Secondary analysis of a national survey was used to investigate the 'democratisation of leisure' in Australia. Contrary to the democratisation thesis, which suggests that leisure has mainly become a matter of'individual taste', the study revealed that leisure patterns were associated with age, gender, education, income and marital status. It was concluded that contemporary welfare state policies which are designed to change people's attitudes toward 'lifestyle' do nothing to alter structural factors that shape people's leisure behaviour. It is argued that unless structural inequalities are reduced or eliminated, it is unlikely that leisure patterns in Australia will become democratic.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allegrate, J. (1984), 'Potential Uses and Misuses of Education in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention', Teachers College Record , 86, 2, 359-73.
2.
Alt, J. ( 1976), 'Beyond Class: The Decline of Industrial Labour and Leisure' , Telos, 28, 55-80.
3.
Alt, J. ( 1982), 'Popular Culture and Mass Consumption: The Motorcycle as Cultural Commodity', Journal of Popular Culture , 15, 4, 129-41.
4.
Alt, J. ( 1983), 'Sport and Cultural Reification: From Ritual to Mass Consumption', Theory, Culture and Society , 1, 3, 93-108.
5.
Anderson, R. (1975), Leisure - An Inappropriate Concept for Women?Canberra, AGPS.
6.
Aronowitz, S. (1973), False Promises, New York, McGraw-HilL
7.
Aronowitz, S. (1980), 'On the Theorisation of Leisure', Papers in Urban and Regional Studies No. 4, University of Birmingham, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies.
8.
Australia (1978), General Social Survey: Leisure Activities Away From Home, May, 1975Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
9.
Australia (1982), The Way We P(l)ay, Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure , Canberra, AGPS.
10.
Australia (1983), Sport and Recreation: Australia on the Move, Canberra , AGPS.
11.
Australia (1985), 'Women, Sport and the Media', Report to the Federal Government from the Working Group on Women in Sport, Canberra, AGPS.
12.
Australian Institute of Sport (1981), First Annual Report, Belconnen, Australian Institute of Sport
13.
Baldock, C. (1978), Australia and Social Change Theory , Sydney, Ian Novak.
14.
Baldock, C. and B. Cass, (eds), (1983), Women, Social Welfare and the State in Australia, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin.
15.
Bauman, Z. (1983), 'Industrialism, Consumerism and Power', Theory, Culture and Society, 1, 3, 32-43.
16.
Beamish, R. (1978), 'Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics of National Executives of Selected Amateur Sports in Canada', Working Papers in the Sociological Study of Sports and Leisure, I(1)Kingston, Queen's University Sport Studies Research Group.
17.
Berry, M. (1977), ' Inequality', in A. Davies, S. Encel and M. Berry (eds), Australian Society: A Sociological Introduction , Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, (3rd edn).
18.
Bourdieu, P. (1978), 'Sport and Social Class', Social Science Information, 17, 819-40.
19.
Boutilier, M. and L. San Giovanni (1983), The Sporting Woman , Champaign, Illinois, Human Kinetics Publishers.
20.
Branson, J. and D. Miller (1979), Class, Sex and Education in Capitalist Society: Culture, Ideology and and the Reproduction of Inequality in Australia , Malvern , Sorrett.
21.
Broadhead, P. (1985), 'Social Status and Morbidity in Australia', Community Health Studies, 9, 2, 87-98.
22.
Brohm, J.M. (1978), Sport: A Prison of Measured Time, London, Ink Links.
23.
Broom, L. and F. Jones (1973), A Blanket a Day, Canberra , ANU Press.
24.
Broom, L., F. Jones, P. McDonnell and T. Williams (1980), The Inheritance of Inequality, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
25.
Broome, R. (1980), 'Aboriginal Boxers and Social Control in Australia 1930-1979', Aboriginal History, 4, 1, 48-71.
26.
Brown, R. (1980), 'The Jock-Trap: How the Black Athlete Gets Caught' , in W. Straub (ed.), Sport Psychology: An Analysis of Athletic Behavior, Ithaca, Mouvement Publications.
27.
Bryson, L. (1983), 'Sport and the Oppression of Women', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 19, 413-24.
28.
