Leisure

The sociological analysis of leisure is a valuable window through which to view issues of race and ethnicity. All leisure behavior is learned, and the norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs that govern leisure involvement are learned through the process of socialization. Precisely what norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs people learn are often shaped by their racial/ethnic identity. Like all of the major social institutions (the educational system, the criminal justice system, and government), leisure is embedded within the larger society, and as such all of the elements of that society are evident. In leisure, one can find privilege and stigma, equality and stratification, benevolence and selfishness. However, unlike interactions with most other social institutions, leisure involvement is freely determined. And because there is more freedom regarding what people do (and how they choose to do it), those decisions are more revelatory of what people perceive is their true identity.

Leisure is a notoriously difficult concept to define. Much like the terms race and ethnicity, most people have a general understanding of what leisure is but have a hard time in articulating an exact definition. In theory, a complete definition of leisure combines three different but related concepts: (a) leisure as residual time, (b) leisure as activity, and (c) leisure as a state of mind. However, in practice, researchers typically operationalize leisure, referencing only one of these concepts. How one chooses to define leisure is especially important when examining leisure in the context of race and ethnicity because the choice that researchers make has consequences for whether or not leisure differences are revealed and what the extent of those differences may be. This entry looks at leisure from each of these perspectives, as well as related research, with a particular focus on race and ethnicity.