Mapping Leisure across Borders [1 ed.] 9781443859578, 9781443849722

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Mapping Leisure across Borders

Mapping Leisure across Borders

Edited by

Fabio Massimo Lo Verde, Ishwar Modi and Gianna Cappello

Mapping Leisure across Borders, Edited by Fabio Massimo Lo Verde, Ishwar Modi and Gianna Cappello This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Fabio Massimo Lo Verde, Ishwar Modi, Gianna Cappello and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4972-3, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4972-2

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures............................................................................................ ix List of Tables ............................................................................................. xi Preface ...................................................................................................... xii Vincenzo Cesareo Introduction ............................................................................................. xvi McDonaldization, Ikeaization, Appleization of Leisure Time: Is it Cool Enough? Fabio Massimo Lo Verde Part I: Frames Chapter One ................................................................................................ 2 Leisure in the West after the End of the Long Baby Boomer Generation Ken Roberts Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 20 Leisure’s Borders: What are We Exporting beyond Them? Robert A. Stebbins Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 30 Mapping Leisure across Borders Through the Art of Painting Ishwar Modi and Mahima Modi Gupta Chapter Four ............................................................................................. 41 The Concept of Leisure Antonio La Spina Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 51 Studying Leisure in a Network Perspective: Some Methodological and Epistemological Reflections Marianna Siino

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Part II: Leisure across Media Technologies Chapter Six ............................................................................................... 66 Surfin’ the Net: Youth and Media Leisure Gianna Cappello Chapter Seven........................................................................................... 98 From Physical to Virtual Leisure: A Focus on Tourism Gabriella Polizzi Chapter Eight .......................................................................................... 117 Emotional Reporting and Leisure: Newsmedia, Crime and Entertainment in Italy Francesca Rizzuto Chapter Nine........................................................................................... 130 Continuity and Change in the Leisure Dimension of Indian Techno-Immigrant Families in Silicon Valley Neha Kala Part III: Leisure across Gender, Age and Ethnicity Chapter Ten ............................................................................................ 146 Second-Generation “Migrants” on the Borders: A Bridge Generation Between Two “Leisure Worlds” Liana Daher Chapter Eleven ....................................................................................... 164 “All the Girls get to look Pretty”: Ballroom and Latin American Dancing as Leisure Vicki Harman Chapter Twelve ...................................................................................... 177 Leveraging Leisure Time for Domestic Comforts: A Study of the Women Selling Homemade Food in Mumbai City Brajakishor Swain and Kanak Ata Samal Chapter Thirteen ..................................................................................... 189 Leisure Practices and Self-Construction among Young Students in Palermo Fiorella Vinci

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Part IV: Leisure across Sport, Body and Emotion Chapter Fourteen .................................................................................... 206 Beyond Play, Playfully: The Cultural Location of Fitness Activities Roberta Sassatelli Chapter Fifteen ....................................................................................... 229 The Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Volunteers in Sport and Leisure Sanjay Tewari Chapter Sixteen ..................................................................................... 239 The Naturist Constellation in Europe Anna Fici Chapter Seventeen .................................................................................. 252 Working Entertainment: The Knowledge, Emotional and Physical Labour Performed by Entertainment Workers in the Italian Tourist Industry Sofia Pagliarin Part V: Leisure across Legal and Illegal Chapter Eighteen .................................................................................... 272 The Impact of Beliefs about the Use of Money on Gambling Patterns Thomas Amadieu Chapter Nineteen .................................................................................. 291 Leisure Time and “Alcoholic Interactions”: Rites, Norms and Action Strategies among Young Drinkers Charlie Barnao Chapter Twenty ..................................................................................... 311 A Computational Approach to the Study of Deviant Leisure Valentina Punzo, Barbara Sonzogni and Federico Cecconi Chapter Twenty-One ............................................................................ 326 The Italian Mafia: An Industry of Leisure Attilio Scaglione Chapter Twenty-Two ............................................................................ 346 Alternative and Deviant Leisure: Analysis of the Risks Linked to Web Usage Sergio Severino and Roberta Messina

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Part VI: Leisure across Individual and Collective Spheres, Social Stratification and Public Policies Chapter Twenty-Three............................................................................ 364 Evidence-Based Leisure Studies in Higher Education: Using the Results of a Transnational Lifestyle Research .ODUD7DUNyDQG=VX]VDQQD%HQNĘ Chapter Twenty-Four ............................................................................. 379 Greek Educational Policy in Recessionary Times: Does Liberal Educational Policy Take its Toll on the Leisure Activities of the Lower Social Strata? Evaggelia Kalerante Chapter Twenty-Five .............................................................................. 390 A Stratificational Approach to the Study of Leisure in Postmodern Society Maya Keliyan Chapter Twenty-Six................................................................................ 409 Leisure Policy in a Comparative Perspective Marilena Macaluso Appendix ................................................................................................ 433 Contributors ............................................................................................ 455

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1 A typological map of the world of leisure .............................. 22 Figure 3-1 The Effects of Good Government (1337-1340) .................... 434 Figure 3-2 Rejoicing on the Birth of Prince Salim at Fatchpur (1590) ... 434 Figure 3-3 The Marriage Feast at Cana (1562-1563) ............................. 435 Figure 3-4 Les très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1413-1414).......... 435 Figure 3-5 The Month of April (about 1790) ......................................... 436 Figure 3-6 Thrills of the Rainy Season (late 18th century)...................... 436 Figure 3-7 The Hunt at Night/The Hunt in the Forest (1460-1468) ....... 437 Figure 3-8 Babur Hunting Rhinoceros near Birgram (Peshawar)........... 437 Figure 3-9 Deer Hunt (1760) .................................................................. 438 Figure 3-10 Children’s Games (1560) .................................................... 438 Figure 3-11 Krishna and Gopas Sporting in the Forest (1785-1800) ..... 439 Figure 3-12 Hide and Seek (late 17th century) ........................................ 439 Figure 3-13 The Paesant Dance (1568) .................................................. 440 Figure 3-14 Night Celebration at the Wedding of Price Dara Shikoh (1760) ............................................................. 440 Figure 3-15 Primavera (Spring) (1478) .................................................. 441 Figure 3-16 Vasanta Ragini (The Music of Spring) (late 18th century) .. 441 Figure 3-17 Sports of Krishna in Springtime (1730) .............................. 441 Figure 3-18 The Swing (1766-1667) ..................................................... 442 Figure 3-19 Hindola-Raga: Lovers on a Swing (about 1570) ................. 442 Figure 3-20 The Joy of Rains ................................................................. 442 Figure 3-21 The Upper Reach of the Grand Canal (about 1723)............ 443 Figure 3-22 The Boat of Love (about 1760) ........................................... 443 Figure 3-23 Bathing at Asnières (1883-1884) ........................................ 444 Figure 3-24 Summer Scene (1869) ......................................................... 444 Figure 3-25 Maidens surprised at their Bath (1770) ............................... 445 Figure 3-26 Krishna Sporting in Yamuna (1770) ................................... 445 Figure 3-27 Luncheon on the Grass (1865-66) ....................................... 446 Figure 3-28 Picnic at Night (1540) ......................................................... 446 Figure 3-29 Card Players (1892) ............................................................ 447 Figure 3-30 Krishna watching Ladies Playing Chaupar (1700) ............. 447 Figure 3-31 Radha and Krishna Playing Chess (1800) ........................... 447 Figure 3-32 The Circus (1891) ............................................................... 448 Figure 3-33 The Acrobat (1930) ............................................................. 448

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Figure 3-34 Nat-Raga (1700-1720) ........................................................ 449 Figure 3-35 Acrobat Performance (1760) ............................................... 449 Figure 3-36 The Footbal Players (1908) ................................................. 450 Figure 3-37 Chandbibi and her Companions Playing Polo (early 18th century) ............................................................................ 450 Figure 3-38 The School of Athens (1510-1511) ..................................... 451 Figure 3-39 The Forest of Fontainbleau ................................................. 451 Figure 3-40 Noonday Rest (1866) .......................................................... 452 Figure 3-41 The Siesta/The Nap (1889) ................................................. 452 Figure 3-42 Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862)................................ 452 Figure 3-43 Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876) ............................... 453 Figure 3-44 The Tavern Scene (1735) .................................................... 453 Figure 3-45 Bar at the Folies Bergères (1881) ....................................... 454 Figure 3-46 The Dance at the Moulin Rouge (1890) .............................. 454 Figure 3-47 A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) ...................................................................................... 454 Figure 17-1 Schematic map of the considered seaside enclavic tourist space ...................................................................................... 257 Figure 20-1 Number of deviants through rational imitation with low (0.2) and fair (0.5) average probability of success .................................... 319 Figure 20-2 Number of deviants through social imitation with low (0.2) and fair (0.5) average probability of success .................................... 320 Figure 20-3 Average payoff reached through rational imitation and social imitation with fair (0.5) average probability of success .................... 321 Figure 20-4 Average payoff reached through rational imitation and social imitation with low (0.2) average probability of success ................... 321 Figure 21-1 Mafia games ........................................................................ 336 Figure 21-2 Mafia penetration in the legal sector of gambling............... 341 Figure 22-1a/b/c/d Box plots of IAT score conditioning subject’s variables ............................................................................................ 352 Figure 22-2 Graphical analysis of the interaction effects (gender u motivation to Web usage on IAT score and related resumptive table of means) ............................................................... 355 Figure 22-3a/b Box plots of ESS and APEN/A score conditioning on IAT level ...................................................................................... 358 Figure 25-1 Level of satisfaction from proportion between time for work and time for other things in former communist countries (%) .......... 402 Figure 25-2 Level of satisfaction from proportion between time for work and time for other things in old EU member countries (%) .............. 403

LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Experiences with and without leisure ....................................... 49 Table 7.1 Interactions between virtual and physical travels: types and mechanisms of interaction, and nature of the virtual travels involved ................................................................................. 104 Table 15.1 Questions asked to volunteers .............................................. 235 Table 22.1 Distribution of subjects by some principal characteristics and motivation to Web usage ............................................................ 350 Table 22.2 Results of nonparametric test (values and significance) on variables for independent groups ................................................. 354 Table 22.3 ANOVA decomposition of the IAT score: test over all effects ............................................................................ 354 Table 22.4 Analysis of the contrast for between-group factors on the means (gender x motivation to Web usage) of IAT score ...... 356 7DEOH.HQGDOOIJUDQNFRUUHODWLRQV ................................................... 356 Table 22.6 Results of U Mann Whitney Test for IAT score ................... 357

PREFACE VINCENZO CESAREO It is with great pleasure that I am welcoming you, as the national coordinator of Sociology for the Person, at the introductory session of this important international conference1. Sociology for the Person, born here, in Palermo, back in 1995, is a group of sociologists who share the same inspirational value, although coming from different experiences: the primacy of the person in the social organization and thus the primacy of its freedom, within the community of belonging. In this view, Sociology for the Person aims at orienting research and theoretical thinking towards central topics for the social development and for the growth of a civic, free, democratic society, characterized by solidarity, respect for the different cultures, and able to value different associative and community contexts in which a person grows and expresses him/herself, starting with the family. All this while believing that sociology, by growing and getting consolidated as a scientific discipline, can bring its necessary contribution to the overall progress of the individual and the society. Some of the necessary and growingly urgent conditions for this development and consolidation are, without doubt, international aperture and comparison. Thus I can only express my gratitude to the organizers of this conference, who were able to bring here, to Palermo, such an extensive event, which will significantly contribute to the development of a field of study that touches central aspects of our everyday life. The conference, in approaching its topic, in the title and successively in the specific speeches, attributes the due centrality to the issue of the “borders” between work time and leisure time, their historical construction and relativity. If we follow a historical perspective, over a long time period instead of a short one, as Norbert Elias (1980) suggests, we can seize the process of stabilization and metamorphosis of these borders, both from a structural and symbolic point of view. 1

Mid-term Conference of the Research Committee 13 (Sociology of Leisure) of ISA (International Sociological Association). Conference’s title “Mapping Leisure across Borders”, Palermo (Italy), 29-30 September/1 October 2011.

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Leisure time, in its modern meaning, is located within the fundamental revolution of times accompanying modernity, with political power being organized in state bureaucracies and the rise of a capitalistic monetary economy and mostly, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the rise of an oligopolistic capitalism, characterized by large productive units of a similarly bureaucratic organization. I said “restructuring of time”, or even better, “times”. We can point out, although in extreme synthesis, how the transformation of the relations between the individual and its work context bears on at least three different manifestations of temporality: everyday life cycles, personal biography and historical time. In its classical analysis of the bureaucratic organization, easily extendable to the big capitalistic corporation of the twentieth century, Weber underlines, among other things, the separation between the worker and the means for practicing work. This is also linked to a clear separation between the place of work, where a determined amount of daily hours is being spent, and the spaces of domestic life, of leisure time and entertainment. Everyday life in the industrial society is organized around this separation, where “spare time” is in some way, or at least apparently, time that is returned to the “self-determination” of the subject, framed in work processes progressively rationalized and controlled by the top of the organization. In regard to everyday life, as Touraine (1993) among others illustrates, modernity is qualified as the problematic coexistence of rationalization and subjectification, whose reflex is the clear border between work and leisure time: on the one hand there is production time, subject to instrumental rationalizing and organizational hierarchies, on the other, “spare time”, dedicated to entertainment, intimacy and consumption. Work hours reduction, along with payment claims, traditionally represented one of the main stakes in labour union movements: “eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of leisure” was the slogan of a newly born labour union movement, when in 1886 a strike for the eight hours ends up in a tragic massacre. The goal of the eight hours was endorsed, in 1919, by the International Labour Organization. The requests of the capitalistic growth, on the other hand, begin to pivot on the development of mass consumption and, thus, on a mass of consumers possessing time and liquid assets for consumption. One of the most important manifestations of social change, characteristic for the twentieth century, is the progressive democratization of consumption, of places and times of consumption: this is the case of paid holidays (congés payés), introduced for the first time in France in 1936 and spread, roughly in the same period, in Roosevelt’s United States, as a consequence of labour

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union agreements. It is sufficient to recall the theorization of the “cultural industry” by the Frankfurt school, the “critique of everyday life” by Henri Lefebvre and the fierce analysis of “the society of the spectacle” proposed by Guy Debord. As an economist of those times, John Kenneth Galbraith (1967) observes with extreme acumen, within a growingly planned economy, it is not possible to think of long-term production planning without providing, at the same time, long-term consumption planning and, thus, planning the needs and wishes of a presumed “sovereign consumer”. Advertising, design, packaging, and other similar expressions of a growing cultural industry seem to provide the link between the dynamics of organized capitalism and the sphere of human desires and needs. We now turn to the second aspect of the experience of time, biographical time which, as everyday life time, comes to be more and more defined in relationship with the labour organization. In a famous work of Antonio Gramsci he observes how in the United States, in a more clear and obvious manner than in the old Europe, individuals’ positions in the society comes to depend on their position in the productive organization’s hierarchies, due to the more advanced level of development of American capitalism. Biographical time gradually comes to signify the time of the work career, marked by fundamental passage moments, such as entering and exiting the world of work, periodic career progressions or promises of an intergenerational upward mobility. Thus we come to historical time, to the succession of generations. The thirties are characterized by a profound crisis, with high unemployment rates, that seems to nullify, in the eyes of many, every day and biographical order linked to the relations with the productive organization (Connerton, 2009). On the contrary, during the twenty or thirty years following the Second World War, we witness high rates of growth, linked to the promise of a better future, accompanying the scientific and technological innovation along with the rational organization of production, where a frontline role was played by the planning action of public authority. A historical and social context of this kind allows for an organization of every day time and biographical time as described above, corresponding to a model of the social actor that I tried to synthesize in the figure of the homo sociologicus (Cesareo, Vaccarini 2006). In one of my previous contributions, back in the eighties, I underlined the numerous signals indicating the overcoming of the rigid separation between life times (every day and biographical), characteristic of organized capitalism, framed in growing flexibility (Cesareo 1982). Since then, a series of social transformations required our attention: we could

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mention biographical fragmentation as an example that grows to the level of disaggregating identities, linked, in the analysis of Richard Sennett (1999), to the insecurity of contemporary work paths. Moreover, we can refer to the impact of new communication technologies on the organization of everyday times and spaces, given that in our conference a parallel session is suitably dedicated to the issues of time and space: many complain of the “invasion” of spare time, while the borders between the domestic sphere and the work place prove to be more and more permeable. After having proposed these ideas that I consider useful for the continuation of our work, reaffirming the centrality of the borders when analysing the metamorphosis in life times (and spare time), I renew my thanks and compliments to the organizers of this conference and hand over the floor to the following speakers.

Reference List Cesareo, V. 1982, La Società Flessibile, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Cesareo, V. and I. Vaccarini 2006, La libertà responsabile, Milano: Vita e Pensiero. Connerton, P. 2010, Come la modernità dimentica, Torino: Einaudi. Elias, N. 1980, Coinvolgimento e distacco, Bologna: Il Mulino. Galbraith, J.K. 1967, Il nuovo stato industriale, Torino: Einaudi. Sennett, R. 2000, L’uomo flessibile, Milano: Feltrinelli. Touraine, A. 1993, Critica della Modernità, Milano: Il Saggiatore.

INTRODUCTION MCDONALDIZATION, IKEAIZATION, APPLEIZATION OF LEISURE TIME: IS IT COOL ENOUGH? FABIO MASSIMO LO VERDE Too much time, too little time Recent studies on leisure time and the relationship between work and free time highlight two paradoxes that modern advanced societies have to face (Glorieux, Laurijssen, Minnen and van Tienoven 2010). On the one hand, we notice a significant reduction in the number of hours dedicated to working activities and an increase of the hours devoted to leisure activities and activities done in a non-working context and time. This constant lack of time contributes to spreading the perception of pressure on daily life (Gershuny 2000; Goodin, Rice, Bittman and Saunders 2005; Robinson and Godbey 1997) especially in women1 (Freysinger and Flannery 1992). On the other hand, while productivity and wealth have increased—even though there has been an arrest in the last year and a half—together with a diffusion of goods that should allow the buyer to save and use time more efficiently, the consumption of goods has become more volatile and excessive, even useless in some cases. This tendency to volatility in goods consumption together with the overabundance on offer would also involve the consumptions made during and for leisure time, a life style which we have already registered with voracious forms of consumption especially in a specific social class starting from the end of the sixties (Linder 1970). Ultimately, a growth in the perception of life being continuously beset by the lack of time is in contrast with a widespread need of a slower pace (Glorieux, Laurijssen, Minnen and van Tienoven 2010, 164; see also Leccardi 2009) especially in social classes that enjoy particular conditions 1

For Italy see Istat 2006; for Europe see Dioguardi and Lo Verde 2009.

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of wellbeing and economic resources as well as social and cultural ones (Glorieux, Laurijssen, Minnen and van Tienoven 2010, 178). In western societies, many people have to deal with the high cost caused by the acceleration and the proliferation of stress due to a lack of time which is in contrast to the need for wealth (Gleick 1999; Leccardi 2009). The perception of time pressure has caused major changes both in working and leisure time, where we find most of the habits regarding consumption. This perception does not exclude the time devoted to leisure practices. It refers to a time, in which, in the worst cases, the pressure is generated by the lack of available resources—mainly economic ones—and in the best cases by the excessive range of choices that one has to choose from. We are facing a pressure determined by the lack of resources available to cultivate free time practices that allow the consumer to get enjoyment from the practice itself; this is the flow that Csikszentmihalyi refers to (1990). Therefore, the practice requires a time during which one can develop all the needed skills to become an amateur or to cultivate other kinds of activities that are part of serious leisure (Stebbins 2007) as well as money/economic resources. In brief, if the resources available increase and grow, our commitment to leisure practices will grow as well, but the time available will remain constant, so our consumption will be inevitably voracious (Glorieux, Laurijssen, Minnen and van Tienoven 2010, 166) superficial, fragmented, and in most cases, not at all satisfying. The same factors that cause this voracity can also result in an inclination towards the consumption of passive leisure: it is preferred to consume free time in activities that do not involve even a minimal physical or mental obligation (i.e. a challenge, the acquiring of a new technical or intellectual skill, etc.). The lack of cultural and economic resources and the lack of time would induce the using up of free time in or around the home, doing activities requiring, in most cases, a “low intensity commitment” also characterized by varying levels of commitment. In essence, activities that allow the auto-regulation of the investment of time and resources without the loss of position with respect to what has already been acquired, happen instead of serious leisure. So, people would be more pushed towards casual leisure (Stebbins 1997) instead of serious leisure. In the last few years, also in Italy, there has been the tendency to devote more time to these kinds of activities (see ISTAT 2008). In fact, the differences in the distribution of free time and working activities (Wilensky 1960; Parker 1983), influenced also by other factors such as gender, age, job title, qualifications, the family life cycle, the kind of household etc., surely contribute to determine differences in the choices

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of leisure and to condition the demand for leisure provisions. The most interesting aspects, however, are those in regard to, as we have been able to evidence in other work (Lo Verde 2009), the way in which this demand is connected and the way in which the offer of leisure is not necessarily organized in response to the demand. Even in the leisure market the demand is now stimulated by a growing and varied offer. As is known, there are different ways in which sociability and sociality are traditionally treated by the different institutional contexts of various countries, or rather organized by following the global trends where changes can often be determined within cultural practices, which leisure practices made in leisure time are certainly part of. These can be simplified more or less by a higher level of “sociability” or “sociality”2 (Beachler 1996), that is, they can give a start to a higher or lower level of intensity in social networks, or the need for them to be created, or, on the contrary they do not need them at all. They can also be developed in a private or public environment, depending on the type of activity or on the intentions of those who are planning to conduct them (see Lo Verde 2009, 103 ff.). Up-to-date statistics and the most recent studies (Roberts 2006; Blackshaw 2010) show that the majority of activities considered to be free time practices are today consumed in-home and “alone” (Lo Verde 2009). In summary, the quantity of time that we devote to discretionary activities that we label free time has, in most cases, a connotation of loneliness. Obviously, as shown by most studies, there are important differences in the ways in which the consumption is done between different social classes, and in this case these differences are related to a different lifestyle. However, the tendency to consume free time in a private setting or alone has increased in all Western countries (Roberts 2006).

Excesses and lack of sense Apart from the aspects regarding free time activities and forms, we would like to highlight the first major change in the trend regarding the way we consider and utilize our free time. This involves the different meaning that 2

Sociability is “the human ability of forming networks through which units of individual or collective action can make information that expresses their interests, tastes, passions and opinions circulate in the neighborhood, in public spaces, assemblies, circles” (Beacheler 1996, 64). Sociality instead is “the human ability of keeping groups and networks together, of ensuring the coherence and cohesion that makes them become a society: these forms of social solidarity, like tribes, towns, countries, etc. can be called morphologies” (ibid.).

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it has acquired today, in comparison to what it signified in the past, even fairly recently 3 . The “de-differentiation” that would be the connotative focus of the postmodern era relationship between work and free time (Rojek 2010) determines a relevant change of perspective in the social and individual significance given to free time. The “residual” view that has, for the individual and the community, the same meaning of an “entertaining” but “rational” function still characterized, as it was in the past, by the functional aim of social regulation, is today joined by the vision of leisure time as a “time for the self” or “own time”, during which one can construct or deconstruct answers to a popular but not very defined need for authenticity, uniqueness, recognition, independence, identity, things that can be obtained as well and mainly, in some authors’ opinions, through general practices of consumption. This is found in both the interpretations of free time given by the new working class, as well as those coming from a large part of the middle class that feels the effect of time pressure that was mentioned earlier (Glorieux et al. 2010). Using the suggestive and very postmodern words of Blackshaw (2010, 102), we can say that, even during free time the postmodern individual is not blocked by social class anymore and is not against being carried away, with caution, by the wind. He or she, on the other hand, desires instant gratification, prefers to postpone the planning of future problems to a later date, reluctant to renounce their pleasure. The transformation of the self is not just a possibility, but it becomes a must for each individual, because in postmodernity, a life lived to the full is the only one that is worth living. Modern structures continue to fragment and their characteristics that were central once, defined by class identity, gender, ethics and age, have disappeared from the story. There is no clear life direction that cannot be repeated in another offer (either) an obvious line in time, or circularity, or a better moment, just “the end”. “Maybe this time, I could be someone else”: this is a central point to life, a world of contingency in which everyone would be able to change their identity. At the root of our free time (nurtured) interests there is this subconscious that is a schedule and it is obviously “individualized” and “private” rather than “social” and “communitarian” (ibid., our italics).

In its different forms, the game of the self is one of the most widespread practices of leisure time because in its “mass” interpretation free time has to be another time when you can do, acknowledge and be 3

This vision is in line with the elite view shared by those who attribute a function of spacing/distancing and distinction to free time. It refers to the leisure class vision that Veblen talked about.

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something other than who you are or what you have done in everyday life, aware of the fact that it is a temporary condition and thus, harmless. The offer of emotional mediation in the leisure market is, from this point of view, symbolic as well as abundant. It manifests itself in prêt à porter packets of competences, as easy to acquire as they are false, ready to be replaced at the next occasion, in a continuous collection of variety and innovation with the aim, for buyers, of building for themselves “nice experiences” that will give them a “nice souvenir” as it made them try “other things” or feel like “others” (whether it is about “cooking skills” deceptively acquired during a weekend, or “athletic skills” apparently acquired in a week of sport activities, oriental philosophy and the art of seduction can be also be added). Similarly there is a new significance as to what new items’ and services’ roles should be, which is spreading between those making offers that are becoming more and more standardized. However this is a novelty, which in fact even the same sellers never believed, in a triumph of becoming postmodern, of which the cost is always stress, from too many things to do or nothing new to do. The paradox of contemporary free time would therefore cause a radicalization of the excess of sense that is given to it, in addition to its unequal social distribution which is present despite the converging trend (Gershuny 2000, 4ff.) that would reduce the differences of consumption between social classes. From this point of view, every time slot and every practice takes a significance and a sense that goes further beyond their usual meaning: it often “means” much more for someone, at least if taking into account their individual stories, especially because it is a personal sense that could also signify “other” from what is socially understood. On the other hand the paradox is that it is taking its opposite to extremes; that is, the general lack of sense regarding individual free time makes the greed for time and innovative practices grow. The experiential polysemy is wellresearched by those who want to use time “in the best way”, where “the best” is basically the result of a higher intensity of the emotional experience. This polysemy is frequently opposed, even if it remains in the same semantic field, by the uniqueness of its final significance which is reduced to a well-known and obsessive pleasure created by the known repetitive compulsion. The abundance of meanings researched will be reduced to only one: “unfortunately, even this moment went away… but let’s start thinking about the next one…” Following a merely productive logic that has surely given, as in Horkheimer’s theory, an instrumental rationality to the aim, impossible to achieve for itself, of finding the sense of the done activity, and also trying to find a certain coherence between the practices. This coherence is very often built ex post.

