Robert A. Stebbins is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Canada. A specialist in the study of leisure, he has written over 250 articles and chapters, and has authored and edited more than 50 books.

Acknowledging that the challenge facing social science is how to inject some order into the common-sense notion of leisure lifestyles, this book, written by a major player in the field of leisure, considers how to turn the study of both serious and casual leisure into a useful concept for guiding research.