Recording Leisure Lives: Everyday Leisure in twentieth century Britain

A one day conference on 19th April 2011 at Bolton Museum

Presented by the University of Bolton and Bolton Museum and Archive Service in collaboration with the Leisure Studies Association

The Recording Leisure Lives conferences draw their inspiration from the Humphrey Spender Mass Observation 'Work town' photographs held at Bolton Museum. The 2011 conference adopts the theme of Everyday Leisure in twentieth century Britain and seeks to explore the ways in this has been documented and interpreted.

The conference will be of interest to social and cultural historians, archivists and curators, documentary photographers and anyone with an interest in histories of twentieth century leisure.

Keynote Speakers

David Fowler (University of Cambridge )
Nick Hubble (Brunel University)
Claire Langhamer (University of Sussex)

David Fowler is an historian of twentieth century Britain with a strong interdisciplinary focus and has interests in modern British youth cultures, the history and sociology of juvenile and youth delinquency and intellectuals and popular culture.  His most recent publication is Rolf Gardiner and English Culture, 1920-1950: the Apostle of Youth (forthcoming, Manchester University Press, 2010).

Nick Hubble has an interdisciplinary approach to literary, cultural and social analysis and has   a particular interest in the historical and theoretical study of everyday life in the twentieth century and in Mass-Observation. His book Mass-Observation and Everyday Life: Culture, History, Theory was published in 2006 with an updated re-issue in 2010.

Claire Langhamer is well known as a leisure historian through her several publications which include Women's Leisure in England 1920-1960 published by Manchester University Press in 2000. She is currently working on a number of projects including a collaborative project with Dr Ian Gazeley (University of Sussex) on happiness and economic well-being in 1930s Britain, based on the analysis of a Mass-Observation study carried out in 1938.

Call for Papers

We welcome proposals (max. 300 words) for papers of twenty minutes that address any aspect of holidays and tourism in 20th century Britain under one or more of the conference sub-themes:

• Hobbies, homes and 'hidden' leisure practices
• The gendering of everyday leisure
• Time and space: mapping leisure communities
• Representing everyday leisure experiences
• Memories and mementoes: archiving everyday leisure
• Theorising history, leisure and the everyday

Proposals should be submitted to Bob Snape  r.snape@bolton.ac.uk|  AND to Daniel Smith Daniel.Smith@bolton.gov.uk|  by Friday 21st January 2011
 As with all Recording Leisure Lives conferences there will be a post-conference volume of refereed papers published by the Leisure Studies Association. All presenters are invited to submit their paper for publication.
Fees
£35 full;   £20 Students and Unwaged
This site will be updated as more details become available.