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In fact, that coherence is a modern category, widespread in a social system whose predictability was considered useful for the overall result, to orient all the social systems with the aim of “progress for all”. This aim has been fairly criticized considering the high economic and social costs that are required, but it was still a shared vision. Although in a social system where even predictability has already become saturated, its meaning of efficacy, even coherence, loses its sense. Now it is more the unpredictability and the capability to ride the effects that generate competitive advantages both in the economic and in the social system. So the rational logic of consecutio (and the subject of aut, aut) is joined by the logic of associations (and the subject of et, et), that opens the path for many experiences, with no limits, consequently, and so, ideologically putting ex post coherences in contrast. The limits to leisure experiences are defined to a different extent and by unclear conditions that outline differences and put groups together by following completely new paths like gender, age, nationality, wage and qualifications. In this free time “paradox”, generated by the excess and the lack of meaning often given to it and stuck between the must be that increasingly constitutes it in the imaginary, and the possible that instead connotes it in reality, between what we would like—or maybe, as Rojek (1999) believes, what we think we would like—and what we are allowed to achieve as it is “offered” in more or less standardized forms, the risk that “the end” will just be a definitive and clashing loss of sense is always there. The most critical theorists think that it is one of the consequences of extreme individualization that characterizes today’s society and is caused by the bad consequences of the unrestrained inflexion of late capitalism as a social regulator, which is now in crisis. It is so unrestrained that it is even going against some of its principles that are widespread in the modern version, and is now becoming a form of neat capitalism (Rojek 2010), a tidy, clean and more recently, environmentally friendly capitalism. As Freud taught, Western society became organized around order and cleanliness, even if today they present themselves in new ways and forms. This rationality contributes to maintaining sufficient efficiency in the final organizational outcome.

Towards the Appleization of free time Blackshaw (2009) has recently re-proposed an already known criticism to the metaphor used by Ritzer (1993) to explain how the process of standardization of western society was driven to its extremes. It is again proposed here to develop the subject of the contemporary ways of

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consuming leisure time, for instance, the process of “McDonaldization” that would now even involve social relationships. Blackshaw tries to apply the same category to free time consumption patterns, but also suggests a new metaphor that in his opinion could better explain the on-going process by defining it as a “process of Ikeaization” of leisure time. As we know, in Ritzer’s opinion, efficiency, computability, predictability, control and “irrational rationality” are at the core of the McDonaldization process (see Blackshaw 2009, 126ff). The system that regulates the offers and requests of McDonald’s products is based on a “pact” between consumers and the corporation. The ways in which this pact is put in place can be found in behavioural practices, namely what makes the service efficient. These rules make consumers and workers socialize with the ways of using and providing the service itself. The efficacy is achieved thanks to the fact that the users know how to act in every phase of the process in the enjoyment of the service, acquiring the skills of a consumer through practice; the workers are socialized with the equivalent skill, which means being prepared in the standardization of delivery procedures that agrees with what the trained consumer expects. Secondly, the computability of the product qualities for each piece, as well as the maximum length of time allowed to put in place all the practices of delivery and enjoyment, makes the regulation of consumer streams possible. Whoever enters a McDonald’s restaurant knows that they will not be able to spend a lot of time there after the consumption. McDonald’s is certainly not a place for “long breaks”, as opposed to a Parisian café or brasserie. Not wasting time is another of the conditions required by the “pact” between corporation and consumers. In third place, predictability is what allows the consumer to know that in whichever country he goes, eating at McDonald’s means eating a specific kind of food—even with some slight differences in each menu including local food, like salmon in Norway or Mozzarella in Italy. But the Big Mac is the same all over the world… This predictability is not only in the “pact” but it also, as Ritzer says, gives McDonald’s the possibility to be seen as a place that is in some ways reassuring. In fourth place, control and the capacity technology has to substitute humans in matters of accuracy and reliability come into play. Also as an instrument of timing that says when to do what has to be done. It further implies that the workers have to be ready to answer, in an active way, the alarm ringing which indicates that the chips are ready, that their crispiness is controlled as well, even if it is never controlled by the consumer. The consumer believes that he has achieved the skills to recognize a “good chip”, even if he cannot control frying time.

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There is a final aspect to take into account that in our opinion is a betrayal of the “pact” made between consumers of McDonald’s products and the corporation. We refer to all the irrational effects of rationality, such as the unpredictable aspects like the increase of social costs, more than economic ones. These aspects affect both the community and the individuals making the experience not very rewarding or pleasant both for the consumer and the worker. It is about “de-humanizing” unexpected effects, generated by a type of work and consumerism that appears radically different from mankind. It is one thing to occasionally work and eat at McDonald’s, which could constitute a practice of casual leisure for the consumer or a temporary occasion of work for young people; but it becomes very different if McDonald’s becomes the only choice in terms of food and work. Blackshaw believes that, even if some characteristics of the organization and of consumption in the McDonald’s way could be applied to forms of consumerism of leisure time as well, giving birth to what Rojek (2005) calls McLeisure, there are some aspects that are not completely described by this metaphor. Certainly the process of standardization is seen in a range of contexts in which free time is consumed or produced. An example can be the places and the ways in which goods are offered (Codeluppi 2000), places in which you do not just buy items, but you can find “distraction” and entertainment, following specific relational patterns and procedures. Another example can be given by the way of consuming meals cooked in the microwave, suitable just because they are easy to prepare and quick to cook; or even the way in which free time is consumed and organized in theme parks. In the latter for instance, queuing can be assimilated to the idea of the conveyer belt (Blackshaw 2009, 128). The “queue” and the wait should discourage useless extensions of the time spent in the park and wandering around the park, following the same efficacy-centred idea of the conveyer belt. Finally, this also happens in television schedules, that is, more and more attention is given to aspects related to quantity and accountability of the success of a program and less focus on the quality of the program. We find this attitude in professional sport management, which has become a matter of corporations that tend to standardize even the production of the grounds for sporting events, replacing natural grass with a synthetic one and putting in place an organizational machine able to make standard controls of efficiency that have to be measurable as well (ibid.). Everything said up to now does not justify the use of this metaphor to interpret the ways of consuming leisure time nowadays. Blackshaw underlines that even in Ritzer’s work there is not enough about the

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changes that “postmodern individuals” encountered, or about the need to escape from incertitude that is a consequence of the standards designed by the modern rationality that also involves McDonald’s. “McDonaldization” outlines that the processes of normalization and standardization now include our “leisure” experiences as well. On one side we would see the emergence of the impossibility of escaping homogenization of leisure practices, and McDonald’s as one its symbols that we would accept for its economic power. On the other, there is the emergence of the idea that we do not want goods and services with a human semblance, just because the “McDonaldization” process is the extreme result of rationality, accountability and predictability that feed the modern society and that western people are relying on. In Blackshaw’s opinion, Ritzer is forgetting the possibility that individuals may look for alternatives to the irrational, antisocial and de-humanizing effects of “McDonaldization” (ibid., 129). That possibility is instead very real and it is often translated in various forms and practices of social and shared consumerism of leisure activities (for instance, Manchester United football team supporters that are at the same time owners of the team, being pushed merely by sporting reasons and not gaining any economic or financial advantages). As has been said before, Blackshaw brings together the metaphor of “McDonaldization” with the idea of “Ikeaization” of leisure. So the vision of the well-known brand producer of furniture and furnishings would become the most suitable frame to apply to the new ways of leisure time consumption in modern society. That is the vision of neat capitalism that we were referring to earlier, and its intention is to keep the brand united without causing the “alienation” of the consumer. The process of “Ikeaization” has contributed to changing the way in which we use our free time. For instance, at the core of the IKEA vision there is the concept of home: IKEA gives its contribution to social life by “helping people to create their home”… feeling at home (in the world, we could say, citing Tomlinson, 2001) is one of the forms that the quest for identity can take in the postmodern era. “Nothing can defeat the power and the warmth of home” (ibid., 132). It is with Ikeaization that the world becomes “welcoming” as its aim is to provide an “experience” of a house that has never been lived in before (ibid.), and the experience of intimacy “for all”. According to Blackshaw, the middle class would find in shops that warmth which the working class used to find in football clubs. Due to the fact that IKEA recalls the idea of family and neighbourhood that renders it an achieved Utopia hidden behind the shared idea of “having found a house”, “feeling at home”, in truth, what the middle class really finds is

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just “anxiety”. To use Bauman’s words, our desire is to “follow a rabbit, go hunting for it, but not catch it”. The process of “Ikeaization” of leisure would support it, making us “feel at home” in the places where we consume our free time, a house that we sometimes would like to get away from or, more simply, we would like to temporarily forget about. Having said this, we are all like IKEA consumers in the sense that we do not know what we want. We are not able to compare the importance of making a home to the pleasure of immediate gratification, often making impulsive decisions. Just as every neat capitalist knows, Inkvar Kamprad4 knows very well that even what looks real and lasts like a “house”, proves that there is no stability in the modern “liquid” world. This is because dreams which are “Ikeaized” (just as many basic furniture models of IKEA) are already old when they are born and are never developed with an eye towards longevity (ibid., 133). The second characteristic in the process of “Ikeaization” of leisure has to do with the democracy that IKEA represents. Both middle class and working class furnish their houses purchasing items from IKEA, as anyone does, leaving out of consideration skin colour, gender, age, nationality. We believe that this is a new inflexion of the word democracy that is typically postmodern, where consistency is given by the “possibility of choosing everything”, on the basis of a “democracy of taste”. In fact this is characterized by a certain populism that hides the non-democratic possibility of building up personal criteria of selection of what we call taste; an idea of democracy that gets its conclusion in the principle that everyone has to build their own environment and “show off” that which has been consumed (ibid.). The same thing happens with leisure time practices, “as in a rock concert, that was once for the young, today they are open to everyone” (ibid., 135, our italics). What allows individuals to maintain their social status is not really their hierarchic position, but their ability to be cool when choosing leisure. The third characteristic of the “Ikeaization” process that makes IKEA’s work just a “dream” for McDonald’s, is the incalculable and unpredictable feature of its offer, as it is determined by hundreds of 4

The inventor and owner of IKEA. IKEA was founded in 1940 in a Swedish village. In 2005 it already had 202 shops in more than 32 countries in the world, it printed 145 million catalogues in 48 different editions and 25 different languages, it could count on the loyalty of almost 410 million consumers all over the world, one million consumers visit the shops everyday. In 2005 it had 84,000 workers. Between 1994 and 2005 its income increased from 4.3 to 19.4 billion dollars, with a growth of 400 percent. Between 2000 and 2005 the price of goods decreased by 15-20% without diminishing the quality (Blackshaw 2009, 131).

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different combinations of possible furnishings that every single consumer can choose from and furthermore, is unable as a consumer, to imagine. Variety and innovation in the style, without affecting quality levels, make IKEA products “high in value, but not in price” (ibid.). Even today leisure is characterized by an offer of “modular” provisions, less standardized than in the past, where the quality of its services and goods—at least for those that are part of cool leisure—are surely recognized by those who enjoy them. The fourth characteristic of the “Ikeaization” process recalls the process of globalization, but at the same time denies it. Even though it should be considered as a global brand, there is still something naturally local in IKEA, which diversifies it from McDonald’s. What makes this brand so familiar is its ability to anthropomorphize its products, giving them a Swedish name that enchants consumers, giving them a purchase experience which is simple and… European, in other words “not American”. Again, using Blackshaw words (2009, 136), “Differing from McDonaldization, Ikeaization is warm and full of intimacy and charm”. Added to this, leisure time is translated into a need to feel different but at the same time similar as far as consumption is concerned anywhere, whether it is at home or in the world. The fifth characteristic of the “Ikeaization” process is given by the fact that IKEA outlines a way of consuming free time that does not follow “the American way” but follows the “working ethics”, sharing with the American dream; an aim of having a “self-sufficient field”. “Ingvar Kamprad knows that the satisfaction that comes from giving to one’s house an IKEA restoration cannot be bought. You have to gain it, learn it and work on it” (ibid., 137). The existing “pact” between the consumers and IKEA is different from the one that links McDonald’s to its consumers. In this pact the awareness that both have of reducing costs emerges, together with all the benefits that it carries for the consumers: “The result is that IKEA consumers become well-acquainted in the skill needed to select their own furniture, transport and build it on their own” (ibid.) Briefly, it is as if the consumer is giving their contribution to production through assembly. This is something that consumers like doing, because they feel they are taking part in the process, aware of their role in the reduction of costs. This is an idea that has already been going around in the market of “do-it-yourself”, but for a restrained number of bricoleurs. This leads the activity to be very exciting, stimulating in us the idea of getting “the maximum puritanism possible with the lowest sacrifice”. This would in fact underline, in Blackshaw’s opinion, the dark

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side of the pact. As it would be another even more devious and evil Weberian “steel cage” (ibid.). Looking at leisure time, its “Ikeaization” would mix the difference between casual and serious leisure upon which Stebbins’ works are centred, as the satisfaction of “DIY” assembly fulfils the self-achievement need researched in serious leisure even if it is just casual leisure5. This flexibility that de-differentiates the limit between work and free time is exactly what forms the basis of the idea that Blackshaw gives to the “Ikeaization” of postmodern leisure. It can be added that it is through the idea of flexibility in choice rather than the quantity and quality of products that you can really get the sense of what leisure time “Ikeaization” is. All the possible ways of combining the various goods together, being able to buy replacement goods that allow us to often re-style the home, thanks to low prices. New styles and hybrid styles cause us to transfer our set of skills practiced in our leisure time pursuits. The fulfilment of leisure consumption is not given exclusively by the quantity and/or quality of the ways that relate to the different practices, but it is given by the possibility of combining these activities together, building up a sense and making our choice coherent. Even the Ikeaization metaphor is not enough to interpret some forms of contemporary leisure time consumption as it almost ignores the decision making processes linked with the “individual” dimension of leisure choices. As is the case for other metaphors used to interpret the dynamics of contemporary consumption, the emerging image of society is one of a society with a macrostructure, where, most of the time, because of an illconcealed determinism, the personal space for decisions regarding our own life projects is non-existent or banished to “false consciousness”. The limits of the “Ikeaization” metaphor are established by a partial inefficiency in given explanations. As in any other metaphor the “interpretative power” is linked to its capacity of offering intuitive links to a social world which does not give answers to questions inherent in the reasoning about the ways the social world develops. The metaphor, which can be useful for a description of the context in which the trend of forms and practices are formulated in leisure time consumption, does not take into account certain conditions needed to explain the reasons that support the “institutionalization” of choices in free time. All things considered, the range of individual choices is considered to be “determined”, whereas the individual choice could be decisive in changes in the institutionalization of some practices of leisure time. 5 It is project-based leisure, after the classification of Stebbins, and not casual leisure as believed by Blackshaw.

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Remaining on a descriptive level of megatrend that characterizes contemporary free time forms and practices, we can evidence that “making a home” really has an important significance as a manifestation of a need for existence in a world that has levels of complexity much higher than in the past and that show a clear drive towards the privatization of social life, also including the consumption of free time (Lo Verde 2009). However, we need to add that privatization is contemporary to the increasing “domestication” of the world, even through the existing hyper-connection of often very distant places, especially in the western world. The new information technologies offered a big contribution to this hyperconnection, as Castells (2008a, 2008b) shows. As such, to explain leisure time practices and forms, we could add a new metaphor that allows us to understand the frame in which new leisure choices are organized and that recalls the use of new communication technologies: this process can be called, using another metaphor as striking as the others, the “Appleization” of leisure time, whose features underline another kind of pact existing between consumers and corporations. This metaphor is easier to describe through some imperatives that highlight its “founding” power.

1. Build your own small initiatory community: or be part of the big one On one side of the offer there is the objective of willingness to build the image of a community of consumption that, most of the time, wants to retain the state of a “niche”: Apple is a global brand, with a high coolness factor, but it is not “for everyone”, nor does it want to be, at least not in this phase of business life. Each Apple product is targeted at a more cultured consumer, more informed, more curious, more innovative than the average person, having an active and not passive attitude towards the ways of using technology, an awareness of their technologic skills, of the available symbolic, cultural and social capital, rather than just an economic one. In short, Apple is targeted at a consumer who believes that by buying its products they will be part of an initiatory community that they want to make more important, but that has nothing to do with postmodern “tribes”, that Maffesoli refers to, where one can have access to or be part of these tribes for other reasons, as they are less open to “internal” changes, with respect to the Apple community. On the contrary to what happens in the IKEA vision, the offer feeds the idea of a community that wants to be distinguished not for its purchasing power, which is surely present, but for the ways in which it uses

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technology, information and ideoscapes (Appadurai 1990) that circulate in the world of information. So, it knows how to choose among technologies, which frames to use to interpret reality, and it also knows what contents to put into these frames. The Apple world answers to a demand for a vision that certainly propagates among active leisure consumers more than among passive leisure ones, even if the activity can be the download and use of a new application. An Apple consumer knows and shares with other Apple consumers the same linguistic code, a set of “digital” skills (including the use of touch screen) that gives them the daily confirmation of being “superior” in the quantity of technological resources, but also in their technical competences, that we know is a certainty in that “liquid” world that Bauman refers to. The process of “Appleization” in the production and consumption of leisure has this same feature. “Initiates” of a certain type of use of free time are not only consumers of certain practices made by a leisure class, but also choose forms and practices of free time consumption that could become less exclusive due to entry barriers of symbolic, social, cultural as well as cognitive nature. As we will see, free time is cool only if it can be recognized through the signs and sounds by those who make them, only those who use an i-phone know how to use the modes of information management and recognize those that they need. The “Appleization” is then a vision, and not only the result of the use of an object: it is a way through which one can observe, record, classify and question the world. Thus, the use causes empowerment, enriching the databank that is contained and becoming like “vectors” of adopted instruments in order to be registered by others, even these selected people, only in certain cases as potential participants of an initiatory community.

2. Select your sources, your information, your frame “Appleization” is developed in the willingness to build a niche that grows slowly, especially through viral marketing that is not very fast in getting new “market shares” but is constantly growing, and that justifies the final result which is the retention of the loyalty of people being part of the same community, the sharing of a vision. The consumer of Apple technologies is “integrated”, in the double meaning of “integrated in a community” and “technologically integrated” as he uses in an integrated manner a large number of Apple technological instruments. At this point, they become a “follower” who shares a way of choosing sources of information, as well as the frame of these sources and its contents. If we consider the number of sources, frames and information contents that

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circulate in the digital universe, we will discover that our major problem will be having a vision that gives us the chance to make a “selection”. This is the criteria that are followed, used to make selections and to account for the choice and the validity of information. This is because of the excess in the offer of information. The Apple consumer is well aware of this; they continuously empower their database, storing up information, data, images, sounds, etc. following coherence criteria very difficult to find in the offline world and that give justification and reliability to the vision. The information collected and made coherent is useful to confirm not only the usefulness, but also the reliability of the source and the validity of the frame in which the source moves. In brief, the frame makes the content of the available data credible, useful, interesting and real. The same happens in the universe of choice that is at the base of leisure time consumption. The selection of information sources in the decision of leisure consumption is a fairly important problem, both when choosing casual leisure consumption places, practices and contexts but also in serious or project based leisure. The offer of cool leisure presents the same peculiarities: it circulates on sources and through information reachable by those who share a vision that is in line with its “recognisability”. The realization of cool leisure practices, as well as the ability of finding new ones, is less important than the ability of knowing how to consult information sources that guess or guide the coolness of a leisure form or practice. This is also an effect of the “Appleization” process: whether it is to do with holidays, going out in the evening, public events, leisure time in everyday life, or days-off or the weekend, consumed in-home or in public spaces, on his own or with other people, the gratification is given by the confirmation that we have made the right decision that is in line with a vision that allowed us to select information sources, the frames and the information itself. On-line and off-line discussions in forums, about where to go on holiday, about events or about the evening spent with friends are a good example (many studies have been done on this topic and are rich with results that agree with this last statement, see Polizzi 2010). Being able to choose the setting according to shared needs set by a conscious vision of preferred ways of spending free time is cool, and it also follows the need for an accessible leisure offer… but only if you know how to select it.

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3. Build up your library, be your director The offer of Apple technologies also gives some “combinatory” skill. Technically speaking you have to be able to use hardware and software (you have to know how to use iTunes to build up your own music or cinema library and other software). Above all, though, the “Appleized” consumer—who is rarely over 60, and even in that case it is a percentage which is always lower than the percentage of users of other brands—are happy with their “combinatory choices” taken to create playlists in their container of digital information. What makes the choice of the multimedia file appreciable (music, sounds, movies, audio books, television recordings, commercials, theatre recordings, personal videos, etc.) is not the fact of “possessing it” (a feeling caused by another “modern” passion) but the pleasure of combining and creating a sequence. The process of “Appleization” is then seen as “individualized”, in the sense that it is allowed in an independent, individual and unique way. This is the result of the potentialities of the medium that only a skilled user can use in the right way to express the maximum possibilities. In this way your life soundtrack can be played in a sequence of files that you can also share and that can become visual. Compared to other existing processes of “digital combination” the creation of your own library that can be transferrable, flexible, open to any new visual/aural entry and can be shared with others, and has started a process of social networking that could not even have been guessed at before. In the library there are selected files, as with the page of a social network, where there are only the people that we have accepted. We can practically build up our own selection criteria, hierarchy of relevance, of frequency and intensity of contact. Your life soundtrack becomes visual; it can be embodied in a sequence of pictures and names that are presented in the social network. The “Appleization” of free time is also that: being able to choose your own library of “friends” for and during free time, de-differentiating the existing barriers between physical places (school, workplace, church, gym, cooking course, club). These are the places where the practices are done. The importance of this is that the insertion process can be justified ex post by the coherence of the library determined by your own vision and by your own, unique, choices. In this way the choices of leisure time forms and practices gain the significance of a sequence in an “imaginary library” and of the imaginary, where one is the “system organizer”. This library is not only a “container of experience and emotions”, but also a system of selection of the future emotions and experiences (see Pepe, and below). What makes one become involved in leisure time is not only the intensity of emotions, or the fact that they remind us of a pleasant moment or period or place/space: it is

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more the fact that “that” experience could become a moment in our biographic library of our vital world, and that we can at the same time associate it with a sensorial memory. Leisure time is not only the time that has passed and what we can remember about it, but what could also be put in our digital library, basically, in the list of what deserves to be remembered.

4. Surprise yourself and expect to be surprised again The process of “Appleization”, as with most of the processes of “cyclic standardization” of businesses that offer goods and services—what theorists of organization call a process of managing isomorphization and which has consequences even on offer patterns—needs new, continuous boosts. However, technological innovation—new products, new functions or new applications introduced in the latest products etc.—have to meet a cutting-edge communication of innovation, in all the multimedia containers of production of the same “sector”, but it also has to meet a strategy that, in the case of this brand, is often copied by other brands: a state of surprise. This can be considered as a vision in a society that has understood the idea that “surprise” is one of the most important emotions through which we select information, especially “memorisable” ones. Traditionally, as taught by media history, cognitive psychology, consumption sociology and psychology, certain information is selected because of its “eccentricity”, meaning its distance from the centre, from what is obvious and already known, from what is similar and chosen because of their diversity. Recently an “adjustable” surprise factor has been introduced by the neat capitalism that Rojek refers to, through the introduction of innovations of which the use is not less important than their surprising easiness of use. The “Appleized” consumer is then guided in the learning and socializing process leading to Information technology innovation, and relies on a business that produces goods and services that can re-pay that trust, offering to the consumer products that he would not have even been able to imagine the need for, and where usefulness is perceived only after a certain “socialization to the use”. The need for readapting the categories and the skills needed to use new technologies— although they are always designed to be user friendly—changes the feeling of the initial discomfort caused by underestimated innovation. This discomfort is then balanced by a strong feeling of surprise for “all that can be done” with the new function/technology. The “Appleized” consumer trusts the new technologies as he is sure that the surprise generated by the “coming soon” innovations will be guaranteed for a long a time. He is a

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kind of consumer that does not wait for the technology innovation but waits to be surprised again, to consolidate the “pact” with the corporation. Therefore, even the leisure industry tends to offer services selected by the consumer on a “surprise” basis. Being surprised in leisure time is even more important than being gratified by forms of emotional mediation. The latter has been quite relevant in the sedimentation of using skills, and this has characterized the consumption of leisure time in the modern society, through forms and practices that are considered as serious leisure practices. Learning these new forms of emotional gratification is developed through a slow socialization to surprise that tends to distribute its effects in the various categories of consumers in terms of consumption choices that prove to not be necessarily linked to age—as told by the “rhetoric of old age” present in the modern fictional imagination—but to the ability to cultivate, “regulate” and control it. As opposed to what common sense continues to proclaim, it is not true that “nothing can surprise us”. Instead the surprise is directed towards practices and contexts that we “decide” to access. Briefly, leisure is the activity that continues to “surprise” us, the one that we continue to cultivate, because it is the one that distracts us the most, as it can still surprise us and not just because it is a nice release from work activities. Getting surprised in and because of leisure time makes any other form of “rational entertainment” old and boring, that is, too far from the postmodern meaning that leisure time has nowadays.

5. Make what you watch interact with what you are listening to, and do it with a touch As many authors have already noted, polisensualism is surely one of the features that characterizes contemporaneity (Fabris 2003), especially if referring to consumption as a practice related more to desires than needs. Somehow, the crisis of modernity and of western rationality allowed, even if it did not directly cause, the recognition of feelings as the essential elements both in individual choice and in the change of companies offering strategies (ibid., 87). In other words, the emotional elements of the personality, instead of being denied or hidden (by men) and/or banished or cancelled (by women) go from a position of “subordination” and less importance compared to the one taken by rationality, and get to a new position in the placement of what is relevant in a real life and in a life that can be so called “only if lived to the full”. By this an “emotionally elevated intensity” is intended.

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The use of all the feelings generated by the “sensitive” world is a consequence of this change in the consumption trend—causing major happiness in those old time empiricists—as well as the recourse to the variety of sensitive perceptions. The possibility to look beyond, more than just listening through the same portable information technology media, makes the emotional information more complicated. Recording reality implies opening all the senses to it as well as memorizing the emotions that could be enjoyed through sight and hearing, and then reproduced with a media that allows one to enjoy both of them at the same time using touch, which is the less discussed sense in literature 6 but the most important in the polisensual experience of postmodern leisure. Touching pictures, listening to sounds, makes the experience even more enjoyable, stimulating also our desire for power, deceived but satisfied by the possibility of moving in a picture “flipping through” contexts with a fingertip. Contemporary leisure time is consumed especially with the aim of activating and stimulating all the senses. Touch, taste and smell memories and emotions now find affirmation alongside the most traditional and important ones of sight and hearing, because it is through the emotional experience that time, either the active or passive one, becomes appreciable. Even from this point of view the offer has organized itself, building locations where experiential paths differentiate and dedifferentiate, merging and separating sensorial perceptions, allowing the emergence of only one of them at a time or creating special occasions during which it is very difficult to distinguish between them properly and where the enjoyment is given by the fact that they are indistinguishable. The chance of getting the differences, but still being able to get lost in the sensorial vagueness is more than just a contemporary habit: it is a way through which it is possible to play with the limits of perceptive capabilities. Playing with limits is another important feature of a part of contemporary leisure time.

6. Be polychronic and multi-task As is known, social time is a construction that finds its institution through social action. Cultures create different methods of managing their time as well as differences in the meaning and distinctions between free time and work time based on criteria that are studied in anthropology and ethnology (Manrai and Manrai 1995). 6

Birdwhistell’s works could be considered as pioneering (1953, 1970).

