Identity and the commodification of leisure
- 1 January 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Leisure Studies
- Vol. 11 (1), 3-18
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02614369100390271
Abstract
This paper examines the effect commodifying leisure has on its perceived quality for the individual. We argue that leisure has a great deal to contribute to individual identity in urban industrial society, but that this is being overshadowed in a market economy which commodifies leisure and produces it for a large number of people, with a focus on profit. This idea leads us to examine the conformity and gender stereotyping potentiality of leisure to act as a restrictive rather than a liberalizing influence on identity thus devaluing the experience of leisure. Finally, we suggest that leisure providers can redirect leisure policy to ensure access to leisure outside of a purely commercial realm, a leisure that is potentially self-exploring, self-determining, rather than purchased.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Beyond the Ideology of Motherhood: Leisure as ResistanceJournal of Sociology, 1990
- Simmel and LeisurePublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1989
- ‘All in a day's leisure’: gender and the concept of leisureLeisure Studies, 1988
- The Devil Makes WorkPublished by Bloomsbury Academic ,1985
- Romanticism and The Consumer Ethic: Intimations of a Weber-Style ThesisSociological Analysis, 1983
- TIME, WORK-DISCIPLINE, AND INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISMPast & Present, 1967