduce) the realper capita income of prior Canadians. In this note we take issue with Star's analysis. First, we claim that the humanitarian/economic dichotomy is not a productive one, and that there is a trade off between humanitarian immigration and its economic effects; moreover, immigration policy should be discussed within the general framework of economic assistance to the rest of the world. Second, the job-displacing nature of immigration is a short run phenomenon only, but more important, it assumes passive fiscal and monetary policies, which need not be the case. Third, Star's economic criterion should be extended to include gains to Canadians in terms of leisure and the benefits derived by, at least, the children born in Canada to immigrants. Fourth, if immigration lowers incomes of prior Canadians, potential migrants should be allowed to compensate for this effect, by paying an 'admission fee' or income tax surcharge. On the whole, we believe that Star's framework underestimates the optimal level of immigration, and that his suggestion that it will be lower than the current one (Star, 1975: 341) is pure speculation.

Leisure and Time Elements in the Consumer Behavior

The traditional theory of consumer behavior seldom treats leisure explicitly. The importance of leisure in high income economies has been shown by increasing attention given to the economics of recreations. Hours of labor also have become a major factor in collective bargaining. In general, leisure is lumped together and considered a superior consumer good with a high income elasticity of demand. Another factor which is often neglected is the time involved in consumption of certain goods and services, whether or not they are considered items of leisure. In this paper first the traditional approach of utility theory is briefly sketched. Then a new approach to the role of leisure and the time element associated with the consumption of certain goods and services is presented. A new consumer equilibrium condition is derived. It will be shown that the existence of the work-hour regulations often implies the existence of overtime, moonlighting, and absenteeism 12, 322-331]. When the work-hour regulations are strictly enforced, we have a problem of a second best consumer equilibrium, and the optimality condition for the second best consumer equilibrium is also derived. In the last section we derive the conventional Slutsky-Hicks equations which express the impact of the price and wage changes on the consumption of various goods as well as various types of leisure in terms of the substitution and income effects. Contributions of Gilbert and Pfouts [4; 10] were the starting point of the analysis in that section. The demand functions obtain-

The costs and returns to the resident.

IT IS DIFFICULT to evaluate a period of preparation and training before one has completed that training and experienced its effects. One's education can be viewed with much greater advantage from a mature age. Nevertheless, residents are ready and voluble critics of their training, and it is with a mixture of humility and enthusiasm that I rise to my present assignment. We live in a society which places great value on leisure and material goods. Service and dedication are considered strange and suspicious motives. In terms of leisure and material goods, residency training is costly and its return is inferior. Most laymen of age and station comparable to residents are appalled at the resident's material sacrifice. Even the ultimate material return is not commensurate with the cost. These material injustices are now generally recognized within and without the profession, and they are diminishing slowly. Society wants well-trained doctors and must

The Use of Leisure and its Relation to Levels of Occupational Prestige

L UNDBERG'S observation made twenty years ago, that social scientists have paid little attention to the problems of leisure,' holds true today with few exceptions, even though living habits have been altered by the further reduction of the work week.2 Much of the previous research has been approached from a recreational, community, or welfare point of view. Many of these studies appeared in the middle thirties when the enforced leisure of the depression years stimulated communities to become increasingly concerned with the way in which people spent their hours away from work. Moreover, few studies have attempted to consider leisure in terms of the larger cultural context. For example, are the dominant values of the culture reflected in the differential use of leisure time? Is there a systematic relationship between social status and leisure styles? Does the occupational structure influence the ways in which workfree time is spent? Research evidence bearing on these and similar questions is extremely limited. In addition, the question can be raised whether present leisure-time patterns are accurately portrayed by past research. It would appear probable that in recent years increasing amounts of spare time, accompanied by rising income levels, might tend to equalize the frequency of participation in many spare-time activities among different segments of the population. Perhaps certain alleged differences in leisure behavior are more apparent than real. It may well be, as Denney and Riesman suggest, that mass leisure has emerged so suddenly that we tend to interpret it by drawing on the stereotypes of an earlier era.3 The present research views leisure activity as an aspect of social stratification. It focuses on the role of leisure as a part of the lifestyles of individuals occupying different prestige levels.