Recording Leisure Lives:
histories, archives & memories of leisure in 20th century Britain


A one day conference on 18th March 2008 hosted by the University of Bolton with Bolton Museum and Archive Service
In partnership with the Leisure Studies Association

 

  The opening of a permanent exhibition at Bolton Museum of Humphrey Spender's photographs from Mass Observation offers a timely opportunity to reflect on how leisure has been recorded, archived and understood in 20th century Britain. 

The Mass Observation movement in the inter-war period changed the ways in which the lives of ordinary people were represented. The focus of this social investigation was Bolton ~ re-named as Worktown. The leisure lives of the Worktowners were of particular interest to Mass Observation and this work has shaped the landscapes of leisure history. The conference draws on this focus on the inter-war years as a period which reconfigured Victorian attitudes to recreation while heralding the emergence of new forms of mass leisure. This was a time of continuities and changes. This conference will explore both leisure practices and contexts and the ways in which these have been historicised throughout the 20th century.

Keynote Speakers

  • John Walton, Professor of Social History in the Institute for Northern Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University.
  • Mike Huggins, Reader in Cultural History, University of Cumbria
  • Matthew Constantine, Senior Manager, Museums & Archives Collections, Bolton Museum

Who is the conference for?    Historians of leisure, tourism and popular culture, leisure studies researchers, archivists and curators, local historians, historical geographers and those with an interest in any aspect of leisure in the twentieth century. This conference coincides with the launch of the Worktown Exhibition at Bolton Museum.

 

Themes

  • Everyday leisure practices
  • Leisure customs: heritage and nostalgia
  • Archiving and representing leisure
  • Mass production and mass consumption
  • Mapping the history of leisure spaces
  • Whose leisure lives? Social identities and leisure

PROGRAMME DETAILS (click here)

Organisers: Dr. Bob Snape, University of Bolton at r.snape@bolton.ac.uk and
Helen Pussard, Roehampton University at h.pussard@roehampton.ac.uk

A post-conference volume will be published by the Leisure Studies Association.
Presenters and attenders will receive a complimentary copy of the Publication.

For further details please see the conference website
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/conferences/leisurelives

Cost    Full day fee including lunch £20; Concessions (Students and non-waged) £15. 

       

 Photos © Bolton Council, from the Collections of Bolton Museum and Archive Service
This page first posted September 22, 2007 by M. McFee mcfee@solutions-inc.co.uk
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