ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three spaces of leisure: institutional, temporal, and geographical. When leisure is conceived of as an institution, the thought immediately evokes a tendency to see it in relation to the other institutions of society. That is by noting that leisure is an institution is to say that it is not, for example, family, economy, polity, education, religion, health, or the arts. In traditional economics and the mainstream economics of today, the idea of leisure is typically residual. Accordingly, the few definitions of leisure that appear in the dictionaries of economics are superficial, largely portraying leisure as time leftover after work. Davies and Niemann, upon examining the relationship of leisure and international relations, found that it is during free time in everyday life when the vast majority of people can take an interest in world affairs. The kinds of time commitments people make help shape their work and leisure lifestyles, and constitute part of the patterning of those lifestyles.
