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.
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