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As underlined elsewhere (Lo Verde 2009, cap. 5), in different cultures there are two different ways of conveying time related to space and social relations. The first one is “monochronic” and the second one is “polychronic”. In the cultures that have a “monochronic” system, the difference between the activities is given by a hierarchical order, resulting from the priorities that they assume as they are made only one at a time (Manrai and Manrai 1995). In the cultures that have a “polychronic” system it is possible to do more activities at the same time, without using a hierarchy of importance seeing as there is no order in the execution of the activities. In the cultures with a “monochronic” system the activities follow a sequence based on an order of importance. So, the cultures with a “monochronic” system consider time as tangible, divided into shares and they tend to imagine it as linear. In these cultures the social context and the dynamics of interactions are considered to be relatively less important than hierarchically superior aims. The emphasis is given to punctuality, on speed, on time saving and on the schedule of time. In these cultures doing activities alone or in company does not change the sense of the activity itself. In cultures with a “polychronic” system it is possible to do more activities at the same time, without giving them any priority. The context of interaction is much more important than the need to maintain the plan or the schedule made earlier. The priority is not given by the order the activities have in the linearity of discrete micro sequences but by other aspects, such as the number of people encountered or the importance given to them. The process of “Appleization”, through which technologies give the possibility to do more than one single activity in the same time unit, increases polychronic tendencies and the non-differentiation of priorities. Other conditions become more relevant, like the possibility of multiplying the number of activities that can be done at the same time. In an “Appleized” world, being able to multitask not only means being able to do different tasks at the same time, but also doing them without any interruption or accident, up until the end, without a priority based order that is cancelled by the fact that activities can be done contemporarily. Every function on the Apple desktop can be activated “at the same time” without any crashing. The user decides in which order to end them. Leisure time “Appleization” also means multiplying forms and practices that may be known or done, especially when being alone rather than with other people, and in different contexts. Contemporary leisure time can be done before, during or after working activities, it depends on

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the context in which they are done and on the people with whom one works, on the atmosphere generated in the two environments, on the significance that the activity has in an order of priorities that is not determined by the “precedence” in a timeline but by the “relevance” that it assumes in our imagination as a time that means gratification, usefulness, efficiency, profit, commitment, lack of waste, but especially an absence of constraints. Therefore, a working context can also be a leisure context mainly for the fact that the relationship with others can become a priority with regard to the tasks assigned, even if there are a large number of tasks to be done at the same time. Yet the constraint to contemporaneity cancels the order of priority, so, it apparently reduces the stress caused by the idea of a finishing line. The finishing line becomes an indirect aim, second to the advantage generated by the relationship. In free time we want to do “everything at once”: laugh, cry, have fun, be touched, become curious, get satisfaction, find gratification, all without establishing any priority order to the practices that allow us to activate any of these emotional dimensions. Contemporary leisure does not make any distinction between them: it allows an ex post selection, that follows a criteria of selective memorization as effective as it is fake. Lots of practices and lots of emotions all being managed at the same time: this is what is offered by the corporation of contemporary leisure time, in an undistinguished pastiche that does not refer to irrationality but to chaos and emotional uncertainty, which corresponds to its trend, more and more oriented towards the discovery of coolness.

Cool leisure and “edgework” life Cool is an abused adjective in common speech to indicate a popular characteristic of things, people, contexts, relationships and much more. Their peculiarity is actually the indefinite “centrality” that determines the choice. As noted by Blackshaw (Blackshaw and Crawford 2009, 43), it is actually an “elusive disposition”, an attitude that most of the time is put in an indefinite position between two opposites and which is supposed to be transgressive in a deliberate and provocative way, taking things “not too seriously, not too superficially” (ibid.). It is difficult to know where coolness is heading, which are the sectors that will be properly cool, in which form they will have to present themselves to be cool, and how long the coolness will last: what is cool today may not be cool tomorrow. What was not cool yesterday may be cool today.

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Building up a “hierarchy” of cool forms and practices is just as difficult. It is “an attitude managed by a plural and pragmatic (…) aesthetic: if something works (one exclaims): hey! It is cool!” (ibid.). This suggests that the idea of cool has a “rebel” quality, not only rich in non-conformism and difficult to define, but also difficult to control, follow, or manage with an ephemeral diffusion that can suddenly “float away in the wind” (ibid.). The cool attitude would dominate most of the contemporary mentality, becoming an aesthetic that counterparts the rigid Puritanism of modern ethics spread around the solidity of the working society. And as coolness is the most lasting form through which the contemporary social identity is built, it appears to be a difficult target to achieve. It is also difficult to define correctly what divides cool from naff, i.e. dull. All of this happens because the criteria through which it can be defined are very far from those rationality principles that characterized modern times. The adjective is used as though it is a property of various elements like practices, objects, situations, contexts, people, experiences etc. but these, even if universally recognized, are hardly understandable, “rationally” speaking, because of their “changing” nature. Nevertheless, each person would be now oriented in finding their own relaxing sense of coolness (ibid.). The cultivation of coolness applied to our very existence and also, or especially, to cool “appearances”, would also characterize the true essence of contemporary leisure time. Rappers justify their exaggerated words through it; football supporters base their identity on it; consumers often look as if they are waiting for guides (…) that could tell them which is the coolest way to live and which music is the coolest to listen to, where to buy the coolest clothes, what to eat and drink in the coolest restaurants and where to go to have the coolest holiday. But what is the real value of the concept in a world of consumption where it is radical to be cool but being radical is not? The aesthetic of coolness is expressed both in daily leisure time, and in the non-daily one, such as the holiday atmosphere. Cool leisure is very difficult to define, but can certainly be roughly understood by those who can get its temporary direction, co-building its semantic significance. This time/space becomes leisure because it is temporary, transient and unique, but at the same time is re-producible in another context. The only rule is that the way in which it is reproduced is cool, so, following an attitude that is “not shared by everyone” rather than “not for everyone”. As with everything that is part of the shapeless idea of cool, cool leisure also looks more like a way of consuming free time, as a selection criterion of practices that need social identification and that give specific identities to

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those who make the selection. Contemporarily, it renders the practices cool as they were the ones to select, invent, rediscover and spread them. Nostalgia and visionariness, moderation and exaggeration, definition of the limit and then its denial, adventure and re-discovering are the ingredients that are temporarily at the foundation of one of the directions towards which contemporary leisure is heading. This is recognized as leisure, especially if it is cool. Moreover, cool is also the de-differentiation of the borders that limit what leisure is and what it is not, for example, the cultivation of edgework in leisure practices, that is, the diffusion of those activities that allow one to play with the borders between order and disorder, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness (Blackshaw 2009, 67) in a willingness to extend the time in which the limit is “the following instant”. Many forms of deviant, abnormal and illegal leisure (Dioguardi, Lo Verde, infra), as well as many sports that sometimes verge with the illicit, are widespread following this principle of “race towards the limit”. This practice was highly diffused in many past societies and in many cultures, but only in the last few centuries has it started to be significantly present also in the middle class, or, that part of society that has traditionally shared and reproduced the idea of “social order” that has been at the base of company modernity. It is also this conception of the world that seems to have produced the difficulties and the discomfort consequent to the proliferation of the “steel cages” in western rationality. Living without limits—and reflecting upon these subjects—is not an innovation. The innovation is considering edgework as something that does not need its opposite. So the perception of scarcity, nonsense, waste, routine and a need for creativity until becoming “delirious” with edgework, and the recognition of one’s own coolness, are just some of the aspects involved in contemporary leisure time and the emotions linked to it. Maybe what characterizes the contemporary social system is an effect of the need for excess that Urry (2010) refers to. Or maybe it is just Rojek’s idea of “modernity 2” that continues to show itself.

An outline of the book This volume collects some of the papers presented at the 2011 Midterm Conference of the Research Committee on Sociology of Leisure (RC13) of the International Sociological Association (ISA). In addition to ISA, the Conference was sponsored by the Italian Sociological Association (AIS) and SPE (Sociology for the Person), and hosted by the Faculty of

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Education together with the Department of Studies on Politics, Law and Society (DPDS) at the University of Palermo. The Conference gathered almost 60 scholars from around the world from September 29th through October 1st, 2011 with the purpose of “Mapping Leisure across Borders”. Papers selected have been peer-reviewed before publication. Fabio Massimo Lo Verde and Gianna Cappello wish to profoundly thank Prof. Ishwar Modi (President of ISA RC13) for giving them the opportunity to organize the Mid-Term Conference of ISA RC13 in Palermo. The volume is divided into six parts. The first part—Frames—aims at providing key definitions as well as general theoretical and methodological frameworks. In Chapter One, Ken Roberts deals with Leisure in the West after the End of the Long Baby Boomer Generation. Roberts divides modern leisure into three ages, using the important frame of generation in a neoMannheimian sense, that is, the period when individuals first become fully socially and politically aware, a life stage during which enduring orientations to the wider world are formed. In the first age, leisure is a product of what Western historians regard as the great modern transformation, the industrialization and urbanization of Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Life was divided into spheres: life into work, where labour power was under the control of an employer, and time of one’s own. At work people had to perform as instructed. Outside work, in leisure time, they could follow their own inclinations and be governed by the pursuit of pleasure. In this period, during the first half of the 20th century, the recreation movement developed a strong international dimension. The second age, around the 1970s, begins with the ending of the former decline in hours of work. And in this period, fulltime employed workforces have taken their entire share of the benefits of economic growth in increased incomes rather than increased leisure time. During the second age of modern leisure it has been leisure spending, not leisure time, that has increased for the employed populations. The rate of growth in spending by these leisure consumers has been, as Roberts says, “dramatic”. “During the first age of modern leisure, voluntary associations and the public sector were the main sites where entrepreneurs shaped new uses of leisure time. During the second age they have been eclipsed by commercial providers”. And it is a “welfare paradox”. The third age is that of the “post-baby boomer generation”, an age whose “definitive characteristics is cohorts of young people who are unable to embark into adulthoods in which they will live as well as their parents”. That is the “€1000 generation”. But that does not mean that “there will not be an

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abrupt downward lurch, or even a gradual slide in levels of leisure spending and activity”, because “slumps followed by upturns are associated with the business cycle, not generation transitions” and “Life stage effects will continue to be responsible for changes in leisure practices during individuals’ own lifetimes.” In Chapter Two—Leisure’s Borders: What Are We Exporting beyond Them?—Robert Stebbins presents the “serious leisure perspective” for leisure studies. Stebbins consider that the two processes of deinstitutionalization and dedifferentiation of leisure in the 21st century processes “include the fact that leisure theory and research are turning up in a wide variety of basic and applied disciplines and inter-disciplines, with many of us in leisure studies saying that it is about time that this happened”. But that is troubling too, because “most lay people and even some scholars and practitioners outside leisure studies see leisure in woefully simplistic terms, namely, as casual leisure, as largely if not purely hedonism”. In fact, as Stebbins argues, “leisure is far more than this”, as it is confirmed by serious and project-based activities. These two forms of leisure “can foster important personal identities, engender personal fulfilment, contribute to social capital, help create a balanced lifestyle, among other worthwhile benefits”. In the Chapter he looks first at the nature of leisure. Then he discusses leisure’s public image. Finally, he considers a couple of areas of life where the “deinstitutionalization” of leisure should be making more progress than it has in the past. In Chapter Three—Mapping Leisure across Borders through the Art of Painting—Ishwar Modi and Mahima Modi Gupta look at leisure as a universal phenomenon which had been present in all times and in all spaces. But contrary to the assertions which attribute leisure either to the Greeks or to industrialized societies, they argue that “leisure exists universally and that it has a dynamic character. While it is structural in nature, it is cultural in orientation and operation. It cannot be accepted by any yardstick that the thousands of years old cultures and civilizations, like that of China and India or that of Babylon, Egypt or Mexico, were devoid of traditional leisure cultures”. The authors think that “attempting to examine leisure through the art of painting, it would be worthwhile to mention that not only the pre-historic painters but the artists of all the known cultures and periods particularly after Renaissance have painted on the themes of leisure”. They prove that by way of some art paintings that show “how leisure is closely related to the lives of the people and how the art of painting has succeeded in capturing the essence of the leisure lives of the people across the borders”. They conclude that in the Globalization era, “while some leisure activities, practices and patterns are going to

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remain similar across the borders either for reasons of revival and reinforced ethnic and regional identities and cultures as well as due to the global influence and reach of globalization and ICTs, on the other, there will always remain significant differences in the leisure activities, practices and patterns mainly for reasons of distinct social and cultural structures irrespective of the impact of globalization and ICTs”. In Chapter Four—The Concept of Leisure—Antonio La Spina looks at leisure as an ambiguous albeit important cultural term. As he writes, “It is important because it points to a very relevant area of social actors’ lives. It is ambiguous because both social actors and the researchers that analyse it, assign to this phenomenon meanings that do not coincide”. So we need to make clear any ambiguity related to the connection between leisure, free time, and “not free” time or bound time, since for some people leisure could be not coincident with free time and “we also have to underline that there is a type of free time (especially in certain areas of society) that is antithetical to the experience of leisure”. We should not forget that “the same activity can be and not be for leisure, depending on the circumstances”. He finally provides a scheme that may help illustrate the differences between leisure and non-leisure time activities. In Chapter Five—Studying Leisure in a Network Perspective. Some Methodological Reflections—Marianna Siino deals with the way in which leisure time can be studied according to a network perspective using timeuse data. An important review is provided about time-use research methods and network perspectives of leisure time analysis. Siino concludes that “even at the methodological level, the most appropriate proposal for research into the subject is to focus on the consumption of leisure, not as a practice of consumption of time in itself but in its dimension of social shared practice. Moreover, it is believed to be necessary that in order to study leisure in a network perspective that considers, in addition to the subjective and objective dimensions of leisure, the relational aspect”. The second part deals with Leisure across Media Technologies. The study of modern leisure cannot be undertaken without considering the importance of media technologies, both at the level of production and consumption. While there is a large body of literature examining the role of media technologies in contemporary society, comparatively little effort has been given to studying their role on the provision, organization and experience of leisure. Historically, there has always been a relationship between technology and leisure, but the increasing use of ICT’s devices and services during leisure is causing such a deep transformation in

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contemporary leisure activity that, for example, leisure and Internet cannot be studied one without the other. In Chapter Six—Surfin’ the Net. Media Leisure and Youth—Gianna Cappello focuses on media leisure, particularly on youth media leisure consumption as a discretionary time “for relaxation and play, confrontation and sharing, participation and self-expression”. As Cappello writes, “As in the past, youth are constantly engaging in knowledge development, identity formation, negotiation with adults, struggle for autonomy, yet today they are doing so in ways that are being quite radically reconfigured by digital media which have then come to represent the habitat where youth live out both their “work” experience (digital media are increasingly being used for school work) and, more frequently, their leisure”. While trying not to fall into the traps of binary thinking (new media vs. old media, digital native vs. digital immigrant, media as manipulation vs. media as empowerment, etc.) and all the rhetoric about the “revolutionary” impact of technological innovation, Cappello claims that in fact there are many continuities with the past and also that change proceeds according to complex and multidimensional trajectories, intertwined with other forms of historically specific social and cultural change as well as with resilient structural conditions, such as those defined by age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Therefore, some of the questions that need to be asked are: how are digital media and online communication being taken up in youth leisure practices? In what terms can pleasure be a key notion in defining a social aesthetics of media leisure? How can some of these practices be analysed according to a serious leisure perspective, in Stebbins’ sense? Can they be considered as motivational factors transferable to (self)learning? Can they be experienced as an activity for producing peer-to-peer sociality and collaborative knowledge? Finally, can they evolve into forms of nonmarket labour whereby children professionally develop the skills and talents they first started as “mere” leisure or fan’s fun? In Chapter Seven—From Physical to Virtual leisure. A Focus on Tourism—Gabriella Polizzi analyses cyberspace as a leisure location which is absorbing an increasing amount of time from people’s daily life. This reallocation of time to virtual leisure can generate, according to Polizzi, different kinds of impact on traditional leisure activities, in some cases reducing or replacing the time previously spent in physical places or in other “mediated” locations. While aiming at exploring the features of virtual leisure, the chapter is divided into two parts. The first one focuses on virtual mobility and discusses the transformations of the concepts of “space”, “time” and “mobility” and the ways the new media are able to

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blur the traditional distinction between “co-presence” and “absence”, consequently reshaping the boundaries between “physical space” and “virtual space”. The second part offers a review of some studies on virtual leisure carried out in Italy and discusses their methodological aspects and results. Finally, a list is provided of the main key-issues on virtual leisure that need to be investigated in future research In Chapter Eight—Emotional Reporting and Leisure in Italy. Newsmedia, Crime and Entertainment—Francesca Rizzuto focuses on the development of a commercial television model in Italian journalism during the last two decades, bringing the success of an entertainment frame in both television and print news. As a consequence, Italian newsmedia create shows and newsdramas in order to entertain audiences in a context of increasing cognitive dependence from newsmedia themselves. In Italian infotainment, the emotional engaged reporting represents a turning point in news coverage from neutrality and detachment to myth, tragedy and feuilleton. The chapter then illustrates some recent crime news items which have turned out to be criminality shows introducing very important changes in newsmedia language and formats, and hence becoming a new way to consume media leisure. Chapter Nine—Continuity and Change in the Leisure Dimension of Indian Techno-Immigrant Families in Silicon Valley—closes the Second section. Its author, Neha Kala, deals with the leisure dimension of the Indian techno-immigrants in the United States of America. In particular, building on informal interviews supplemented with case-studies and participant observation, it focuses on Indian software professionals residing in Silicon Valley for over a decade. She examines how they define the concept of leisure. She also examines the change in the understanding of leisure and leisure behaviour caused by immigration to the United States and seeks to identify the factors which enhance or constrain leisure experiences of people. More importantly, she discusses whether “de-differentiation” in leisure is evident under the late/postmodern conditions or there is a reinforcement of culturally determined leisure tastes. Further, the chapter attempts to analyse the issue of how age and gender affect leisure. It considers women’s perceptions of and attitudes towards leisure and analyses their leisure experiences. The third part focuses on Leisure across Gender, Age and Ethnicity. Attending a rock concert, playing videogames (possibly online), learning how to dance, no matter your age; being part of a motor bikers’ reunion, enjoying bricolage, attending a cooking or a knitting course, no matter your gender; participating in a religious celebration or a cultural initiative, being a witness/officiator of a wedding ceremony performed with a ritual

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different from your own. This is postmodern leisure as described in this section. Identity is less defined by the traditional ascribing markers of belonging than by the changing meanings alternately given to them. The traditional borders between age, gender, ethnicity and culture seem to fade today. Yet, such borders are also re-instated and exacerbated as a consequence of forces—often market-driven (men’s and women’s sports, children’s games, black music, etc.)—that aggregate and select behaviours in distinct clusters of leisure consumption. In postmodern society both dimensions co-exist. There is no longer a clear-cut distinction between them, and if there is one, it is always voluntarily, temporarily and occasionally chosen. Liana Daher opens the section with Chapter Ten—Second Generation “Migrants” on the Borders: A Bridge Generation between Two “Leisure Worlds”. The second generation of migrants is seen as a “bridge generation” since it is placed between the family migratory project and the chances of an autonomous and personal life experience. It could then act as a door and hinge for a connection/exchange between the two worlds: the host society and the migrant. If leisure time is a new basic human need oriented to foster self-realization, the relative choices could be crucial in the social inclusion process of the children of immigrants. The sense of a double cultural belonging characterizes the process of construction of their social and personal identity: migrants’ children face the adolescent phases of personal and social malaise within a condition of cultural break. Consequently, being different or equal to their peers or their parents could mark this process in a positive or negative way. The aim of the chapter is to analyse material and symbolic consumption and uses, friendships, cultural and religious traditions of migrant children compared to those of their parents and the Italian children, according to qualitative and quantitative data gathered in Catania (Italy). In Chapter Eleven—”All the girls get to look pretty”. Ballroom and Latin American Dancing as Leisure—Vicki Harman, adopting an ethnographic research approach, explores gender, “ideals” and body image in Ballroom and Latin American dancing from the perspective of the people who take part in this form of dancing for leisure. Harman argues that “despite the relative lack of sociological attention, studying this form of dance can help to illuminate salient elements of society and culture. Dance often reveals interplay between the physical body and the social body (Polhemus 1993). As such it can reflect and model gender roles, including heterosexual courtship and power inequalities between men and women. Given that gender roles in wider society have changed considerably, the division of labor in Ballroom dancing with the men as

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“leaders” and the women as “followers” can initially appear oldfashioned”. The centre of her analysis is the body. As she writes, “bodies are the key instruments through which Ballroom and Latin dancing takes place and physical appearance is of central importance at Ballroom and Latin competitions”. In Chapter Twelve—Leveraging Leisure for Domestic Comforts: A Study of the Women Selling Homemade Food in Mumbai City— Brajakishor Swain and Kanak Lata Samal, in a study based on the empirical analysis of data concerning food supply work as a leisure time activity of women from workers’ families in the city of Mumbai in India, focus on the intelligent use of leisure time as a meaningful engagement in the pursuit of the material benefits or comforts for their family. In fact leveraging leisure time for domestic comforts through selling homemade food has been a characteristic of the developing societies in the era of globalization. Small groups of women of low income families coming together in leisure hours as freelance workers for preparing, packing, parcelling and supplying food against the daily need of the swelling population of Indian cities are an emerging trend at present. So, for many women the selling of homemade food as a women-centric type of work falls on these women as a matter of feminization of labour under the impact of the growing culture of globalization. Unlike the highly skilled and well educated women who quickly grab the opportunities of globalization to join the highly paid and lucrative outdoor works, these women force themselves into this informal or unorganized sector without any institutional support. Chapter Thirteen closes the third part. In Leisure Practices and Selfconstruction among Young Students in Palermo Fiorella Vinci wonders if in this postmodern society, where individualization processes have been less intense and less general, the current leisure practices facilitate the individualization practices or contribute to more general processes without undermining the collective legitimacy of individual actions. For instance, how do contextual conditions, for example the working ones characterized by recent processes of de-differentiation, affect local leisure practices? Drawing on the sociology of youth in Italy and using concepts from the sociology of action, she reports a study done among youth leisure practices in a city of southern Italy (Palermo). In particular, through detailed interviews with young students, she wants to investigate how their expectations of personal fulfilment are influenced by leisure practices and vice versa how leisure practices consolidate or accommodate their ideas and their expectations in life.

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The fourth part gathers some chapters around another important focus: Leisure across Sport, Body and Emotion. Although postmodern society seems to foster individualism and self-fulfilment so that leisure is interpreted as “a time for the self”, at the same time there also exists a demand for a kind of shared and co-projected leisure: self-care, sport, and “emotional practices” of leisure seem to be oriented this way. Therefore, two conflicting sets of leisure demands—socializing vs. individualizing— are being confronted today, both supported by a certain kind of leisure provision. Whereas in the 1980s Hirschman could still identify a tendency to oscillate between “private and public happiness”, that is the tendency to alternate self-satisfaction in the private sphere with self-satisfaction derived from participating actively in the public sphere, today these two contexts seems to blur and/or polarize over different phases in lifetime. Leisure is affected by this double logic as it often oscillates between a “solitary”, “privatized” kind of consumption and a more public and collective one. In the Chapter Beyond Play, Playfully. The Cultural Location of Fitness Activities Roberta Sassatelli deals with the cultural location of fitness training. Fitness training is located as a particular style or frame of activity intersecting the fields of leisure, sport and body transformation. It shows that non-competitive, recreational physical activities could be indeed “imbued with ideological values as competitive sports, and that the instrumentalization of pleasure is a powerful element of contemporary commercial leisure culture”. The chapter investigates in some depth the meanings associated with fitness training and fit body, drawing on a variety of qualitative sources. As Sassatelli writes, “The ideal of the fit-body reinforces the superiority of training over other sports and active leisure activities as well as against other techniques of body transformation. Against what is broadly claimed by both critics and supporters of the commercialization of physical activity, individualism is not expressed in total freedom, but within the confines of responsibility and self-control. In turn, this seems to break away from the post-modern paradigm of absolute plasticity: today’s gym seems to be an expression of another, perhaps older and modernist culture, certainly a less permissive and indulgent one”. In Chapter Fifteen—The Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Volunteers in Sport and Leisure—Sanjay Tewari focuses on the importance of volunteers in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010. These games witnessed a huge participation by volunteers, with masses gearing up to do their bit for the national cause, and thousands in the queue standing and waiting for their chance. The concept of volunteerism is debated, illustrating how the contributions individuals make can be

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significantly different depending on whether the “work” is structured or unstructured. The question “is volunteering leisure?” is addressed as well. The objective of the analysis is to explore the values and commitment of serious leisure volunteers in order to make a more appropriate representation of volunteers. By using both self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, a total of 15 volunteers have been included. Questions such as motivation for joining the CWG Delhi 2010, whether their expectations were met, their satisfaction with volunteering action, whether it was a leisure activity, their values and commitment, whether they would like to go for event volunteering, the problem of politics of volunteering, and whether more youths should be a part of such volunteering in future, were some of the questions that were asked. The body is, again, the focal point of Chapter Sixteen—The Naturist Constellation in Europe. The author, Anna Fici, introduces some reflections on possible approaches to the increasing phenomenon of naturism. She claims that “this phenomenon is now transiting from its subcultural and countercultural origin—that depended on the history of Western countries—to a new stage of consumption and legalization”. Subcultural sources of naked-naturism have ambivalent characteristics that have slowed the maturation of the phenomenon and that are holding this institutionalization nowadays. The importance of this phenomenon with regard to tourism planning and to the demand of tourist wellbeing, is very strong, especially in some European countries. And this requires a sociological explanation. Sofia Pagliarin, in Working Entertainment. The Knowledge, Emotional and Physical Labour Performed by Entertainment Workers in the Italian Tourist Industry, focuses on a specific category of tourist workers: tourist entertainment workers. These workers are “paid to entertain” and engage in different tasks, from playing sport to baby-sitting, from evening shows as dancers and actors to “always cheerful friends” for clients. By using an ethnographic methodology, and following a grounded theory approach, indepth interviews and direct field observations carried out in one of the biggest camping places and resorts in Europe, located near Venice, the chapter intends to analyse the definition that entertainment workers give to their job and how they adjust to personal and organizational expectations shedding a light on the connection between holidays (tourism), leisure activities, entertainment and paid work. The fifth part is focused on another important issue, rarely treated by sociologists or psychologists of deviance according to a “leisure studies” approach: Leisure across Legal and Illegal. Leisure, although differently

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defined and experienced in different cultures, is always a socially regulated phenomenon. In modern society, not only was there a clear distinction between leisure and work, but also, quite significantly, between legal and illegal leisure. However, the socially defined connotation of leisure practices as legal or illegal has changed over time, the latter being confined within a limited space and serving a cathartic function disciplined by society through rituals such as the carnival. Yet, this kind of social control has not been sufficient, both because the demand for illegal leisure has increased over the years, and because the business of illegal leisure has constantly fuelled the provision of it. Therefore, the industrialization of leisure has been accompanied by the growth of actual corporations, so to speak, in the provision and management of illegal leisure, gambling, betting, traffic of drugs and alcohol in night clubs, etc. The Italian mafia, together with other international mafia-like organizations, are well-known examples of this kind of activity. What is sociologically relevant is the fact that today the borders between legal and illegal leisure are increasingly being blurred, formally re-instated by the governments and yet practically inexistent. Indeed, a problem that questions the social definitions of the role and function of leisure. In The Impact of Beliefs about the Use of Money on Gambling Patterns Thomas Amadieu looks at gambling behaviours through an analysis of the moral and instrumental beliefs that we suppose are rationally based. Based on observations and interviews of French gamblers, the chapter analyses the success and the social distribution of gambling in contemporary societies. Historically gambling has been considered as a deviant activity, transgressing various religious and moral principles related to the use of money and free time. But since the 1980s, games of chance have been reevaluated to become legitimate leisure activities in large parts of the world, with legislations being increasingly tolerant towards them. But many countries continue to forbid these games (often only partially), while others consider that the market of these activities must be framed with binding norms. This is mainly due to the conflict between opposing moral principles regulating economic and cultural actions in contemporary societies: a historically strong ascetic principle and a growing hedonistic one. A new (old) problem, for postmodern leisure. In Chapter Nineteen—Leisure and “Alcoholic Interactions”. Rites, Norms and Action Strategies among Young Drinkers—Charlie Barnao works on another important social problem often linked with the way in which young people consume leisure time. In particular, it focuses on the cultural patterns related to the consumption of alcohol by young people, through the reconstruction and analysis of the sociological drinking rituals

