ABSTRACT

This chapter explores three conceptual approaches to the social geography of leisure. The first approach has its primary research focus on individuals and social groups, examining the relationships between place, identity and people's leisure behavior patterns. The second approach focuses on places themselves and the role played by leisure in shaping and changing their identities. The third approach explores the social construction of leisure spaces and the social conflicts that surround them. In the most popular and straightforward method of conceptualizing leisure, it is seen as a specific time free from other obligations such as work, domestic responsibilities and subsistence. In Britain, the creation of seven new Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) in 1987 by the Conservative government marked a change in urban regeneration priorities. The intention was to redevelop redundant spaces in Britain's major cities by creating new spaces in which private enterprise could thrive without being stifled by restrictive planning policies and local social and political priorities.