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Abstract
Accompanying the great advances In production techniques, the increase in leisure tine, the development of new nodes of transportation, end the emergence of a new set of. attitudes and desires, recreation has come to assume a new role in our economy, and in our social life. The open country summer home Is one form of recreational unit that has come into prominence with this general development. Because of the comparatively large size of many summer home holdings, and their usual location in rather sparsely settled rural areas, any concentrated summer home development brings about fundamental changes in the pattern of economic, social, and political organization. Frictions and problems are created among many groups. The people being replaced, the people replacing them, neighbors, taxpayers, business men, and laborers in the town ore all confronted with new economic and social relationships. How are the several groups affected in the transition? This is one problem worthy of note. A second deals with more far-reaching social implications, the effects of such a shift on the utilization of productive resources, and hence longtime economic welfare. Land, as a scarce and productive resource, should he utilized where it will yield the greatest social net product, under existing economic and social conditions. In order to achieve maximum productivity, legal and social arrangements should be such that it can he transferred from one use to another as changing conditions warrant. What are the obstacles to its transference? Is there anything in the nature of its present use that hinders its shifting into summer home use when the latter seems desirable? And as a corollary, is there anything in the nature of summer home use that might hinder its shifting again into another use should conditions warrant?
Research pertaining to these questions nay be directed toward the accumulation of a body of knowledge concerning the general functioning of our economic and social system, and the formulation of principles in regard to the general problem of economy in the use of land, or toward more practical objectives, as a basis for the direction of social and economic policy. The initial consideration is foremost in this study; but it is hoped that whatever light is shed on the problem may be of value in the formulation of social, economic, and land use planning policy in areas of summer home adaptation. Considerable research has been done in the field of public recreational land use. Very little has been done in the field of private recreational land use, and toward an understanding of the place of the summer home in the whole recreational scheme of society. The present study is an attempt to fill, in a measure, this gap in our knowledge.
