ABSTRACT
The processual character of leisure is demonstrated in social interaction. Face-to-face leisure interaction, or social play, involves shared definitions of openness in the situation that enable actors to try out different portrayals and presentations. Leisure is in part individual experience, a state of consciousness. However, that state occurs in an environment of some kind of action, be it physical or totally imaginative. The social environments of leisure may be referred to in a number of ways: social space, social world, and social context. The structures, or continuities, of social interaction may be explicit or implicit, legislated or taken-for-granted. The varieties of social spaces are one dimension in differentiating leisure forms. Negative social consequences does not mean that all such leisure episodes and events have positive social results. The distinction between structured events and less-defined episodes is useful in locating leisure in its social contexts.
