GLOBALISATION, LEISURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE: Essays in Honour of Professor Ishwar P. Modi

In the globalisation process cultures are influenced by one another and become more alike through trade, immigration, and exchange of information and ideas. However, in recent times the degree and intensity of the connections among different cultures and different world regions have accelerated dramatically owing to advances in science and technology. Globalisation has truly become an agent of social change. Post industrial revolution, the new world of entertainment and leisure activities have become an important subject of research in sociology.

This festschrift, in honour of Dr. Ishwar P. Modi, an eminent sociologist and the past President of the Indian Sociological Society, brings together articles on various aspects of leisure in different societies. Both Indian and foreign scholars have contributed papers to this volume which would impress its readers with the richness of data on leisure and a variety of novel approaches to its study in cross-cultural contexts. Three ideas, however, are prominently noticeable in this book. First, the distinction of ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ is of Western origin. Its intellectual imposition to understand non-Western systems is fraught with risk, as concepts of ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ vary from one situation to another. Second, since great variation exists with respect to the activities of leisure, it is important that they should be documented as ‘thickly’ as possible. And finally, globalization has contributed a great deal in deepening the distinction between ‘work’ and ‘leisure’, and defining the contours of leisurous activities. Providing a number of empirical and historical studies of leisure from different cultures, this volume will be of immense value to the students of social sciences and humanities.

Contributors
Aretha Oluwakemi Asakitikpi
Habil Zsuzsanna Benkõ
Bhagwan S. Bisht
Michael Burawoy
Eduardo Burgos-Suazo
Sukant K. Chaudhury
Angellyn Santon Gonzalez
Vishesh Kumar Gupta
Ma Huidi
Rashmi Jain
Neha Kala
Habibul Haque Khondker
Francis Lobo
Fabio Massimo Lo Verde
Shalini Modi
B.K. Nagla
Madhu Nagla
Scott North
Laura L. Ortiz-Negron
Ken Roberts
Anayra O. Santory Jorge
K.L. Sharma
S.L. Sharma
Yogendra Singh
Vinay Kumar Srivastava
Robert A. Stebbins
Klára Tarkó
Lech W. Zacher