Contemporary British Culture & Society ( 6 )

Chapter 6

Xiao Huiyun

October, 2007

Objectives

In this chapter we will look at how British people relax. To begin with we examine how opportunities for leisure have increased during the 20th century. We then look at what people do with their free time, both inside and outside the home, as participants and spectators, and how gender, work, education, class and age affects this.

Focal Questions

Why do you think people in Britain today have more leisure time than ever before?

Where and how do most British people choose to spend their spare time? Why?

Can you give some reasons why the traditional working-class and established middle-class families take different attitudes toward their homes?

What, to your knowledge, are among the most popular leisure activities away from home among adults in Great Britain?

What factors affect people’s choice of different leisure activities in Britain today?

Procedures

Presentation by Students – Focal questions 2 & 4

Lectures by the teacher Class discussion – Exploitation Activitie

s Assignment for the next chapter

A 1 Introduction

Leisure – freely chosen activities pursued during non-working time, related to financial security provided by work

Leisure -- free time during which somebody has no obligations or work responsibilities, and therefore is free to engage in enjoyable activities

A 1 Introduction cont.

Increase in available leisure time since 20th century

Shorter working week – 40 hrs per week, 38 hrs for non-manual workers

Fewer weeks to work per year Full-time workers entitled to 4-5 weeks paid

holiday each year More money to spend since WWII

A 2 Leisure at Home

The most common leisure activities among people in the United Kingdom are home-based, or social, such as entertaining or visiting relatives and friends

Watching television is by far the most popular leisure pastime; Britain's regular weekly dramas or 'soap operas' such as 'Eastenders' and 'Coronation Street' have more viewers than any other programme.

Other regular pastimes include listening to the radio and to recorded music, reading books, gardening, do-it-yourself home improvements and doing puzzle.

Pop and rock albums are the most common type of music bought, and pop is by far the most popular form of musical expression in Britain

A 2 Leisure at Home

Nearly three quarters of people in the UK now do some sort of puzzle, from newspaper crosswords and coffee-break teasers to puzzles in magazines and even taking part at home in TV shows.

A 2 Leisure at HomeBritish Soap Opera

The storylines of Coronation Street tend to concentrate on relationships within and between families rather than on topical or social issues

Coronation Street is imbued with a definite feeling of community. Through its account of supposedly everyday life, the programme shows a high degree of social realism

The Street, as it is affectionately known, has been at the top of the U.K. ratings for over thirty years.

Coronation Street

A 2 Leisure at Home

All ethnic minority groups are, broadly, more likely to read three of the four broadsheets than would be predicted from their socio-economic profile. This suggests something of a preference for these titles, possibly because of the scope of their news coverage or because of their often more balanced style.

Newspaper Readership

A 2 Leisure at Home

Leisure & Lifestyle

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Greater gender & class differences in patterns of leisure activities outside the home

Provision of leisure activities -- local government, private companies, voluntary organizations

The Pub – public bar & lounge bar, dartboards, snookers, bar billiards, skittles, dominoes, electronic games, juke boxes, TV, live music entertainment, local jazz group or rock ’n’ roll band

More money spend on drink in pubs, restaurants or wine bars than on any other form of leisure activity

Pubs are finding new role, filling social vacuum, central to British life

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Bar

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Pub dominoes

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Dartboard Lounge bar

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Wine bar

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Bar Billiards Snookers

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Skittles Ten-pin bowling

A 3 leisure outside the Home

Jukebox Country bar

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Meal in restaurants Library Cinema– still a staple part of British life & on rising trend Historic buildings Short break holiday Disco or night club Museum or art gallery Funfair Camping or caravanning Bingo Visiting betting shops Theatre, ballet, opera, minority pursuits yet giving Britain

high cultural profile

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Gambling

Betting shop (Bookies) Bets placed at Bookies Popular forms of gamb

ling in Britain Football pools Betting on horse racing

practised by working rather than middle class

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Gambling

Since the first game on Saturday 19th November 1994 more than 90% of the UK population have played the National Lottery games at sometime, with around 65% of the population playing on a regular basis. The total amount of £12 billion has been given to the 'good causes'.

The good causes have already helped deprived groups, saved buildings and national treasures, enabled more people to enjoy sports and the arts.

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Gambling

Out of every £1 spent on a Lottery ticket 28 pence goes towards the good causes.

How's the money distributed:

Where does the good causes money go?

National Lottery partnersThe National Lottery is a partnership between Government, the Lottery

Commission, the National Lottery Operator and the Distribution Bodies to raise money for the good causes in local communities.

