Work and Leisure

226 John T. Haworth and A. J. VealMaslovian style, come into play. When nutrition, housing, education, healthand environmental quality are all at a relatively high standard, improvementsin quality-of-life revolve around non-material, ‘modern’ issues, such as stress.In recognition of these ‘first world’ concerns, research and policyhave come to focus on well-being, as explored by John Haworth in Chapter 9.Well-being can be seen as being synonymous with quality-of-life, but in practicethe two terms denote two traditions of research, quality-of-life beingconcerned with more objective and communal criteria and measures, andwell-being being generally concerned with more subjective and individualcriteria. Hence research on well-being connects directly with the emergingresearch on time-use, work and leisure, which has focused on ‘harriedness’,‘time crunch’ and stress, with their implications for interpersonal relationshipsand individual psychological and physical health.Social science inputs to issues of well-being, work, leisure and quality-oflifeare important, even if in themselves they cannot provide definitiveanswers. Research findings are not universally applicable. In most cases theyapply only to a limited number of situations similar to those in which theresearch is conducted, though they may provide potential insights into relatedsituations, and bring into focus choices we should consider. Well-being is aconcept that requires further delineation. While there are useful quantitativeand qualitative measures of well-being, further development is needed.Different constructions are put on well-being by different groups in society.There are also questions of exclusion in relation to the social constructionof well-being. Some voices are not heard. It is important to investigatehow individual attributes interact with aspects of the social and physicalenvironment to produce different states of well-being.A consideration of well-being is now very much on the social scienceagenda. In the United Kingdom it is viewed as a trans-disciplinary issue. AnESRC seminar series on ‘Well-being: Social and Individual Determinants’conducted in 2001–2002 aimed to generate research interest in the processesand circumstances that facilitate well-being (including positive mental andphysical health) in individuals, groups, communities and societies. 1 Theobjective was not to replace, but provide an alternative to, and to complement,the overwhelming harm-based focus of much social scientific researchinto health. Well-being offers a paradigm that allows those in the academic,policy and user fields to focus on positive outcomes, and how best to realisethem.In addition, these seminars highlighted the fact that social institutions andenvironmental factors facilitate and constrain well-being, in interaction withcharacteristics of persons; and that enjoyment plays a pivotal role in thisinteraction. This is discussed in Chapter 9 by Haworth. Enjoyment in bothwork and leisure is important for well-being, and even in work it is not just anoptional extra (Bryce and Haworth 2002). Delle Fave and Massimini (2003)note that creative activities in work, leisure and social interaction can give rise