Geography of leisure
Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Human Geography: Nature and Scope"
Meaning
Geography of leisure is a sub-field of social geography. Its sister discipline (the subject it borrows ideas from) is sociology. It studies where and how people spend their free time. It looks at places such as hill stations, beaches, parks, resorts and sports grounds. It also asks who visits them and how these places change as more people arrive.
Example
Shimla, a hill station in Himachal Pradesh in the outer Himalayas, draws crowds from the hot northern plains every summer. Geography of leisure studies why people choose it, where they come from, and how hotels, roads and markets have spread across its slopes.
Don't confuse with
- Geography of tourism: this is a sub-field of economic geography. It treats tourism as an industry that earns money. Geography of leisure looks at free time as a social activity.
Related concepts
- Social geography
- Cultural geography
- Gender geography
- Historical geography
- Medical geography
- Geography of social well-being