GOVERNMENTGOVERNMENT

THE THE DEPARTMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE MEDIA CULTURE MEDIA

AND SPORTAND SPORT

THE THE NATIONAL NATIONAL LOTTERY LOTTERY

COMMISSIONCOMMISSION

NLDBsNLDBs

The Arts CouncilThe Arts Council

National Lottery Charities BoardNational Lottery Charities Board

The Heritage Lottery FundThe Heritage Lottery Fund

The Millennium CommissionThe Millennium Commission

The New Opportunities FundThe New Opportunities Fund

Sports Council TheSports Council The

THE NATIONAL THE NATIONAL LOTTERY LOTTERY

OPERATOROPERATOR

CAMELOTCAMELOT

NATIONAL LOTTERY NATIONAL LOTTERY

DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION BODIESBODIES

NLDBsNLDBs

GOOD CAUSESGOOD CAUSES

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeThe National Lottery

Five groups of beneficiaries were designated by the Government to receive equal shares of funds from The National Lottery:

The Arts Councils of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Sports Councils of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The National Lottery Charities Board The National Heritage Memorial Fund The Millennium Fund (A fund to celebrate the year 2000

and the beginning of the third millennium. ) A sixth was added in 1998 The New Opportunities Fund — for projects covering

education, health and the environment

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Gambling

UK National Lottery Winning Cards by Week

The first 20 winning cards ...

A 3 Leisure outside the Home national Lottery

Tickets sold through newsagents and post offices -- where everybody goes

On Saturday nights the weekly programme where the draw is made has 12 million viewers

The Lottery is about the possibility of social change

It has caused social upheaval and division.

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Bingo hall Bingo hall

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Of all sporting activities, walking is by far the most popular for men and for women of all ages. Whilst men tend to dominate golf and cue sports such as snooker and billiards, women generally prefer swimming, keep-fit classes and yoga.

Sport, when compared with other leisure activities, has secured a more central place in the national culture of contemporary Britain.

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSports & the British Culture

Precisely because it has become such a part and parcel of British culture and society, sport is, not unexpectedly, problematic .

Sport has nowadays been related to the question of drugs; it is no longer a leisure activity; it’s a business!’, it is a potentially political issue’ .,

There also exists in the field a variation of social-class membership with regard to active participation in sports. It is noted that the better the class, the greater the rate of the participation.

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport & the British Culture

And we should remember that “class consciousness is fundamental to the British sense of national identity. Differences of accent, dress, taste and life style all serve as markers of class” (Raw and Walker, 1994, p. 5). Sport, of course, is of no exception.There are class associations to all British sports

Whilst fox hunting is traditionally considered an upper-class pursuit, football is widely regarded as a hallmark of the working class. Certain changes may have taken place in the twentieth century, but divisions are still there.

Cricket has a rather upper class as well as rural flavour; playing cricket is meant to be synonymous with gentlemanly behaviour. – fair play. team spirit, individual excellence, “not cricket” (see p 109 for more)

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport & the British Culture

Main sports practised in winter: rugby, soccer

Soccer – ‘a gentlemen’s game for roughs’ Rugby -- ‘a roughs’ game for gentlemen Paradox – most public schools play rugby b

ut Eaton and Harrow have always played soccer

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Soccer

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Cricket

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Cricket Horse racing

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Netball

A 3 Leisure outside the HomeSport

Aroebics

A 3 Leisure outside the Home

Why participate? To know more people &

understand them better To learn how to get along

with others To get a feeling of

excitement & a sense of success

To have experience of wearing popular & fashionable sports clothes

A 3 leisure outside the HomeFox Hunting

Language & Culture

Variations in terminology used to describe people watching leisure entertainment

Soccer -- crowds, suggesting “amorphous” Rugby -- spectators, “dispassionate onlookers” Cinema --audiences, more sophisticated, listen TV -- viewers, denying passivity of TV ”couch

potato” Theatre -- theatre- goers, some form of

dynamism Opera -- opera buffs, uniform worn by smart

regiments

A 3 Leisure outside the homeYouth organizations

Boys’ scouts Boys brigade

ConclusionThe Defining Factors of Identity

Education, work, and leisure are defining aspects of British cultural identity.

Schools place a distinctive stamp on their pupils – a past pupil will be defined both in society at large and by the individual himself and herself as a grammar school boy or girl e.g.as a product of Shrewbury School or King Street primary.

This pattern is repeated in the work arena. People define themselves by their schools and their work functions.

ConclusionThe Defining Factors of Identity

The rhetorical question ‘How do you do?’, on being introduced to people is very shortly followed by ‘What do you do?’ and soon by ‘ Where did you go to school?’

So education and work are significant defining aspects of identity.

As we have seen further, people will always try to take control of their lives and define their own identities through the exercise of individual choice in their leisure activities.