Contemporary British Culture & Society ( 6 ) Chapter 6 Xiao Huiyun October, 2005

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 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 Home British 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

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

 Skittles  Ten-pin bowling

A 3 leisure outside the Home  Jukebox  Country bar

A 3 Leisure outside the Home  Meal in restaurants  Library  Cinema  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)  Football pools  Horse racing  Bets placed at Bookies  Popular forms of gambling in Britain  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 partners The 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. GOVERNMENT THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMISSION NLDBs The Arts Council National Lottery Charities Board The Heritage Lottery Fund The Millennium Commission The New Opportunities Fund Sports Council The THE NATIONAL LOTTERY OPERATOR CAMELOT CAMELOT NATIONAL LOTTERY DISTRIBUTION BODIES NLDBs GOOD CAUSES

A 3 Leisure outside the Home The 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 Gambling  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

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Sport  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 Home Sports & 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 Home Sport & 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.  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 Home Sport  Soccer

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Sport  Cricket

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Sport  Cricket  Horse racing

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Sport  Netball

A 3 Leisure outside the Home Sport  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 Home Fox 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 home Youth organizations  Boys’ scouts  Boys brigade

Conclusion The 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 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.

Conclusion The 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.