Abstract
The great crisis facing our age is not a tsunami of resource hungry centenarians. It is the struggle to balance freedom and belonging, winning and love, doing and being, performing and relaxing, producing and consuming. For leisure to enable the construction of agentic stories, an element of subjective freedom is essential. Instrumental leisure saps the fun and freedom, makes it consequential. The labour of being an active ager makes paid work look more appealing by comparison and can cause conflict in families. Resisting or subverting active ageing messages provides a little fun for those who prefer to be naughty, and that is good to know. Passive leisure in later life offers direct fun, sociability and connection. People that have grown up and grown old in a culture of active ageing have more freedom when they choose home-based leisure, and socialise with people of their own age
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adams, K. B., Leibbrandt, S., & Moon, H. (2011). A critical review of the literature on social and leisure activity and wellbeing in later life. Ageing and Society, 31(04), 683–712.
Alderwick, H., & Dixon, J. (2019). The NHS long term plan. BMJ (Online), 364, l84. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l84.
Allen-Collinson, J., & Leledaki, A. (2015). Sensing the outdoors: A visual and haptic phenomenology of outdoor exercise embodiment. Leisure Studies, 34(4), 457–470.
Arem, H., Moore, S. C., Patel, A., Hartge, P., Berrington de Gonzalez, A., Visvanathan, K., Campbell, P. T., Freedman, M., Weiderpass, E., Adami, H. O., Linet, M. S., Lee I-M., Matthews, C. E. (2015). Leisure time physical activity and mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(6), 959.
Barnes, M., Taylor, D., & Ward, L. (2013). Being well enough in old age. Critical Social Policy, 33(3), 473–493.
Bazalgette, L., Holden, J., Tew, P., Hubble, N., & Morrison, J. (2011). Coming of age. London. https://dspace.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/6237/2/Fulltext.pdf.
Beck, S. H. (1986). Mobility from preretirement to postretirement job. Sociological Quarterly, 27(4), 515–531.
Bhatti, M., & Church, A. (2000). ‘I never promised you a rose garden’: Gender, leisure and home-making. Leisure Studies, 19(3), 183–197.
Blackshaw, T. (2010). Leisure. Routledge.
Buckley, R. (2020). Nature sports, health and ageing: The value of euphoria. Annals of Leisure Research, 23(1), 92–109.
Burnett-Wolle, S., & Godbey, G. (2007). Refining research on older aldults’ leisure: Implications of selection, optimisation and compensation and socioeconomic selectivity theories. Journal of Leisure Research, 39(3), 498–513.
Caleyachetty, R., Hardy, R., Cooper, R., Richards, M., Howe, L. D., Anderson, E., Kuh, D., & Stafford, M. (2018). Modeling exposure to multiple childhood social risk factors and physical capability and common affective symptoms in later life. Journal of Aging and Health, 30(3), 386–407.
Carr, N. (2017). Re-thinking the relation between leisure and freedom. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(2), 137–151.
Chen, L., Ye, M., & Kahana, E. (2020). A self-reliant umbrella: Defining successful aging among the old-old (80+) in Shanghai. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 39(3), 242–249.
Choi, W., Liechty, T., Naar, J. J., West, S., Wong, J. D., & Son, J. (2018). “We’re a family and that gives me joy”: Exploring interpersonal relationships in older women’s softball using socio-emotional selectivity theory. Leisure Sciences, 0(0), 1–18. Accessed online at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490400.2018.1499056.
Clark, F., Jackson, J., Carlson, M., Chou, C.-P., Cherry, B. J., Jordan-Marsh, M., Knight, B. G., Mandel, D., Blanchard, J., Granger, D. A., Wilcox, R. R., Lai, M. Y., White, B., Hay, J., Lam, C., Marterella, A., & Azen, S. P. (2012). Effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in promoting the well-being of independently living older people: Results of the Well Elderly 2 Randomised Controlled Trial. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 66(9), 782–790.
Clarke, A., & Warren, L. (2007). Hopes, fears and expectations about the future: What do older people’s stories tell us about active ageing? Ageing and Society, 27(04), 465–488.
Crawford, D. W., & Godbey, G. (1987). Reconceptualizing barriers to family leisure. Leisure Sciences, 9(2), 119–127.
Crouch, D. (2000). Places around us: Embodied lay geographies in leisure and tourism. Leisure Studies, 2012(December), 37–41.
Crouch, D. (2012). Ordinary lives: Studies in the everyday. Leisure Studies, 31(2), 255–256.
Crouch, D. (2014). The hope of leisure, the leisure of hope. Retrieved January 3, 2015, from https://leisurestudiesblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/the-hope-of-leisure-the-leisure-of-hope/.
