Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
access to a car combined have a significant impact on participation, and as Patmore
(1983) succinctly summarised,
those with more skilled and responsive occupations, with higher incomes,
with ready access to private transport and with a longer period spent in
full-time education tend to lead a more active and varied leisure life, with
less emphasis on passive recreations both within and beyond the home.
(Patmore 1983:78)
It is the car which has provided the greatest degree of personal mobility and access to a
wider range of recreational opportunities in time and space since the 1960s in many
developed countries (and earlier in some cases such as the USA and Canada). For
example, most car-owning households in UK studies have twice the propensity to
participate in sport and recreation than non-car-owning households (Hillman and Whalley
1977). Even so, Martin and Mason (1979) observe that
one of the paradoxes of leisure is that while time and money are
complementary in the production of leisure activities, they are competitive
in terms of the resources available to the individual. Some leisure time
and some money to buy leisure goods and services are both needed before
most leisure activities can be pursued.
(Martin and Mason 1979:62)
The issue of accessibility and financial resources also raises issues of social inclusion,
which are dealt with more fully later in the topic. However, as Mather (2003) observed,
participation in outdoor recreation (as opposed to leisure per se) is closely correlated with
socio-economic status and affluence, which posits that lower socio-economic groups
have a lower participation rate, due to constraints such as a lack of supply and limitations
from financial resources. In a rural context, Slee (2002) noted that in a survey of visits to
the countryside in 1998, among the 17 per cent of the sample respondents who did not
visit, no interest or no appeal were key reasons for not visiting rather than financial
reasons. Therefore, arguments that increasing supply to meet perceived demand due to
constraints may not necessarily be a valid argument. Indeed, Curry (2001) found in
England and Wales between 1990 and 1997 a net growth in access to land of 450,000 ha.
Even so, Mather (2003) debates the implications of the new legislation in England and
Wales (The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000) and Scotland (The Land Reform
(Scotland) Act 2003) which extend the legal
