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Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday Experience.

Article  in  Contemporary Sociology · March 1991

DOI: 10.2307/2072983

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Elizabeth M. Perse Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

University of Delaware Claremont Graduate University
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Reviewed Work(s): Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday
Experience. by Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Review by: Elizabeth M. Perse
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Mar., 1991), pp. 284-285
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2072983
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 REVIEWS
pictorial presentations of results are useful for
those who are less interested in statistical
significance. For readers without a mass
communication background, chapter 3 in-
cludes a brief summary of mass communica-
tion research and its dominant paradigms. For
serious students, the authors have included
copious endnotes summarizing additional
theory and research. For more causal readers,
those endnotes can be ignored with no loss of
understanding. In other words, the format of
the book makes it suitable for students and
scholars with a variety of interests and
perspectives.
Leisure and Life-Style: A Comparative Anal-
ysis of Free Time, edited by ANNA OLS-
ZEWSKA and KEN ROBERTS. London &
Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989. 200 pp.
$39.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-8039-8215-1.
JEFF BISHOP
BDOR Ltd., Bristol, England
Despite much effort, the sociology of
leisure has yet to establish for itself a distinct
niche. This new book, while offering no new
research, does, however, demonstrate the
considerable base upon which those working
in the leisure field are now able to draw.
The editors have collected a series of varied
papers about recent economic changes and the
consequent shifts in amounts, uses, and
meanings of leisure in nine very different
countries. To that extent the title is somewhat
misleading, but the text is nevertheless
fascinating and essential reading in a territory
poorly represented by comparative work.
Despite the variation between chapters, some
themes emerge, though rarely with obvious
links to superficial notions of capitalist and
socialist societies.
One such theme concerns the meaning of
"free time," and hence the definitions of
leisure as a set of activities and values largely
autonomous from those of work and employ-
ment. It is very clear that while some factors
central to both leisure and work can probably
now be agreed upon, the argument still rages
at the fringes. Activities such as DIY or
cooking in the home, or even gardening, are
construed entirely differently in different
countries, according to the general status of
the economy but also the direction of any
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285
recent changes (improvement or worsening).
In fact it slowly becomes clear (as Du-
mazedier argues in his chapter) that simple
ideas of time and spending power tell us little
about the meaning of leisure to people.
This book is extremely timely, given the
changes in Eastern Europe. As attention starts
to shift from crude concepts of free time to
more sophisticated concepts, its information
and ideas could be a valuable base against
which to draw out theses about leisure as a
distinctive theme without pretending com-
plete autonomy from the continuing base of
economic production.
Psychology and Sociology of Sport: Current
Selected Research, Vol. 2, edited by LEE
VANDER VELDEN and JAMES H. HUMPHREY.
New York: AMS Press, 1990. 204 pp. $57.50
cloth. ISBN: 0-404-63402-8.
L. SUE GREER
Clinch Valley College of the
University of Virginia
This volume is less a book than a hardcover
journal. The work includes thirteen articles
divided into two parts. Part 1 contains six
psychology articles, Part 2, seven sociology
articles. Each part is introduced in less than
one page that does little more than provide
topic summaries for each article. The editors
intend this to be an annual series to
supplement journals; but unlike an established
journal, Psychology and Sociology of Sport
provides no insight on the editors' selection
criteria. Even more grievous is the lack of any
editorial commentary to frame or connect the
articles. This is especially troublesome as the
editors suggest that the volume might serve as
a text in courses on the psychology or
sociology of sport. As it stands, the work is
not well suited to classroom use.
This is also not a work for readers with a
casual interest in psychology or sociology of
sport. The most suitable audience for this
volume is academic specialists with specific
interests in one of the research areas covered
in the articles. The psychology articles cover
such diverse topics as exercise adherence, the
various factors that might affect skill perfor-
mance (such as cognitive attributions), psy-
chological characteristics, and leadership
styles.