ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in this book. The book considers the histories associated with the political espousal of specific leisure policies and to throw into relief the relative roles, influence, and rationales of the local and central state in developing specific leisure policies. It reviews case studies of particular initiatives, evaluating their rationales and assessing their impact on target populations. The book focuses on the social, economic, and/or cultural context of leisure in urban environments. The larger cities form the locale for the expression of new lifestyles and new cultural forms, but they are also the places that seem to experience increasing social disorder and political extremism. The modern urban life increasingly represents non-work life, but it does so in very different ways and with distinct meanings for different groups, denoting a growing social inequality.
