Leisure Is Not in the Time or Action but in the Actor

For thousands of years, leisure has played a very important role in the development of society. From the very dawn of mankind right up to the present day, leisure has always been in our society. Leisure has changed and evolved over this period of time and why it has evolved is because of the human race, who have seen leisure as an opportunity for themselves to break away from the stress and boredom of everyday life. Leisure has given man the chance to enter into their own world where they are in total control, where they are free.

This essay will look at how it is the Ð'''actor'' that is the person who decides what leisure is to them, how leisure is individualistic, how it is one's free choice. In order to do this, the early civilizations must be looked at; this essay will try and establish how they saw leisure and how their society integrated leisure. Many ancient societies have left us with records of how they used leisure, for example the ancient Greek civilization and the ancient Roman civilization. These two civilizations will be looked at. The Industrial Revolution will also be examined to find out what input it had to leisure.

It is really only in the twentieth century where many leisure theorists came up with their own theories, definitions, of how they perceived what leisure is. Some of these theorists that this essay will look at include, Neumeyers (1958), Kaplan (1960), Dumazdier (1967), Goodale and Godbey, (1988). This essay will look at some of these theorists' views and see how the person would best view his leisure time around a particular theory.

Greeks, especially the Athenians, took great interest in a variety of activities linked to the development of civilization, these activities included writing, artistic endeavors, and athletics (Kraus, 1984). The idea of thinking about what is leisure came from the early Greek civilization and primarily from the writing's of Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle in Book 1 of the politics defines leisure as time free from the necessity of work. Aristotle felt that there was a balance between work and leisure. He believed that individuals must learn to be able to do work and leisure well, but leisure should be the preferred option. To Aristotle, only music and contemplation were worthy enough to be given the title of leisure. Plato viewed leisure as time to perform music, poetry, sport, and philosophy. In this early Greek civilization the range of activities that would have been acceptable as leisure activities were restricted. The Ancient Greeks idea's on what leisure was contradicts the Kelly's theory (1982), because according to Kelly, it is the actor's that is the person's choice on how they perceived leisure and there is no boundaries or restrictions.

Leisure in Ancient Rome was also clearly evident. The Romans in comparison with the Greeks had a different view on how they perceived leisure. The Romans saw leisure as an important tool for fitness for work. Leisure pursuits and activities tended to be much more utilitarian than in Greek society. Leisure activities were plentiful, with over a thousand public swimming pools and baths. Amphitheatres and arenas were also built for the benefit of the people. The construction of The Collosseum and The Circus Maximus also provided leisure activities even though they were more of the barbaric kind. However Roman society was very much divided into Ð''class sections' whilst they were Emperors and upper class citizens, they were also thousands of very poor people and slaves who were used to provide leisure for the Emperor's in very brutal and barbaric way's. The downfall of Rome has been linked with the inability of the culture to use its leisure in a positive and productive manner. Ð'''When faced by the challenges of excesses of wealth, luxury, and time, the Romans responded by yielding to corruption and losing the simple virtues that had made them strong as a nation (Kraus, 1984). The ancient Roman's view on leisure does not necessarily agree with Kelly's theory (1982) as Kelly's theory should be looked at as how the person involved in leisure perceives it, and how the person involved had free choice to decide how he viewed leisure, which obviously did not happen in ancient Rome in the case of the poor and the slaves.

The Industrial Revolution really changed society's views on work and leisure time, countryside where fields were available for play activities were soon replaced by factories. Work became far more important than leisure. Recreation areas were not planned. Children suffered as from very yond ages they were also sent out to work in factories. Leisure was simply no longer an option for people. At the turn of the 20th century an interest in leisure in relation to the industrial society started to grow. It was also during this period of time that many of the writings of theory and leisure which will be examined late in this essay started to emerge. Over time the working class began to demand leisure, many facilities such as swimming pools were constructed and more parks became available to the public. Leisure has now evolved over time to play an integral role in everyday life. To fully understand Kelly's theory (1982) all of the leisure theory's that were proposed with particular emphasis to the theory Ð'''Leisure as a state of being'' must now be looked at and discussed to fully understand what Kelly (1982) meant with his theory.

Leisure as a state of being

According to Kaplan (1975), Ð''Ð''Nothing is definable as leisure per se and almost anything is definable as leisure, given a synthesis of element's''. Kaplan is saying here that leisure can be anything as long as it has the right element's involved to allow leisure to take place. According to Pieper(1952) Ð'''Leisure it must be understood, is a mental and spiritual attitude- it is not simply the result of external factors, it is in the first place, an attitude of the mind, a condition of the soul''. Pieper is saying that leisure is an end to itself, it is not the result of free time. This theory is similar to Kelly's theory (1982) as Kelly also saw leisure as not being about free time. Nakhooda (1961) suggests that leisure could be defined as Ð'''that part of the individual's daily life in which he finds himself free from the demands of his regular calling and able to enter upon any line of activity he may choose within his own interests, whether it be work or play or meditation''. This theory could also be said to support Kelly's theory (1982) as it focuses in on the Ð'''actor'', the person. This approach of leisure as a state of being