There is a growing interest in comparative research in leisure studies and in cross-national ways of undertaking such research. In Europe in particular, it is recognized that the different academic and disciplinary traditions within which leisure research has been generated provide a fertile ground for analysis. The strengths and weaknesses of particular national traditions and schools of thought, their methodologies and their historical developments, provide the key focus of this book. By recognizing the historically nation-state bound nature of social analysis in this field, the book seeks to provide a platform for analysis which goes beyond such bounds in examining the global-local relations which are so evident in contemporary leisure. It includes six chapters on individual countries - UK, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain and Poland - as well as one on cross-national contacts and comparisons, plus introductory and concluding chapters