This landmark publication brings together some of the most perceptive commentators of the present moment to explore core ideas and cutting edge developments in the field of Leisure Studies. It offers important new insights into the dynamics of the transformation of leisure in contemporary societies, tracing the emergent issues at stake in the discipline and examining Leisure Studies' fundamental connections with cognate disciplines such as Sociology, Cultural Studies, History, Sport Studies and Tourism.
This book contains original work from key scholars across the globe, including those working outside the Leisure Studies mainstream. It showcases the state of the art of contemporary Leisure Studies, covering key topics and key thinkers from the psychology of leisure to leisure policy, from Bourdieu to Baudrillard, and suggests that leisure in the 21st century should be understood as centring on a new 'Big Seven' (holidays, drink, drugs, sex, gambling, TV and shopping). No other book has gone as far in redefining the identity of the discipline of Leisure Studies, or in suggesting how the substantive ideas of Leisure Studies need to be rethought. The Routledge Handbook of Leisure Studies should therefore be the intellectual guide of first choice for all scholars, academics, researchers and students working in this subject area.
Introduction Part 1: Key Disciplines 1. Philosophy of Leisure 2. The Making of Modern Leisure: the British experience from c1850-c 1960 3. Feminist Leisure Studies: Origins, accomplishments and prospects 4. Psychology of Leisure 5. Economics of Leisure 6. Leisure Management: Moving with the times 7. Leisure Policy: The example of sport 8. Research Positions, Postures and Practices in Leisure Studies Part 2: Key Thinkers 9. Theodor W. Adorno, the Culture Industry and Leisure 10. The Leisure Class: From Veblen to Linder to MacCannell 11. Norbert Elias and Leisure Studies 12. Michel Foucault and Leisure 13. Leisure at the End of Modernity: Jürgen Habermas on the purpose of leisure 14. Chris Rojek 15. Two Sociologists: Pierre Bourdieu and Zygmunt Bauman 16. What They Did On Their Holidays: Virilio, Baudrillard, leisure studies and post-theory Part 3: Leisure as a Socio-Cultural Phenomenon 17. Social Class, Culture and Leisure 18. Leisure in Culture 19. Racisms and Minority Experiences of Amateur Football in the UK and Europe 20. Family Leisure 21. Gendered Freedoms and Constraints for Young Women Socializing in Bars and Clubs 22. Leisure and the Life Course 23. Lifestyle and Leisure Theory 24. The Leisured Nature of Tourism: A sociological critique Part 4: The Big Seven Leisure Pursuits 25. The Annual Holiday: Its rise, transformations, expansion, and fragmentation 26. Demonizing Drink: An historical perspective on alcohol and moral regulation in Britain 27. From the Back Street to the High Street: Commercial gambling and the commodification of chance 28. Leisure Sex: More sex! Better sex! Sex is f***ing brilliant! Sex, sex, sex, SEX 29. Television and Cultural Citizenship 30. Recreational Drug Use and the Club Scene 31. How Shopping Changed Leisure Part 5: Uses of Leisure 32. Abnormal Leisure and Normalization 33. Behind the Curtain: Home-based work and leisure spaces 34. Consumerism as Shaped by the Pursuit of Leisure 35. Leisure and Higher Education 36. Leisure, National Identity and Celebrating National Difference 37. Social Capitalism and Leisure Policy Reconsidered 38. Serious Leisure: The case of groundhopping 39. Volunteering as Leisure, Leisure as Volunteering 40. Yin and Yang: The relationship of leisure and work Part 6: New Directions 41. Cultural Tourism 42. Event Management 43. Extreme Leisure Pursuits: Origins and future directions 44. Leisure, Community, and Politics 45. Ethnicity, Racism and the Real Social Value of Sport 46. The Labour of Leisure Reconsidered 47. Virtual Leisure 48. Youth Culture, Leisure and Lifestyle: From subcultures to post-subcultures 49. The Meaning of Liquid Leisure
