Leisure Policies in Europe

This book contains a series of nine nation-state based accounts of leisure policy and seeks to develop in its editorial introduction and conclusion, an analysis of major national and transnational influences and trends in leisure policy. Chapters provided relate not simply to Western Europe and the European Community (Britain, France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands and Spain), but also to Scandinavia (Sweden) and the former Communist bloc (Poland, and the former USSR). Policy change in each of these national systems is documented and evaluated, while the editorial chapters seek to evaluate the significance for leisure policy in: (1) the West, the shift from social democratic welfare based policy to entrepreneurial policy approaches, and (2) the East, the role of leisure policy in the move towards market based economies. The book brings together for the first time accounts of leisure policy provided by national experts and theoretically informed analyses of such developments on the European level.