Whose side are they on? Leisure studies and cultural studies in Britain

After discussing some of the responses to the 1988 LSA International Conference, particularly the theory-practice or academic-practitioner relation, this paper goes on to explore the roots of leisure studies and the sociology of leisure in Britain, and to account for the impact of cultural studies upon the study of leisure. It is argued that the critical dimension to cultural studies could restore to the study of leisure some of the major concerns of classical social and cultural theory. The 1985 talk was published, with the same title, in Ernst Meijer (Ed.), Everyday Life, Leisure and Culture (English Edition, undated), Dutch Centre for Leisure Studies, Tilburg University, Postbox 90153, 500 Le Tilburg, The Netherlands.