Decentring Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory: 35 (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) - Softcover

Rojek, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803988133 ISBN 13: 9780803988132

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

This book explores the meaning of leisure in the context of key social formations of our time. Chris Rojek brings together the insights of feminsim, Marxism, Weber, Elias, Simmel, Nietzsche and Baudrillard to produce a 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′.

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.

About this title

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.

From the Back Cover

`A book to get you thinking. It has proved impossible to convey accurately the exciting, wide-ranging, seemingly effortless trawl across a wide variety of schools, disciplines and thinkers which Rojek employs to support his argument. He uses a direct personal style which shines through the closely argued material and keeps you turning the pages to the very end. Students brought up in the modernist traditions of sociologies of leisure may find this book challenging and ultimately even frustrating, but it is an essential text which I hope will appear on recommended reading lists everywhere leisure is studied' - Work, Employment & SocietyThis book explores the meaning of leisure in the context of key social formations of our time. Chris Rojek brings together the insights of Marxism, feminism, Weber, Elias, Simmel, Nietzsche and Baudrillard to produce a 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'.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. Finally he examines postmodernity. 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803988133
• ISBN 13: 9780803988132
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224