Leisure Worlds

optional courses

The lectures are aimed at sparking the interest in leisure as a domain of socio-cultural practice and research that has been often overlooked in both academic and public discourse.

First, leisure will be viewed as a temporal concept, in both physical and historical senses of the term. Anthropology of time is a source of insight in how leisure can be conceptualized in social sciences and humanities. Turning to leisure as such, we will view it as a phenomenon interlinked with modernity project, understood as a complex interplay between the forces of ordering and control and fragmentation and de-traditionalization. Within this framework, one of the issues that will be addressed during the course is leisure constraints. On the one hand, leisure can be seen as an idea and practice with multiple facets (sport, travel, hobby etc.) and the one that creates various opportunities. On the other, it can be conceptualized as an idea and practice that is not equally distributed in society (among different groups; places etc.). My aim is to present leisure as a venue of contemporary struggles of re-creating oneself (the play of words is intentional here) and re-connecting to or disconnecting from society. Leisure will be critically viewed as a contestable concept and a troublesome practice.

Selected literature:

*Chich, Garry. 1998. Issues in Anthropology of Leisure, Leisure Sciences, 20: 111-133. (Kampus2)

*Elias, N. & E. Dunning (1986). The Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure in Civilizing Process, Wiley Blackwell. *Chapter 2 (Kampus2)

De Grazia, S. (1967). Of Time, Work and Leisure, New York: The XX Century Fund. Full text on-line: http://archivesofthecentury.org/myportfolio/of-time-work-and-leisure-by-sebastian-de-grazia/

Gershuny, J. (2000). Changing Times. Work and Leisure in Postindustrial Societies. Oxford University Press. (*a chapter by Gershuny&Fisher, from another book, available on Kampus2)

Kaul A., Skinner J. (2018) Leisure and Death: An Anthropological Tour of Risk, Death, and Dying. Louisville: University Press of Colorado. Chapter 10 (Social Life of the Dead…) (BUW Online)

Koshar, R. (ed.) (2002). Histories of Leisure. Oxford: Berg. (Kampus2)

*Liu Farrer Gracia (2004) The Chinese Social Dance Party in Tokyo: Identity and Status in an Immigrant Leisure Subculture, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 33: 651-674. (Kampus2)

Neville, Ross. (2014) Leisure the Luxury of Experience, Leisure Sciences, 36: 1–13.

Rojek, Ch. (2010). The Labour of Leisure. London: Sage. (BUW Online)

Rosa, H., Scheueramnn, W.E. (eds.) (2009). High-Speed Society. Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity, Pennsylvania State University. *Chapter 6 (Rosa); Chapter 10 (Urry). (Kampus2)

*La Spina, Antonio (2013). The concept of leisure. In: Cappello, G., Modi, Is., Verde, L., Fabio Massimo, F. (eds) Mapping Leisure Across Borders (BUW Online; Kampus2)

Stodolska, M., L. Berdychevsky, K. Shinew (2019) Gangs and Deviant Leisure, Leisure Sciences 41(4): 278-293. (Kampus2)

Veblen, Th. The Theory of the Leisure Class, different editions. (BUW Online)

Films:

"Better Use of Leisure Time" 1950 Coronet Instructional Films, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3nq5l_ujoM (access 25.02.2021)

NB: The positions marked with an asterisk (*) are the readings I recommend as a set that provides a gist of leisure studies.

At the completion of the course students will be able to name and characterize key concepts used in conceptualizing leisure; students will be able to describe different leisure forms and compare them across time and space; students will learn to analyse leisure in a number of contexts, including politics, market, gender, environment, race etc.

Students are encouraged to take an active part in the classes by discussing the issues presented and read the suggested literature. The final grade will be granted on the basis of the two assignments.

Participation (20%): students should participate in classes and be active in discussions as well as during short in-class tasks.

Written Assignment (80%): fieldnotes of a leisure practice (incl. online leisure and recreation). The students’ task will be to observe (participate and observe) some leisure practice, produce fieldnotes of the practice and add a brief anthropological comment to the fieldnotes. The form: 6 pages in total (max.), incl. fieldnotes up to 4,5 pages and comment 1,5-2 pages. Standard format (Times New Roman or similar 12; 1,5 cm interline; 2,5 cm margins at all sides).

Deadline for the Written Assignment: January 15, 2023 (submissions via email by 23.59 at the latest). Late submission will result in 0,5 points taken off the final grade.

A student who commits any form of plagiarism will fail the course.