A People’s Leisure?: a framework for a history and future of leisure studies
Abstract
What is leisure? Perhaps the quest to locate an answer has been all wrong. Instead of thinking about an answer deriving from some present-day expression of leisure that frames some hopeful future outlook of leisure, maybe it is the jaded past that has told us what leisure is. In answering ‘what is leisure?’, what has been done in the name of park land, recreational space, sports for all and mass tourism needs to be confronted. A series of works under the banner of ‘A People’s History of Leisure’ highlighted the wrongs of the conservation movement, concerns of nationalist free speech in parks and the creation of alternative canons of leisure pedagogy predicated on forgotten text. So, in pursuing an emancipatory direction in an understanding of leisure, it is of the utmost importance to adopt a moral reimagination of the conception of leisure.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Recreation
Leisure
Wilderness Management
Spatial and Cultural Studies
Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Leisure/Loisir
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1–21
- Publication date
- 28 April 2026
- Language
- EN