Cashmore, E. (1982), Black Sportsmen and Society, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
29.
Cass, B., M. Dawson, D. Temple, S. Wills and A. Winkler (1983), Why So Few?, Sydney , Sydney University Press.
30.
Cerullo, M. and P. Ewen (1984),'The American Family Goes Camping: Gender, Family and the Politics of Space', Antipode, 16, 3, 35-45.
31.
Clarke, A. and J. Clarke (1982), 'Highlights and Action Replays', in J. Hargreaves (ed.), Sport, Culture and Ideology , London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
32.
Coles, L. (1978), 'Sport and Cultural Hegemony: A Socio-Historical Analysis', Paper presented at SAANZ Conference, University of Queensland, May 24-27.
33.
Coles, L. (1980a), 'Women and Leisure - A Critical Perspective' , in D. Mercer and E. Hamilton-Smith (eds), Recreation and Social Change in Urban Australia, Malvern , Sorrett.
34.
Coles, L. (1980b), Sport in Schools: The Participation of Girls , Sydney, New South Wales Department of Education.
35.
Connell, R. (1983), 'Democratising Culture', Meanjin , 42, 294-307.
36.
Connell, R. (1985), 'Theorising Gender', Sociology , 19, 2, 260-72.
37.
Connell, R. and T. Irving (1976), Class Structure in Australian History , Melbourne, Cheshire.
38.
Crawford, R. (1977), 'You Are Dangerous to Your Health: The Ideology and Politics of Victim Blaming', International Journal of Health Services, 7, 663-79.
39.
Crawford, R. (1978), 'You Are Dangerous to Your Health', Social Policy, 8, 10-20.
40.
Crawford, S. (1977), 'Occupational Prestige Rankings and the New Zealand Olympic Athlete', International Review of Sport Sociology , 12, 5-15.
41.
Critcher, C. (1976), 'Structures, Cultures and Biographies', in S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds), Resistance Through Rituals , London, Hutchinson .
42.
Curtis,J. and B. Milton (1974),'Social Status and the Active Society', in R Gruneau and J. Albinson (eds), Canadian Sport: Sociological Perspectives, Don Mills, Addison Wesley.
43.
Cutler, S. (1973), 'Voluntary Association Membership and the Theory of Mass Society', in E. Laumann (ed.), Bonds of Pluralism: The Form and Substance of Urban Social Networks , New York, Wiley Interscience.
44.
Daly, J. (1985), 'Structure', in Australian Sport: A ProfileCanberra, AGPS.
45.
Darlison, L. (1982), 'Class and Patriarchy in Women's Sport', Paper presented at VII Commonwealth and International Conference on Sport, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, University of Queensland , September 23-28.
46.
Darlison, L. (1984),'The Games and the Place of Women in Australian Sport and Society', in P. Reynolds (ed.), The 1982 Commonwealth Games: A Retrospect, University of Queensland, Australian Studies Centre.
47.
Deem, R. (1982), 'Women, Leisure and Inequality', Leisure Studies, 1, 229-46.
48.
Edgar, D. (1980), Introduction to Australian Society: A Sociological Perspective, Collingwood, Prentice-Hall.
49.
Edwards, A. and A. Booth (1973), Social Participation in Urban Society , Cambridge, Schenkman.
50.
Eitzen, S. and G. Sage (1982), Sociology of American Sport, Dubuque, William C. Brown, (2nd edn).
51.
Enzenberger, H. (1974), The Consciousness Industry, New York, Seabury.
52.
Ewen, S. (1976), Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture, New York , McGraw Hill.
53.
Ewen, S. and E. Ewen (1982), Channels of Desire, New York, McGraw HilL
54.
Featherstone, M. (1982), 'The Body in Consumer Culture', Theory, Culture and Society, 1, (2), 18-33.
55.
Featherstone, M. and M. Hepworth (1982), 'Ageing and Inequality: Consumer Culture and the New Middle Age', in D. Robbins (ed.), Rethinking Social Inequality, Aldershot, Gower.
56.
Fitness Canada (1982), Canada's Fitness: Preliminary Findings of 1981 Survey, Ottawa, Fitness and Amateur Sport Directorate.
57.
