Whatever Happened to the Leisure Society? by A. J. Veal

Author:A. J. Veal [Veal, A. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781351972024
Google: WLJqDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Leisure society within society

In the historical narrative in Chapter 3, we noted the idea of a ‘leisure society within society’, including the elites of ancient Greece, Veblen’s notion of a ‘leisure class’ and Mumford’s ‘Country House society’. While the leisure society idea is intended to refer to all residents of modern societies, members of the leisure societies within society provide us with a glimpse of what a leisure society might be, or possibly should not be, in terms of lifestyle. They also reveal necessary conditions for a leisure society, namely a degree of material wealth, adjusted attitudes towards work and leisure, and the power to ensure that someone else, or something else, does the necessary work in society. Examples of such societies can also be said to exist in the modern era.

It has been suggested that retired people might be seen as a leisure society within a society. While there have always been some who were fortunate enough to experience a substantial period of retirement from work, it is only during the twentieth century that they have been sufficiently numerous to, possibly, constitute a society within society. This is due to substantially increased life expectancy, the advent of state old-age pensions and of more widespread superannuation schemes which have made the retired a significant active and independent demographic group. Michelon’s (1954) study, in which he refers to retirees as a ‘new leisure class’ is an early example of an interest being shown in this idea. While expressing doubt about the cultural viability of a leisure society generally, Godbey (2006: 197–8) suggests that the lifestyles of the growing numbers of retired people demonstrate that a work-free existence is possible for some, given appropriate conditions. Ewald (1972: 163), in discussing the challenge of ordinary people adjusting to a life with substantially less work, referred to retirees as ‘pioneers into the society of the future – the leisure society’, who would ‘contribute a living example of how to be free and thrive’.

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith, in his most well-known work, The Affluent Society (1958/1962: 273), came close to the idea of a leisure society within society in his notion of the ‘New Class’. As noted above, he asserted that ‘the greatest prospect we face … is to eliminate toil as a required economic institution’. By ‘toil’ he meant work which is ‘fatiguing or monotonous or, at a minimum a source of no particular pleasure’ (p. 274). He argued that this had, in fact, been taking place as a result of the growing significance of the New Class, basically the professional and managerial class who found pleasure, satisfaction and fulfilment in their work.

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