The Brixton Recreation Centre: An Analysis of a Political Institution

A small scale survey (N = 328) was carried out at the Brixton Recreation Centre against a background of youth unemployment and of the effect on young people's socio-cultural life style. An aspect of this concern centred on the role of recreation, sport and leisure easing a depressed environment. This is a précis of the conclusion of a 60 page report on six months findings. The main tenet challenged in this paper is the questioning of the function and role of recreation, sport and leisure in dealing with questions of the effect of unemployment and disillusionment, the questioning of politically motivated initiatives that hold hard and fast to ideological principles at any cost. Can sport, recreative and leisure facilities compensate for social disadvantage and inequalities in any real sense?