Frith, S. and A. McRobbie (1978/79), 'Rock and Sexuality', Screen Education, 29, 3-19.
58.
Gerber, E., J. Felshin, P. Berlin and W. Waneen (1974), The American Woman in Sport, Reading, Massachusetts, Addison Wesley.
59.
Graydon, J.( 1983), 'But It's More Than a Game: It's an Institution: Feminist Perspectives on Sport', Feminist Review , 13, 5-16.
60.
Griffin, C., D. Hobson, S. MacIntosh and T. McCabe (1982), 'Women in Leisure', in J. Hargreaves (ed.), Sport, Culture and Ideology, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
61.
Gruneau, R. (1975), 'Sport, Social Differentiation and Social Inequality' , in D. Ball and J. Loy (eds), Sport and Social Order , Reading, Addison Wesley .
62.
Gruneau, R. (1976), 'Class or Mass: Notes on the Democratization of Canadian Amateur Sport', in R Gruneau and J. Albinson (eds), Canadian Sport: Sociological Perspectives, Don Mills, Addison-Wesley.
63.
Gruneau, R. (1978), 'Elites, Class and Corporate Power in Canadian Sport', in F. Landry and W. Orban (eds), Sociology of Sport, Miami, Symposia Specialists.
64.
Gruneau, R. (1982),'Sport and the Debate on the State', in H. Cantelon and R Gruneau (eds), Sport, Culture and the Modern State, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
65.
Gruneau, R. (1983), Class, Sports, and Social Development , Amherst, The University of Massachusetts Press.
66.
Guttman, A. (1978), From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports , New York, Columbia University Press.
67.
Guttmann, A. (1980),'On the Alleged Dehumanization of the Sports Spectator' , Journal of Popular Culture, 14, 2, 275-82.
68.
Hall, A. (1978), Sport and Gender: A Feminist Perspective on the Sociology of Sport , University of Calgary, CAHPER Sociology of Sport Monograph Series.
69.
Hall, A. and D. Richardson (1983), Fair Ball: Towards Sex Equality in Canadian Sport . Ottawa, CGPS.
70.
Hardy, S. and A. Ingham (1983), 'Games, Structure and Agency: Historians on the American Play Movement', Journal of Social History, Winter, 285-301.
71.
Hargreaves, J. (1982a), 'Sport, Culture and Ideology', in J. Hargreaves (ed.), Sport, Culture and Ideology , London, Routledge and Kegan Paul .
72.
Hargreaves, J. (1982b), 'Sport and Hegemony: Some Theoretical Problems' , in H. Cantelon and R Gruneau (eds), Sport, Culture and the Modern State , Toronto, University of Toronto Press .
73.
Hargreaves, J. (1984), 'Taking Men on at Their Games', Marxism Today, August, 17-21.
74.
Harris, D. (ed.) (1973), Women in Sport: A National Research Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania State University.
75.
Helmes, R. (1981), 'Ideology and Social Control in Canadian Sport: A Theoretical Review', in M. Hart and S. Birrell (eds), Sport in the Socio-Cultural Process, Dubuque , William C. Brown.
76.
Henderson, R. (1975), Poverty in Australia: First Main Report , Canberra, AGPS.
77.
Hiller, P. (ed.) (1981), Class and Inequality in Australia , Sydney, Harcourt, Jovanovich.
78.
Hoch, P. (1972), Rip Off the Big Game: The Exploitation of Sports by the Power Elite, New York, Doubleday.
79.
Hollands, R. and R. Gruneau (1979), 'Social Class and Voluntary Action in the Administration of Canadian Amateur Sport', Working Papers in the Sociological Study of Sports and Leisure (Vol. 2, No. 3), Kingston, Queen's University Sport Studies Research Group.
80.
Howe, A. (1980), 'Leisure and the Elderly', in D. Mercer and E. Hamilton-Smith (eds), Recreation and Social Change in Urban Australia, Malvern, Sorret.
81.
Ingham, A. (1985), 'From Public Issue to Personal Trouble: Well-Being and the Fiscal Crisis of the State', Sociology of Sport Journal, 2, 1, 43-55.
82.
Ingham, A. and S. Hardy (1984),'Sport: Structuration and Hegemony', Theory, Culture and Society, 2, 2, 85-103.
