This classic study still provides one of the most acute descriptions available of an often misunderstood subculture: that of fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the patterns of interaction among players—as well as their reasons for playing.

Product Description: Edited by Michael G. Wade

Product Description: Why do people choose to spend their leisure time in sports which verge on violence? What impulses are involved? Does the violence in and around sport, and the group behaviour sport gives rise to, reflect social and psychological trends? What role does sport play in the creation of masculine identities? Drawing on Norbert Elias's work on the civilizing process, this book reviews aspects of sport in society through the ages, and develops a theory of leisure which encompasses sociological, psychological and biological perspectives...read more

Product Description: Presents the most recent arguments on the problems, myths, and misunderstandings of leisure through a lively and controversial debate on class and gender, employment and economic status, age and education. This book should be of interest to students and professionals involved in leisure studies, sports science, recreation management and cultural studies...read more

Product Description: Book by Burton, T. L., Jackson, Edgar Lionel

Product Description: This book explores the interrelations between work and social life. It emphasizes how workers expressive forms and public performances connect with processes of social, cultural, and individual empowerment. Departing from perspectives that emphasize organizational integration, equilibrium, and continuity, the authors present evidence from anthropology, history, and folklore to explore intersection of popular culture and working situations...read more

Product Description: This book explores the interrelations between work and social life. It emphasizes how workers expressive forms and public performances connect with processes of social, cultural, and individual empowerment. Departing from perspectives that emphasize organizational integration, equilibrium, and continuity, the authors present evidence from anthropology, history, and folklore to explore intersection of popular culture and working situations...read more

The nature of time, and how various societies describe and measure the passage of time, has long been one of the most fascinating areas of social history and philosophy. In this essay Norbert Elias argues that what we call "time" is neither an innate feature of the human mind, nor an immanent characteristic of non-human nature. Rather it is an achievement of human synthesis which can be understood only in connection with certain processes of social development. He shows how attitudes to time have differed from early societies to modern by taking examples from a wide range of societies at every level of development and relating time to the move from "involvement" to "detachment": the laborious construction of the European calendar over thousands of years serves as a model of the fruitfulness of the developmental approach to sociology which Norbert Elias has always advocated. This work is aimed at specialists and students in sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history.

Product Description: Throughout this project Stebbins has built on the work of Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss and their notion of "grounded theory." First, Stebbins extensively observed the routine activities of amateurs and professionals in each field studied...read more

Product Description: A look at the use of, and the implications of using, a social networks structural approach to leisure, recreation and tourism research. The book introduces the theoretical basis of social networks research and presents the considerations...read more

Product Description: This book explores the meaning of leisure in the context of key social formations of our time. Chris Rojek brings together the insights of Marxism, feminism, Weber, Elias, Simmel, Nietzsche and Baudrillard to produce a survey - and rethinking - of leisure theory...read more

Product Description: An introductory text that gathers together state of the art information in leisure science and practice, reflecting a wide range of literature from the disciplines of sociology. psychology. economics. political science, and anthropology...read more

Product Description: Book by Godbey, Geoffrey

Product Description: Book by Roger Mannell

Product Description: Book by T. L. Burton (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: It is now widely recognized that recreation is as important as work. This book analyses leisure and outdoor recreation in terms of both their management and their wider importance to society. Specifically, Outdoor Recreation Management : clarifies the link between leisure, recreation, tourism and resource management ceviews contemporary outdoor recreation management and concepts critically examines approaches to outdoor recreation planning and management in diverse recreational settings considers the future of outdoor recreation and the potential influences of economic, social, political and technological developments The wide ranging analysis considers such issues as provision for people with special needs, the impact of outdoor recreation on the environment and outdoor recreation in both urban and rural contexts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Leisure and Tourism Geographies considers leisure/tourism as an encounter. An encounter that exists between people, between people and space and between people and their expectations, experiences and desires.The contributors explore diverse aspects of leisure and tourism, ranging from the methodologies behind leisure practices to detailed case studies including: *Disneyland, Paris*tourism in sacred landscapes*leisure practices in cyberspace*leisure and yachting*use of recreational/holiday cottages*National Parks, local parks and gardensPresenting an exciting mix of attitudes and ideas concerning leisure and tourism, this book documents a lively debate, placing geography at its centre...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Increasingly significant as mediators of spatial identity and meaning, leisure, tourism, culture and heritage are only now beginning to be located within the rapidly evolving discourses of poststructuralist geographies. Exploring the influence of leisure and tourism on the production, representation and consumption of landscape, the first half of this important book focuses on different ways of ‘seeing’ or representing landscape, whereas the second half examines different forms of productive consumption in leisure and tourism...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This study pulls together the findings of Dr Stebbin's research programme on leisure. It presents his basic theory on serious leisure as well as his analysis of casual leisure, identifying deviant leisure as falling into either group. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

"Young People's Leisure and Lifestyles" examines the importance of leisure in the socialization of young people. The findings quite clearly show the significance of leisure time, when different forms of self-expression emerge, and in particular, with the opportunity to socialize outside the family, self-identity begins to be defined in new ways. Drawing on the results of a major seven-year longitudinal study involving 10,000 young people, the authors closely analyze issues concerning young people in school, home, leisure and work settings. They look, for instance, at young people in the context of the family and explore the impact of parenting style on lifestyle development. Other topics considered in relation to young people's development include and analysis of social class and occupational trajectories, "risk" behaviours and adolescent health and well-being, sports participation, and the formation of friendship groups and the importance of peers across the adolescent years. Importantly, the authors also assess whether class and gender relations override youth culture, values and behaviour as the determining factors of youth lifestyles.

Product Description: The highly contested nature of both 'gender' and 'leisure' encapsulates many of the most critical social and cultural debates of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical perspectives, as well as extensive empirical research, Gender and Leisure goes forward to offer a contemporary socio-cultural analysis of gender relations in leisure practice and leisure policy...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)