"Massification" and Democratization of the Leisure Class

Abstract

The enriched data on culture and leisure presented in chapter 10 of Social Indicators, 1976 support both the hypotheses of massification of leisure (through increasing availability of free time and through greater use of this time for the mass culture of television) and of democratization of leisure (through increasing attendance at sports events and performing arts and through increasing dissemination of knowledge and books on the arts). Many problems with available indicators of leisure participation and spectatorship are identified from the perspective of time diaries of how Americans spend the full 24 hours of their day. The lack of trend data on the arts to parallel those presented in chapter 10 on the humanities and sciences is noted, along with the need to present social indicator data in some form of input-output context. Possible candidates for future leisure and culture indicators include: monetary expenditures for leisure goods and services, available data on television viewing habits and program content, the satisfactions and pressures associated with time uses, accessibility of leisure facilities, conversational content and personal contemplation about leisure, and an inventory of "experiences" to which individuals have been exposed.