83.
Ingham, A., J. Loy and J. Berryman (1973), 'Socialization, Dialectics and Sport', in D. Harris (ed.), Women and Sport: A National Research Conference , University Park, Pennsylvania State University.
84.
Kabanoff, B. and G. O'Brien (1982), 'Relationships between Work and Leisure across Occupational and Sex Groups in Australia', Australian Journal of Psychology, 34, 2, 165-82.
85.
Kando, T. (1980), Leisure and Popular Culture in Transition , St Louis, C.V. Mosby, (2nd edn).
86.
Kellner, D. (1982), 'Critical Theory, Commodities and the Consumer Society', Theory, Culture and Society , 1, 3, 66-83.
87.
Kessler, S., D. Ashenden, R. Connell and G. Dowsett (1985), 'Gender Relations in Secondary Schooling', Sociology of Education, 58, 34-48.
88.
King, H. (1979), 'The Sexual Politics of Sport', in R Cashman and M. McKernan (eds), Sport in History, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press.
89.
Labovitz, S. (1972), 'Statistical Usage in Sociology, Sacred Cows and Ritual', Sociological Methods and Research , 1, 13-37.
90.
Langer, B. (1985), 'The Culture Industry: High Culture as Mass Culture' , Paper presented at SAANZ Conference, Brisbane .
91.
Lawrence, G. and D. Rowe (1984), 'Cricket the Corporate Pitch', Arena, 66, 111-24.
92.
Lefebvre, H. (1971), Everyday Life in the Modern World, New York, Harper and Row.
93.
Lever, J. (1976),'Sex Differences in the Games Children Play', Social Problems, 23, 4, 478-87.
94.
Lever, J. (1978), 'Sex Differences in the Complexity of Children's Play and Games', American Sociological Review , 43, 471-83.
95.
Lowe, B., P. Hill and I. Roberts (1975),'A Cross-Cultural Study of Athletes Representing Four Countries in the Commonwealth Games', The Australian Journal for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 70, 22-5.
96.
Loy, J. and A. Ingham (1973), 'Play, Games, Sport and the Psychosocial Development of Children and Youth', in G. Rarick (ed.), Physical Activity: Human Growth and Development, New York, Academic Press.
97.
Loy, J., G. Kenyon and B. McPherson (1978), Sport and Social Systems, Reading, Addison Wesley.
98.
McKay, J. (1986a),'Some Unresolved Issues of Class, Hegemony and the State in Recent Marxist Approaches to the Sociology of Sport', in E. Dowdy (ed.), Marxist Policies in Today's World , St Lucia, University of Queensland Press (in press).
99.
McKay, J. (1986b), 'Hegemony, the State and Australian Sport', in G. Lawrence and D. Rowe (eds), Power Play: Essays in the Sociology of Australian Sport, Sydney, Hale and Ironmonger (in press).
100.
McKinlay, J. (1975), 'A Case for Refocussing Upstream - The Political Economy of Illness', in A. Enelow and J. Henderson (eds), Applying Behavioral Science to Cardio-vascular Risk, Dallas, American Heart Association.
101.
McPherson, B. (1978), 'Ageing and Involvement in Physical Activity: A Sociological Perspective', in F. Landry and W. Orban (eds), Physical Activity and Human Well-Being, Miami , Symposia Specialists.
102.
McPherson, B. (1984), 'Sport Participation Across the Life Cycle: A Review of the Literature and Suggestions for Future Research', Sociology of Sport Journal, 1, 3, 213-30.
103.
McPherson, B. and C. Kozlik( 1980),'Canadian Leisure Patterns by Age: Disengagement, Continuity or Ageism?', in V. Marshall (ed.), Ageing in Canada: Social Perspectives, Don Mills, Fitzhenry and Whiteside.
104.
Offe, C. (1984), Contradictions of the Modern Welfare State , Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press .
105.
Oglesby, C. (1978), Women in Sport: From Myth to Reality , Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger.
106.
Ostrow, A. (1984), Physical Activity and the Older Adult , Princeton, Princeton University Press .
107.