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practised by them during their leisure time. The central hypothesis of the work is that the drinking ritual is one of the privileged forms of “togetherness” of young people, having important functions of social integration and differentiation on the basis of specific norms and values. The data have been collected during qualitative research (January 2005February 2009) conducted in Italy and show that drinking alcohol in a group manifests itself as a rite of passage, for those transitions which accompany from one phase to another (study/amusement; work/leisure time; day/night, etc.) and from one social status to another, but it also has a function of differentiation as a rite of institution, establishing a permanent difference between actors who are involved in ritual and those who are excluded as well, hence becoming a symbolic border that separates the elect ones from those that are not. Chapter Twenty, written by Valentina Punzo, Barbara Sonzogni and Federico Cecconi and entitled A Computational Approach to the Study of Deviant Leisure, deals with forms of deviant leisure linked with particular ways in which casual leisure is practiced. According to the tolerable deviance perspective (Stebbins 1996) some deviant activities, such as heavy drinking and gambling are currently considered as forms of deviant casual leisure as they produce a significant level of pleasure for those who participate in them. Recently, deviant activities, such as auto-theft, have been contextualized as thrill and risk within a hedonic leisure lifestyle (Drodza 2006). Following this approach, it is possible to identify models of deviant lifestyles associated with specific sub-cultures that influence the emergence of the motivation for deviance. This perspective reveals the importance of differential associations and the process of social influence (such as social learning and communication) within different type of social networks. Building on these approaches, the chapter provides an agentbased simulation model in which different types of agents (with different risk propensity), are faced with different leisure opportunities, some of which are deviant pleasurable leisure activities (with high potential benefit). The aim of the study is to analyse the role of different types of social networks (characterized by different patterns of interconnections between members) on individual deviant leisure choices and the simulation model explores the impact of network topologies on the spread of some forms of deviant casual leisure. Attilio Scaglione, in Chapter Twenty-One—The Italian Mafia. An Industry of Leisure—focuses on the countless illegal activities managed by organized crime. Interestingly, he argues that there are many “investments in the legal economy aimed at recycling the vast amounts of dirty money accumulated through extortion racket or drug trafficking”. The chapter

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seeks to deepen the interests of the Italian Mafia in a specific, but booming, area such as that represented by the leisure industry. In 2003, in Italy the surplus value of this sector was found to be around 114 billion euros, an amount of money equal to more than three times the value achieved in the same period by food, beverages and the tobacco industry. Mafia clans of Calabria, Campania and Sicily have long been interested in the old/new business of leisure time. In doing so, they have quickly extended their interests from illegal to legal leisure. In addition to more traditional activities, such as those linked to illegal gambling, sports betting, horse racing and lotteries, Mafia groups have now tainted the legal leisure, through the acquisition of gambling houses, betting shops, mini casinos, bookies’ corners and bingo halls. A review of literature and an analysis of the current scenario are treated as well. Chapter Twenty-Two closes the fifth part. In Alternative and Deviant leisure. An Analysis of the Risks linked to Web Usage, Sergio Severino and Roberta Messina illustrate the results of a survey of a group of Sicilian university students on the use/abuse of Internet in leisure time. Gender, age, profession, motivation on Web usage, online socialization activities, social and emotional self-efficacy are investigated by using the most popular techniques of analysis of relations. Findings are very interesting. The last part focuses on Leisure across Individual and Collective Spheres, Social Stratification and Public Policies. It highlights that leisure is a domain of life where individual and collective needs are satisfied. The history of the industrialization of leisure shows that the private and public provision of leisure has changed over time and throughout different countries. How has the private and public provision of leisure changed over time? How are public policies for leisure designed in different countries? How does a richer provision of leisure affect the different welfare systems of the world? What are the consequences of a public vs. a private provision of leisure coming from corporations exclusively aiming at improving their profit through the selling of the emotional mediations provided by leisure? These and others questions are treated in the four chapters of this section. In Evidence-based Leisure Studies in Higher Education. Using the Results of a Transnational Lifestyle Research, KlaraTarkó and Zsuzsanna %HQNĘ IRFXV WKHLU DWWHQWLRQ RQ D VSHFLILF ILHOG RI VRFLRORJLFDO DQG psychological research: lifestyle and way of life. Indeed, leisure time activities are an important part of lifestyle. By using data taken from a large sample from a piece of transnational lifestyle research called “Tradition and Modernity in the Lifestyle of the Families of the Visegrad Countries” (HU, PL, SK, CZ), the authors show how a university course

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based on the results of a transnational empirical lifestyle research was worked out. In Chapter Twenty-Four, Evaggelia Kalerante introduces the problem of leisure time and educational policies in recession time. The chapter, entitled Greek Educational Policy in recessionary Times: Does liberal educational Policy take its toll on the Leisure Activities of the lower social Strata, focuses on the effects of liberal educational policy on leisure time activities choices. The economically powerful higher strata can become culturally equipped, as prescribed by their status quo, punctuating their free time with cultural interests, turned hobbies. On the other hand, leisure time use by lower strata may be either indirectly occupation-related in the pursuit of additional job qualifications, or spent on activities, recreation, or network choices regarded as inferior. The chapter concentrates on the cultural gap between the two social poles and on the possible social and political repercussions. Maya Keliyan, in Chapter Twenty-Five—A Stratificational Approach to the Study of Leisure in Postmodern Society—wants “to study the notion of “leisure” in order to arrive to the conclusions on its role of methodological instrument for explanation and conceptualization of sociostructural changes in our-day societies”. A detailed analysis is presented concerning the evolution of the concepts of leisure and its specifics in the fields of sociology of work, sociology of economy, women studies and sociology of consumption. Leisure is structure-defining for social subjects and is among the key indicators of social-group status in postmodern society. As Keliyan argues, postmodern society is based on a new type of social structuring, in which leisure plays an important and decisive role as a “key” to understanding its peculiarities and basic changes. The last chapter deals with an important field of leisure studies, not so often treated: the public policies of leisure. Marilena Macaluso offers some comparative considerations about leisure policy. Moving from the international studies on leisure policy and from “the rights to leisure” recognized in western Countries, the chapter analyses the relationship between the leisure policies adopted and the welfare system existing in a country, in order to propose an analytical model that includes some dimensions that we can apply to research on this theme. It also offers a historical approach for the study of leisure policies, a review of international declarations and conventions on leisure as a right for all the people, a reflection on the connections between welfare systems and leisure policies, looking at future challenges. Finally, a model for leisure policies classification is presented.

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Reference List Appadurai, A. 1990, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”, in M. Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture, London: Sage, 295-310. Baechler, J. 1996, “Gruppi e sociabilità”, in R. Boudon (ed.), Trattato di sociologia, Bologna: Il Mulino, 64-103. Birdwhistell, R. 1953, Introduction to Kinesics, Louisville: University of Louisville. —. 1970, Kinesics and Context, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Blackshaw, T. 2010, Leisure, London: Routledge. Blackshaw, T. and J. Crawford (eds) 2009, The Sage Dictionary of Leisure Studies, London: Sage. Castells, M. 2008a, La nascita della società in rete, Milano: Università Bocconi. —. 2008b, Mobile Communication, Milano: Guerini e Associati. Codeluppi, V. 2000, Lo spettacolo della merce. I luoghi del consumo dai passages a Disney World, Milano: Bompiani. Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990, Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York: Harper Collins. Dioguardi, V. and F.M. Lo Verde 2009, “Non solo ‘quel che resta del giorno’. Un’analisi comparativa del consumo di tempo libero in Europa”, Studi di Sociologia, 4, 345-381. Fabris, G. 2003, Il consumatore verso il postmoderno, Milano: Franco Angeli. Freysinger, V.J. and D. Flannery 1992, “Women’s leisure. Affiliation, self-Determination, Empowerment and Resistance?”, Society and Leisure, 15, 1, 303-22. Gershuny, J. 2000, Changing Time. Work and Leisure in Post-Industrial Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gleick, J. 1999, Faster. The Acceleration of Just About Anything, London: Pantheon. Glorieux, I., I. Laurijssen, J. Minnen and T.P. van Tienoven 2010, “In Search of the Hurried Leisure Class in Contemporary Society. TimeUse Surveys and Patterns of Leisure Time Consumption”, Journal of Consumer Policy, 33(2), 163-181. Goodin, R.E., J.M. Rice, M. Bittman and P. Saunders 2005, “The TimePressure Illusion. Discretionary Time vs. Free Time”, Social Indicators Research, 73(1), 43-70.

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Istat, 2006, Statistiche in breve. Le differenze di genere nelle attività del tempo libero. Anni 2002-2003, Roma: Istat. —. 2008, “Spettacoli, musica e altre attività del tempo libero. Indagine PXOWLVFRSRVXOOHIDPLJOLH‫ލ‬,FLWWDGLQLHLOWHPSROLEHUR‫ތ‬$QQR”, in Informazioni, 6, Roma. Leccardi, C. 2009, Sociologie del tempo. Soggetti e tempo nella società dell’accelerazione, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Linder, S.B. 1970, The Hurried Leisure Class, New York: Columbia University Press. Lo Verde F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Manrai, L.A. and A.K. Manrai 1995, “Effect of Cultural-Context, Gender, and Acculturation on Perceptions of Work versus Social/Leisure Time Usage”, Journal of Business Research, 32(2), 115-28. Parker, S. 1983, Leisure and Work, London: Allen & Unwin. Ritzer, G. 1993, The McDonaldization of Society, Newbury Park: Pine Forge Press. Roberts, K. 2006, Leisure in Contemporary Society, Wallingford (U.K.): CABI. Robinson, J. P. and G. Godbey, 1997, Time for Life. The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University. Rojek, C. 1999, Decentring Leisure, London: Sage. —. 2005, Leisure Theory. Principles and Practice, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. —. 2010, The Labor of leisure, London: Sage. Stebbins, R.A. 1997, “Casual Leisure: A Conceptual Statement” , Leisure Studies, 16(1), 17-25. —. 2007, Serious Leisure, New Brunswick (N.J.): Transaction Publisher. Tomlinson, J. 2001, Sentirsi a casa nel mondo. La cultura come bene globale, Milano: Feltrinelli. Urry, J. 2010, “Mobile Sociology”, The British Journal of Sociology, 61, 347-366. Wilensky, H.L. 1960, “Work, Careers and Social Integration”, International Social Science Journal, 12(4), 543-60

PART I FRAMES

CHAPTER ONE LEISURE IN THE WEST AFTER THE END OF THE LONG BABY BOOMER GENERATION KEN ROBERTS Introduction Sociology was born in the 19th century as a series of attempts to understand the changes that were then transforming Europe. Debates about these changes—industrialization, urbanization and democratization; the drivers and the effects—remain at the core of sociology today. However, sociology’s agenda has been progressively enlarged in addressing subsequent changes. In Western societies the major changes have been the construction of social market economies and welfare states following the Second World War, and nowadays these societies’ on-going transformations in a globalized, information technology, post-industrial era. This paper attempts to map developments in modern (Western) leisure onto these broader social transformations. Leisure can be treated as a socio-cultural universal that has been a part or feature of life in all societies throughout human history. People have always had “free” time, that is, occasions when necessary “work” had been completed. This time has always been filled by equivalents of modern forms of sociability, sports, the arts, and crafts. However, an alternative, and in my view a more productive approach for sociology, has been to stress how leisure has been constructed differently in different civilizations, and at different historical periods within each. In Europe and North America a “great transformation” occurred when the societies became predominantly industrial and urban from the 18th century onwards. As explained further below, new clock-governed work and leisure schedules were established, and new activities were promoted to fill the new leisure life space. The following passages proceed to suggest that it is possible and useful to distinguish successive leisure stages within the modern era, with the Second World War acting as an approximate dividing

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line between the first and second modern leisure ages. Each of these leisure ages was formed as part of a broader social transformation, and the paper proceeds to consider whether the on-going transformation into a post-industrial, globalized age, where all life domains are affected by the new information and communication technologies, is creating a third modern leisure age, and, if so, its likely character. Mapping trends in leisure onto broader social transformations is complicated by life course processes. Young people always tend to be the most affected and/or the most responsive to new conditions. They are the first cohorts to experience historically new conditions as simply normal. In all birth cohorts, lifelong leisure practices tend to be based on tastes, interests and skills acquired when young. There are equivalent life course processes in employment careers. Political orientations, broadly defined, are also likely to be set early in life. Thus in times of major change it is incoming adult cohorts who act as vanguards, carrying new outlooks and practices into later life stages, followed by subsequent cohorts until another set of major changes creates a further vanguard. There is likely to be a (life) time lag before the full impact of new conditions becomes fully evident in all age groups. Throughout the life course, leisure can be a domain within which continuity is preserved even amid major economic and political changes. Indeed, the leisure of incoming cohorts of adults may adapt incrementally to new conditions. Examples follow of wider economic and political transformations that have not created equivalent leisure upheavals, even over a life course. On the other hand, the following passages will show that major changes in leisure practices in modern times have always followed (over a life course) broader transformations which have created new leisure generations. “Generation” is used here in a neo-Mannheimian sense. Karl Mannheim (1952) wrote about the new political generation that was formed in Europe after the First World War. The underlying assumption, subsequently confirmed (see, for example, Schuman and Corning 2000), is that the period when individuals first become fully socially and politically aware is the life stage during which enduring orientations to the wider world are formed. Thereafter people know where they stand, whose side they are on, and can respond to new events and issues accordingly. New generations, in Mannheim’s sense, are formed during times of major historical change when cohorts who are then coming of age experience profoundly different circumstances than their predecessors. Such a new set of circumstances followed the First World War in Europe when many members of the new generation rejected their countries’ old politics and politicians, and flocked to the new political movements of that era, the

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communists and fascists. The Russian Bolsheviks’ Soviet system was spread westward beyond the borders of the old Tsarist Empire by military force after the end of the Second World War, but throughout the inter-war years it was the fascist movements that were winning in Europe, and by 1939 such regimes were in power in Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and also arguably in Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After 1945, recruitment to communist and fascist parties in Western Europe became a trickle due to the success of the countries’ social democratic reforms. These involved the creation of social market economies and welfare states. The results were full employment in most regions, and sustained economic growth for “30 glorious years” at rates never surpassed before or since in Europe or North America. Economic growth, collective bargaining and welfare states lifted entire populations clear of subsistence poverty, eliminated the threat of unemployment, and made increases in real wages and progressively rising living standards into taken-for-granted expectations. The baby boomers were the first cohort to grow up experiencing these new circumstances as just normal. “Baby boomer” was originally the American term for the swollen birth cohorts that followed the Second World War. At that time in Britain they were known as “the bulge”, but internationally it is the American term that has stuck. The following passages argue that the baby boomers were the vanguard cohort in what was to become a long generation of leisure consumers into which recruitment continued up to the end of the 20th century. Ronald Inglehart, the American sociologist, was the first to produce evidence showing that the baby boomers were developing values that set them apart from their predecessors. Inglehart (1977) initially described the baby boomers as a post-scarcity generation. His research has subsequently expanded into the on-going series of World Values Surveys, now conducted in over 180 countries. These surveys have identified three stages in a global modernization process during which values shift from traditional to modern then post-modern (post-scarcity). In the latter stage, selfexpression values strengthen, and it is claimed that this invariably leads to demands for Western-type democracy (see Inglehart et al. 1997; Welzel et al. 2003). Traditional and modern values always leave an imprint, but the same modernization processes are said to take effect wherever economies grow and living standards rise, eventually to a post-scarcity level where basic human needs are no longer threatened. The following passages depart from Mannheim in insisting that not all cohorts become new generations, and generations need not necessarily be political in the narrow meaning of that term. Modern societies change

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constantly, so every cohort of children and young people experiences somewhat different conditions to its predecessor. Since the 1960s this has led to the continuous announcement of new generations—generations x, y and z, Thatcher’s children in the UK, the internet generation, and so on. These have really just been new cohorts. They all had cohort-specific childhood experiences and participated in different youth cultures than their predecessors, but none transformed adulthood and formed the vanguards in new political movements. We are still in the era of the “new” social movements (for peace, the environment, feminism and so on) in which the baby boomers were the vanguard. Recessions have made youth transitions difficult for some cohorts, and may have scarred some individuals for life, but these have just been blips in a longer-term process in which living standards have risen and every cohort has been able to live better than its parents, at least in material terms. Upward mobility between occupational classes became more common after the Second World War due to the changing shapes of the class structures in Western countries, but “standing still” was sufficient to deliver higher real wages and salaries, and hence the ability to buy more, to possess more, and to do more than elders. This paper’s core contention is that the long baby boomer generation is now ending, gradually. Up to now there has not been another world war or a deep and sustained economic recession to mark the rupture between the old and the new. As noted above, all generation transitions occur gradually in historical time because it is always cohorts in the younger age groups who are in the vanguard, while seniors hold on to world views and practices formed in an earlier era. Also, there are always different factions within a cohort, and hence within any new generation. Everyone is never affected equally, and in exactly the same ways, by a change in historical circumstances. Generation transitions are always fuzzy, and become apparently sharp only when viewed from historical distance. The end of the baby boomer generation in which continuous improvement was a normal expectation began among the working classes in Western Europe and North America when the countries began to de-industrialize during the closing decades of the 20th century. At that time, the young people who were affected adversely could be told that their problems were their own fault on account of their failure to acquire the qualifications and skills to keep abreast of the march into an information age with its knowledge economy. In the 21st century this predicament (being unable to enjoy the standards of life experienced by parents) is spreading into the universityeducated middle classes. Their difficulties cannot be attributed to recessions or stagnant economies, or to the individuals’ lack of sufficient

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education. This is why their new predicament will necessarily be transformative, though at present it is impossible to say exactly how, and with what outcomes. Earlier historical generation shifts did not all trigger leisure transformations (the inter-war generation, as explained below, for example). However, leisure was overhauled during other broader historical transformations, as also described below, and this paper concludes by considering the likely leisure implications of the birth of the latest, postbaby boomer generation that is currently in process.

The first age of modern leisure What we have come to regard as the generic form of modern leisure is a product of what Western historians regard as the great modern transformation—the industrialization and urbanization of Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Work was modernized, which involved its relocation from neighbourhoods and families into factories, mines, shipyards and offices. Work was simultaneously rationalized, meaning that the labour process was governed by efficiency (to create and extract maximum surplus value according to Marxists) rather than whatever was customary. Working time was standardized, governed by the clock rather than rhythms of nature. This divided life into work, where labour power was under the control of an employer, and time of one’s own. At work people had to perform as instructed. Outside work, in leisure time, they could follow their own inclinations and be governed by the pursuit of pleasure. Urbanization congregated populations in settlements where old rural pastimes and forms of recreation were either inappropriate or impractical. Hence the scope for social entrepreneurs to create and popularize new ways of using newly-patterned leisure time. The entrepreneurs’ principal mode of operation was the voluntary association. Clubs were formed, sometimes linked into national federations and associations, to promote new sports, hobbies, the arts and crafts. The organizers were typically middle class. Wealthy philanthropists often donated land, buildings and various artefacts like books for libraries. The political class was also involved in the creation of urban parks, playing fields, municipal art galleries, libraries, museums, concert halls and swimming pools. The aim was to promote what the entrepreneurs regarded as wholesome, edifying, “rational” uses of leisure time (see Bailey 1978; Meller 1976). Recreation was among the great social movements of that era, akin to movements such as feminism and the Green movements in the late-20th century. Trade unions were part of this recreation movement. They demanded and negotiated for higher wages

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and reduced hours of work, claiming that employees had a right to leisure (see Hunnicutt 1988; Rosenweig 1983). The early labour movements organized sports clubs, rambling clubs, cycling clubs, holiday centres and youth groups which combined recreation with political activity. Commerce was also involved in shaping modern leisure, but in the 19th century it offered little apart from drink, the music hall, variety theatres, gambling and vice (see Bailey 1986). Commerce was treated as an enemy by the mass recreation movements of that era, though by the end of the 19th century commercial businesses were developing the modern holiday industry, and during the early decades of the 20th century commerce added recorded music and movies, and radio which was basically commercial from the outset in North America but normally became public service in Europe at that time. Leaders of the recreation movements regarded these new commercial offers as a threat. They were not alone. The Frankfurt School’s neo-Marxist sociologists deplored the ability of the “culture industry” to stupefy the working class (Adorno and Horkheimer 1977). Half a century later basically the same critique was being expressed by Jean Baudrillard (1998) in his tirade against the consumer society. During the intervening years in the UK, Richard Hoggart (1957) had complained about how imported American commercial culture was destroying the more authentic working class culture that he had experienced during his childhood in Hunslet (now part of Leeds, South Yorkshire). During the first half of the 20th century the recreation movement developed a strong international dimension. The first steps towards internationalization were under the auspices of the International Labour Office which was established in Geneva in 1919. It organized a series of international conferences in Paris (1928), Liege (1930) and Brussels (1935) to promote the cause of recreation and to ensure that employees had sufficient free time (see Tano 2010). During the 1930s a parallel and longer-running series of international events was launched by America’s National Recreation Association (since 1964 the National Recreation and Parks Association). It hosted an international conference in Los Angeles in 1932 to coincide with the summer Olympics. This conference was attended by around 700 delegates from 40 countries. At this event it was decided to repeat the conference at the time of the next summer Olympics, which were in Berlin in 1936. The parallel recreation conference was held in Hamburg under the motto Joy and Peace, and attracted around 3000 delegates from 61 countries. On this occasion the events became associated with fascist ideology, it was decided to abandon the Olympic cycle, and the next event was held in Mussolini’s Italy (Rome) in 1938. A further conference was planned for Osaka (Japan) in 1940 but was

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Chapter One

cancelled due to an intensification of the Sino-Japanese war (Sawamura et al. 2010; Tano 2010). At that time there was widespread concern, not confined to fascist countries, about the poor physical condition of young males who were being recruited into the armed forces. Recreation was to remedy this, and the countries’ economies were to benefit from fit and healthy citizens. After 1945, the international recreation movement was revived, again under American leadership. Japan’s National Recreation Association was re-formed under American military occupation: martial arts and other wartime-related activities were restricted, and square dancing and folk dancing were promoted (Kato et al. 2010). In 1952, America’s National Recreation Association created an international service to assist the formation of recreation movements in other countries, especially in developing countries. An international conference was convened in Philadelphia in 1956 at which the international service was renamed as the International Recreation Association. This event attracted around 2000 delegates from 33 countries. The International Recreation Association changed its title to World Leisure and Recreation Association (WLRA) in 1973, and began a new series of world leisure congresses at Lake Louise (Canada) in 1988. This series of congresses is on-going, still under the same auspices, WLRA having become the World Leisure Organization in 2006. Some pre-modern pastimes and forms of recreation have survived into the present, and give leisure in particular countries and regions a distinctive traditional character. There are even more present-day survivals from the first age of modern leisure. The voluntary associations, public parks and so on continue to function. There are also carry-overs in leisure theory and research. “Leisure studies” as a subject with its own university departments and courses was created initially in North America in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time there were substantial foundations on which to build. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, over 1000 colleges and universities were offering courses designed to educate future recreation leaders (Pangburn 1940). “Leisure studies’, when created, blended the contents of existing programs in physical education and outdoor recreation, and developed courses that would deliver the personnel who would design and deliver leisure programs that would offer “good leisure” to America’s citizens (see Samdahl 2010). “Leisure studies” then spread, first into the UK, then Australasia, and more thinly throughout the rest of the world, always adapting the curriculum to local conditions and issues (see Roberts 2010).

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Needless to say, academic interest in leisure has never been confined to “leisure studies” programs and departments. Before, but even more so following the Second World War, economists, psychologists, historians and especially sociologists were addressing the growth of leisure. It was mainly leisure time that had grown in what were then the most advanced industrial societies. A normal working day had been reduced to eight hours or less, the two-day weekend had been won, plus statutory holidays, usually public holidays plus at least two weeks, gradually increasing to three, four weeks or even more. The International Sociological Association’s Research Committee 13 (on leisure) was formed in 1962. At that time a unifying belief, or theory, was that leisure would continue to grow, thereby becoming a stronger influence over people’s values and priorities, leading to some kind of society of leisure (Dumazedier 1967, 1974, 1989; Best 1978; Neulinger 1990). The main opposition at that time was from the Soviet bloc of countries where the “party line” was that these societies would develop superior forms of leisure, culturally superior to the high and popular cultures of the capitalist West, and transcending the rural-urban and class divisions that structured Western leisure (see Roberts 2010). During the first age of modern leisure the communist and fascist movements were responsible for political and economic transformations in the counties where they took control. They did not replace, but strengthened and rationalized, the leisure practices that were being encouraged by the recreation movements of that era. Communism eliminated commercial provisions. All organized leisure was under the auspices of state and party. Fascism demanded the subordination of all associations, from businesses to youth clubs, to a national effort coordinated by the state. The fascist regimes had no difficulty in adopting the emerging international recreation movement. Correspondingly, after the fall of fascism the countries’ leisure providers had little difficulty in rejoining the “democratic” mainstream. Communism had a stronger, more enduring impact, partly because in the Soviet Union the system lasted for much longer than fascism, and the new independent states which were formed following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, had no precommunist modern histories that they could resume. After the fall of communism, following the events of 1989 in East and Central Europe, and the USSR in 1991, the countries needed to develop voluntary associations from scratch. Much of their recreation infra-structure crumbled when state funding and organizational support were withdrawn. Commercial leisure providers arrived late (after 1989). The legacy is that the countries are still catching-up.

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Chapter One

The socialist alternative disappeared after 1989. Since then the main challenges to Western perspectives on leisure have been from nonWestern newly modernizing countries such as India and China (see Roberts 2010). It is only on encountering an “other” that the West recognizes the extent to which its own forms of modern leisure (and other practices) are specifically occidental. The foundations of modern Western leisure lie deep in Western history, the influence of Christianity, and the impact of the religious reformation from the 16th century onwards. The notion of “time of one’s own” is not easily transplanted into cultures where time has always belonged to a larger group (see North 2010). The religious reformation in the West created the space within which, later on, voluntary leisure associations could form and operate. The original voluntary associations were, of course, churches. Earlier urban, merchant and craft guilds were licensed by the state (usually a sovereign monarch at that time). It was only post-reformation that space was created in which, within the law, religious, political, professional, industrial and various recreation associations could be formed without seeking any official permission (see Delisle 2004).

