LEISURE STUDIES - PAST AND FUTURE

The striking development that leisure sciences has undergone during th e 20th century has generated some usual outcomes in the social science s, one of them being the fragmentation of knowledge. Two major problem s lie at the bottom of the difficulties that are confronting the leisu re sciences: the changing character of leisure and the fact that leisu re studies have reached saturation point. In spite of a positive asses sment of their scientific value, leisure studies have to undergo an in tellectual reconstruction. Such venture is needed in order to define t heir true intellectual, scientific and empiric contribution to the kno wledge of contemporary societies and the development of social science s.