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About this book
This book looks back at the meaning and purpose of leisure in the past. But this is not a simple social history of leisure. It is not enough to write a history of leisure on its own in fact, it is impossible without engaging in the debate about what counts as leisure (in the present and in the past). Writing a history of leisure, then, entails writing a philosophy of leisure: and any history needs to be a philosophical history as well. That is the purpose of this book. It provides an account of leisure through historical time, how leisure was constructed and understood by historical actors, how communicative reason and free will interacted with instrumentality at different times, how historians have reconstructed past leisure through historiography, and finally, how writers have perceived the meaning and purpose of leisure in alternative histories.
Providing a sweeping overview of the field, Karl Spracklen charts how the concept of leisure was understood in Ancient history, through to modern times, and looks at leisure in different societies and cultures including Byzantium and Asian civilizations, as well as looking at leisure and Islam. Spracklen concludes with a chapter on future histories of leisure.
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
'Spracklen's two books (both of which apply a Habermasian perspective to the study of leisure) are probably the most important contributions to leisure scholarship so far in the twenty-first century.' - Ken Roberts, Leisure Studies
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Karl Spracklen is Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. He has published papers on leisure, sport, tourism and identity and his previous publications include The Meaning and Purpose of Leisure and Sport and Challenges to Racism. New Books in Critical Theory have recently released a podcast about Professor Spracklen's book Whiteness and Leisure . You can listen to the interview, between Professor Spracklen and Dr Dave O'Brien, here: http://newbooksincriticaltheory.com/2014/09/12/karl-spracklen-whiteness-and-leisure-palgrave-macmillan-2013/
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Constructing Leisure
Book Subtitle: Historical and Philosophical Debates
Authors: Karl Spracklen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230348721
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences Collection, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-28051-9Published: 12 October 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-32769-0Published: 01 January 2011
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-34872-1Published: 12 October 2011
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 232
Topics: Cultural History, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Social History, Social Philosophy, Popular Science, general, Cultural Studies