The second consumerist age of modern leisure The clearest sign of entry into a new age of modern leisure was the ending of the former decline in hours of work. In most Western countries this trend ceased around the 1970s, though it was only some time afterwards that it became clear that the arrest was not merely a pause. There has been a debate about whether typical hours of work have actually lengthened in any Western country (see Robinson and Godbey 1999; Schor 1991), but it is now agreed that, for full-time employees, hours of work have not been falling since the 1970s or 1980s (depending on the country). We can note that the method of calculation does not take into account the growth of part-time employment. It is also the case that paid working time as a proportion of all lifetime has continued to decline due to young people remaining longer in education and the increase in longevity which has extended the number of years typically spent in retirement. However, full-time employees in Western countries today work at least as long as their counterparts of 30-40 years ago, and in all countries the longest schedules are now worked in management and professional occupations. Full-time employed workforces have taken their entire share of the benefits of economic growth in increased incomes rather than increased leisure time.

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Experience throughout the West has been that as economies expand, the proportion of all spending that is on leisure goods and services increases. In all Western countries, the higher income groups spend the largest proportions of their incomes on leisure. We can note here that it was the original baby boomer cohort who, on entering the markets from the 1960s onwards, led the trend towards higher earnings rather than more leisure time. They were also the cohort in which the dual earning couple became the norm, with the outcome that fully employed households have greatly enlarged their capacity to spend on leisure goods and services. During the second age of modern leisure it has been leisure spending, not leisure time, that has increased for the employed populations. The rate of growth in spending by these leisure consumers has been dramatic. In the UK, total spending on leisure goods and services has increased five-fold since the 1950s. During the first age of modern leisure, voluntary associations and the public sector were the main sites where entrepreneurs shaped new uses of leisure time. During the second age they have been eclipsed by commercial providers. Social democracy has been partly responsible. This is paradoxical, but easily explained. The paradox is that the creation of welfare states helped to nurture the baby boomer generation. Throughout the decades that followed the Second World War, government spending was accounting for growing proportions of countries’ economies. One expectation, a possibility that failed to materialize, was that the scope of welfare states would expand to encompass an increasing range of services, including leisure provisions, thereby converting access to sport, the arts, the countryside and holidays into citizen rights rather than distributed by the market. This did not happen. The explanation of the paradox is that welfare states, combined with full employment and rising real wage levels, enabled citizens to turn to commercial alternatives to what public and voluntary sector leisure providers were offering. Exactly how people spend their leisure time and money differs from country to country. Some of the differences within Europe are explicable in terms of levels of economic prosperity (Western versus post-communist East-Central Europe, for example). Other differences are probably due to climate (relatively high levels of spending in cafes in Mediterranean Europe, for instance). Other differences appear to reflect different national histories, traditions and cultures (Gronow and Southerton 2011; Lopez 2011). That said, total spending on leisure has risen everywhere. The main growth points have been travel (tourism and visits), media (television, CDs, DVDs, mobile phones, and the internet), out-of-home dining, and consumption of alcohol. The main providers of all these goods and

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Chapter One

services are commercial. The leisure consumer has typified the second age of modern leisure, rather than a “right to leisure (time)”, has organized or has insisted not only on the “right to work”, but also on regular increases in real levels of pay, and therefore enjoyment of forever increasing levels of spending (see Cross 1993; Hunnicutt 1988). During their adulthoods, the baby boomers themselves benefited from the spread of home ownership, higher rates of international travel, the coming of colour and multi-channel television, and all the other leisure goods and services that depend on the new information and communication technologies. Not only that, each cohort within the long baby boomer generation has been able to earn more, spend more, have more and do more than its predecessor. The popularity of the mobile phone and the internet’s interactive sites have not been part of a transition to post-industrial, post-modern leisure, but simply further evidence of the baby boomer generation having more and doing more. Public and voluntary sector leisure providers have not disappeared or even diminished in size, but they have found themselves operating in a commercialized leisure age. Some voluntary associations now operate as if they were commercial businesses (national and international organizers of top spectator sport competitions, for example). Public sector providers gear their efforts to maximizing their territories’ shares in the leisure market, especially in tourism. Broadcasting has become mainly commercial everywhere, and public sector broadcasters have needed to adapt, to act commercially, to protect their market shares. Leisure has also been repositioned in academic research and teaching. The concept of leisure itself may have appeared tarred by associations formed during the first modern leisure age. The media, tourism and sport have developed as largely independent fields of enquiry. Within sociology the main growth has not been in scholars who identify with “leisure” so much as those who study “consumption”.

The third age The West is now entering a third age of modern leisure, the age of a post-baby boomer generation. Its definitive characteristic is cohorts of young people who are unable to embark into adulthoods in which they will live as well as their parents. This age is dawning slowly. It began among the working classes, for young people who were not upwardly mobile, and is now enveloping university-educated young people from middle class homes who anticipated that their education would lead into middle class careers and adulthoods at least as rewarding as those of their parents.

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Vocal members of the new youth include the self-defined €1000 generation (Chiokati-Poulou and Sakellariou 2010). They have tried to at least maintain their socio-economic status by prolonging their education, taking stop-gap jobs, even unpaid internships, enrolling in official training schemes, and taking state-subsidized temporary jobs. Today many find themselves still marking time, still hoping, when aged 30-plus (Cuzzocrea and Tavani 2010). A combination of new realities has brought the long baby boomer generation to a close (see Roberts 2011). x Since the 1970s economic growth in the West has been slower than during the historically atypical 30 glorious post-war years (see Crafts and Toniolo 2008). x Labor’sLabour’s share of global GDP has fallen. It is now only just over 50% in the OECD countries. Financial openness is the most plausible explanation. x More of the gains from economic growth than in the past are now required to deal with the costs of growth including pollution and possible climate change. x The developing world is ceasing to supply cheap commodities and manufactured goods. Global growth means fiercer competition for finite natural resources. x Working populations face heavier costs in supporting dependent children through prolonged education, and will need to contribute more to support increasing numbers of seniors, including their health care, thus enabling them to draw pensions for even longer. x There are now excess supplies of or with all levels of qualifications in all world regions. In the West, this creates downward pressure on salaries and career prospects. x The class demographics of Western countries have changed. In the 1950s these countries had working class majorities. Their working classes are now minorities. Managers and professionals now typically comprise around 40% of the workforces. It is impossible for all members of these new middle classes to enjoy well-above average salaries and living standards. Some of the occupations are inevitably being “proletarianized”. Also, employment growth at these levels must now stagnate. It is impossible to sustain familiar middle class lifestyles without car repairers, shop assistants, hotel and restaurant staff, cleaners, security guards, gardeners, nannies and so forth. Furthermore, more young people today than in the

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Chapter One

past start life so close to the top that social ascent is necessarily difficult; any mobility is most likely to be downwards. The old policy mantras—economic growth, and more education and training—no longer work, and this is being demonstrated, and experienced in the lives of today’s well-educated young people as well as those lesser qualified. The old policies cannot prevent the numbers of young people who fear descent growing until they outnumber those who are excited by the prospect of upward mobility. Of course, many young people will continue to be upwardly mobile. Social mobility itself has not seized up. There are still middle class occupations that offer ascending careers and salaries which greatly exceed average earnings. The predicament of the post-baby boomer generation is not mass immiseration. It is rather that the young people who epitomize this generation, the typical young people, feel that they are not being offered the adulthoods that they have earned, and that their parents could enjoy, despite the parents’ generally more modest educational attainments. There will not be an abrupt downward lurch, or even a gradual slide in levels of leisure spending and activity. Slumps followed by upturns are associated with the business cycle, not generation transitions. Any downward trend will be slow and gradual, and it is more likely that overall leisure spending will continue to grow but no faster than consumer spending in general. It is less likely, though possible, that leisure spending will plateau in absolute terms. Any such macro-change will be gradual because the baby boomer cohort itself is only just retiring from employment. They are healthier and wealthier than any previous cohort of retirees. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, retiring cohorts had been socialized in the pre-baby boomer era, and their limited leisure socialization earlier in life has probably been at least partly responsible for the low rates of participation in most forms of out-of-home leisure in the older age groups. The baby boomers themselves, and the cohorts that immediately follow, will be different. They have been accustomed to relatively high levels of leisure spending and activity that they may well sustain or even increase, and, in some cases, use wealth that has been saved and invested in their dwellings (see Higgs et al. 2009). It is present-day cohorts of young adults who currently face the third leisure age situation of futures in which they will be unable to match the living standards of their parents. This will not require individuals to reduce their personal and household levels of leisure spending and activity. Any decline will be from cohort to cohort, not during any cohort’s own life course. Life stage effects will continue to be responsible for changes in leisure practices during individuals’ own lifetimes. In any case, there are

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15

ways in which younger cohorts will be able to avoid inter-generational reductions in their levels of consumption. Younger cohorts will benefit from wealth that can be transferred from parents to children. Levels of personal debt have risen in recent decades in most Western countries. Some countries are carrying public sector (sovereign) debts that younger cohorts will need to pay-off. However, these sums are surpassed by privately held assets (mainly in the form of dwellings) that can be left to descendants. The young may also exert political pressure to force elders to “hand back” the futures that the younger people expected (see Howker and Malik 2010; Willetts 2010). This could mean transferring welfare spending from the old to the young. It could mean re-introducing or retaining and enforcing retirement ages so that young adults can step into the jobs. These redistributive changes are unlikely, given the weight of the “grey vote”, and in any case, like other “cushions”, they could be effective for no more than time-limited cohorts of beneficiaries—the children of parents who were part of the long baby boomer generation. Consumption could also be maintained by continuing the trend towards more fully employed adult populations, but only provided sufficient jobs can be generated, and at some point this trend will have to plateau. Delayed and reduced fertility (more one-child and no-child women) would allow young adults to escape from or reduce the severity of the “life cycle squeeze” (Estes and Wilenski 1978). However, most Western countries’ birth rates have already fallen to sub-population replacement levels. The baby boomers themselves pioneered delayed parenthood and subreplacement fertility. Their behaviour has been responsible for the already increasing numbers of retired citizens who need to be supported by working age cohorts that are contracting in size. Gaps in Western countries’ workforces can be filled by immigrants, but only for as long as economic and social conditions in the West remain sufficiently attractive compared with conditions elsewhere to persuade people to move. There are further ways in which the living standards of incoming cohorts of adults can be protected. The price of housing must fall to whatever levels purchasers can afford. Leisure tastes and activities can be preserved while doing things somewhat less frequently, or at a lower cost. There is considerable “flab” in Western lifestyles that could be discarded while leaving the basics intact.

16

Chapter One

The West’s leisure industries in the third age of modern leisure It is always leisure providers rather than consumers who face the major challenges during generation transitions. During the first age of modern leisure, citizens either joined in or ignored the new ways of using their free time that were offered by voluntary associations and public facilities. It was the entrepreneurs who developed new provisions, those who succeeded and those who floundered, who were challenged by the new era. Recreation was a crusade, and many citizens were unimpressed. Some young people proved “unclubbable”. The classical arts, despite generous state support and philanthropic contributions, failed to enlarge their audiences or change their demography. During the second age of modern leisure there was intense competition for shares in the growing leisure markets for tourism, hospitality and media products. European and North American leisure providers face different but equivalent challenges as their countries enter the age of the post-baby boomer generation. The wider societies have vested interests in the success of their leisure industries if only because these have become important business sectors— among the few sectors where employment has continued to grow in the information technology era. The new challenges may be met by existing providers. They may or may not need to develop entirely new leisure products. In the first modern leisure age uses of free time and money were shaped primarily by the innovations of voluntary and public sector entrepreneurs. Programs in leisure studies have sometimes remained geared to these providers, though the entrepreneurs who shaped leisure in the second modern age were commercial businesses that pioneered new tourism products, new “attractions”, and new forms of mediated entertainment, including top sport, digi-games, and social and other interactive internet products. The West’s leisure providers may earn breathing space by targeting older age groups where the crude numbers of leisure consumers, and their ability and willingness to spend, will continue to grow for at least a couple of decades, but in the longer-term they may need to seek growth elsewhere. All commercial enterprises need to grow. A steady state is not an option in a changing environment. Providers either grow or sink. For providers based in Europe and North America, opportunities for further growth will be mainly in overseas markets. Up to now most tourist arrivals in Western countries have been from within the same continents. Domestic leisure providers are likely to find that future growth opportunities lie in catering for consumers from post-communist East and Central Europe,

Leisure in the West after the End of the Long Baby Boomer Generation

17

Asia, Latin America and Africa. Western citizens will find themselves exposed to experiences that, during the second age of modern leisure, they demanded in the rest of the world, providing goods and services designed primarily for others.

Reference List Adorno, T. and M. Horkheimer 1977, “The Culture Industry. Enlightenment as Mass Deception”, in J. Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Woollacott (eds), Mass Communication and Society, London: Edward Arnold. Bailey, P. 1978, Leisure and Class in Victorian England, London: Routledge. —. (ed.) 1986, Music Hall. The Business of Pleasure, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Baudrillard, J. 1998, The Consumer Society. Myths and Structures, London: Sage. Best, F. 1978, “The Time of our Lives”, Society and Leisure, 1, 95-114. Chiotaki-Poulou, I. and A. Sakellariou 2010, “Youth in Greek Society and the ‫( ލ‬XUR *HQHUDWLRQ‫ ތ‬7KH 5LVH RI D 1HZ *HQHUDWLRQ"”, paper presented at midterm conference of the European Sociological Association Youth and Generation Network, Youth, Economy and Society, Disley. Crafts, N. and G. Toniolo, 2008, European Economic Growth, 1950-2005. An Overview, Discussion Paper 6863, London: Centre for Economic Policy Research. Cross, G. 1993, Time and Money. The Making of Consumer Culture, London: Routledge. Cuzzocrea, V. and C. Tavani, 2010, “Superimposing Discourses on Qualified Youth. The case of Law 7/2007 of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia”, paper presented at midterm conference of the European Sociological Association Youth and Generation Network, Youth, Economy and Society, Disley. Delisle, L.J. 2004, “Leisure and Tolerance. An Historical Perspective”, World Leisure Journal, 46(2) 55-63. Dumazedier, J. 1967, Towards a Society of Leisure, New York: Free Press. —. 1974, Sociology of Leisure, Amsterdam: Elsevier. —. 1989, “France. Leisure Sociology in the 1980s”, in A. Olszewska and K. Roberts, (eds), Leisure and Lifestyle, London: Sage.

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Estes, R.J. and H. Wilenski 1978, “Life-cycle Squeeze and the Moral Curve”, Institute of Industrial Relations, Reprint 422, Berkeley: University of California. Gronow, J. and D. Southerton 2011, “Leisure and Consumption in Europe”, in S. Immerfall and G. Therborn (eds), Handbook of European Societies, New York: Springer, 355-384. Higgs, P. F., M. Hyde, C. J. Gilleard, C. R. Victor, R. D. Wiggins and I. R. Jones 2009, “From passive to active consumers? Later life consumption in the UK from 1968-2005”, Sociological Review, 57, 102-124. Hoggart, R. 1957, The Uses of Literacy, London: Chatto and Windus. Howker, E. and S. Malik 2010, Jilted Generation. How Britain has Bankrupted its Youth, London: Icon Books. Hunnicutt, B.K. 1988, Work Without End, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Inglehart, R. 1977, The Silent Revolution, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. —. 1997, Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Kato, Y., H. Sawamura and T. Kawai 2010, “Recreation in Japan during the allied occupation: 1945-1951”, paper presented at World Leisure Congress, ChunCheon. Lopez, M.D. M-L 2011, “Consumption and modernization in the European Union”, European Sociological Review, 27, 124-137. Mannheim, K. 1952, “The problem of generations”, Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge. Martinelli, A. 2007, Transatlantic Divide. Comparing the United States and the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Meller, H.E. 1976, Leisure and the Changing City 1870-1914, London, Routledge. Neulinger, J. 1990, Eden After All, Culemborg: Giordano Bruno. North, S. 2010, “Strategies of leisure in Japan”, paper presented at International Sociological Association World Congress, Gothenburg. Pangburn, W. M. 1940, “Play and recreation”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 212, 121-129. Roberts, K. 2010, “Is leisure studies ethnocentric? If so, does this matter?”, World Leisure Journal, 52, 164-176. —. 2011, “The end of the long baby boomer generation”, paper presented at European Sociological Association Conference, Geneva.

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Robinson, J. P. and G. Godbey 1999, Time For Life. The Surprising Ways Americans Use their Time, second edition, Penn State: Pennsylvania State University Press. Rosenweig, R. 1983, Eight Hours for What we Will, New York: Cambridge University Press. Samdahl, D.M. 2010, “Is leisure studies ethnocentric? It takes more than optimism. A view from Athens, Georgia, USA”, World Leisure Journal, 52, 185-190. Sawamura, H., T. Kawai and Y. Kato 2010, “Recreation under the wartime regime: 1936-1941”, paper presented at World Leisure Congress, ChunCheon. Schor, J. B. 1991, The Overworked American, New York: Basic Books Schuman, H. and A.G. Corning 2000, “Collective knowledge of public events: the Soviet era from the Great Purge to glasnost”, American Journal of Sociology, 105, 913-956. Tano, D. 2010, “The Axis of Leisure: the World Recreation Congress of 1936 and Japanese-German cultural exchange”, paper presented at International Sociological Association World Congress, Gothenburg. Welzel, C., R. Inglehart and H. D. Klingemann 2003, “The theory of human development: a cross-cultural analysis”, European Journal of Political Research, 42, 341-379. Willetts, D. 2010, The Pinch. How the Baby Boomers Took their Children’s Future. And Why They Should Give it Back, London: Atlantic Books.

CHAPTER TWO LEISURE’S BORDERS: WHAT ARE WE EXPORTING BEYOND THEM? ROBERT A. STEBBINS This conference is (rightly) celebrating the deinstitutionalization and dedifferentiation of leisure in the 21st century. My interpretation of these two processes includes the fact that leisure theory and research are turning up in a wide variety of basic and applied disciplines and inter-disciplines, with many of us in leisure studies saying that it is about time that this happened. This is, I believe, a good trend. But a troubling question accompanies it, summarized in my subtitle above. It is troubling, in a substantial part, because most lay people and even some scholars and practitioners outside leisure studies see leisure in woefully simplistic terms, namely, as casual leisure, as largely if not purely hedonism. Yet leisure is far more than this; as I will note shortly, it is also pursued as a serious and project-based activity. Much more so than casual leisure, these two forms can foster important personal identities, engender personal fulfilment, contribute to social capital, help create a balanced lifestyle, among other worthwhile benefits. People to whom we are exporting our leisure theory and research must also be informed about these lesserknown qualities of leisure. Furthermore they need a definition of leisure that recognizes all three forms, such that when they think of leisure, they think of it in its greater complexity. In brief, the deinstitutionalization of leisure and leisure studies must also bring with it a much deeper understanding of the nature of leisure than has been commonly available in the past. In working toward this goal, we look first at the nature of leisure. Then I discuss leisure’s public image. Finally, I consider a couple of areas of life where the deinstitutionalization of leisure, as I have just defined it, should be making more progress than it has in the past.

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The serious leisure perspective Of the many definitions of leisure available today, the following fits best with the serious leisure perspective (SLP), the theoretic basis of this talk. Leisure is un-coerced, contextually framed activity engaged in during free time, which people want to do and, using their abilities and resources, actually do in either a satisfying or a fulfilling way (or both). The SLP is a theoretic framework that synthesizes three main forms of leisure, showing, at once, their distinctive features, similarities, and inter-relationships (Stebbins 2007a). The forms are defined as follows: x Serious leisure: systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity sufficiently substantial, interesting, and fulfilling for the participant to find a (leisure) career there, acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience. x Casual leisure: immediately, intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasurable activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. x Project-based leisure: short-term, reasonably complicated, one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertaking carried out in free time, or time free of disagreeable obligation. Although it was never my intention as I moved over the years from one study of free-time activity to another, my research findings and theoretic musings have nevertheless evolved and coalesced into a typological map of the world of leisure (see Figure 1). A new feature of Figure 1, which is further explained in Stebbins (2012), is the re-conceptualization of serious leisure and devotee work as falling under the common heading of “serious pursuits.” In a nutshell I am arguing that both are, in essence, serious leisure, where the occupational devotees also happen to be paid enough to make a living at the activity.

Leisure’s dominant public image “For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do,” proclaimed Isaac Watts some 300 years ago. Today, negative views of leisure tend not to have this complexion, but rather take a different hue. Thus, the work ethic of modern times—arguably being most evident in the United States—stresses that a person should work, work hard, and take leisure in measured doses. Work is good, while leisure is not (although some of it after a good day’s work is acceptable).

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Chapter Two

Fig. 2-1 A typological map of the world of leisure (types explained in Stebbins, 2007a, 6-10, 38-39, 45-47; 2007b)

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23

Alternatively, leisure is sometimes seen today as frivolous, as simply having a good time, or in the language of leisure studies, as casual leisure and the quest for hedonism. The image of frivolity fades off into that of leisure as a waste of time, because frivolousness is believed by some people to lead to nothing substantial (even though several benefits of casual leisure have been identified, Stebbins 2001; Kleiber 2000; Hutchinson and Kleiber 2005). A related image is that leisure is unimportant, in the sense that there is little need to plan for it, that what we do in free time can be determined on the spot. Finally, some leisure is deviant. In line with the theme of this talk, such activity, to the extent the larger society sees it in unfavourable terms while defining it as leisure, also has a public image as such. Note, however, that the deviants themselves may not embrace this image of their publicly questionable activities. Note, too, that the negativeness of the image is stronger in cases of intolerable deviance than in those held to be tolerable. Surely we would, for example, view with greater alarm and intolerance serial murder as leisure (Gunn and Cassie 2006) than gamers’ social construction of violent video game play as leisure (Delamere and Shaw 2006). The study of deviant leisure is for the most part a decade and a half old (see Stebbins 1996, 1997; Rojek 1997, 392-393; 2000, chap. 4; Cantwell 2003; special issue of Leisure/Loisir, v. 30, no. 1, 2006), and those of you who are interested in it are encouraged to turn to these sources. What is important to observe with respect to the matter of leisure’s public image is that deviant leisure may be either casual or serious (we have so far been unable to identify any project-based deviant leisure). Casual leisure is probably the more common and widespread of the two, though not necessarily the more tolerable. Probably most people see leisure in both a negative and a positive light. Whatever they think about leisure in general as, frivolous, insubstantial, unimportant, or deviant, or a combination of these uncomplimentary evaluations, they also see leisure in at least two positive ways. One, they commonly see it as fun, as manifested in participants smiling, laughing, and being at ease with what they are doing. Hence the concentration of a serious leisure athlete or performing artist, for example, is incongruous for them, possibly not even definable as leisure. Two, they look fondly on their own leisure as positive activity. They want to pursue their personal leisure, for here they find satisfaction or fulfilment, perhaps both. In fact the book on which this talk is partly based (Stebbins 2012), offers a journey into the positive world of leisure for its participants. It

Chapter Two

24

shows in detail what they gain from their free-time involvements as well as how they see in favourable terms these benefits and rewards. I have been speaking here of the way the general public tends to regard leisure as positive activity. Last year, in Gothenburg at one of the sessions of RC 13, I presented a list of extensions of the SLP into 17 areas of research and practice. These extensions vouch, more particularly, for the fact that leisure and leisure studies do have a positive image in a fair number of disciplines, most of them primarily applied. Scholars and practitioners in these disciplines have learned about the serious leisure perspective, and have adopted aspects of it relevant to their interests. Sometimes word about the SLP has come from within, in that one or more insiders have imported certain parts of the Perspective. On other occasions a leisure studies specialist has exported observations from the SLP to a particular applied discipline. This is deinstitutionalization of leisure of a different sort. The 17 are: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Tourism; Ethnicity; Quality of Life/Well Being; Leisure Education; Gender; Retirement/Unemployment; Disabilities/Therapeutic Recreation; Library and Information Science; Entertainment and Popular Culture; Arts Administration (e.g., museums, arts festivals); Consumption; Contemplation; Adult Education/Lifelong Learning; Non-profit Sector; Youth/Delinquency; Social Entrepreneurship; Event Studies.

Two critical areas of life The deinstitutionalization of leisure as it relates to youth and juvenile delinquency and the non-Western societies can, and should, be much more advanced. Both are covered in this section.

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25

1. Youth and juvenile delinquency Caldwell and Smith (2007) suggest that, as an antidote to delinquency, youths be informed of the serious leisure perspective. They also urge that youths be encouraged to gain a stake in mainstream life by developing a commitment to one or more serious leisure activities. Still the prospect of adolescent serious leisure raises some thorny questions. Even if they are seldom, or never, involved with professionals as adult amateurs may be and often are, some adolescents, just like older participants, do nevertheless appear to pursue certain serious leisure activities with adultlike passion, commitment, perseverance, and so on. But then they may be marginalized for this by the prevailing youth culture, with its powerful accent on casual leisure. Thus we need to learn more about, for instance, the lifestyles and social worlds of teenagers active in all types of serious leisure and about how they manage their leisure as full-time students and participants in family and peer-group activities (see Spector 2007). The problem for practitioners is how to counteract the present-day, widespread tendency for youth to devote much of their waking lives to activities that lead to little or no profound personal development. The goal among a large majority of them, after the disagreeable obligations of life are either met or ignored (often those associated with school or work), is to have “fun.” The recent crazes in the use of iPads, MP3 players, cell phones, video gaming facilities, and the like spring from a long-standing interest in hedonic activities that, in the past, was evident in partying, watching television, going to the cinema, hanging out (in bars, restaurants, street corners), lying on beaches, to mention but a few. Their image of leisure excludes the serious and project-based forms. Nonetheless, for society, the payoff of knowledge about adolescent involvement in serious leisure could be considerable. For example, what role does such involvement play in promoting adolescent wellbeing, preventing antisocial behaviour (see Caldwell and Smith 2007), and establishing lifelong patterns of deep leisure satisfaction? It is possible that adolescents who pursue a form of serious leisure might serve as leisure role models for their peers, unless, of course, they are qualified as “weird” because they participate noticeably less often in casual leisure than the rest. Systematic research in this area is long overdue, but is nevertheless beginning to occur. In other words, the SLP takes a dramatically different approach from the one usually taken in the study of crime and deviance. It explains how wayward youth and other people become attracted to amateur, hobbyist, and volunteer pursuits, rather than how they become attracted to deviance. For instance Cardona (2010) reports that a program in Ciudad Juarez,

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Chapter Two

Mexico, which helps poor children learn and play classical music has so far succeeded in keeping over 400 of them from joining the city’s omnipresent drug gangs. Furthermore, the SLP helps explain the assumption on which this discussion is based, namely, that an optimal leisure lifestyle, once discovered, will prove to be so absorbing that the typical youth will find he or she has little time left for and relatively little interest in deviant activities. The empirical validity of this assumption, however, remains to be fully established by way of research. On this subject, we should not expect that research will find the assumption valid for all youths. For surely there will be some who take up serious leisure and find time and interest to continue in or take up some sort of deviance, as well as others who will eschew every serious leisure activity suggested, preferring instead a steady diet of deviant casual leisure. Nichols (1997), for example, found in a sample of unemployed men on probation that counselling in sport sometimes fails to reduce offending. The serious leisure perspective cannot explain these preferences, which are the province of the theories of crime and delinquency.

