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The authors argue that leisure should be considered a primary institution in advanced industrial societies. The increasingly organized nature of contemporary leisure and the prominence of leisure activities in the search for communal bonds are viewed as the primary factors contributing to the emergence of leisure as a major social institution.

In this essay we discuss changes in the cultural meaning and significance of time in postmodernism. We begin by examining the experience of time and space in the Middle Ages and its radical alteration following the Renaissance. After a relatively brief period of optimism during the Enlightenment regarding the scientific control over time and space, a new crisis beginning in the mid‐nineteenth century emphasized the increasing disjuncture between external, objective notions of time and the way time was experienced subjectively. We argue that the current literature on time and post‐modernity is best understood in this context, where earlier disequilibriating effects brought about by modern technologies are exacerbated by new developments in transportation and communications technology. Here we discuss the particular effects on topics of interest to social scientists such as changes in notions of personal identity and the effacement of historical time. We conclude with a call for more empirically grounded work on questions concerning time in postmodernism. We lament the paucity of concrete data as well as the excess of useless polemics and recommend several researchers already conducting work in this field.

An addition to an already diverse body of empirical work within cultural studies research is offered by analyzing the mystification of the labor process for children attending Build-A-Bear Workshops. First it is briefly described how customers "build" their own commodities at these Workshops and how the production of stuffed animals at the stores is constructed as an experience that hides the true nature of capitalist manufacturing and service work. It is argued that these Workshops place children in the role of supervisors engaged in facilitating the sort of flexible production that characterizes the contemporary work process. It is noted how the process of naming and creating "birth records" for the stuffed animals allows Build-A-Bear Workshops to collect valuable personal information on individuals and families. In sum, it is found that Build-A-Bear Workshops socialize children into the commodification of sentiment, the role of middle managers, and a lifestyle of consuming prefabricated products and experiences.