ABSTRACT
Sociologists of leisure constantly draw attention to the problems involved in providing an adequate definition of leisure. Leisure pursuits like other consumption practices can therefore be mapped onto the social space and related to class, occupational, gender-and age-divisions. The important point suggested here is that childhood cannot be understood in itself but must be compared to adulthood, in effect the meaning of a particular phase of the life course is defined relationally by its similarities to and differences from the other phases. In effect the embodied symbolic power facilitates a presentation and disposition to overlay the negative traits with those which reinforce the bearer's status. This paper argues that leisure tastes like other lifestyle tastes can be related to the class structure. A social constructionist approach emphasises the variety of ways in which the temporal span of the life course has been conceived and accorded significance through notions of development, maturation and decay.
