Outline the Concepts Made by Clarke and Critcher (1995) of ‘material and Cultural'(clarke, J.And Critcher, C.‘leisure and Inequality'in C.Critcher Et.Al.,1995, Sociology of Leisure: A Reader.London: E+fn Spon, P247) Constraints to Leisure

This essay will have three sections. The first section will briefly outline the concepts made by Clarke and Critcher (1995) of ‘material and cultural’ (Clarke, J. and Critcher, C. ‘Leisure and Inequality’ in C. Critcher et.al.,1995, Sociology of Leisure: A Reader. London: E+FN Spon, p247) constraints to leisure. The concepts shall be detailed, and briefly explained and elaborated. The second section will illustrate these concepts by relating them to a article by Green, E., Hebron, S. and Woodwood, D (1990). This article recognises that gender is a key dimension in both the public and private spheres of leisure. This shall be further supplemented with other sources that also highlight gender differences, and supports Clarke and Critcher’s (1995) concepts. The final section will reflect upon factors that have enabled or constrained my own leisure experiences.

John Clarke and Chas Critcher (1995) argue that there is an ‘inequality of leisure opportunity’ (ibid., p247), and that this is made up of two aspects they term ‘material and cultural’(ibid., p247). They describe the material aspect as being the ‘access to key resources’ (ibid., p248), these include time and money. This material aspect can be described as a constraint to leisure, because simply if you do not process the time you cannot have or gain the leisure, it is a constraint preventing your leisure from occurring. Clarke and Critcher (1995) argue that the cultural aspect of the inequality of leisure is the perception of what is ‘appropriate leisure behaviour’ (ibid., p248) for a member of a particular social group. These perceptions are socially constructed, and may be based on a number of factors, gender stereotype for example. They are crucially held by people in a position to enforce these expectations. This cultural constraint can be described as a constraint through leisure as it is reflecting and perpetuating the inequalities present in society, and acts as a further agent for social division. Therefore leisure could be seen as a mirror, echoing societies inequalities. However, Clarke and Critcher (1995) also note, that leisure does more than reflect social divisions, it realises them, so that leisure becomes one of the means by which social divisions receive expression and validation.

There are many factors that influence leisure, and these all lead to further ‘inequality of leisure opportunity’ (ibid., p247) as Clarke and Critcher (1995) described. These factors may be class, race and gender among others. They often appear together and intersect, as there is no one primary influence on leisure. For this argument, gender is a key dimension in understanding the form and inequalities in leisure, it can also be used to illustrate Clarke and Critcher’s (1995) material and cultural constraints. But first it is crucial to describe what is gender?

Gender is defined as the cultural and social aspect of sexuality. Gender differences are important at the level of personal identity, and more broadly as a base of social classification and differentiation, so it is not surprisingly it affects leisure as well.

(Harris, D., 2005, Key Concepts in Leisure Studies, Sage: London, p125)

As Harris (2005) describes gender is seen as being socially constructed and can play a crucial role in shaping leisure inequalities, as it does social inequalities. Again we see leisure as a mirror for society. So with gender defined we can move on to the Green, E., Hebron, S. and Woodwood, D’s (1990) article. In this article there are numerous examples of where Clarke and Critcher’s (1995) concepts are illustrated and supported. In their article Green, E., Hebron, S. and Woodwood, D (1990) interviewed wives and mothers, a key finding from the respondents was that they ‘never had sufficient time to clean and polish.’ (Green, E. et.al., 1990, Women’s Leisure, What Leisure?, London: MacMillan, p117) If they had insufficient time to clean and tidy how would it be possible to participant in leisure activities, this is a clear example of a material constraint to leisure, lack of time. This was found to be true of most wives and mothers. This is not only an example of a material constraint, if explored further a cultural constraint becomes evident. ‘Tiredness associated with the burden of unpaid domestic work which they are expected to assume.’ (ibid., p117) The cultural constraint that is illustrated here is that society expects the ‘wife’ to take on and complete the domestic work. This has arisen from gender stereotypes that were created centuries ago, where men were seen as the ‘bread winners’, going out to paid work, the ‘hunters’, in contrast the