Crouch, D. (2016). Flirting with space. Taylor and Francis.
Department of Health. (2010). Our health and wellbeing today. Notes, 3, 68.
Dionigi, R. (2006). Competitive sport as leisure in later life: Negotiations, discourse, and aging. Leisure Sciences, 28, 181–196.
Dionigi, R., & Lyons, K. (2010). Examining layers of community in leisure contexts: A case analysis of older adults in an excercise intervention. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(2), 317–338.
Dionigi, R. A., Horton, S., & Bellamy, J. (2011). Meanings of aging among older Canadian women of varying physical activity levels. Leisure Sciences, 33(5), 402–419.
Dionigi, R. A., & Son, J. S. (2017). Introduction to critical perspectives on physical activity, sport, play and leisure in later life. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(1), 1–6.
Dressler, W. W. (2012). Cultural consonance: Linking culture, the individual and health. Preventive Medicine, 55(5), 390–393.
Fallahpour, M., Borell, L., Luborsky, M., & Nygård, L. (2017). Leisure-activity participation to prevent later-life cognitive decline: A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 23(3), 162–197.
Freeman, P. (2016). How to grow old: Ancient wisdom for the second half of life. Princeton University Press.
Gard, M., Dionigi, R. A., Horton, S., Baker, J., Weir, P., & Dionigi, C. (2017). The normalization of sport for older people? Annals of Leisure Research, 20(3), 253–272.
Genoe, M. R. (2010). Leisure as resistance within the context of dementia. Leisure Studies, 29(3), 303–320.
Gibson, H., Ashton-Shaeffer, C., Green, J., & Autry, C. (2003). Leisure in the lives of retirement-aged women: Conversations about leisure and life. Leisure/Loisir, 28(3–4), 203–230.
Gilleard, C., Higgs, P., Hyde, M., Wiggins, R., & Blane, D. (2005). Class, cohort, and consumption: The British experience of the third age. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(6), S305–S310. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16260712.
Glyptis, S. (1989). Leisure and unemployment. Open University Press.
Godbey, G., Crawford, D., & Shen, X. S. (2010). Assessing heirachical leisure constraints theory after two decades. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(1), 111–134.
Gui, J., Walker, G. J., & Harshaw, H. W. (2019). Meanings of Xiū Xián and leisure: Cross-cultural exploration of laypeople’s definition of leisure. Leisure Sciences, 0(0), 1–19. Accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2019.1571968.
Harley, D., Fitzpatrick, G., Axelrod, L., White, G., & McAllister, G. (2010). Making the Wii at home: Game play by older people in sheltered housing. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 6389 LNCS, 156–176.
Havighurst, R. J. (1961). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 1(1), 8–13.
Hayward, M. D., & Gorman, B. K. (2004). The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social conditions on men’s mortality. Source: Demography, 41(1), 87–107.
Higgs, P., & Gilleard, C. (2014). Frailty, abjection and the ‘othering’ of the fourth age. Health Sociology Review, 23(1), 10–19.
Holland, C. A., & Katz, J. S. (2010). Cultural identity and belonging in later life: Is extra care housing an attractive concept to older Jewish people living in Britain? Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25(1), 59–69.
Hubble, N., & Tew, P. (2013). Ageing, narrative and identity: New qualitative social research. Springer.
John, S. (2018). Should we punish responsible drinkers? Prevention, paternalism and categorization in public health. Public Health Ethics, 11(1), 35–44.
Jolanki, O. (2008). Discussing responsibility and ways of influencing health. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life Introduction, 3(1), 45–76.
Jolanki, O. (2009). Fate or choice? Talking about old age and health.
Jones, H., Neal, S., Mohan, G., Connell, K., Cochrane, A., & Bennett, K. (2015). Urban multiculture and everyday encounters in semi-public, franchised cafe spaces. Sociological Review, 63(3), 644–661.
Joseph, J. (2012). Around the boundary: Alcohol and older Caribbean-Canadian men. Leisure Studies, 31(2), 147–163.
Katz, S. (2000). Busy bodies: Activity, aging, and the management of everyday life. Journal of Aging Studies, 14(2), 135–152.
Katz, S. (2013). Active and successful aging. Lifestyle as a gerontological idea. Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques [En Ligne], 44(1). Retrieved January 7, 2014, from https://rsa.revues.or.
Kay, T. (1987). Leisure in the lifestyles of unemployed people: A case study in leicester. Loughborough University. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/ and was harvested from the British Library’s EThOS service. https://www.ethos.bl.uk/.
Kim, H., Woo, E., & Uysal, M. (2015). Tourism experience and quality of life among elderly tourists. Tourism Management, 46, 465–476.
