"Amateur" and "Hobbyist" as Concepts for the Study of Leisure Problems

One of the social problems of our age is how to achieve durable benefits from our leisure in a culture that stresses the evanescent variety. Many scholars believe that leisure returning only evanescent benefits, which is most of mass or popular leisure, is a low-yield use of free time. But people in many walks of life do seem to find more durable benefits from their leisure activities. We need better concepts with which to organize research, theory, and policy pertaining to such leisure. The ideas of “amateur” and “hobbyist” are proposed and briefly discussed in an attempt to eliminate this conceptual void.