Time, Leisure and Well-Being

Introduction, Part 1: Leisure, work and well-being: Through a historical lens, 1. Leisure that never existed before: A historical perspective, 2. Was Plato a friend or a foe of leisure?, 3 Aristotle: Philosopher of leisure and happiness, 4. Leisure in Ancient Rome: Otium and Panem et Circenses, 5. Seneca: Philosopher of tranquillity and sadness, 6. St. Augustine: Leisure and happiness in the Earthly City and the City of God, 7. Thomas Aquinas: Vita activa or vita contemplativa?, 8. From the Vale of tears to the Renaissance, 9. Work and leisure in Thomas More’s Utopia, 10. Montaigne’s Essays and Pascal’s Pensées: Of diversion and happiness, 11. Enlightenment’s vision of work, leisure and the arts, 12. Adam Smith: Capitalism with a human face?, 13. The 19th century…Was there ever a Golden Age?, 14. Alexis de Tocqueville: Why are Americans restless amidst prosperity?, 15. Karl Marx: Between the ‘realm of freedom’ and ‘material necessity’, 16. Emile Durkheim: Of labour, leisure, and anomie, 17. Max Weber: Of work ethic, leisure, and disenchantment, 18. Thorstein Veblen: From the ethics of work to conspicuous consumption, 19. The 20th century: farewell to the "belle époque", 20. Johan Huizinga: Sub specie ludi, 21. Pitirim Sorokin: At the crossroad of Ideational and Sensate cultures, 22. Joseph Pieper: Apology for vita contemplativa, 23. Hannah Arendt: Of ‘human condition’, 24. From the Middletown and Middletown in Transition to The Lonely Crowd, 25. Leisure research yesterday and today: Quo Vadis?, Part II: Leisure, work and well-being: Changing the diopter, 26. What happened to the society of leisure? Two scenarios, 27. Work-leisure relationship: The ‘long arm of work’?, 28. Leisure and social prestige: Keeping up with the Joneses?, 29. The pros and cons of the ‘democratization of culture’, 30. Of happiness, leisure and riches, Conclusion