Community involvement and leisure are rarely mentioned in mass media coverage of the Middle East and North Africa.Yet leisure and community involvement form a part of life in the region, and are becoming increasingly significant as modernization becomes pervasive. This work seeks to examine how the interconnection of work and leisure operates in a culture far removed from North American or European traditions.

Robert A. Stebbins argues that the Middle East is a region in the throes of a developmental crisis, one of cultural underdevelopment. He indicates that while leisure and...