ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have demonstrated how, historically, the museum has been seen as part of high culture and how, in contemporary society, its visiting patterns are similar to other high culture activities. It has been suggested that museum visiting, and heritage visiting in general, might be part of a group of leisure activities expressive of a cultivated lifestyle. In order to explore the implications of this, we have to move beyond inadequate surface explanations of leisure, and examine wider theories which will allow museum visiting to be placed in its historical and contemporary context.
