Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
contemporary leisure in Poland as a cultural form and the change from mass consumption
of communist forms of leisure to more westernised individually consumed forms of
leisure). Although one consequence of austerity programmes to deal with budget deficits,
a number of pre- and post-communist data sources exist to reconstruct leisure
participation, while individual researchers have also tracked changes such as the gender
differences in leisure time (Tarkowska 2002) and the impact on disability on leisure
(Siwiñski 1998). The government Central Statistical Office (GUS) collects the majority
of data, published in its Polish language study, the Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of
Poland, on an annual basis, with tourism data compiled by the Institute of Tourism
(http://www.intur.com.pl/). Jung (1996) noted that over the period between 1972 and
1990, participation trends showed the following:
• Listening to the radio and watching television remained the dominant activities in terms
of participation.
• Former communist culture activities, such as going to the cinema, theatre and opera,
declined in importance from over half of the population in 1972 to under one-third by
1990.
• Economic and political reforms in the 1980s may account for a sharp decline in
participation of consumption of high forms of culture (e.g. visiting museums,
exhibitions and concert halls).
More detailed time budget studies have been examined by Olszewska (1989) and Jung
(1996) highlighted a number of key global influences upon leisure participation: a
growing media influence on mass culture, outbound travel by the Polish population (and
inbound tourism), despite the withdrawal of state social subsidies for holiday travel. The
electronic mass media also had an impact on leisure consumption. In the post-communist
era, problems associated with the commercialisation of leisure and a growing polarisation
of wealth, less economic security, rising unemployment and increasing rates of crime
provide a new context for leisure participation.
These three examples of recreational demand show that the patterns of leisure
activities for each population exhibit a common range of characteristics, in terms of the
predominance of passive activities, and the constraints of urban living which largely
structure the time budgets of those in employment due to weekday work commitments. In
other words, the patterns of demand highlighted in the three national surveys point to the
existence of factors which facilitate and constrain recreational activities in each particular
context. Even so, it is important to recognise the current criticisms and concerns with
national participation surveys observed by Cushman et al. (1996b:12): 'Recently surveys
have had a “bad press” from academics, particularly in light of the growing popularity—
and indeed orthodoxy—of qualitative research methods in the field'. As a result,
qualitative researchers point to the shortcomings, limitations and somewhat outmoded
approach of quantitative 'positivist' research methods (see Johnston 1991 for a discussion
of philosophical perspectives on geography, geographers and research methodologies).
However, so far the discussion of demand has focused on national patterns, and therefore
attention now turns to the regional level to examine the contribution the geographer can
make to the analysis of demand within a regional geographic framework.
