Alternative Cultures And Leisure

Contemporary discourse on sustainability points to the need for substantial, if not radical, shifts in relations between productivity, environment, consumption and identities, in ways which bring or restore balance to the intersecting domains. The catchphrase of ‘sustainability’ has made its way into mainstream discourse on the heels of the ongoing global financial crisis and responses to global warming. The literature of leisure, sport and particularly tourism are replete with fine examples of ‘sustainability’, contributing to full ecology planning approaches. This book aims to stimulate debate and discussion within the leisure studies community about the roles of ‘alternative cultures’ in producing viable models of sustainable relations between work, leisure and environment. Key elements of these discussions, such as participatory democracy and deep ecology, have long been characteristic of cultural configurations loosely called ‘counter’ or ‘alternative’ to a voracious, hierarchical and unconscious modernity. However the leisure studies community has largely neglected their significance up until now. How are leisure, sustainable livelihoods and ‘alternative’ cultures connected, and what influence do they have? This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of Leisure Research.

The digital turn in leisure has opened up a vast array of new opportunities to play, learn, participate and be entertained – opportunities that have transformed what we recognise as leisure. This edited collection provides a significant contribution to our changing understanding of digital leisure cultures, reflecting on the socio-historical context within which the digital age emerged, while engaging with new debates about the evolving and controversial role of digital platforms in contemporary leisure cultures. This book also demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of studying digital leisure cultures. To make sense of how individuals and institutions use digital spaces it is necessary to draw on history, science and technology, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology and geography, as well as sport and leisure studies. This important and timely study discusses both the promise of the digital sphere as a realm of liberation, and the darker side of the internet associated with control, surveillance, exclusion and dehumanisation. Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical perspectives is fascinating reading for any student or scholar of sociology, sport and leisure studies, geography or media studies.

"This book breaks new ground in distinguishing 'abnormal leisure' as a proper category of study. It identifies 'invasive', 'mephitic' and 'wild' forms of leisure which challenge both traditional readings of leisure and radical alternatives. The book is sure to generate discussion. It recognizes the central place of leisure in the study of culture and it maps out new terrains of study in our 'free' time."--BOOK JACKET.

Spracklen explores the impact of the internet on leisure and leisure studies, examining the ways in which digital leisure spaces and activities have become part of everyday leisure. Covering a range of issues from social media and file-sharing to romance on the Internet, this book presents new theoretical directions for digital leisure.

The burgeoning social scientific study of tourism has emphasized the effects of the post-industrial economy on travel and place. However, this volume takes some of these issues into a different area of leisure: the spare-time carved out by people as part of their everyday lives - time that is much more intimately juxtaposed with the pressures and influences of work life, and which often involves specific bodily practices associated with hobbies and sports. An important focus of the book is the body as a site of identity formation, experience, and disciplined recreation of the self. Contributors examine the ways rituals, sports, and forms of bodily transformation mediate between contemporary ideologies of freedom, choice and self-control.

Workers Culture in Imperial Germany represents the first alternative approach to the study of workers' culture in Imperial Germany. It is also the first comprehensive historical analysis of the emergence of Germany's modern leisure industry. The central concern of the book is the emergence of a distinct workers' culture which provided a disparate and heterogeneous working class with a focus of identity in an alien and hostile society. Lynn Abrams focuses on the leisure activities enjoyed by workers in the major cities of Bochum and Dusseldorf. She provides a comprehensive coverage of a whole range of popular amusements and recreations on offer including festivals, pubs, Tingel-Tangels, dance halls, clubs and cinema. The book is also a major contribution to the social history of working-class life in the nineteenth century, contributing to the debate over the role of a working class culture in Imperial Germany.

This edited collection provides sociological and cultural research that expands our understanding of the alternative, liminal or transgressive; theorizing the status of the alternative in contemporary culture and society.

This book is a 'back to the future' examination of traditional leisure as experienced by peoples from countries around the world. The stories and accounts narrated in the essays are a (re)discovery of core leisure values, and these remind us to focus on the essence of leisure while discerning the superficial and the meaningless. The idea that affluent societies formulated more meaningful leisure concepts and practices due to the greater availability of free time and resources has not come to fruition in recent decades. In fact, social-cultural changes in both Western and developing countries have created the need for a critical examination of leisure arising out of a concern that the values and benefits of leisure, as enshrined in earlier Western leisure theory, have been eroded, while those of traditional societies have not been given due credence. In this volume, contributors from developing societies address the issue of how traditional leisure forms are impacting modern practices and understanding of leisure, leading to new hybrid forms that are more inclusive even as they are expressive of the varied modes of leisure. Alternative modes of leisure practice that go beyond the work-leisure binary, giving primacy to the leisure experiences undertaken in affluent societies, also form an important segment of the book. The essays on tourism make a critical evaluation of both the enhancing and the deleterious facets of this popular leisure form, as they examine how traditional ways of life are turned into sites for both a deeper understanding of different cultures and for the benefit of voyeurs. An interesting aspect of the book is an exploration of how certain pilgrimage sites have turned into tourist spaces for reconciliation and interaction between the erstwhile exploiter and the exploited. The essays detailing leisure practices from all continents of the world ably incorporate theoretical perspectives that underpin those practices.