2. Leisure in non-Western societies A final angle from which to view our version of the deinstitutionalization of leisure is its place in non-Western societies. I have in mind, in particular, those from which a substantial part of the tumult of our time—our current personal and social problems—originates. In this respect a couple of studies show that the positive force of leisure is at work in such negative conditions. One study reviews research showing that sport and recreation have been “proven” to be effective means for building peace in the Middle East (Jamieson and Ross 2007). Competition is part of sport, but so also is cooperation, team building, positive identity, group empowerment, and similar positive processes. This is what the organizers of the Gulf Cup had in mind when they set up a two-week soccer tournament for eight Persian Gulf states, which was successfully held in Aden, Yemen, in December 2010 (Worth 2010). Yemen’s government hosted the games in part to try to heal an old rift between the north and the south of the country, using casual leisure spectatorship as the vehicle for this. The healing seems to have worked, at least in the short run. There were positive feelings in both regions about the event. Even planned protest and terrorist activities never took place (security was, however, extremely tight). Nevertheless, as Worth observed, “the tournament has not eased the underlying grievances, and

Leisure’s Borders: What are We Exporting beyond Them?

27

protest could resume after the national intoxication over the Gulf Cup fades.” Along different but related lines, Diener and Tov (2007) studied social wellbeing, finding that it varies widely across nations. They observed it was associated with, among other factors, confidence in government and the armed forces, emphasis on post-materialist values (e.g., achievement, self-fulfilment, contribution to community), support for democracy, and lowered intolerance of immigrants and racial groups. An elevated sense of social wellbeing, the authors concluded, correlates strongly with peaceful attitudes. This is clearly an important area for further research. It is the emphasis on certain post-materialist values that helps smooth the way for the deinstitutionalization of leisure in these areas of the world. In this regard, I have completed a book on human development in the Arab Middle-East and North Africa (MENA), as effected through community involvement and the complex pursuits of serious and project-based leisure (Stebbins 2013). I am exploring the current state of these two in a region known since World War II (and sometimes earlier) for its brutal dictatorships. In the Arab MENA the ruling dynasties of this era have built no civil society, no institutions, and allowed for no democratic experience. Nevertheless, there is and always has been leisure here, and through it alone, certain kinds of community involvement. Building on this foundation my book in progress aims to show how leisure as human development can help establish civil society, however, only if the ruling dictators can be overthrown and thereby prevented from obstructing, if not preventing, this transformation.

Conclusions Leisure studies is, as I have argued elsewhere (Stebbins 2009), the planet’s only science devoted exclusively to the examination of the positive side of life. That is, unless we concede that the recent surge in scientific interest in happiness now amounts to a separate discipline unto itself. That issue aside, we owe it to ourselves and the world in which we live to help inject positiveness into those spheres of life where negativeness dominates in a lopsided fashion. Bringing leisure in all its complexity to disaffiliated youth and the populations of non-Western societies are spheres worthy of our attention. This is one of the main ways in which the deinstitutionalization of leisure can leave its mark.

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Chapter Two

Reference List Caldwell, L. and E. Smith 2007, “Leisure as a context for youth development and delinquency prevention”, in A. France and R. Hommel (eds), Pathways and Crime Prevention. Theory, Policy, and Practice, Devon: Willan Publishing, 271-297. Cantwell, A.M. 2003, “Deviant leisure”, in J.M. Jenkins and J.J. Pigram (eds), Encyclopedia of leisure and outdoor recreation, London: Routledge, 114. Cardona, J. 2010, “Beethoven, Bach battle Mexico gangs”, Calgary Herald, Tuesday, 7 December, A6 (Reuters press release). Delamere, F.M. and S.M. Shaw 2006, “Playing with violence: Gamers’ social construction of violent video game play as tolerable deviance”, Leisure/Loisir, 30, 7-26. Diener, E. and W. Tov 2007, “Subjective wellbeing and peace”, Journal of Social Issues, 63, 421-440. Gunn, L. and L.T. Cassie 2006, “Serial murder as an act of deviant leisure”, Leisure/Loisir, 30, 27-53. Hutchinson, S.L. and D.A. Kleiber 2005,”Gifts of the ordinary: Casual leisure’s contributions to health and wellbeing”, World Leisure Journal, 47(3), 2-16. Jamieson, L.M. and C.M. Ross 2007, “Using recreation to curb extremism” Parks and Recreation, 42(2), 26-29. Kleiber, D.A. 2000, “The neglect of relaxation”, Journal of Leisure Research, 32, 82-86. Nichols, G. 1997, “A consideration of why active participation in sport and leisure might reduce criminal behavior”, Sport, Education and Society, 2, 181-190. Rojek, C. 1997, “Leisure theory: Retrospect and prospect”, Loisir et Société/Society and Leisure, 20, 383-400. —. 2000, Leisure and Culture, Palgrave: Basingstoke. Spector, C. 2007, “Leisure and lifelong learning: Childhood and adolescence”, in E. Cohen-Gewerc and R.A. Stebbins (eds), The pivotal role of leisure education: Finding personal-fulfillment in this century, State College, PA: Venture, 71-90. Stebbins, R.A. 1996, Tolerable Differences. Living with Deviance (2nd ed.), Toronto, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, also available at http://www.seriousleisure.net – Digital Library, accessed September 2012. —. 1997, “Casual leisure: A conceptual statement”, Leisure Studies, 16, 17-25.

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—. 2001, “The costs and benefits of hedonism: Some consequences of taking casual leisure seriously”, Leisure Studies, 20, 305-309. —. 2007a, Serious Leisure. A Perspective for our Time, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. —. 2007b, “A leisure-based, theoretic typology of volunteers and volunteering”, Leisure Studies Association Newsletter, 78 (November), 9-12, also available at http://www.seriousleisure.net – Digital Library, Leisure Reflections No.16, accessed September 2012. —. 2009, Personal Decisions in the Public Square. Beyond Problem Solving into a Positive Sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. —. 2012, The Idea of Leisure. First Principles, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. —. 2013, Work and Leisure in the Middle East. The Common Ground of two Separate Worlds. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Worth, R.F. 2010, “Yemen loses in soccer, but scores a p.r. victory”, New York Times, Monday, 6 December, online edition.

CHAPTER THREE MAPPING LEISURE ACROSS BORDERS THROUGH THE ART OF PAINTING ISHWAR MODI AND MAHIMA MODI GUPTA Leisure is a universal phenomenon. It has existed all through the ages in all times and in all spaces. It has been argued that leisure existed in its truest sense only in ancient Greece during the time of the great philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and neither before nor after (Sebastian de Grazia 1964); or that leisure is essentially the product only of the civilizations born from the industrial revolution (as repeatedly insisted upon by Joffre Dumazedier (1967), the founder of ISA RC 13) are, in our view, erroneous since they stem from the desire to make leisure an “ideal”, something which is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary man (as in the case of de Grazia), or suffers from efforts to understand leisure in isolation from such other social phenomenon as play and recreation and also religion (as in case of Dumazedier). Therefore, contrary to such assertions which attribute leisure either to the Greeks or the industrialized societies we have taken the position that leisure exists universally and that it has a dynamic character. While it is structural in nature, it is cultural in orientation and operation. It cannot be accepted by any yardstick that the thousands of years old cultures and civilizations, like that of China and India or that of Babylon, Egypt or Mexico, were devoid of traditional leisure cultures (Modi 1985, 2010). It can hardly be overemphasized that leisure and leisure activities constitute a major part of our lives. In fact leisure has become a dominant theme of the contemporary world. Leisure in life is as important as work, care of the body, and sleep. As such, leisure constitutes almost one-third of our daily lives. All creative urges of man find expression only while he is

It is a revised version of the Presidential Address delivered at the ISA RC13 Mid-term Conference “Mapping Leisure across Borders” (Palermo, 29-30 September/1 October 2011) by Prof. Ishwar Modi, President, ISA RC 13.

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in leisure. There is no better way to construct and understand the lives and the culture of a people than to understand the leisure lives of the people. One may even say that leisure is culture and culture is leisure. A major problem with leisure research all over the world has been to study it only or mainly in the context of contemporary society. There has almost been no effort on the part of sociologists to study leisure in the context of earlier historic societies. As such, it has not become possible to make any comparisons between what it was and what it is today, how it has changed and transformed during the course of history, and what those factors were which became instrumental in bringing about these changes. It has been established sufficiently convincingly both through historiography and empirically that the social structure influences the nature and form of leisure and its activities. In a given society, at a particular time, it allows, dictates, or is conducive to a particular mode of leisure. Not only does it determine the form and nature of leisure, but also determines the extent and limits of participation. Who participates in what, with whom, when, where and to what extent is determined by the structure of a society according to its nature and organization (Modi 1985). On the other hand, leisure itself helps in generating newer structures and social norms. The type of leisure enjoyed and pursued by a person or people not only reflects their status in a society but also reflects the general character, nature, organization and structure of that society. It is seen that while the structures generated by participation in institutionalized leisure activities are functional and integrative for a society, the structures generated by participation in non-institutionalized leisure activities are dysfunctional and degenerative for a society. On the whole, changes either in the social structure or in the structure of leisure influence each other and there exists a kind of concomitance between the two. History abounds in examples which support the contention that social structure influences the nature and form of leisure and its activities and that leisure itself helps in generating newer structures and social norms. However, what we propose to do in this paper in the first place is to once again establish the concomitance between leisure and social structure, but more importantly not through historiography of the conventional historians or through the empirical tradition of the sociologists, but by employing the technique of analysis of the art traditions. We would not only like to go beyond the contemporary society and its analysis through the empirical prism but would also like to base our analysis on the depiction of leisure themes in art of painting.

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Overemphasis on empirical research has not taken us too far and beyond the common sense. Umpteen empirical surveys have been churning out only journalistic impressions in the name of conclusions without getting to the heart of the matter. What has been done so far, by and large, either by the empirical sociologists or by National Statistics Offices of most western countries, is almost a repetition of decades old conclusions in terms of drab and dry data confining the distribution of time use and leisure in such repeat categories as resting, personal care, eating / drinking, watching TV/DVDs including listening to radio and music, social life, entertainment/culture, hobbies and games, sport, and reading (UK National Statistic Office 2005). This kind of categorization hardly conveys the inner core and the experience of leisure. Life and leisure are much deeper in essence, spirit, ethos, and experience. The art of painting of the masters imbibes and conveys each one of these elements in an excellent manner. In order to construct and reconstruct social reality it is now time and imperative for we the sociologists to go beyond the conventional tools and techniques and to think of and employ new methods and techniques of understanding and constructing social reality. As such, what we propose to do here is to make an effort to understand the phenomenon of leisure as it has existed, particularly since the Renaissance, through the history of art, both Western and Indian. We may as well begin with the pre-historic period. Going beyond the civilizational context would reveal that even during the times when man was toiling hard to gather food and had nothing much at stake, he felt concerned for his leisure. Men in all societies, whether these be barbaric, primitive, ancient, medieval or modern have expressed themselves and their artistic inner-self and inner-urges in one or another form. Every now and then the discoveries of the habitat of men and their caves reveal that man expressed his natural instincts, desires, fears, pleasures, and all sorts of feelings either in the caves or on open rocks all through the ages. The earliest pre-historic paintings may also be attributed to fear, curiosity and mystery encountered by the wandering man. The prehistoric man might not have known whether he was doing art or painting, but in any case it was the expression of his inner-self. When the cave men painted or engraved it was not only part of his leisure and free time but also the depiction of his leisure activities and not necessarily ritualistic representations. Paintings and engravings in the caves and on the rocks were not only a leisure activity of the pre-historic man but also an expression of the themes of his leisure activities (Mahima Modi 2005). This is true of the cave/rock paintings found in all parts of the world.

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These have been found across the borders, and not in any one particular country. The history of world art bears this testimony. It may be said that more than anything else it is the leisure lives of the people, which ought to be understood if lives of the people is to be understood. Of all the art forms, painting is particularly directly related to the lives of the people and as such painting as an art form is also directly related to leisure lives of the people. This direct relationship between art and leisure has inspired the painters to profusely paint leisure themes all through the ages, in all periods of history and in all societies and cultures. Now that we are attempting to examine leisure through the art of painting, it would be worthwhile to mention that not only the pre-historic painters but the artists of all the known cultures and periods particularly after the Renaissance have painted on the themes of leisure in spite of belonging to any school or ism in art, whether it be Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Naturalism and Realism, PreImpressionism, Impressionism or Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Expressionism, or even Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism. Almost the same may be said of the three major schools of Indian painting viz. the Mughal School, The Rajasthani School, and the Pahari School, and also the Deccani School, the Bengal, and the Company School. It would be going well beyond the scope of our paper if we start providing you with glimpses of leisure themes painted by the painters of all these art-isms and schools, and yet probably it would not be entirely out of scope if we present you with a broad spectrum of the massive production of this genre in a nutshell, just to prove the point that leisure is closely related to the lives of the people and that the art of painting has succeeded in capturing the essence of the leisure lives of people across borders. A peep into the works of the predecessors of the Renaissance (13001420) reveals that Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1319-1347), a contemporary of Giotto, referred to as the “father of painting” aimed for a life-like vision. It may not be too far-fetched to say that his painting The Effects of Good Government (1337-40) is one of the earliest paintings of the period preceding the Renaissance, that depicts a city in all its beauty and (leisurely) celebration, wherein people are talking under the arcades and the young women in elegant clothes and hairbands are dancing to the sounds of a tambourine. On the whole it depicts a magnificent leisurely ambience. We know of no academic study which could convey such a leisurely ambiance in a city (see Appendix, Figure 3-1). Almost the same may be said of the paintings of the Akbar’s Atelier, such as Rejoicing on the Birth of Prince Saleem at Fathepur (1590) (see Appendix, Figure 3-2).

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As compared to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s The Effects of Good Government (1337-40), a much later painting by Paolo Veronese (15281588), The Marriage Feast at Cana (1562-1563) may also be placed in the same category (see Appendix, Figure 3-3). Likewise, the painters, the Limbourg Brothers (active 1390-1416) Paul, Herman and Jean, painted the most celebrated Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1413-1416) depicting a plethora of leisure activities through a series of full page illustrations of the months, depicting among others the scenes of feasts and hunting (see Appendix, Figure 3-4). Many Indian painters also have depicted several leisure themes in the context of Baramasa (twelve month) illustrations: The Month of April, (about 1790), Thrills of the Rainy Season (late 18th century) (see Appendix, Figures 3-5, 3-6). Continuing the tradition of hunting scenes, one of the most original and inventive artists of the Early Renaissance, Florence-born Paolo Uccello also painted one of the most original, imaginative and powerful hunting scenes entitled The Hunt at Night/The Hunt in the Forest (1460-68) which combines Gothic and Early Renaissance styles with a fairy tale charm. Uccello’s painting sufficiently demonstrates that hunting must have been a popular pastime and leisure activity during that period (see Appendix, Figure 3-7). The Stag Hunt (1529) by Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) and The Hunters in the Snow, 1565 by Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569) are also other masterpieces on hunting. In Indian painting also, the earliest hunting scene was painted way back in the same year (1529) in Jafarnama during the reign of Babur. Ever since, the tradition of painting hunting scenes has continued almost unabated both in India and the West (see Appendix, Figure 3-8). There is hardly any prominent school of the Rajasthani Kalam or Mughal era in which paintings have not been painted on hunting. It may be of interest to note that it was not only men but women also in Indian paintings who were shown hunting for leisure and pleasure, as is obvious from the painting Deer Hunt (1760) of the Bundi school (see Appendix, Figure 3-9). Like Bruegel’s painting on Children’s Games (1560), several paintings pertain to the leisure of children in Indian painting, like Krishna and Gopas Sporting in the Forest (1785-1800) and Hide and Seek (Mola Ram) (see Appendix, Figures 3-10, 3-11, 3-12). Bruegel’s other paintings, such as Wedding Dance in the Open Air (1566) and The Peasant Dance (1568), are also good illustrations of dance as a popular pastime and leisure (see Appendix, Figure 3-13). Night

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Celebration at the Wedding of Prince Dara Shikoh (1760) depicts the same theme (see Appendix, Figure 3-14). Likewise, depiction and celebration of Spring has been and continues to be a universal phenomenon of leisure. As such, it is no surprise that Sandro Botticelli painted Primavera/Spring (1478) (see Appendix, Figure 3-15) and Indian painters painted the Springtime in an altogether different ethos (see Appendix, Figures 3-16, 3-17). Not only the celebration of Spring, but swinging also is a universally cherished leisure activity, particularly among women, which finds masterpiece depiction in The Swing (1766-67) by Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) and some Indian painters as well (see Appendix, Figure 3-18, 3-19, 3-20). Boating as a leisure activity has also found good illustration both in the West as well as in India. We cannot think of a better scene on boating than by Canaletto (1697-1768) in his The Upper Reaches of the Grand Canal (see Appendix, Figure 3-21). However, boating scenes have also been painted by Indian painters such as The Boat of Love (about 1760) by Nihalchand, Kishangarh School (see Appendix, Figure 3-22). If you think of boating, how can bathing and mass bathing in a public bath remain far behind, as one encounters in The Turkish Bath (1863) by Jean August Dominique Ingers (1780-1867), or that of Max Liebermann’s (1847-1937) In the Bath House, (1875-78). Bathers (1890 and 1905) by post-impressionist Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) may also be placed in the same category. Likewise, Indian Painters have also painted the scenes of bathing. Bathing in the river and lying on its banks has remained popular all through the ages. There can hardly be a better illustration of this cherished and popular leisure activity than by Seurat. You feel as if you are also there (see Appendix, Figure 3-23). Likewise, mention may be made of Summer Scene (1869) by Jean Fredric Bazille (1841-1870), Maidens Surprised at their Bath (Bundi School 1770) and Krishna Sporting in Yamuna (Marwar School) (see Appendix, Figures 3-24, 3-25, 3-26). Another most important signature of impressionism, Claude-Oscar Monet (1840-1926), also painted what is nothing but a scene of a picnic, which is popular all over the world as an outdoor leisure activity, Luncheon on the Grass. Similarly, picnic scenes have also been painted by Indian painters (see Appendix, Figures 3-27, 3-28). Playing cards has been popular all over the world as a frequent leisure activity, so how could it escape the eyes of the painters. Card Players (1892, and 1893-96) by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) are its best examples (see Appendix, Figure, 3-29). However, playing cards is a much more

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recent phenomenon as compared to playing Chess and Chopar. As such, the traditional Indian painters painted these and not cards (see Appendix, Figures 3-30, 3-31). Again, we know of no-one who has never gone to a circus, and so we have The Circus by Seurat (see Appendix, Figure 3-32). And if there is a circus, then there also has to be acrobats. What Marc Chagall did in the early 20th Century by painting The Acrobats (1930) (see Appendix, Figure 3-33), the traditional Indian painters also did as far back as in the 18th century, as is evident from the paintings Nat-Raga (1700-1720, Basohli Kalam) and Acrobat Performance (later Mughal, 1760) (see Appendix, Figures 3-34, 3-35). How could football, the most popular game in the world, go unnoticed by painters? The Football Players (1908) by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), depicts it brilliantly (see Appendix, Figure 3-36). However, in the absence of the prevalence of such games as football and cricket, the traditional School painters painted such games as polo (see Appendix, Figure 3-37). We can go on to show that even the master painters of Cubism (19071925), Futurism (1909-1915), Surrealism (1924-1945), and even the Modern Realists have painted a large variety of leisure themes. Maintaining the spirit of the main theme of this ISA RC 13 Midterm Conference on “Mapping Leisure across Borders”, we must mention that in the context of the pre-modern, the significance of time and space are not of much significance when it comes to the analysis of leisure through the art of painting. Almost the same kind of leisure themes were painted in the various prominent Indian Kalams (Schools) of art that have been painted in the West, but the nature, character, ethos and ambiance of the leisure themes in the Indian art of painting are its own and entirely different from the western art-isms as illustrated above. However, as we have observed at the very beginning of this paper, while it is true that social structure of a particular society influences the patterns of leisure, it is also true that the culture of a society also plays its role in influencing the leisure lives of the people. It is because of both the structural as well as the cultural reasons that in spite of the selection of several similar leisure themes both in the Indian and Western art, these themes have been painted in different manners and styles. Besides the structural, the cultural impact on art is obvious. It is because of the same structural and cultural reasons that many such leisure themes that were painted in the various art-isms of the West, were never painted in traditional Indian art schools, whether it be Mughal, Rajasthani or Pahari. Prominent among these themes may be included the leisure themes related to academics like The School of Athens (1510-11)

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by Raphel (1483-1520) which depicts scholars engaged in excited debate in apparently relaxed mood and situation, reminiscent of the contemporary scholarly, contemplative and leisurely discussions of academia in the corridors and the arcades of the institutions of higher learning (see Appendix, Figure 3-38). Almost the same may be said of the paintings on Bacchanal and Concert Champetre by Titian or that of Naked Maja by Goya or Manet’s Olympia. The Garden of Earthly Delights (1500-10) by Bosch (14501560) may also be placed in the same category. Likewise, it was almost impossible to have thought of or have painted such paintings as The Judgment of Paris (1600) and The Three Graces (1639) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) by Indian painters of yore. Almost the same may be said about The Concert (late 1640s) by Peter Lely (1618-1680) or the Turkish Bath (1863) by Ingres (1780-1867). A single girl reading a book in The Forest of Fontainbleau (1813) by Corot (1796-1875) was almost unimaginable in India around that time (see Appendix, Figure 3-39). Likewise, the theme of siesta as a leisure activity has been painted profusely by many eminent European painters, like Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875) who painted Noonday Rest (1866) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) who painted The Siesta/The Nap (1889) (see Appendix, Figures, 3-40, 3-41). Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (1856-57) by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and Boy Resting (1890) by postImpressionist painter Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) may also be placed in the same category. Impressionism and Modern Art are said to have begun with Edouard Manet (1832-1883). His fancied leisure theme painted in the form of Luncheon on the Grass (1863) would even now be shocking to the art as well as general public in India, as it was considered shocking when it was first exhibited (see Appendix, Figure 3-27). Paintings like Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862) by Edouard Manet (1832-1883) and Ball (Dance) at the Moulin de la Galette (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1844-1926) could also never be painted in traditional Indian painting (see Appendix, Figures, 3-42, 3-43). Being at the tavern or at the bar has always been popular with the people across borders and as such, while it finds good depiction in the paintings of William Hogarth (1697-1764) The Tavern Scene (1735) and Edouard Manet (1832-1883) Bar at the Folies Bergères (1881) (see Appendix, Figures 3-44, 3-45), it hardly ever attracted the attention of the Indian painters. Leisurely nudes, as those of Renoir (1844-1926) and Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), whether in the form of bathers or otherwise, could not have

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been painted in India. The likes of Gaugin (1848-1903), in all their leisurely ambiance, were also never painted in India. So also may be said with regard to the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) depicting the leisurely ambiance of the Moulin Rouge (see Appendix, Figure 3-46). We would be failing in our paper if we fail to talk about that masterpiece of the world art on leisure: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86) by Seurat (1859-1891). It can hardly be compared or matched by any other piece of art on leisure. As soon as you see this one you start imagining and wishing that you were also there for leisurely strolling or were quietly sitting with these people (see Appendix, Figure 3-47). We would like to conclude by observing that we have always maintained that leisure is a universal phenomenon and that it has existed in all societies at all times. We have also maintained that social structure influences the nature and form of leisure and its activities and that leisure itself helps in generating newer structures and social norms. While it has been true in all historical and traditional societies, its applicability deserves reconfirmation in the context of post-industrial and modern societies. It has become imminent to understand that it is only the social structure that influences the nature and form of leisure, or else it is culture also which influences the nature of leisure. If we go by the above presentation that we have made by scanning and understanding the practices of leisure as they have found expression in the form of the art of painting, particularly during the period from the Renaissance to the end of 19th century, we notice that many similar leisure themes have been painted both in the Western as well as Indian art. In spite of their overall differentiated ambiance, which may be due to the particular socio-cultural ethos of the respective societies, the similarity of the basic themes is striking. As such can it not be said and maintained that the practices of leisure had great similarity across the borders, and that was the case even at a time when the modern means of transportation and communication had not overtaken the world. However, it is equally true that several other leisure themes that were painted in the West were never undertaken or painted in India. It may be because of the influence of both the structural and the cultural elements operative in the societies at that time. Having said all this, the moot question remains as to how we go about mapping leisure across borders in the contemporary context. Also, knowing the nature of the modern as well as the post-modern art, which is so abstract and confusing rather than making straight statements about what has been painted, is mapping of leisure any more possible through

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the contemporary, modern or the post-modern art? Our own response is “No”, since the hallmark of almost all contemporary and modern art is abstraction rather than expressing or depicting the varied aspects of life, including the leisure lives of the people. As such, we are once again left with not much alternative except to make use of the traditional empirical tools, techniques and methodologies, unless we succeed in devising new and innovative techniques of mapping leisure. However, in all likelihood, we would still find that, in spite of various structural and cultural variations, there still exist several similarities in leisure across the borders of the nation states. Reasons for this are not too hard to trace. Growing globalization and the emergence of new and speedy information and communication technologies (ICTs) which became instrumental and have led to the emergence and formation of internet societies, are impacting global societies in a somewhat similar manner. As such it should be no surprise that similar and common leisure practices and patterns are emerging the world over. However, we should also not lose sight of the old dictum that “for every action there is a reaction”. While on the one hand Globalization and ICTs have helped in the creation of common international identities, on the other, these common international identities are now faced with the challenges of distinct national and regional identities and cultures, hence the revival of local cultures and traditions and insistence on distinct cultural identities. It is here that global differences start becoming apparent which also get reflected in global leisure practices. In a nutshell, while some leisure activities, practices and patterns are going to remain similar across borders either for reasons of revival and reinforced ethnic and regional identities and cultures, as well as due to the global influence and reach of globalization and ICTs, on the other hand, there will always remain significant differences in the leisure activities, practices and patterns mainly for reasons of distinct social and cultural structures irrespective of the impact of globalization and ICTs. Further, it hardly needs to be emphasized that in spite of all things modern, the leisure of men and women; children, youths, and the old; rich and the poor; educated and the non-educated; tribal, rural and urban; marginalized groups and others, are likely to remain different. However, we all hope that these differences get reduced to the minimum, or to no difference at all. But one cannot envisage such a possibility in the near future. Probably this would happen only when the dream of a “Leisure Society” would be realized.

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Reference List De Grazia, S. 1964, Of Time, Work, and Leisure, New York: Anchor Books. Dumazedier, J. 1967, Toward a Society of Leisure, New York: The Free Press. Modi, I. 1985, Leisure, Mass Media and Social Structure, Jaipur: Rawat Publications. —. 2010, “Leisure. A pathway to human happiness and social harmony” in I. Modi, H. Ma and Z. Ning (eds), Leisure and Civilization: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives, Beijing: China Travel and Tourism Press. Modi, M. 2005, “Leisure in the arts through the ages. A Comparative study of the themes on leisure in European and Indian painting with special reference to the period 16th-19th Century A.D.”, unpublished thesis presented to the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur: India.

