WORK AND LEISURE IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY<sup>*</sup>

Thomas, Keith

doi:10.1093/past/29.1.50

Cited by 119 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Most work was done in groups and seen as a collective effort, and as a social duty to others. It is important to recognize that work remained an integral part of life and was not distinguished from leisure (Thomas, 1964). In ancient civilizations like the Sumerian, Egyptian and Hellenic, most manual work was performed by slaves.…”

Section: An Historical Approach To Work Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How working is defined: structure and stability

RUIZ‐QUINTANILLA¹,

ENGLAND²

1996

J. Organiz. Behav.

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[Excerpt] Multidimensional scaling of statements that identify when individuals consider an activity in which one is engaged to be working was conducted on representative samples of the employed labor forces in Belgium, Germany, Japan and the USA at the time period 1982-83 and again at the time period 1989-92. Representative labor force samples of the employed labor forces in East Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Beijing, China studied at the time period 1991-92 were subjected to the same MDS analysis. The results provide strong support that one dominant dimension underlying the way in which people define working ranges from individual cost to social contribution. Individuals who define working in burden and/or constraint terms emphasize costs to the individual. Individuals who define working largely in responsibility and exchange terms emphasize reciprocal exchange relations between the individual and the organization/society. Individuals who define working largely in social contribution terms emphasize the social benefits of working. The work definition structures found in each of the four countries with replication samples are quite stable over time. In total, the work definition responses of over 18,000 individuals were studied. This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research, conferences, and projects available to others interested in human resource management in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions .

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Section: An Historical Approach To Work Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How working is defined: structure and stability

RUIZ‐QUINTANILLA¹,

ENGLAND²

1996

J. Organiz. Behav.

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“…Although such oppositional categories have some utility for studying industrial and post-industrial leisure, they are less applicable to pre-modern leisure in which the boundaries between labour and leisure were more fluid than fixed (e.g., Thomas, 1964). For the colonists, usefulness and enjoyment commingled in barn raisings, harvest festivals, corn-husking, and in contests such as hammer-throwing, now a popular "sport" divorced from its original context (Struna, 1996, pp.…”

Section: Explaining Explanations: Puritan Killjoy As Mythmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problematizing puritan play

Johnson¹

2009

Leisure/Loisir

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate several of the most commonly used American introductory textbooks in the field of recreation and leisure studies with respect to their historical treatment of colonial recreation and the Puritans in the United States. Most of these texts contain numerous errors with respect to both recreation legislation and recreation practice, effectively perpetuating an ahistorical image of the dour Puritan. The dour Puritan, it is suggested, functions as a "myth"-i.e., an essentialized narrative that castigates the story's characters in order to serve the storyteller's present purposes. The Puritans thus function as a proxy for those who continue to advocate instrumental or oppositional recreation ethics, and as a foil to those authors advocating a more expressivist ethic. Finally, I suggest that this reductivist myth is not only a disservice to our historical understanding of the past, but also to the complexities and nuances of recreation ethics more generally.Résumé. Le but de cette étude était d'évaluer plusieurs manuels de loisir utilisé au niveau d'introduction dans plusieurs universités américaines. Plus spécifiquement nous avons examiné l'interprétation puritaine du loisir. La plupart de ces textes perpétuent effectivement une image traditionnelle du puritain sévère qui s'oppose aux loisirs, ces images et descriptions puritaines contiennent de nombreuses erreurs en ce qui concerne la perception puritaine du loisir. Dans ce contexte, le puritain sévère, on suggère, fonctionne comme « mythe ». Le Puritanism fonctionne ainsi comme préposée pour ceux qui continuent à préconiser l'éthique instrumentale ou oppositionnelle de loisir. En conclusion, je propose que ce mythe de l'opposition aux loisirs par les puritains ne reconnaît pas les faits historiques et néglige le contexte sociohistorique.

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“…Simplified, it says that preindustrial workers were constitutionally incapable of distinguishing work from leisure (Thomas, 1964; Thompson, 1967). And because they were incapable of establishing boundaries around work and leisure, they were, by the same token, supposed to have been incapable of establishing boundaries around when and where they might drink alcohol.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Good Help is Hard to Find: A Few Comments About Alcohol and Work in Preindustrial England

Warner

1995

Addiction Research

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Alcohol was an accepted and at times necessary complement to work in preindustrial England. It enabled laborers to endure the hardship of performing manual labor for 12 or more hours a day, and additionally enabled them to endure extremes of heat and cold. Employers' attitudes toward drinking on the job tended to vary according to the availability of labor: when it was scarce, as it was from the second half of the fourteenth century until the end of the Middle Ages, employers had no choice but to tolerate fairly heavy drinking both on and off the job: when labor was plentiful, as it was throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods, employers sought to control recreational drinking, while continuing to tolerate strictly occupational drinking.The Plow-man and Carter that toyles al the day, And tires himselfe quite at the Plough taile, Will speak no lesse things, than of Queenes and of Kings, Correspondence to: Dr.

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WORK AND LEISURE IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY^*

Cited by 119 publications

References 0 publications

How working is defined: structure and stability

How working is defined: structure and stability

Problematizing puritan play

Good Help is Hard to Find: A Few Comments About Alcohol and Work in Preindustrial England

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WORK AND LEISURE IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY*

Cited by 119 publications

References 0 publications

How working is defined: structure and stability

How working is defined: structure and stability

Problematizing puritan play

Good Help is Hard to Find: A Few Comments About Alcohol and Work in Preindustrial England

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

WORK AND LEISURE IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY^*