Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

The leisure industry has an irrefutable connection with food, which may be why many do not view dining, for leisure purposes, as a contemporary practice. Albeit that it is well documented that restaurants only started emerging in Britain a little over a century ago and tables at them were almost exclusively reserved for privileged male members of societies’ elite. Data that has been collected indicates that this emergent leisure practice was then stunted by both the first and second world wars and subsequent food import restrictions and rationing. Following post-World War Two austerity, there was economic growth and deep discursive shifts in Britain’s organisation, which saw the apparent dilution of social constructs, such as “class,” “gender” and “race.” This paper will argue that it was these conditions that led to a perceived inclusivity that began to be observed in British leisure practices of the 70s, which aided the growth of the modern dining industry. Yet, did dining really become an inclusive leisure practice? This paper seeks to outline and unpack narratives, using a methodology that follows the tradition of historical sociology, in order to not only further delineate the emergence of dining, as a leisure practice, in Britain, but to also assess if the social systems of power, evident in early restaurants, were deconstructed or if they remain attached to this segment of the leisure industry.