CHAPTER FOUR THE CONCEPT OF LEISURE ANTONIO LA SPINA The concept of leisure, as is known, is important and ambiguous at the same time. It is important because it points to a very relevant area of social actors’ lives. It is ambiguous because both social actors and the researchers that analyse it, assign to this phenomenon meanings that do not coincide. In general, there is a common core (for example, the difference between leisure time and the time devoted to work), but there are also different definitions, able to cover disparate areas that cannot be superimposed (as is highlighted in the most recent reviews: see Lo Verde 2009). The fact that it is almost impossible to translate into other languages is particularly indicative. On the one hand it is normal that in sociology there is a link between the way a term is used at a common level and the way it is defined by researchers. It is also normal that between researchers there exists pluralism in their definitions. On the other hand, if the level of sociological knowledge is lowered to the common view, it loses its scientific characteristics. The same happens when a multitude of definitions causes confusion. As with any other social phenomenon, even leisure can be studied in a scientific way. Provided that those who do this use clear and distinguishable concepts (which could be gathered from literature, preferably within a shared research community, or even proposed in an agreed way), and draw up a clear, “traceable” and empirical path of research, leading to verifiable results. Of course, in this brief note it is not my wish to try to cover all the phases of a possible research path, but to concentrate on the first phase, with the aim of giving a definitive proposal and render the given concept less vague. First of all, there is a need to clear up any ambiguity related to the connection between leisure, free time, and “not free” time or bound time. An initial observation is that not all free time can be for leisure if, as is evident, we connect leisure with distraction, satisfaction, re-creation, selfachievement, wellness, freedom and discretionary choice experiences or

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feelings. There are some people who have a lot of free time (certain retired people, some teenagers or young people, some housewives or househusbands with either no children or children who have left the nest), who spend their free time in a frustrating way, like the elderly person that spends hours on the balcony of an anonymous building (not in a village or in an alleyway where they can interact with the people walking by who know and recognize them) or half asleep in front of the television; or in an anguished way, like “downhearted” young people or NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) that would like to work, but do not and have even stopped actively searching for a job. Leisure does not coincide with free time and we also have to underline that there is a type of free time (especially in certain areas of society) that is antithetical to the experience of leisure. To be sure that it is leisure time we are experiencing, this leisure time has to be “free” (in a sense that I will analyse later), free because of a choice of the social actor and not as a consequence of others or of circumstances. One of the necessary but not in itself sufficient conditions of leisure is that there is a free choice1 to use some of our time for certain activities (that can engender feelings of self-achievement, entertainment, re-creation, wellbeing and so on). Let us focus on the “not free”, or bound time (that could also lead us to a definition of free time). This is the time devoted to work, or any activity with the aim of producing revenue that can at least guarantee a means of support to the worker and, eventually, to the family members that are not self-sufficient. A little reflection is enough to understand that there are two issues regarding the expected meaning of the word. Firstly, bound time is (partially) devoted to work (together with the time used for travelling to the office, the factory etc.) but it is also the time used for certain timetaking duties: getting dressed, sleeping, eating, personal care and hygiene, house work (cooking, doing the washing, ironing, tidying up), taking care of the children. Therefore, we also need to include these parts and segments of daily life in the bound time, as it is not time that can be used for leisure (to this regard, an essential contribution is given by Goodin et al. 2005). Let us imagine a female, white collar or factory worker, that sets her alarm for 6 o’clock in the morning, gets washed and dressed in a few minutes, prepares breakfast, snacks and lunch for her children, spends an hour travelling, starts work at 7:30am, she continuously does routine activities, has a 45-minute lunch break, goes back to work, finishes work 1

According to Stebbins (2005) rather than “free choice” (an idea that conjures up a big number of problems), it would be better to talk about an “absence of constraint”.

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at 4 pm, spends another hour travelling home, where she does some house work, checks if her children have done their homework, eventually helps them, has dinner with the family at 9pm and finally collapses with exhaustion and goes to sleep at around 10.30 pm. That is a typical day without any leisure; first of all it is full of bound time. The free time (and eventually the for leisure time) may be concentrated on Sundays or weekends (in the countries where it includes also Saturdays) and holidays. In this case there is a very sharp difference—indeed, an exact opposite— between bound time and leisure. Yet, this is not an extreme hypothesis. How frequent it is in a population, is the subject of empirical observation. Surely different life styles can be imagined, that to a large extent depend on the work activity, but also on other factors. Let us imagine that the same person had chosen to work part time, as long as she could afford it and without it lessening her minimal life standard, she would now have free afternoons, in other words, two entire free days per week. It is possible that this would happen at a time when there is a family need (for instance looking after a very young child); in this case the time freed from work would be hypothetically used for domestic chores without there being any change in her leisure time. It is also possible that those who made this choice wish their life to be slower. As we all know, we could get dressed, wash and eat in 30 minutes, but this eliminates the leisure, i.e. giving more time to these activities to appreciate them more. In the same way, we can find time to do physiotherapy after a fracture or to go to the gym to lose weight or to avoid heart disease, under medical prescription, and this is not leisure. Also professional sportspeople and those who practice sports at an agonistic level can find time to go to the gym, but it is not leisure either. Instead, one could also decide to go with the mind-set of using time for oneself, for one’s own wellbeing, for one’s physical aspect, the occasion to also make new friends and so on; this is leisure. It follows therefore that the same activity can be and not be for leisure, depending on the circumstances. If one has to cook whilst helping their child with homework and ironing a shirt, we could not be further away from the concept of leisure. But if one enjoys cooking, has extra time to do it, and prepares everything at their discretion to get satisfaction from it, to make an original and tasty dinner, there is an element of leisure that hypothetically can be mixed with a duty that would have to be done anyway. I repeat: there are some activities that, depending on the circumstances, can be and cannot be for leisure. Having a three-minute shower on a Tuesday morning at 06.15am is stressful and is not for leisure.

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Having a bath that lasts one hour, using essential oils, bath salts and hydro massage on a Sunday morning is a very good example of leisure. In my opinion this can be a general fact. Nothing is or is not for leisure itself. Whether it is the case or not, depends on the circumstances, on our intentions. Secondly, in certain cases there are some activities in which we should distinguish between the for leisure part and the bound one. In the latter example, if I am cooking whatever in 10 minutes just because we must eat at a certain time, the leisure is absent. But if I cook something, just for the pleasure of cooking, taking one hour more than is needed, we will have in the same activity both a leisure component and a bound component. If instead I were rich, I paid someone to cook for me every day and I liked cooking anyway, then on these occasions when I personally cooked, the cooking activity would be an absolute leisure activity. Let us imagine that the blue or white collar worker mentioned earlier chose to do a part time job, not to devote the free time to one of their children (again tying up the time), and not even to live a slower life (which creates the basis to experiment with daily leisure), but to have an extra second job to generate a bigger overall income than what it could have been if they kept the full time job they had before. Let us imagine that the full time job income was sufficient (as it merged with other incomes and with the income of the partner) to face all the personal and familiar needs (obviously it is very difficult to decide what is necessary and what is not; depending on our “perceptions of needs” we will experiment on sensible consequences regarding the following examples). In this hypothesis we are facing a free and discretionary choice to make more money. The person we are talking about would have less free time than they could have, because they have chosen on purpose to renounce it (Goodin et al. 2005). In leisure there is an element of free choice and discretion. On the other hand we cannot say that the person we are talking about believes their second job is a part of leisure time, because it does not involve elements like entertainment, relaxation and wilfulness. An extreme case is the one of a workaholic, i.e. of someone that works—to earn more money or to exert his power—in a compulsive way. This addiction to work is studied also from a medical point of view (especially referring to the production of adrenalin and endorphin and to the “phenomenon of withdrawal” symptoms that occur when the tension drops). It is evident that workaholics work a lot, not because they have to, but because they like to, or they like money and/or power. So both the elements of choice and

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satisfaction are present, common characteristics of leisure, but in the common perception it is a lifestyle that is at complete odds with leisure2.

2 For similar reasons, I would not say that practising sports competitively is done for leisure because even when it is not a remunerative activity (i.e. when not talking about professionals that practice the sport as a job) there are timetables, habits, diets and more to be strictly followed. That makes it a highly programmed activity (a bound activity) which is not a way to relax (so it is very similar to a job). Indeed, when Stebbins (1992, 2007, 2009) makes a distinction between serious leisure, casual leisure and project based leisure, to define the first one he uses the terms amateurs, volunteers and hobbyists. So, for instance: the musician for pleasure, the voluntary worker that spends some of his time with the children of a poor area and the stamp collector respectively. These are activities that one can do, that are often done regularly, but not necessarily. One could stop doing it and start again. Instead some competitively played sports dictate timetables, discipline and sacrifices for a period that is meant to last many years. If one stops playing an agonistic sport, either he/she stops forever, or it is very difficult to start again. Even if there is not any money to earn, people can “earn” self- achievement. From my point of view an “amateur” practices a sport for pleasure, a professional does it as a job (it being understood what I will say later about creative jobs), a non-professional competitor does it to find success, not for fun. In fact, when someone starts practising serious leisure, (for example: playing in a chamber music ensemble or looking after a disabled person as a voluntary worker, that will ask for your presence even in the future) are more similar to competitive sports, because they demand timetables, sacrifices and study for a period of time that could last for years. Are we still talking about leisure? Yes, quite often. So in most cases we could agree with Stebbins. But if the entertainment, recreation or relaxation components are missing, and the sense of duty or an instrumental motivation prevail, the seriousness will be stronger than the leisure aspect (so that in some cases it will be better to talk about serious civic and ethic commitment or paraprofessional activity than serious leisure). Stebbins’ approach to serious leisure convinces me. However, in my opinion, if the seriousness exceeds a certain limit, the leisure is slowly squeezed out or it could even disappear to let something else take its place. Casual leisure is linked to incidental occasions which are casual (not in the sense that they are not wanted but in the sense that they are not planned). Finally project based leisure is planned, even if not at the extent to become a continuous activity (which differs from serious leisure in Stebbins). If I want to spend some afternoons playing bridge and I am not an expert player it is a project based leisure (because I will have to plan some dates and study the rules at least). On the other hand, if I am an amateur and I always devote a couple of afternoon per week, I take part in tournaments, I coordinate myself with one or more playing mates, it becomes a serious leisure. If I start organising festivals and tournaments it could even become a job, possibly without any kind of leisure.

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In other words, we have to take into account the possibility of a “free choice” (or at least a choice made free from time constraints) that consists of devoting some of the time that we could use for leisure (with no worries, deadlines or obligations) to work or to do another highly organized activity. Sometimes (as in the case of the woman that does not have a spare minute) we cannot afford leisure. However in the certain occasions we can afford it, but still decide to renounce it, the result is the same. But the two cases are very different. Allow me to go back to the cooking example. As I said, the same activity can be absolutely devoid of leisure (because it is done in response to a need); mixed (done both for necessity and personal pleasure); exclusively for leisure (done purely for pleasure). The same could be said for food. It is possible to satiate oneself by binging on bread and water; or, another option is slow food that feeds us but is also more pleasing to the palate and requires more time to be prepared and eaten; or we could eat just for greediness. If we look more deeply it is the same for work, which is not always an alienating activity that has to be done because we cannot avoid it, to be interrupted as soon as possible or to be avoided when possible. As there are different types of food, there are also different ways of eating and different types of jobs. Some jobs, done in certain conditions are tiring, wearing and repetitive; they can also provoke repulsion and scarcity or even absence of identification in those who do them. But there are other jobs that in certain conditions are rewarding, creative; they can engender feelings of control, success, identification and self-achievement in workers. The first hypotheses that come to mind are the ones of musicians, painters and writers. It is not by sheer chance that they are activities chosen by many people to combine their leisure time, it is possible to play an instrument, paint or write stories or poems just for personal pleasure or entertainment. But some people do them as a job. Just as some people play poker for leisure, while others do it professionally (a job not totally different to certain financial market operators). It is known that there have been writers, painters or musicians that started their activity just to make a living, with working times as strict and repetitive as those of a factory worker. Apart from these cases it is evident that in a highly creative job (we could also add scientist and athlete to these) there are some leisure elements. Sometimes we can find all of them: intention, discretion, self-achievement, absence of constraint, re-creation, even entertainment. Indeed it can happen that an artist or a researcher that could devote an X amount of time to creating a “product” (this being a sonata, a picture or a book) would rather devote an X+Y amount of time,

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the extra time indicated by Y is the quantum of time that (to their way of thinking, their passion or their occupation) should be devoted to a work, if it is to be of a high standard. It is also possible (even if it will not always be so) that a creative worker will feel satisfaction and self-achievement in making the product in the right way (from their point of view), but will also feel relaxed. Or at least this is what happens to me when I (rarely) have some time to read in tranquillity, receive or look for the data and the materials that I need, to wait for an idea, to write, to read again, to sleep on it and to finally give a conclusion to an article. So there are some segments of a working activity that have all the elements to be leisure3. Paradoxically, but not too much, as we can have free time without leisure (as I said at the beginning), we can also have certain kinds of jobs, or some aspects of certain jobs that present the same characteristics of leisure. As said earlier, and as is fairly obvious, the jobs we are talking about are the most creative ones, both for the object of the performance and the conditions in which the performance takes place. If I worked for the Research and Development Department of a big corporation and my job was to do research to find new items to be patented, but I was working with strict timetables, working disciplines and in general with a system of boundaries and rigid incentives, my job would be creative but with very little leisure. If I were a violinist in an orchestra I could work through the rehearsals and the concerts just like a factory worker does on an assembly line, without any kind of pleasure. So it is necessary to also look at the working context and conditions, not only to the job itself. The separation between time devoted to work and “free” time is typical of the more complex societies, and it links up to the creation of places where the work is done (like factories and offices), of timetables, of surveillance and sanction systems. In the societies based on hunting and gathering for instance, the difference between work and leisure did not exist. This does not mean that those people lived without any leisure and were constantly obsessed by the necessity of finding something to feed on 3

Analyzing the line, which is not always clear cut, that divides work and leisure, Stebbins (2009) gives some examples, such as of the alpine guide, who, after having come to the end of his working hours, goes for an excursion on his own, just for leisure, or the one of the mechanic who mends motorcycles in their free time just for leisure (to this regard we must refer to Pirsig 1974). In these cases the separation is clear. However, if someone sees the activities done whilst not working as leisure, then it is possible that sometimes doing the exact same activity at work will bring with it relaxation and pleasure (which explains the case of work with leisure that I have mentioned).

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and shelters to protect themselves from the cold, as some might think. The Shoshone, a Native American tribe, were “among the most leisured people on earth”4. But we do not need to look so far and so backward in time, because even in some rural populations much closer to ours leisure was present. What was missing was the sharp differentiation between working time (and space) and non-working time (and space). So, in the most developed contemporary societies the tendency to reeliminate (at least in some countries and for some activities) the distinction between working space and non-working space, as well as working time and non-working time can be found. Telecommunications and telecommuting can make this happen. Some, (possibly exaggerating) have even gone so far as to suggest the “end of work” (Rifkin 1995, 2000). Others underline that, always referring to the most developed socioeconomic systems, human capital is the pre-eminent resource, since in the absence of certain professional skills, some production activities that have a high added value, are not feasible. Ideas, and the people who understand and/or have them, i.e. creative workers (scientists, engineers, designers, writers, artists and so on) and more generally speaking, all the “knowledge workers”, are the decisive component of the contemporary economy. Cities (or better: some cities) are ideal attractors for these workers, as they tend to share an ethos that gives value to creativity, individuality, meritocracy, diversity and openness (Florida 2002, 2004, 2005). However if—in some societies and referring to certain production sectors and to certain people—the “creative class” becomes more prominent and bigger in dimension, there will be a higher number of more prominent cases of “work-with-leisure” which I was talking about earlier. To summarize, there is a series of possibilities (Table 4-1, next page). Experiences with leisure: x Free time devoted to activities which are commonly seen as for leisure (casual, serious, project based); x Time that in theory could be used for leisure in the standard way as in a, but is actually used for paid and creative working activities (or their segments). These give a sense of satisfaction, and a possible rise in income is irrelevant, and so are done with leisure. x Time devoted to personal care activities (having a shower, cooking, eating etc.). These are necessary activities but they can also be done even or just for leisure.

4

Farb, 1968, 28 (see “Leisure” on Wikipedia).

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x Bound time, devoted to remunerative working activities that can be matched with leisure (art, other creative activities). Experiences without leisure: x “free” time without leisure; x bound working and remunerative working time, within the limits of achieving a means of subsistence; x bound non remunerative time (spent looking after the family or for personal care); x time that in theory could be used for leisure activities listed in a (extra time compared to the time needed for the subsistence), instead devoted to working activities done as a means to increase power, money making; time devoted to highly organized activities that cannot be assimilated to work (competitive sports, some highly structured kinds of volunteer work etc.). Table 4.1 Experiences with and without leisure

With leisure

Not working time devoted to activities “for leisure”

Without leisure

Not bound/not working time

Free time lived in a non-satisfying way as the person did not freely choose to have it (retired persons or NEETs, etc.)

Working not bound time Time devoted to a (creative) job. When time used is sufficient and must not produce an extra income Time devoted to creative professions characterised by specific working conditions.

Bound working time Time devoted to creative jobs that produce feelings of mastery, identification, success, selfachievement, pleasure Time devoted to a remunerative job, within the limit of a subsistence need.

Bound not working time Time devoted to personal care activities, which are necessary but can be done also or just for leisure Time devoted to personal care, house work, child care, with low or no discretion at all.

The choice of leisure as a subject of research can be made for different reasons: “pure” desire of knowledge, curiosity oriented; growing economic resources put forward by the leisure industry; the affirmation and the protection of the right to a “vital minimum amount” of leisure. Depending on the intentions, we will concentrate on some sectors rather than others. In my opinion, it is possible that the hybrid cases (like the creative jobs that refer to the work with leisure or the cases of free time

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without leisure of unemployed people) will become more and more important. The research, therefore, should also focus on them. Whatever the chosen sectors of research, analytical practise is always suggested. Just as sportsmen improve when they warm up their muscles, the social scientists can do the same, training their brains with concepts.

Reference List Farb, P. 1968, Man’s Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State, New York: Dutton. Florida, R. 2002, The rise of the creative class, New York: Basic Books. —. 2004, Cities and the Creative Class, New York: Routledge. —. 2005, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, New York: Harper Business. Goodin, R. E., J. Mahmud Rice, M. Bittman and P. Sauders 2005, “The time-pressure illusion. Discretionary time vs. free time”, Social Indicators Research, 73, 43-70. Lo Verde, F. M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Pirsig, R. M. 1974, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, New York: William Morrow & Company. Rifkin, J. 1995, The End of Work, Milano: Baldini & Castoldi. —. 2000, L’era dell’accesso. La rivoluzione della new economy, Milano: Mondadori, 2000. Stebbins, R. A. 1992, Amateurs, Professionals and Serious Leisure, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. —. 2005, “Choice and Experiential Definitions of Leisure”, Leisure Sciences, XXVII, 4, 349-352. —. 2007, Serious Leisure. A Perspective for Our Time, New Brunswick (N.J.): Transaction. —. 2009, “Serious Leisure and Work”, Sociology Compass, 3/5, 764-774.

CHAPTER FIVE STUDYING LEISURE IN A NETWORK PERSPECTIVE: SOME METHODOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS MARIANNA SIINO The semantic pluralism of the word leisure An indispensable step in any empirical research is the scientific definition of the object to be studied. In the case of leisure, giving a semantically unambiguous definition is a very difficult step since this concept is characterized by both a fundamental denotative indeterminacy, generated by the coexistence of similarities and dissimilarities in the internal definition of the concept, and a significant ambiguity related to the plurality of what is called leisure (Lo Verde, 2009). What is certain is that the various meanings in circulation can be placed in a one-directional underlying trend by which the semantics of the term, from its origins to the present day, has undergone a process of gradual differentiation and complexification. This is due to the fact that it has assumed an increasingly individual value at the expense of a collective one. The focus has shifted towards a more subjective meaning, ignoring the social and institutional significance of the term: From a vision of free time characterized as “what remains of the day”, meaning residual time after work and other obligations, with the explicit and functional objective of social regulation as it was in the past, to today’s vision of leisure time as time to yourself, “Me Time”, in which to build and deconstruct responses to a widespread but ill-defined need for authenticity, uniqueness, recognition, autonomy, identity (Lo Verde 2011, 9).

According to the latter sense, leisure is understood as a condition aimed at self-realization, which varies depending on the direction assigned

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to the individual. As Dumazedier says “it is the expression of a new social need of the individual to dispose of himself for himself” (1993, 63). Various definitions and classifications aimed at formalizing a more comprehensive theoretical model for the study of leisure can be found in historical, economic and sociological literature, which in turn analyse forms, practices and meanings. But the purpose of this paper is not to define leisure. What we want to emphasize is the distorting effect on the detection techniques of the use of leisure generated by the difficulty of grasping the meaning of the word’s diversity. The tendency to emphasize the individual aspect of leisure and link it to personal narrative generates additional problems related to defining a set of conditions which in themselves affect the validity and reliability of the scientific definition of leisure. All activities carried out by choice, free from constraints of any kind (Stebbins, 2005), can be defined as leisure, but we must consider that what is perceived by respondents as a free choice is the effect of several factors that are not always considered important: process of socialization of the individual and what he/she has learned through the system of relations in which he/she has become involved; socio-demographic variables, including age, gender, social class, etc., abilities and aptitudes of individuals; known alternatives to leisure, accessibility and options with respect to various constraints involved in the choice. To put it briefly, the subjectivity (of status and experience) inherent in the individual perception of leisure does not guarantee, or hinder the unambiguous definition of the term. The problem is inherent in the very meaning of the adjective “free”: time is free when it is not bound, when it is freed from the choice of the social actor who decides to allocate it to purely rewarding activities, which generate wellbeing and stimulate the self-fulfilment, but also when it is “busy” it may give feeling of relaxation, wellness and recreation. Consider for example what Stebbins defines as serious leisure, or rather the time devoted to so-called “institutional” activities linked to the social role played, such as volunteer work or time dedicated to hobbies. It is as if there were a continuum with different degrees of freedom, non-binding, non-commitment, osmotic boundaries that allow free time to become “engaged” and bound for leisure. In this context La Spina tries to make the term less ambiguous by proposing a definition which states that the distinction is not between free and bound, but “for leisure” and “not for leisure”. So, for example, the free time of the elderly can be without leisure, because it lacks the elements of escapism and gratification, or the time dedicated to work (often creative) can become a generator of success, identification, self-realization and enjoyment (in Lo Verde 2011, 516).

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The methodological issue that we take into consideration is the fact of attributing a shared meaning to leisure. However, this pluralistic definition is not the only source of empirically detectable distortion. The next section is devoted to different approaches, tools and techniques used or usable for detecting information on the use of time.

Narrating leisure: the time-use data Leisure time activities can be detected by making use of two commonly used instruments for measuring budget time, within which a percentage is devoted to leisure: the questionnaire and daily diaries. In both cases, activities performed in a certain period of time are to be classified, recording the duration, frequency, and the precise moment they occur. Both are tools that allow us to collect data from which we can reconstruct the daily routine of an individual. Although, apparently, the two instruments differ in level of structure, in practice both collect quantitative data leaving no room for the qualitative aspect of leisure: activities are listed but the scope within which they take place is not specified. This is based on the perception of the respondent, whether they are considered activities carried out in leisure time or recreational activities which are conducted when we are busy. In short, the question raised, as anticipated, is related to the definition and perception of leisure time and excessive need to quantify the use of time. In fact, in the light of the recent emphasis on individualistic use of the gradient of the time, it would seem more appropriate to “talk about” time rather than quantify it, especially in the case of leisure, which also raises the problem of definition resolved only by returning to the allocation of individual and / or collective meaning of the term in question. In this respect, Gershuny also highlights what for him is one of the main potential use of narrative data on time, i.e. the ability to trace, through analysis, a record of changing social structure. He argues in brief that, The new sorts of narrative data provide the essential empirical basis for understanding the relationship between individuals’ behavior and social change (Gershuny 1999, 278).

This is possible since the actions of individuals are limited or facilitated by the social structures which themselves are not simply the result of the aggregation of individual behaviour. He puts individual actions in a recursive model, according to which, what people do determines what we are. The characteristics of social actors with whom we

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interact and the social and material circumstances of the environment in which we live determine what they do, and so on in a circular process, We are what we have done, what we are determines what we do next; what we do next determines what we become. And so on. This is a recursive model of determination (Gershuny 1999, 278).

Past events can influence future life either directly, when a single event (birth of a child, winning the lottery, etc.) changes the status of a person immediately, or indirectly, through the acquisition of certain skills, abilities or other characteristics, i.e., the socio-structural determinants of the array of possible actions to be implemented in the future and which are dependent on behaviour, opinions, expectations and aspirations. From the perspective of Gershuny, there is no clear separation between the structural characteristics of the individual or his/her position within the social structure and behaviours. The structure has an impact on behaviours and, in turn, behaviours are crystallized in structural characteristics, in a recursive infinite sequence. To understand the importance of particular events or sequence of events, it is necessary to consider the macro environment in which they occur. The interaction of the individual with the environment, including other individuals and institutions, produces new behaviours and new events. From these considerations, Gershuny proposes a study of time that minimizes the interest for the allocation of budget time between different activities of the daily, weekly or monthly routine, and focuses more attention on a perspective that considers the use of time an essential element for creating and structuring reality. Therefore, the way time is spent is not counted, but recounted. Gershuny distinguishes two types of narrative accounts used to reconstruct past behaviours: long-term and short-term narratives. Both consist of a sequence of events which can be placed in order of time by the narrator. The long-term narratives, also called event-histories, are divided into work-histories if they address issues related to working life, and lifehistories if they treat other types of events that occurred in the course of life, such as marriage or the birth of a child for example. The short-term narratives, also called time diaries, are simply diaries used for the analysis of the budget time in a short period. Both instruments for the detection of time data are organized in the same manner, i.e. they have a “repeating structure”, where events are recorded by indicating the date/time at which they started, their duration, the moment they end, or a “calendar” reporting, at regular intervals, states, conditions and activities. Both types of narrative accounts, once collected, can be analysed with the same description and modelling procedures. Both, however, fall within the

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category Gershuny (2004) defines as continuous time-diaries, as distinct from discrete-time logs. This additional distinction of tools for the study of daily time, or rather, the timing of daily activities, is made according to the objective of the research. In the continuous time-diary all activities of the respondents in a given period of observation are listed in sequence with the exact moment when each activity began and ended, leaving no intervals of time “not devoted” to any activity. This first sampling methodology of time, common among sociologists, aims to acquire knowledge on the duration of various activities and their timing. The other tool used is the discretetime log, in which respondents report any special features of their experience, or any event belonging to a particular type of activity performed during the period concerned or for an on-going activity chosen at random during the day. This second method is more used by psychologists with the intent to acquire knowledge about the coincidence of certain types of activity with particular subjective mental states. In the first case we speak of time-budget studies, while in the second case of time and affect studies. The tools used for the measurement of time are always the sources of data distortion, especially in the case of “time and affect studies” and in general of the subjective data on time1. The quality of the response will depend, firstly, on the amount of information required: the more information requested from the respondent, the lower the quality of the response and the higher the percentage of nonresponse, and vice versa. Besides the selection of more or less extensive information on daily activities, another important variable that determines the quality of the answer is the length of observation window (or the number of times daily in selected case studies of time and affect), the longer the period, the more moments selected, the lower the quality of the response. Another possible distortion is due to the difficulty of remembering the requested information. In the case of the continuous time-diary, the respondent, completing the diary at the end of the period observed, may have difficulty remembering precisely all the events and features related to them. So the longer the observation period, the greater

1

It is noteworthy that in researching the use of time, the collectable data can belong to the two descriptive dimensions activities: an objective one that includes all the information relating the “practical” aspects of the activity (What does the respondent do and how? with whom? where?), and a subjective one, more related to the psychological states connected to the activity (Is the respondent made happier by an activity or stressed by it? Is the activity obligatory or voluntary?).

