Leisure, the local state and social order

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Abstract
This paper investigates ways in which social theory has conceptualized the nature and function of state intervention in the field of leisure. The particular focus of the paper is on the nature of state mediation of leisure in Britain's inner cities which have been prone to periodic bouts of disorder and riot, particularly in the last five years. However, the paper does not constitute a pragmatic search for policies to solve urban disorders by managing either leisure or other service provision more effectively in the inner city (though such a task properly confronts professionals employed by the state); rather our concern here is to explain how particular state responses are mediated by professionals in the initiation and implementation of policy. The paper rejects the notion of a monolithic state responding in a uniform way to emerging social problems, and aims to illustrate the contribution of a theoretically informed analysis to an understanding of the state's role in promoting and controlling certain forms of leisure behaviour. The paper is divided into five unequal parts. The first section raises the issue of the crisis of the local state in Britain. The second section examines conceptualizations of the state and leisure in the two major traditions of ‘leisure studies’ and ‘cultural studies’. The third section develops previous arguments by outlining four major models of the state and the competing explanations they offer for the policing of, and the provision for, leisure in the inner city. The penultimate section constitutes the kernel of our argument in examining ‘progressive’ or ‘enlightened’ policy responses from professionals working in the inner city and, more specifically, going on to explore the similarities in, and problems of ‘community policing’ and ‘community recreation’. Finally, ways are suggested in which comparative analysis of leisure policy, and cross-cultural empirical investigation of the role of the state in leisure might be advanced in a variety of environments.

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