Constructed leisure space

Few writers have commented on how seaside leisure spaces are socially constructed, who competes for their use, and how they may change. This paper discusses how these spaces have been identified and partitioned at Durban, South Africa, as new tourist populations discover them. Given the history of ethnic separation and contemporary social and political change in this country, attention is focussed on the extent to which groups retain and express a sense of identity in the construction of leisure spaces. Selected spaces are discussed to illustrate how they may be constructed around notions of cultural identity, the possession of particular skills, or access to scarce spatial and material resources.