Leisure and Work in the Pre-Industrial and Industrial Era Essay

Leisure and Work in the Pre-Industrial and Industrial Era Essay Leisure and Work in the Pre-Industrial and Industrial Era â€" Essay Example > The paper “ Leisure and Work in the Pre-Industrial and Industrial Era”   is a worthy version of an   essay on history. Leisure can be defined, as the time when one is free from work or other duties. This means that during leisure time one is free to do anything he/she wishes without using a plan. On the other hand, work is a term that can be applied to a whole range of human activities. In its widest sense, work means any human activity whether manual/physical, intellectual or both. In this sense, work includes everything that human beings do. The issues concerning leisure and work can be traced as back as in the creation story found in the Book of Genesis where God created all things in six days and rested on the seventh day (Morris 2000). Massive changes have occurred as regards the relationship between work and leisure over time and this can be attributed to the increased secularization of society. The key factors that have contributed greatly to this change include: the waning control of the church, the multicultural facet of Australian society, augmented geographical mobility, changing work patterns and the significance of the weekend. People are increasingly taking part in leisure activities than in the past and this is due to the need for social involvement, peer group associations, the building of self-respect and personality, community expectations and morals. Leisure and Work in the Pre-Industrial EraIt is difficult to ascertain whether the pre-industrial societies engaged in leisure activities as they had no clear demarcations between time spent engaging in work and time spent on other leisure activities. However, we can say that the time they left over from such activities might probably be deemed leisure time. The importance of taking part in leisure activities gained momentum with the emergence of the middle and working classes during the industrial era. All through, there has been a slackening of work requirements (Dumazedier 1967). Early scholars such as Haworth and Smith (1975) noted that the traditional aboriginal societies he came in touch within the 19th and early 20th century, met their restricted material needs with the restricted expenditure of time. This left them with extra time, energy and passion to be spent on other secondary needs after having satisfied they're when basic needs. During this time they engaged in leisure activities such as having a rest, singing and dancing, fellowshipping and conducting religious rituals. The increase in the population called for specialized occupations such as chiefs, warriors and priests, ‘ the leisure class’ , who did not engage in any labor-intensive work but got their income from the rest- a phenomenal which remained persistent even in the industrial era. Members of the elite were exempted from work, thus creating the class divide between work and leisure (Cunningham 1980). One of the more well-known postulations during the 19th century was that new forms of technology, which saw workers being replaced with machines replacing, would lead to a decrease in work and an increase in leisure. Philosophers like Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill predicted a leisure society where material wealth would decrease the call for demanding workdays and create time for more authentic pursuits. Even so, things did not turn out as anticipated. Advanced technology combined by social, religious and economic factors emphasized hard work and obstructed the possibility of leisure. According to Heidegger, we have been integrated into the technological world and hence we invariably fall prey to its assumptions and habits which emphasis speed, competence, efficacy, and productivity. The technology era has made our lives to become busier. These historical drifts, signifying that the working hours of most workers in the pre-industrial era were considerably shorter than those of indu strial workers at the height of the industrial revolution, are widely accepted (Thomas 1997).