Despite his influence on those interested by leisure, Marx's own conception of leisure is rarely discussed. Insofar as it is, he is generally either thought to see leisure as free time or as indistinct from necessary labour in communist society. In this article, I suggest that by reading Capital and the Grundrisse through an Aristotelian lens, we can find a third potential conception of leisure in Marx, which shares three features in common with Aristotle's. Leisure is distinct from free time simpliciter, it is a “state-condition” people are in when they perform ends in themselves, and it is constitutive of the final end. I conclude that adopting a conception of leisure grounded in this Marxian conception could have implications for contemporary debates around free time and the value of leisure goods like arts and culture.

Using pre- and post-visit reflection papers from a third-year undergraduate leisure and aging course, this paper describes the ways in which an intergenerational service-learning project fostered greater understanding of aging, long-term care (LTC) homes and the people who reside in them. Partnering with a LTC home in the Niagara Region of Ontario, 50 students gathered first-hand life stories from older adults over a period of 5 weeks. In pairs, students considered course content in relation to stories of life transitions they have yet to experience and reflected on generational similarities and differences. The overall project incorporated biography and photography-based assignments in order to create individual narratives for each participant in the project. Supplementary coursework enabled students to develop skills related to creative representation of the stories (e.g., lessons on photography and biography writing). This intergenerational project culminated with an exhibit of students’ work at the end of the term, attended by our storytellers, their families and friends as well as staff at the home. In pre- and post-visit reflection assignments, students described how their experiences disrupted assumptions they held about older adults, LTC homes and the experience of aging.

This paper presents the results of a study on the relationships between social participation and use of services. The hypotheses predicted that members of groups with high degrees of participation, cohesion, or participation and cohesion are likely to behave in a more homogeneous manner toward the use of services than members of groups having the opposite characteristics. The hypotheses were tested by doing multiple regressions on the number of service agencies contacted, preventive medical consultations and curative medical consultations. One of the hypotheses was corroborated by a major finding: being a member of a group with a high degree of participation and a high degree of cohesion remains positively correlated to curative medical consultations even when control variables like psychological well-being and perceived health have been considered. This result suggests that it could be possible to influence the use of services by older persons who are members of peer groups in dealing with the internal dynamics of these groups.

This study evaluates the leisure participation of tenants, living in two apartment buildings in relation to sex, maternal language, education, leisure motivation and participation in a senior citizen's club. The data analysed through a general linear model revealed five statistically significant types of leisure activities: (a) parochial, (b) physical, (c) popular, (d) social, and (e) organized groups. The implications of these results for recreation specialists working with the elderly in apartment buildings are discussed.

Statistics concerning the aging of Quebec's population raise the question of the changes in the lifestyle of elderly people. What do these people do? What trends are emerging in the ways in which they occupy themselves? Are there constraints to the practice of some activities? To answer these questions, we have prepared a summary of many documents collected during a research project on the leisure activities of Quebec's elderly. These documents show that Quebec's elderly are in a better financial position today, retire earlier from work and are more active than their predecessors. Rates of participation in most physical, cultural and educational activities, in volunteer work and the proportion of elderly people who travel have increased during the 1980s. Thus, it seems that leisure is now a fundamental dimension of the life of these people. But elderly people cannot do all the activities they would like because of constraints which limit or prohibit them. If these constraints were eliminated, elderly people would be more active. Researchers should therefore continue to study changes affecting the pattern of activities of elderly people and at the same time, social practitioners should help them to remain active as long as possible.

This study descriptively compares two older Canadian seasonal migrant populations in Florida: anglophones and francophones. It is based on two surveys, an anglophone survey conducted in 1986 and a non-probability survey of francophones in 1988. This exploratory study suggests that there may be little variation in the demographic profiles, migration experience and behaviour, living arrangements and social networks between the two types of seasonal migrants. The differences that do emerge, however, are interesting. There were strikingly different settlement patterns in Florida, and the francophones were more youthful and had larger families, contributing to larger social support networks.

Leisure represents a positive way to keep relationships satisfactory between caregivers and a person with dementia. Adapted leisure education is a promising approach to assist the family to discover new ways to share good times with their relatives. This study aimed to develop an adapted leisure education program. It included an evaluation of the caregivers’ needs, the program content development, and a pilot study to experiment with the content of the program. Three focus groups of dementia caregivers (n = 19) were conducted to investigate caregivers needs. Based on content analysis of these focus groups and a literature review, the content of the program was developed. The pilot study (n = 4) included a quasi-experimental trial and an implementation evaluation. This study led to the development of an adapted leisure education program that puts caregiver support in a new perspective, focusing on positive aspects rather than the burden of caregiving.