Boom year : a study of popular leisure in Melbourne in 1919

Abstract

Communities, like children, reveal most about themselves through their play. By studying the way people use their free time it is possible to guess the collective myths and preoccupations that animate a society. This is even more true of the complex urban cultures of advanced societies today because there has been a profound shift away from the reality of work to the reality of leisure, a reversal of emphasis which means that the citizens of the modern city find their social values and individual meaning en masse in their leisure-time and not during work hours. Show more