The Social Circles of Leisure: Competing Explanations

This paper illustrates some theoretical possibilities for research on leisure behavior. There is an attempt to make explicit two hypotheses which often are implicit in our explanations of variation in leisure behavior. The origins, utility and limitations of these two hypotheses — "compensatory" and "familiarity" — are examined by using data on three styles of family camping. When confronted with these data, it appears that both familiarity and compensatory desires converge upon a specific activity. To understand the sources of this convergence, a third hypothesis — "personal community" — seems a useful alternative. This hypothesis suggests that the nature of those intimate social circles which surround the individual may be the crucial determinant of variation in leisure style. Our data on family camping suggest that future research should consider such a possibility.