Leisure

Leisure, including the arts, entertainment, sports, outdoor recreation, and tourism, is of considerable importance to the global economy and to particular countries, as well as being significant for individual and social health and well-being and the enhancement of social capital and quality of life. Leisure is an important consideration in the construction of sustainable living in the context of globalization and climate change. Leisure is one of the basic human rights safeguarded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The results of national leisure participation surveys from 15 developed countries spread around the world are brought together by editors Grant Cushman, A. J. Veal, and Jiri Zuzanek in the seminal book, Free Time and Leisure Participation: International Perspectives, first published in 2005. National surveys are important to governments for policy formation, implementation, and monitoring. Comparison between countries has long been [Page 1065]an aim of survey research. Multinational surveys have been conducted, although comparison of leisure participation among different countries is primarily dependent on the use of national survey data. Yet such comparisons are beset with difficulties ranging from culture to coding differences. Nominally identical activities may have different meanings in different countries. Cushman, Veal, and Zuzanek call for greater international cooperation in the design analysis and dissemination of survey research. They also point out that although absolute levels of leisure participation cannot be compared across national surveys planned in isolation, some of the patterns of relationships between participation and key socioeconomic and demographic variables can be compared in an informal way. They also stress that survey data represent just one contribution to the mosaic of data, theory, and interpretation available.