Re-Framing Questions: Assessing the Significance of Leisure

Abstract

Leisure research has received scant attention from researchers in other disciplines and has had relatively little impact on social policy to date. It is argued in this paper that re-framing the questions posed by leisure scholars could help to increase the visibility of the field, as well as increase awareness of the relevancy and significance of leisure for individuals, communities and societies. The re-framing process suggested would involve examination of the complex inter-connections between leisure and the major social, economic, political and cultural systems that dominate our lives, as well as the implications of leisure for human rights and justice. Further, the concept of re-framing suggests the need to adopt an outward looking perspective, the need for better theoretical understanding of negative as well as positive leisure practices, and the need to address societal and global issues. The potential exists not only for a broader and more contextualized understanding of leisure, but also for leisure and leisure research to play an enhanced role in social policy development, advocacy and activism.

Keywords:

• leisure research
• relevancy
• policy
• political-economic systems
• socio-cultural systems
• human rights and justice