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Abstract: This paper represents something of a history of the future. It seeks to examine, in the context of the USA and Britain, debates over the future of work that have taken place during the 20th century, and have continued into the 21st. Such debates, often classics of the futurological genre, might be caricatured as fantastic predictions of a leisured utopia, but are often in fact both more sober, and more nuanced, than such a depiction would suggest. The present paper will explore the common themes that structure future of work debates, and discourses of the future of work will be placed in social and historical context. Most importantly, the paper will uncover commonalities in understandings of what it means to be creative and free in modern society, understandings that are central to the future of work, and indeed the future in general. The paper will, in conclusion, addresses the possible reasons for a decline in predictions of a leisured future, and a growing awareness amongst commentators that work is very much here to stay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the importance of leisure as a field of sociology in Great Britain and the problems faced by it. The article makes observation that there is a lack of research in the field of sociology within a theoretical framework in Great Britain. It also rues over the fact that none of the books published on the subject of leisure has been written by a sociologist. Work has been done only on two areas, namely to assess the influence of various social factors on the content and meaning of leisure and to build a theory of relation of leisure with work. There are a small number of studies of the extent of leisure facilities provided by business enterprises and their use by the general public. The research in this field has so far been a scattered effort of a few public bodies, study groups and few academics. Apart from these bodies, the Institute of Social Research in London has undertaken a study of the leisure needs of three communities , the extent to which these needs are satisfied, and their unfulfilled needs and aspirations.