Leisure – Culture and Society Research and Discussion Group
The 21st century brings about an increase in leisure time as well as an expansion of consumption patterns and dependency on technological devices. These trends may have positive and negative implications.
On the one hand there is the wide range of possibilities that an individual can choose from, in order to find a personal path that will enable him/her to fulfill intrinsic motivations and to live an autonomous and meaningful life. On the other hand, stakeholders’ manipulations, together with a loosening up of social supervision, may produce exploitation, social alienation and a life full of uncertainty for the individual.
The “Leisure – Culture and Society” Research and Discussion Group was set up with support of the Center for Educational and Societal Research at Beit Berl College. Its goal is to widen the understanding of leisure as a contemporary phenomenon, utilizing an interdisciplinary perspective (e.g sociology, psychology, philosophy, arts, science, education).
The Leisure – Culture and Society Research and Discussion Group’s members represent different disciplines (such as philosophy, education, management, literature, communication, sport) and seek to cooperate in research in the following subjects:
- Different types of leisure (such as “serious leisure”, physical, entertainment, deviant, extreme) and different disciplines of leisure (management, sport, volunteering, tourism, etc)
- Leisure in a multicultural and transnational world
- Trends in leisure
- Leisure and different populations, including the issue of accessibility to leisure of people with disabilities
- Leisure and critical thinking
- Leisure education
- Israeli leisure/ leisure in Israel