Page, C. (1973), 'Pervasive Themes in the Study of Sport', in C. Page and J. Talamini(eds), Sport and Society , Boston, Little, Brown and Co.
108.
Pavia, G. (1973), 'An Analysis of the Social Class of the 1972 Australian Olympic Team', The Australian Journal of Physical Education , 61, 14-19.
109.
Pavia, G. and T. Jaques (1978), 'The Socioeconomic Origin, Academic Attainment, Occupational Mobility and Parental Background of Selected Australian Athletes' , in F. Landry and W. Orban (eds), Sociology of Sport , Miami, Symposia Specialists .
110.
Raskall, P. (1978),'Who's Got What in Australia: The Distribution of Wealth', Australian Journal of Political Economy , 2, 3-16.
111.
Reynolds, R. (1969), 'Replication and Substantive Import: A Critique on the Use of Statistical Inference in Social Research', Sociology and Social Research, 53, 299-310.
112.
Riska, E. (1982), 'Health Education and its Ideological Content' , Acta Sociologica, 25, 41-6.
113.
Robinson, J. (1978), 'Massification and Democratization of the Leisure Class', Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science, 435, 206-25.
114.
Robinson, J. and G. Godbey (1978), 'Work and Leisure in America: How We Spend Our Time', Leisure Today, October, 6-8.
115.
Rosenzweig, R. (1979), 'Middle-Class Parks and Working-Class Play: The Struggle Over Recreational Space in Worcester, Massachusetts 1817-1910', Radical History Review, 21, 31-46.
116.
Sage, G. (1979),' Women in Sport: Co-optation or Liberation?', in D. Eitzen (ed.), Sport in Contemporary Society , New York, St Martin's Press.
117.
Sager, K. (1983), 'Senior Fitness - For the Health of It', The Physician and Sports Medicine, 11, 10, 31-6.
118.
Sennett, R. (1976), The Fall of Public Man, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
119.
Smith, D. (1975), 'Voluntary Action and Voluntary Groups', Annual Review of Sociology, 1, 247-70.
120.
Stamps, S. and M. Stamps (1985), 'Race, Class and Leisure Activities ofUrban Residents' , Journal of Leisure Research, 17, 1, 40-56.
121.
Statistics Canada (1978), Cultural Statistics: Recreational Activities, Ottawa, Statistics Canada.
122.
Tait, G. (1985), 'Socio-demographic Characteristic of the 1982 Australian Commonwealth Games Athletes', Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Human Movement Studies, University of Queensland .
123.
Thomas, J. (1985), 'Women and Sport - The Paradox', Spare Rib, 151, 41.
124.
Tomeh, A. (1973),'Formal Voluntary Organizations: Participation, Correlates and Interrelationships', Sociological Inquiry , 43, 3-4, 89-122.
125.
Theberge, N. (1984), 'Some Evidence of a Sexual Double Standard in Mobility to Leadership Positions in Sport', International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 19, 2, 185-97.
126.
Twin, S. (1979), Out of the Bleachers: Writings on Women and Sport , New York, The Feminist Press.
127.
van Dugteren, T. (ed.) (1976), Who Gets What? The Distribution of Wealth and Power in Australia , Sydney, Hodder and Stoughton.
128.
Walker, J. (1985), 'Louts and Legends: Male Youth Culture in an Inner City School', Paper presented at SAANZ Conference, University of Queensland.
129.
Western, J. (1983), Social Inequality in Australian Society , Sydney, Macmillan.
130.
Whitson, D. (1984), 'Sport and Hegemony: On the Construction of the Dominant Culture', Sport Sociology Journal , 1, 1, 64-78.
131.
Wild, R. (1979), Social Stratification in Australia , Sydney, George Allen and Unwin.
132.
Williams, C., G. Lawrence and D. Rowe (1986), 'Women in Sport: A Lost Ideal', in G. Lawrence and D. Rowe (eds), Power Play: Essays in the Sociology of Australian Sport, Sydney, Hale and Ironmonger (in press).
133.
Willis, P. (1982),'Women in Sport in Ideology', in J. Hargreaves (ed.), Sport, Culture and Ideology, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ch. 5.
134.
Young, I. (1980), 'Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Mobility and Spatiality', Human Studies , 3, 137-56.
