In the 1970s the subject of leisure was attracting interest among both social scientists and people concerned with developing recreation policies. A relative newcomer to the sociological scene at the time, leisure was beginning to compete in research effort and theory-building with the more established fields of sociology. As well as making an academic contribution, this book, originally published in 1976, provided practitioners (such as planners, administrators and managers) with an up-to-date and comprehensive review of social research finding over the whole field of leisure.

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