Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on essential first principles, on the unique properties of leisure which can be used to define it. It looks at leisure and the individual, the context of leisure as space and domain, and the serious leisure perspective (SLP). The book talks about leisure's image in the twenty-first century that the idea of leisure finally comes to center stage. The World Leisure Organization promotes the following motto: "Leisure: integral to social, cultural, and economic development." Nor is it an accident that Article 24 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is worded this way: "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." For whole nations to find satisfaction and self-fulfillment based on it would be a true sign of progress.