Decentring Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory / Edition 1

by Chris Rojek

Overview

This book explores the meaning of leisure in the context of key social formations of our time: capitalism, modernity and postmodernity. Chris Rojek brings together the insights of Marxism, feminism, Weber, Elias, Simmel, Nietzsche and Baudrillard to produce a comprehensive survey - and rethinking - of leisure theory. At the same time he presents a radical critique of the traditional 'centring' of leisure, on 'escape', 'freedom' and 'choice'.

In the first part, he describes the relations between capitalism and leisure, the meaning of free time for workers in a capitalist system, and the gendered nature of leisure. He then discusses the social construction of leisure under modernity and the main competing arguments - that it imprisons the individual and reinforces conformity or that it liberates people and releases their creativity. Finally, he examines postmodernity, the cultural condition which has radically changed the idea of leisure. Revealing how leisure practices have responded to living in a risk society, he shows that 'free' time becomes something very different when simulation and nostalgia lie at the heart of everyday life.

Decentring Leisure will be essential reading for students and lecturers in leisure studies, cultural studies and social theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803988125
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	06/08/1995
Series:	Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society Series , #35
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Chris Rojek is Professor of Sociology and Culture at Brunel University, West London. He is a prolific and influential author in the field of Celebrity, Leisure Studies and Popular Culture. In 2003 he was awarded the Allen V. Sapora prize for outstanding achievement in the field of Leisure and Tourism Studies. Besides lecturing in the UK he has given lectures on leisure in Australia, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands. In 2009 he was Hood Fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He also writes on celebrity culture, neat capitalism and myths and realities of national identity. His current research is on popular music and popular culture and the meaning of the celetoid in Reality TV.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Capitalism/Modernity/Postmodernity
PART ONE: CAPITALISM AND LEISURE
Capitalism
Production
Capitalism
Reproduction
PART TWO: MODERNITY AND LEISURE
Modernity 1
The Roots of Order
Mechanisms of Regulation
Modernity 2
The Disorder of Things
The Phenomenology of Leisure
PART THREE: POSTMODERNISM AND LEISURE
Postmodernity and Postmodernism
Postmodern Leisure
Conclusion
Homo Faber/Homo Ludens