Leisure, Voluntary Action and Social Change in Britain, 1880-1939

In the final decades of the nineteenth century modernizing interpretations of leisure became of interest to social policy makers and cultural critics, producing a discourse of leisure and voluntarism that flourished until the Second World War. The free time of British citizens was increasingly seen as a sphere of social citizenship and community-building. Through major social thinkers, including William Morris, Thomas Hill Green, Bernard Bosanquet and John Hobson, leisure and voluntarism were theorized in terms of the good society. In post-First World War social reconstruction these writers remained influential as leisure became a field of social service, directed towards a new society and working through voluntary association in civic societies, settlements, new estate community-centres, village halls and church-based communities. This volume documents the parallel cultural shift from charitable philanthropy to social service and from rational recreation to leisure, teasing out intellectual influences which included social idealism, liberalism and socialism. Leisure, Robert Snape claims, has been a central and under-recognized organizing force in British communities. Leisure, Voluntary Action and Social Change in Britain, 1880-1939 marks a much needed addition to the historiography of leisure and an antidote to the widely misunderstood implications of leisure to social policy today.

Robert Snape

Introduction 1.1 Historicizing Leisure, Voluntary Action and Social Change 1.2 Leisure and Community 1.3 Leisure, Voluntary Action and Civil Society 1.4 Overview of Content 2. Associational Leisure and the Formation of Community in the Mid- Nineteenth Century 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Industrialization, Urbanization and Community 2.3 Leisure in Mutual Association 2.4 Temperance, Leisure and Community 2.5 Working-Men's Clubs 2.6 Conclusion 3. Evangelicalism and the Inner Mission: Religion, Leisure and Social Service 3.1 Religion, the Social Mission and Leisure 3.2 Towards Social Service: John Brown Paton, Leisure and the Inner Mission 3.3 Conclusion 4. Leisure, Community and the Settlement Movement 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Barnetts and Toynbee Hall 4.3 Oxford House and the Public School Mission 4.4 The Liverpool University Settlement 4.5 The Settlement Movement, Social Work and Leisure 5. Utopian and Radical Leisure Communities 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Clarion Movement 5.3. The Co-operative Movement 6. Leisure in Inter-War Britain 7. Theorizations of Leisure and Voluntarism in post -First World War Social Reconstruction 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Leisure in the New Society 7.3 New Leisure Makes New Men 7.4 Leisure, Modernity and Social Change 7.5 Conclusion 8. Social Service, Reconstruction and Leisure 8.1 Introduction 8.2 The National Council of Social Service - Leisure and Community Well-Being 8.3 Re-constructing the Rural Community: Leisure, Village Halls and Folk Dance 8.4 The New Estates and Community Centres 9. Young People, Youth Organizations and Leisure 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Leisure, Young People and Industrial Welfare in the First World War 9.3 Educating the Young Citizen 9.4 Cultural Rebels and Radical Leisure Association 10. Leisure, Unemployment and Social Service 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Unemployment, Leisure and Social Capital 11. Work-Based Leisure Communities 11.1 Work, Leisure and Community in Inter-War Britain 11.2 The Workplace as a Social Community 11.3 Model Industrial Villages and Leisure 11.4 Leisure and Industrial Welfare in Inter-war Britain 11.5 Co-operative and Collective Alternatives to Welfare 11.6 Conclusion Conclusions Select Bibliography Index