Leisure phenomenon: history and modern age

Social and cultural transformations in the present-day world, influenced by globalisation and sub-cultural differentiation, haveled to changes in every sphere of social being. Leisure area has especially been changed. Globalisation phenomenon and cultural diversity havecomplicated leisure structure and created a vast variety of leisure activities. The first change can be conditionally called axiological. The secondchange is related to the way of the leisure space organization. This type of changing can be conditionally called regulative, in which we candistinguish two types of social and cultural transformations such as centralized, which is carried out by state social and cultural policy; and selforganized,which occurs chaotically, spontaneously in the social milieu. The last type is marked by synergetics, provoking permanent evolutionin leisure activities. The third change is connected with the leisure format. Leisure time has become non-uniform, proceeding in three parallels -real, virtual and ideal ones. Leisure category originally ascends to the Ancient Greek culture. Leisure was an essential part of a persons life, itwas central in the social institutions system; it was praised by Socrates as a precious condition, as an inherency of life in the Ancient Greeksociety, in his opinion. Tackling the Ideal State problem, Aristotle, as well as Plato, answered the question concerning leisure significance in apersons life. According to Aristotle, the aims of a free person should coincide with the aims of the State in a well-organized society, or agreeand reach consonance with each other. Leisure was a criterion not only of the human in a person, but also the super-human - divine. The estimationcriterion was wisdom, the range of intelligence acquired at leisure time. The most valuable thing was freedom of thought and artistic imagination,building up the human in a person and drawing it closer to God. The 20th century crisis of culture, which means humane cognition crisisas well, disharmonised the current world order and made the Ideal State image inapproachable. Escape from Nature into Megapolises broughthumankind to worldwide, global problems, which lead to extreme shifts in the ecosphere and misbalance in the existing social being structure;and as a whole - to homeostasis disorder not only in the material sphere, but also in the spiritual one, which leisure belongs to as well.

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