A Handbook of Leisure Studies

With this Handbook leisure studies comes of age. Now available in paperback, it provides the most complete, authoritative guide to the roots, current issues and future of the field. Drawing on a formidable list of leading international contributors, the Handbook is organized into five parts. Part 1: Origins, examines western and non-western traditions in leisure studies. It demonstrates the inter-disciplinary roots of the subject and provides a compelling framework for locating leisure studies. Part 2: Key Disciplines, surveys and evaluates the distinctive approaches of sociology, psychology and social psychology; geography; economics; politics and public policy. Part 3: Axial Principles, examines the institutions of power in which leisure form and practice is situated: time, work, gender, ageing, race, class, subculture, consumption and mass communication. Part 4: Forms and Settings, explores on-location behaviour in leisure, outdoor recreation, tourism, eating out, family leisure, education and serious leisure. Part 5: Indexical Themes, situates leisure forms and practice in the context of power, knowledge, economy and society. It examines questions of identity, representation, praxis, articulation, community and resistance. The result is a landmark work in the field. It defines what has been accomplished and it suggests exciting and relevant new directions for study.

CHRIS ROJEK is Professor of Sociology and Culture at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is the author of many books the most recent of which are Leisure Theory, Celebrity, Stuart Hall, and Frank Sinatra. In 2003 he was awarded the Allen V. Sapora Award for outstanding achievement in the field of Leisure Studies.

ANTHONY J VEAL is President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies and former chair of the Leisure Studies Association (UK). He is Adjunct Professor at the School of Leisure, Sport & Tourism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and has
authored/co-authored a number of books, including Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism and Work and Leisure.

Professor SUSAN SHAW is Chair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is author/co-author of a great many publications, including Both Gains and Gaps: Feminist Perspectives on Women's Leisure.