ABSTRACT
Resistance was particularly strong where occupational communities had formed and where the lodge or tavern was a focus not only for play but also for work culture. These communities and neighborhoods were spaces ‘won’ from the dominant culture and were not to be surrendered easily. Saloons and clubs were also important sites of resistance to class control of leisure in the United States. Some of the decline of the English pub as a source of resistance to leisure control can be attributed to changing housing patterns. The disintegration of many urban neighborhoods and the transformation of many villages into bedroom communities means that the working class has lost some of its spatial identity. The rapid expansion of the commercialized sports in the 1870s and 1880s also reflected considerable resistance to middle-class regulation. Working-class resistance in mass society is also possible through the struggle over the use and interpretation of cultural artefacts and significant symbols.
