Work and Leisure

Perspectives on leisure–work relationship 117factors, so the state subsidies devoted over recent decades to various leisureservices, notably the arts and sport, in order to reduce their cost to the user,should have led to a degree of equalisation in participation levels in theseactivities. But most analyses indicate that such measures have been substantiallyunsuccessful in achieving equality of outcomes.While the available data are incomplete, it is therefore plausible to suggestthat there remain significant differences in tastes, preferences and behaviourpatterns between socio-economic groups which appear to be related to educationand culture as well as income. The relative influences of education, occupation,income, gender, age, family situation, ethnicity, commercial pressuresand personal and group lifestyle choices in shaping leisure behaviour patternsare, however, still to be fully explored empirically with an adequate database.In any case it is likely that these influences are fluid and unpredictable and arenot subject to firm ‘laws’. Such conclusions present challenges for researchaimed at exploring inequality but even more so for research aimed at demandforecasting, since successful forecasting relies on stable, predictablerelationships.Occupational communitiesResearch on leisure among members of occupational communities has beenneglected in the three decades since the publication of the best-known leisureorientatedstudy of its type, Salaman’s (1974) Community and Occupation.While occupational communities are often thought of in spatial terms, asrelatively geographically isolated communities dominated by a single firm orindustry, Salaman specifically excludes such communities from considerationin his study. Instead, he deals with occupational communities which have thefollowing ‘defining components’.First, members of occupational communities see themselves in terms oftheir occupational role: their self-image is centred on their occupationalrole in such a way that they see themselves as printers, policemen, armyofficers or whatever, and as people with specific qualities, interests andabilities. Second, members of occupational communities share a referencegroup composed of members of the occupational community.Third, members of occupational communities associate with, and makefriends of, other members of their occupation in preference to havingfriends who are outsiders, and they carry work activities and interestsinto their non-work lives.(Salaman 1974: 21)Salaman reviews existing research on shipbuilders, police, fishermen and jazzmusicians and presents results of his own studies of architects and railwayworkers. These case studies emphasise the social context of leisure behaviour