King, D. B., Cappeliez, P., Canham, S. L., & O’Rourke, N. (2019). Functions of reminiscence in later life: Predicting change in the physical and mental health of older adults over time. Aging & Mental Health, 23(2), 246–254.
Kleiber, D., Mcguire, F., Aybar-Damali, B., & Norman, W. (2008). Having more by doing less: The paradox of leisure constraints in later life. Journal of Leisure Research, 40(3), 343–359.
Kleiber, D. A., & Nimrod, G. (2009). ‘I can’t be very sad’: Constraint and adaptation in the leisure of a ‘learning in retirement’ group. Leisure Studies, 28(1), 67–83.
Kusumastuti, S., Derks, M. G. M., Tellier, S., Di Nucci, E., Lund, R., Mortensen, E. L., & Westendorp, R. G. J. (2016). Successful ageing: A study of the literature using citation network analysis. Maturitas, 93, 4–12.
Lassen, A. J. (2014). Active ageing and the unmaking of old age. University of Copenhagen.
Lester, H., Mead, N., Graham, C. C., Gask, L., & Reilly, S. (2012). An exploration of the value and mechanisms of befriending for older adults in England. Ageing and Society, 32(02), 307–328.
Liechty, T., Genoe, M. R., & Marston, H. R. (2017). Physically active leisure and the transition to retirement: The value of context. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(1), 23–38.
Lloyd, L., Calnan, M., Cameron, A., Seymour, J., & Smith, R. (2014). Identity in the fourth age: Perseverance, adaptation and maintaining dignity. Ageing and Society, 34(01), 1–19.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Manchester University Press.
Mair, H. (2009). Club life: Third place and shared leisure in rural Canada. Leisure Sciences, 31(5), 450–465.
Marhankova, J. H. (2011). Leisure in old age: Disciplinary practices surrounding the discourse of active ageing. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 6(1), 5–32.
Martin, W. (2011). Visualizing risk: Health, gender and the ageing body. Critical Social Policy, 32(1), 51–68.
Mcguire, F. (2000). What do we know? Not much: The state of leisure and aging research. Journal of Leisure Research, 32(1), 97–100.
McHugh, S. (Ed.). (2017). The changing nature of happiness. Springer International Publishing.
Mcnair, S., Flynn, M., Owen, L., Humphreys, C., & Woodfield, S. (2004). Changing work in later life: A study of job transitions. In Guildford CROW University of Surrey.
Meisner, B. A., Hutchinson, S. L., Gallant, K. A., Lauckner, H., & Stilwell, C. L. (2019). Taking ‘steps to connect’ to later life: Exploring leisure program participation among older adults in rural communities. Loisir Et Société/Society and Leisure, 42(1), 1–22.
Mejía, S. T., Ryan, L. H., Gonzalez, R., & Smith, J. (2017). Successful aging as the intersection of individual resources, age, environment, and experiences of well-being in daily activities. Journals of Gerontology—Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 72(2), 279–289.
Milbourne, P., & Doheny, S. (2012). Older people and poverty in rural Britain: Material hardships, cultural denials and social inclusions. Journal of Rural Studies, 28(4), 389–397.
Minello, K., & Nixon, D. (2017). ‘Hope I never stop’: Older men and their two-wheeled love affairs. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(1), 75–95.
Mitas, O., Qian, X. L., Yarnal, C., & Kerstetter, D. (2011). “The fun begins now!” Broadening and building processes in red hat society participation. Journal of Leisure Research, 43(1), 30–55.
Neal, S., Bennett, K., Cochrane, A., & Mohan, G. (2018). Community and conviviality? Informal social life in multicultural places. Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/003803851876351.
Neal, S., & Vincent, C. (2013). Multiculture, middle class competencies and friendship practices in super-diverse geographies. Social & Cultural Geography, 14(8), 909–929.
Neal, S., & Walters, S. (2008). Rural be/longing and rural social organizations: Conviviality and community-making in the English countryside. Sociology, 42(2), 279–297.
Nimrod, G. (2017). Older audiences in the digital media environment. Information, Communication & Society, 20(2), 233–249.
Office for National Statistics. (2018). National life tables, UK: 2015 to 2017. Statistical Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2004.09.049.
Parker, S. R. (1971). The future of work and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(3), 394–396.
Parker, S. (1983). Leisure and work. George Allen & Unwin (publishers) Ltd.
Pavela, G., & Latham, K. (2016). Childhood conditions and multimorbidity among older adults. Journals of Gerontology—Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71(5), 889–901.
Pettigrew, S., & Roberts, M. (2008). Addressing loneliness in later life. Aging & Mental Health, 12(3), 302–309.
Phillipson, C. (2013). Commentary: The future of work and retirement. Human Relations, 66(1), 143–153.
