Work and leisure in the Middle East: the common ground of two separate worlds

<p align=""justify""> Community involvement and leisure are rarely mentioned in mass media coverage of the Middle East and North Africa. Yet leisure and community involvement form a part of life in the region, and are becoming increasingly significant as modernization becomes pervasive.

This work seeks to examine how the interconnection of work and leisure operates in a culture far removed from North American or European traditions. </p> <p align=""justify""> Robert A.

Stebbins argues that the Middle East is a region in the throes of a developmental crisis, one of cultural underdevelopment.

He indicates that while leisure and community involvement may be labeled as largely trivial activities, they in fact involve a nexus that crosses with the labor process.

Discussing activities as diverse as theater and falconry, rotary clubs and brutal leisure—such as acts of terrorism and revolutionary violence—Stebbins offers a variety sufficient enough to confirm that cultural development through leisure, work, and community involvement has been possible.</p> <p> To provide the background for this argument, Stebbins explains what community involvement is, how it fosters cultural development, and offers a look at contemporary leisure and work in a changing economic climate.

This is a unique look both at community involvement in the Middle East and how it has affected the cultural, political, and religious crisis.

The book concludes by proposing that a new view of work and leisure may serve to override social divisions and traditional impediments to cultural development.</p>