A way of living or just a hobby? Negotiating ‘serious’ and ‘casual’ leisure in martial arts and combat sports

Recent scholarship has emphasised the lack of clear boundaries between casual and serious leisure, showing a diversity of engagement styles within various sub-cultures. We explored what discourses provide justification for the diverse ways of engaging with martial arts and combat sports (MACS), and how certain versions of leisure engagement become dominant in discursive practices. Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis, we explored the constructions of ‘appropriate’ engagement with MACS in Potku.net, a popular online discussion forum in Finland. We identified two dominant discourses, ‘the balanced life’ discourse where engagement was valued for (instrumental) benefits of well-being and productivity, and ‘the committed life’ where wholehearted engagement was considered valuable for its own sake. The dominance of the balanced life discourse was recognised by forum users across subject positions. However, the balanced life discourse was resisted by the committed life discourse, underpinned by an ethos of existentialist ethics, with the focus on freedom and responsibility in creating one’s own meaningful projects. In conclusion, a Foucauldian approach is useful for understanding diversity in leisure styles, highlighting the complex value orientations behind MACS practice.