Randall, W. L. (2013). The importance of being ironic: Narrative openness and personal resilience in later life. Gerontologist, 53(1), 9–16.
Ravenscroft, N., & Gilchrist, P. (2009). The emergent working society of leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 41(1), 23–39.
Richards, J. A. (2016). Active older people participating in creative dance—Challenging perceptions. Middlesex University.
Roberts, K. (2018). A future for UK leisure studies: Back to work. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure.
Rojek, C. (1991). Ways of escape: Modern transformations of leisure and travel. Doctoral dissertation, University of Glasgow.
Rojek, C. (2010). The labour of leisure. In The labour of leisure. Sage.
Rojek, C., & Blackshaw, T. (2013). The labour of leisure reconsidered. In T. Blackshaw (Ed.), Routledge handbook of leisure studies (pp. 544–559). Routledge.
Ryu, J., & Heo, J. (2016). Relaxation and watching televised sports among older adults. Educational Gerontology, 42(2), 71–78.
Ryu, J., & Heo, J. (2017). Relationships between leisure activity types and well-being in older adults. Leisure Studies, 4367(September), 1–12.
Scherger, S., Nazroo, J., & Higgs, P. (2010). Leisure activities and retirement: Do structures of inequality change in old age? Ageing and Society, 31(01), 146–172.
Scraton, S., & Watson, B. (1998). Gendered cities: Women and public leisure space in the ‘postmodern city.’ Leisure Studies, 17(2), 123–137.
Sinclair, D. (2015). The myth of the baby boomer. Ready for Ageing Alliance. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://ilcuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Myth-of-the-Baby-Boomer.pdf.
Sloan, R. P. (2011). Virtue and vice in health and illness: The idea that wouldn’t die. The Lancet, 377, 896–897.
Spracklen, K. (2011). Constructing leisure: Historical and philosophical debates. Palgrave Macmillan.
Steptoe, A., & Wardle, J. (2012). Enjoying life and living longer. Archives of International Medicine, 172(3), 273–275.
Sullivan, S. E., & Al Ariss, A. (2019). Employment after retirement: A review and framework for future research. Journal of Management, 45(1), 262–284.
Tampubolon, G. (2015). Growing up in poverty, growing old in infirmity: The long arm of childhood conditions in Great Britain. PLoS ONE, 10(12), 1–16.
Thurston, M., & Green, K. (2004). Adherence to exercise in later life: How can exercise on prescription programmes be made more effective? Health Promotion International, 19(3), 379–387.
Toepoel, V. (2013). Ageing, leisure, and social connectedness: How could leisure help reduce social isolation of older people? Social Indicators Research, 113(1), 355–372.
van Bohemen, S., van Zoonen, L., & Aupers, S. (2013). Performing the “fun” self: How members of the Red Hat Society negotiate cultural discourses of femininity and ageing. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16(4), 424–439.
Van Der Goot, M., Beentjes, J. W. J., & Van Selm, M. (2012). Meanings of television in older adults’ lives: An analysis of change and continuity in television viewing. Ageing & Society, 32(1), 147.
Veal, A. J. (2016). Leisure, income inequality and the Veblen effect: Cross-national analysis of leisure time and sport and cultural activity. Leisure Studies, 35(2), 215–240.
Veblen, T. (2007). Theory of the leisure class. Transaction Publishers.
Wang, D., & Glicksman, A. (2013). “Being grounded”: Benefits of gardening for older adults in low income housing. Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 27, 89–104.
Wang, D., & MacMillan, T. (2013). The benefits of gardening for older adults: A systematic review of the literature. Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 37(2), 153–181.
Warren, J. R. (2016). Does growing childhood socioeconomic inequality mean future inequality in adult health? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 663(1), 292–330.
Willetts, D. (2010). The pinch: How the baby boomers took their children’s future—And why they should give it back. Atlantic Books.
Woods, B., O’Philbin, L., Farrell, E. M., Spector, A. E., & Orrell, M. (2018). Reminiscence therapy for dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (3), Art. No.: CD001120. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD001120.pub3. Accessed 28 April 2021.
Yarnal, C., Son, J., & Liechty, T. (2011). “She was buried in her purple dress and her red hat and all of our members wore full ‘Red Hat Regalia’ to celebrate her life”: Dress, embodiment and older women’s leisure: Reconfiguring the ageing process. Journal of Aging Studies, 25(1), 52–61.
Zaidi, A. (2015). Creating and using the evidence base: The case of the Active Ageing Index. Contemporary Social Science, 10(2), 148–159.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wiseman, T. (2021). Freedom and Belonging in Everyday Leisure Lives. In: Leisure in Later Life . Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71672-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71672-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71671-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-71672-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)