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the likelihood of falling into recall errors 2 . The distorting effect is accentuated in the case of subjective measures, since the respondent is asked to remember affect at a distance. It presents what researchers call “decay of affect” 3 , which is why we often tend not to adopt the methodology of the discrete-time log. On the basis of what has been said, it would seem more advisable to use a shorter diary to ensure a high level of estimated time use of the population in question. But this tool does not consider the various individual uses of time: we must not forget that there are differences in the use of intra- and inter-temporal time. You can do different things at different times and activities carried out in 6-8 hours may not be sufficiently representative of what an individual might do in a week for example. It is true, however, that it can serve as a variant of the random sampled discrete-time log methodology, which requires the selection of several time-points in order to ensure an accurate estimate of the whole allocation of the time budget of the population. However, also in this case, nothing can be understood about the time individual budget. No doubt the quality of “snapshot” responses, referring to the moments or experiences selected, is greater, but you lose the ability to trace the individual’s longer-term time budget. This methodology is, however, fully adequate when the research objective is simply to establish an association between a task and the relative emotional state, the quality of particular experiences, of stressful situations, in a word the subjective characteristics of the activity. In this case, the researcher simply takes a snapshot of contextual circumstances at a given moment and considers the affect in analysis as a result of the latter. But circumstances do not always exhaustively explain simultaneous feelings; they could also be related to previous or expected activities. The events preceding and following are not considered in a discrete-time log, but are present in a continuous diary. Precisely for this reason, Gershuny proposes a complementary and not an alternative use of the two above-mentioned methods, which, in some way, could mutually compensate to overcome such distortions:

2

The “recall error” is in fact a form of distortion of the data generated by the fact that respondents generally record an event in the diary when it might be over, even after a long time. So memories can be distorted with respect to reality. 3 The “decay of affect” error is generated by the fact that the feelings, the emotions aroused by a specific event tend to fade over time and the memory is undoubtedly more difficult. Indeed, precisely because of the natural “decay of affect” the researchers interested in the relationship between activity and affect rarely use discrete-time logs.

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A researcher would know the full temporal context from a continuous diary. A large part of the context which explains my current state of mind would be missing from discrete-time log (Gershuny 2004, 251-252).

The continuous time-diary allows the researcher to define the full temporal context, much of which would be lost by simply using a discretetime log and then collect a large amount of information on all activities. While the discrete-time log instead allows one to associate moods with everyday life, a new perspective that considers not only the associations between particular activities and simultaneous emotional states, but also between certain moods and prior or subsequent activities of different types and duration. This shifts the attention towards sequences of activities and not individual ones, as collected through continuous-time diaries (with the compromise of accepting the risk of recall, decay of affect and nonresponse errors). A final methodological issue to highlight is the possibility to make inferences about the use of short- and long-term time from data collected using these time diaries. The question is mainly centred on the discrepancy between the data time period (in person-days) in a general survey and the actual time frame in which the researcher is interested in (a person-month or a person-year). This fact, together with the individual variation in day to day use of time, becomes an important distinction in the phase of data analysis. In view of this, an individual’s time diary that shows the activities carried out in a short period of time does not necessarily reflect the potential use of time in the long term (long-run time use). In the most common time-use studies4, considering the portion of time devoted to an activity as a dependent variable, researchers can make inferences about the use of long-term time from a sample of person-days only when the measurements obtained are invariant with respect to day-today variation in the data. For example, researchers can estimate the mean (per person) time-use for a certain population of individuals, but it is impossible to estimate how much time the median person spends in an activity because there is no necessary relation between the percentiles of the distribution of daily time-use and the distribution over a longer temporal frame.

4

As a demonstration we could mention the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The respondents in this case are individual members of the sampled households. They are asked to record and describe the activities carried out within the time span of 24 hours. Thus, the time-use of a population of individuals is estimated from a collection of person-days.

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In more recent studies, a different perspective that considers the use of time as an explanatory variable in regression equations is gaining momentum. Long-term results (e.g. obesity) may be affected by the use of time only if it is analysed in the long run, for which, as previously mentioned, the data derived from daily individual diaries cannot be considered reliable indicators. This means that, even if the data were not completely distorted by recall errors, there still would be considerable measuring errors. Frazis and Stewart (2010) offer an interesting alternative: the survey with multiple household members or multiple days. Collecting time diaries from all members of a family would seem to enable the researcher to obtain more detailed information about the allocation of “domestic” time between work and leisure time considering reciprocal influences that are created by the natural sharing of activities, times and space, typical of the family setting. This method, as demonstrated by the authors, would capture more of the heterogeneity of domestic daily activities, but would not solve the problem of variability in the long term. Therefore, the authors propose also collecting multiple daily diaries from respondents, a potentially “winning” methodology, on condition that the days are sampled in such a way as to ensure that the activities are “independent”: “without independence, between-day covariance makes it impossible to identify the within-and between-person variance” (Frazis and Stewart 2010, 18).

Leisure in a network perspective A further reflection is related to the factors involved in the choices of leisure activities and hence the explanatory variables that should be considered. Apart from the obvious and over-considered sociodemographic characteristics, special attention should be paid to the networks within which leisure activities are situated and defined, and also to the mechanisms that arise from the relationships between individuals. Cardoso, Fontainha and Monfardini (2008), in a study on the allocation of time5 of a sample of young students aged between 15 and 19 detected 5 The authors note in particular the modes of performance of 3 types of activities that they believe are most relevant to the acquisition of human capital: studying and reading (which includes studies carried out at home and reading books and newspapers), socializing (which includes sports, civic activities, hiking, going to the cinema and theater, interactions with friends) and watching TV. This is included in a comparative framework involving three countries: Italy, France and Germany.

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the existence of an association between the time spent by parents in certain activities and the time spent by teenagers in the same activities, with positive or negative consequences on the acquisition of human capital by the young. Therefore, they hypothesize the action (single or joint) of some mechanisms by which this association could be interpreted. Firstly, parents could have a direct influence on the behaviour of their children as a result of an intergenerational transmission of preferences, cultural orientations, or rules of conduct 6 . This mechanism would act directly by shaping/ moulding the choices of their children. But the allocation of parenting time may also have an indirect influence on the use of time by young people through the impact it plays in relation to changing/shaping the natural endowments of their children who in turn have a decisive role with respect to the choices regarding the use of time7. A third interpretive factor is what Calvo-Armengol and Jackson (2006) have defined as network externalities: parents and children, in attempting to comply with the community they belong to, take on common patterns of behaviour, from which they would benefit because of the widespread support from “neighbours”. These mechanisms could also come into play taking into account the enlarged network of an individual, and not only in an asymmetrical parentchild relationship in limited contexts such as families, but in any relationship between the nodes of a social network of any size. On this basis, the study of leisure no longer from an individual perspective, but contextualizing it in the network to which the individual belongs, seems to be a viable option. The importance of the characteristics of the social groups that participate in certain leisure activities was also highlighted by Stokowski, contextually to the importance of individual characteristics. In particular, with regard to the analysis of leisure from a social group perspective, the author has criticized the inability of social scientists to scientifically explain the social importance of leisure and answer questions such as: how the interactions in leisure groups develop, how the social meanings of leisure are formed and reproduced and, above all, how leisure and the group involvement it generates contribute to the constitution of a shared meaning of “community”. The innovative approach proposed by Stokowski goes beyond the concepts of individual and collective leisure, shifting the focus from the characteristics of individuals and social groups 6

For more details, see Hill and O’Neill (1994), Lindbeck and Nyberg (2006), Fernandez, Sheets and Olivetti (2004). 7 For more details, see the recent contributions of Cunha and Heckman (2007), Apps and Rees (2002).

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to the relationship between people. It is within the system of social relationships, in its structure, and the meanings that are constructed through interaction, that leisure becomes coherent and is defined. Moreover, social leisure is a determining factor in the quality of life of an individual. If we assume that the quality of life is largely determined by the quality of the relationship it has with its network and that, with particular regard to leisure time, it depends on the level of satisfaction generated by the way time leisure is spent, we then must stress once again the need to study individual leisure time from a relational perspective. In view of this, the relational dimension should go alongside the two dimensions of leisure that are traditionally studied, namely an objective one which refers to the “conditions of life” in which experiences are detectable through the use of place-centred indicators, external to the individual experience (such as the availability of places for leisure, the frequency of use of certain services, etc.) and a subjective one, which refers to the “experience of life” and is measured by person-centred 8 indicators which in turn measure the ability to engage in a particular leisure activity or the level of satisfaction reached, etc. Usually the two levels, one referring to the content and the other to the measurement criteria, coincide: the objective criteria are used in conjunction with a place-centred approach, whereas the subjective criteria coincide with a person-centred perspective. Lloyd and Auld (2002) built, rearranging a model previously proposed by Osborne, a matrix where these two dimensions, content areas (place and person) and measurement criteria (objective and subjective), intersect, identifying four possible evaluative frameworks: Place-objective; Person-objective, Placesubjective, Person-subjective. This matrix of measurement was used by Lloyd and Auld (2002) to analyse the relationship between the quality of life and leisure. In this case the authors found a positive correlation between leisure and the quality of life due, in their view, to the “salutary consequences” of the social interaction generated by the sharing of leisure activities. But in addition to the positive value of social leisure, what is to be highlighted here is the methodological aspect: in this case two aspects of leisure are considered, but if we assume the need to study it in a 8

These expressions have been used by Osborne in 1992 in more general terms to define the contents of the two dimensions of the quality of life. Eventually, Compton (1997) introduced the terms “placed-centered” referring to the conditions, and “person-centered” referring to individual experiences, in this case with regard to the measurement criteria. Here we report the two terms in a perspective adapted by Lloyd and Auld to define the two dimensions (objective and subjective) of leisure and highlight their relationship with the quality of life.

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network perspective, this matrix could be integrated with the relational element, which is also measurable by objective and subjective criteria. The tool that best lends itself to analyse the network dimension of leisure is network analysis. Sociologist Stokowski suggested the use of the technique of network analysis, supported by a structuralist approach, taking into account the experience that individuals and communities have of everyday leisure, and aiming at understanding the mechanisms that favour it among individuals and within society as a whole. The technique of network analysis in a structuralist key allows the observation and analysis of relationships in a specific context, defined as a social space by those who undergo leisure experiences. This technique, according to the author, unlike the previous ones9, would allow one to observe how the structural aspects of the relational context influence leisure behaviours and in turn how leisure behaviours change the system of community relationships.

Some concluding remarks By using Stokowski’s approach, I believe that the study of leisure time in a network perspective would make it possible to analyse the origin of time-use in leisure time by putting into play the mechanisms that characterize the relationships between individuals and not only the sociodemographic features of the individual. At a methodological level, the most appropriate proposal for research into this subject is to focus on the consumption of leisure not as a practice of consumption of time per se but in its dimension of socially shared practice. Moreover, I believe that it is necessary to study leisure in a network perspective that, besides the subjective and objective dimensions of leisure, considers also the relational dimension. The relational approach to the study of leisure time offers a solution to the question of the semantic pluralism of the term, since the collection of individual narratives makes it possible to reconstruct the collective meaning of the term, minimizing the distorting effect generated by the difficulty of an unambiguous definition of the space-time perceived as leisure by respondents. It is from the interaction between the three levels 9

Stokowski identifies some limits both in quantitative and qualitative research: quantitative research confines leisure experience within numerical dimensions, denying any importance to the context as well as to the meanings that leisure acquires in people’s experience; qualitative research focuses on micro-social aspects, offering no interpretative models about the relationships enacted in leisure situations.

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of macro, meso and micro meanings that shared leisure activities and practices are constructed in different societies. The network can also acquire, in this sense, an explanatory value, if we assume that leisure is a particular area of social reality in which social behaviours and their meanings are produced and objectified in the daily encounters among individuals, as well as in other areas of daily life. Starting from the assumption that social networks are a privileged setting in which individual narratives originate, meet and clash, through which we can enter the “life worlds” of the respondents and give meaning to what we classify as shared leisure, the network perspective becomes, therefore, an essential background for the study of leisure. As a consequence, I believe that network analysis can represent a decisive strategy particularly apt at capturing the multidimensionality of the concept of leisure. It can be used in a complementary manner with regard to more traditional techniques, which are limited either to quantifying the content or recounting the experience, not considering the relational dimension. It would be interesting to evaluate the applicability of this approach to the study of online leisure practices. As a result of its potential in merging the individual in the collective, and the private in the public, it would be perfectly fit to capture the indefinite essence of online leisure, quite often too difficult to be placed within the leisure categories identified so far.

Reference List Calvo-Armengol, A. and M.O. Jackson 2009, “Like father, like son. Social network externalities and parent-child correlation in behavior“, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, 1(1), 124-150. Cardoso, A. R., E. Fontainha and C. Monfardini 2008, “Children and parents time use: empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France, Italy and Germany”, IZA Discussion Paper N° 3815. Dumazedier, J. 1993, Sociologia del tempo libero, Milano: Franco Angeli. Frazis H. and J. Stewart 2010, “How to think about time-use data: what inferences can we make about long and short-run Time-use from Time Diaries?”, IZA Discussion Paper N° 5306. Gershuny, J. 2004, “Costs and benefits of time sampling methodologies”, Social Indicators Research 67, Dordrecht (The Netherlands): Kluwer Academic Publishers, 247-252.

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—. 1999, “Time budgets, life histories and social position”, in Quality & Quantity 33, Dordrecht (The Netherlands): Kluwer Academic Publishers, 277-289. Hill, M. A. and J. O’Neill, 1994, “Family endowments and the achievements of young children with special reference to the underclass”, Journal of Human Resources, 29(4), 1064-1100. Lloyd, K. M. and C.J. Auld 2002, “The role of leisure in determining quality of life: issues of content and measurement”, Social Indicators Research 57, Dordrecht (The Netherlands): Kluwer Academic Publishers, 43-71. Lo Verde F. M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza. Stokowski P.A. 1994, Leisure in Society. A Network Structural Perspective, New York: Mansell Publishing.

PART II LEISURE ACROSS MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

CHAPTER SIX SURFIN’ THE NET: YOUTH AND MEDIA LEISURE GIANNA CAPPELLO Introduction Far from merely being a residual category of everyday life—what is left over from the obligations of work—leisure has increasingly become a “life-world” endowed with a salience and a nature of its own, a site where people can cultivate (or believe they can, as Rojek 1995 would say) their self-determination. Media leisure too has become a vital, polysemic space people inhabit—under different conditioning factors—for relaxation and play, confrontation and sharing, participation and self-expression. This is particularly true for youth: social network sites, online/offline games, video/file-sharing sites, iPods, iPads and smartphones compose today a permanent set of devices in their everyday life producing a wide and diversified range of practices. As in the past, youth are constantly engaging in knowledge development, identity formation, negotiation with adults, struggle for autonomy; yet today they are doing so in ways that are being quite radically reconfigured by digital media which have then come to represent the habitat where youth live out both their “work” experience (digital media are increasingly being used for school work) and, more frequently, their leisure (Ito et al. 2010). As such, in addition to being a complex and well-established industrial apparatus, as well as a catalyser of increasingly pervasive and convergent processes of globalization and commodification of culture and leisure, digital media produce a certain habitus of consumption (i.e., an ideological and behavioural frame) that influences, albeit in unpredictable and transient ways, subjectivity and social action. Despite this complexity, we know little about the ways in which this habitus is concretely embodied in the micro-practices of youth everyday life. We lack consistent empirical research about the ways in which media

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leisure integrates with and reconfigures more traditional forms of leisure. We do have an extensive “sociometrics of leisure” (Lo Verde 2009) by which we have come to know in detail the amount of time and frequency youth devote to certain media leisure activities, yet we know little, that is with little “depth”, the generative mechanisms by which media leisure represents a kind of identity work youth play out in order to define their being in the world in relation/opposition to others; nor do we know enough about the ways in which it relates to the structural and structuring functioning of the macro-social context youth live in. While trying not to fall into the traps of binary thinking (new media vs. old media, digital native vs. digital immigrant, media as manipulation vs. media as empowerment, etc.) and all rhetoric about the “revolutionary” impact of technological innovation (Gershuny 1992), I am going to argue that there are in fact many continuities with the past and that change proceeds according to complex and multidimensional trajectories, intertwined with other forms of historically specific social and cultural change as well as with resilient structural conditions, such as those defined by age, gender, and socioeconomic status. I also want to argue that media leisure provides a key point of entry to examining youth leisure practices in contexts where they feel most self-empowered with regards to the social and cultural agenda of the adult world. In particular, some of the questions I want to address here are: how are digital media and online communication being taken up in youth leisure practices? In what terms can pleasure be a key notion in defining a social aesthetics of media leisure? How can some of these practices be analysed according to a serious leisure perspective (Stebbins, 2007)? Can they be considered as motivational factors transferable to (self)learning? Can they be experienced as an activity for producing peer-to-peer sociality and collaborative knowledge? Finally, can they evolve into forms of nonmarket labour whereby children develop professionally the skills and talents they first started as “mere” leisure or fan’s fun?

Media in contemporary society: A catalyst for change Over the last decades, post-industrial countries have been facing three interconnected processes, all of which are somehow accelerated by media: the affirmation of change as the ontological condition of contemporary society so that progress is no longer seen as the necessary optimistic evolution to better life conditions, but rather as a more troublesome movement whose developments may cause “unintended and perverse effects” (Boudon 1982); the crisis of traditional social institutions (family,

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school, nation-state) due to either exogenous factors (the rapidity and radicality of change) or endogenous ones (the institutions’ incapacity/ difficulty to adapt to change); the growth of social complexity and differentiation, and in particular the blurring of social roles and functions as a result of the crisis of traditional “grand metanarratives” (Lyotard 1984). As said, media (particularly digital media) have catalysed these processes in many ways. First of all, they have increased people’s access to information through sophisticated systems of data storage (CDs, DVDs, iPods, etc.) and circulation (Internet and Intranet), producing a constant segmentation and hybridization of cultural tastes and practices, and new markets for media-related niche-products/services. Secondly, they have de-materialized spatial-temporal boundaries displacing traditional patterns of work, leisure and domestic life, creating new forms of mediated relationships and communication. Thirdly, expanding Marshall McLuhan’s intuition about the “global village” (1964), they have accelerated globalization processes making the world more interdependent than ever, increasing the circulation of products and finances, ideas and cultures. Finally, they have contributed to enfranchise individuals from traditional and conservative rules, roles and values, giving them more power to self-determine their own existence. The notion of identity has thus come to be seen as a process whereby individuals are no longer the effect of certain social structures but are instead actively and consciously constructing their own subject positions drawing inspiration from the multiple encounters (both physical and digital) they experience in their daily life. Rather than being a status, a “birth right” over-determined by social condition, identity turns into a more dynamic and flexible process of identification, a “liquid” condition (Bauman 2000), constantly formed and transformed through experience. Technological change, however, is not positive (or negative) in and of itself, nor is it an independent variable endowed with a telos of its own. Technology may catalyse change, but does not determine it. As Bourdieu would say, it is a “condition of possibility”, necessary but not sufficient for change to occur. Deterministic views of technological change (both in the utopian and dystopian versions) conflate two different temporal trajectories which in fact do not coincide at all: on the one hand, technological innovation and its ever-changing market applications, and on the other, social and cultural innovation, correlated but not automatically nor mechanistically with the former. Throughout history, from the press to computers, from the telegraph to mobile phones, from cinema to television, etc., technological determinism has reiterated and

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embraced again and again polarized “visions” of technological innovation with “little nuance” or much sense of the complex ways in which individuals experience new technologies and integrate them into their lives. Therefore, it remains tragically the case that while technological change continues at a rapid pace, the visions that define it remain caught within a repeating cycle of overly simplistic binary frameworks (Sturken, Thomas 2004, 3).

Since it depends on the ways in which technology is actually embodied into the everyday life of flesh and blood individuals, social change proceeds resiliently, according to rhythms and trajectories that cannot be pre-determined or completely foreseen (Buonanno 2006, Silverstone, Hirsch 1992, Livingstone 1999, Gershuny 1992). Technological “impact” must therefore always be contextualized, despite and beyond any palingenetic rhetoric. The access to information, for example: either an open door to democracy and self-determination in some cases, or a new form of exclusion and poverty (the so-called digital divide) that has intertwined with (and often exacerbated) older forms of inequality, in others; a generator of knowledge and creativity in some cases, and cognitive disorientation (due to an information overload that people are less and less capable to metabolize and verify in its reliability), in others. Similarly, the new virtual forms of sociality and communication in some cases have exasperated certain social problems (cyber bullying, self-isolation, video voyeurism, lack of privacy, online frauds, online paedo-pornography, etc.). Finally, the emancipation from traditional roles, rules and values, as well as the “new individualism” (Elliott and Lemert 2009) have originated a growing sense of fragmentation, a “freedom without responsibility”, that is a paradoxical situation where the maximum of freedom (if ever so) coincides with the maximum of dissatisfaction as to the possibility to build and share a common ethos, i.e. a set of values and principles that might unite people in the responsibility to create and maintain some idea of society as a collective endeavour (Bauman, 2000). Youth is particularly affected by these processes of change. According to recent positions in the related sociological field, the notion of youth is a social construction, a historical variable under constant contestation and negotiation. Contrary to well-established views that define youth in the Piagetian sense of yet-to-become individuals evolving through “ages and stages” of development, this approach sees them as complete beings endowed with specific needs, desires and motivations, as active agents producing their own cultures, albeit in forms and structures that are

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historically specific and interrelated with other variables such as class, gender, race, etc. (Corsaro 1997; James, Prout 1997; Wyness 2006). As said, media leisure plays a crucial role today being the site where contemporary social consciousness finds a very powerful expression. Its modes of engagement and symbolic pervasiveness are particularly relevant for youth, be that measured in terms of family income, use of time and space, or importance within social conduct and relations. Leisure, and particularly media leisure, can no longer be clearly separated from their education, their employment prospects, their participation in public activities, or their participation within the private realm of the family. To put it baldly, buying children personal computers may not only affect how much television they watch, but may also have consequences for their job prospects, family conversation, use of parks and shopping malls, confidence at school, and so on, as, too, may being unable to afford to buy a personal computer, or the decision to buy a games machine instead (Livingstone, Bovill 2001, 5).

Since its removal from the workforce in the late XIXth century and despite the increasing amount of time spent in school and doing school homework, youth have been left with large amounts of leisure time to be spent with their own peers or friends (Chudacoff 1989). So much so that when the category of youth was “invented” in the mid-XXth century as a category distinguished from adulthood (Parsons 1942), leisure was indeed one of its most important defining features, together with the process of “becoming”. A new distinct “leisure class” was identified, tightly integrated with the commercial media culture booming in those years: popular music, fashion, film, and television were part of their participation in peer culture and everyday sociability (Cohen 1977; Willis 1977, 1990; Hebdige 1979; Frank 1997; Hine 1999). For this generation to engage with media was a token of identity, taste, and style, a way to display who they felt they were in relation to peers and to adults. Although the content and form of popular media culture may have changed since then, the reasons and modes of youth engagement with media remain the same today. Let’s take the example of listening to music, notably one of the most important activities within this emergent youth culture. As in those years, the practice of storing, sharing, and listening to music is indeed quite frequent today and, thanks to digital technologies and online services, more ubiquitous than ever. Teens use their Facebook or MySpace profiles to display and discuss their musical tastes and preferences, while iPods and smartphones allow them to download/upload, share and listen to their

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music. Not to mention the unprecedented possibility to produce their own music and circulate it through the Internet. Contrary to traditional “media effects” studies, recent research shows that media leisure activities must be situated in wider social and cultural contexts. Contextualization is crucial for at least two reasons. Firstly, it prevents us from falling into the traps of either exaggerating media manipulative power or celebrating youth agency as “digital natives” (Prensky 2001): they are to be seen instead as social agents acting in many different circles (at home, at school, in sports clubs, on the street etc.) under different conditions of possibilities, as Bourdieu would say. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, contextualized research makes it possible to verify, on the one hand, the ways in which youth determine what happens in their lives, and, on the other, identify the power of those institutional actors who are interested, for different reasons, in their media leisure (parents, teachers, commercial and state providers of media services and products, policy makers, regulatory bodies). Secondly, contextualized research helps in questioning the behaviouristic stimulusresponse approach traditionally dominant in the field of media studies. Assuming a linear model of media communication, this approach argues that, when exposed to media content, people are inevitably induced to identify with it and behave consequently in order to get some gratification: Exposition

Æ

Identification

Æ

Behaviour reproduction

Æ Gratification

Among others, one major problem with this cause-effect model is that it narrowly focuses on the encounter between isolated individuals and allpowerful media, stripping away any possible understanding of the social contexts where media are used. Not only does this approach deny the social nature of media use, but it also constructs people as inadequate and uncritical, relying on survey-based methods which focus on outcomes and effects rather than processes and practices. Since the late ‘80s, however, this deterministic model has been questioned by a more complex and multidimensional paradigm, supported by a growing body of ethnographic studies which have basically redefined the field of audience research, at least as far as the adult world is concerned1. In fact, when it comes to youth, survey-based studies are still dominant. From this massive number of studies, we have come to 1

Audience studies’ literature is vast. A selection of “classical” studies (especially devoted to television audience) may include: Ang 1985, 1991, Baym 2000, Radway 1991, Livingstone 1990, Lull 1990, Morley 1980, 1992, Moores 1993.

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document forms of technology uptake and media engagement, providing interesting insights for understanding general broad trends. In particular, we have come to know that youth tend to be “earlier adopters” (Everett 1962) of digital media; their use of digital media is more and more pervasive, complex and interactive (Livingstone, Haddon 2009, Lenhart et al. 2007, Lenhart et al. 2008, Roberts and Foehr 2008, Rideout, Roberts and Foehr 2005); it is also tied to broader trends in the changing structures of sociality as characterized by a move toward more individualized and flexible forms of engagement with media environments that has been described as a turn toward “networked society” (Castells 1996), “networked individualism” (Wellman and Hogan 2004), or “selective sociality” (Matsuda 2005). As mentioned, in addition to this survey-based research, there is a growing body of ethnographic case studies that contribute to piecing together a more comprehensive picture of the role media leisure plays for youth. By using an ethnographic approach, we can work to understand how media are meaningful to youth in the actual context of their everyday lives. They are not to be seen as “determining” or “impacting” them as an external force endowed with a logic of their own, but rather as embedded in social and cultural relationships that in turn shape and structure any possibility for social action and cultural expression. As a consequence, media content or media platforms (TV, books, games, etc.) are not to be seen as the most important variables for determining social or cognitive outcomes which derive, in fact, not only from whether youth have identified with or learned from media content, but also from such things as how they are able to negotiate social status among peers, gain autonomy from parents, or acquire expertise in related domains such as knowledge seeking on the Internet. Of course, this approach cannot (and in fact does not intend to) test existing analytic categories or targeted hypotheses but rather ask more fundamental questions about what the relevant factors and categories of analysis are… Through this approach, you can mediate the gap between the textured, qualitative descriptions of new media practices and analysis of broader patterns in social, technical, and cultural change (Ito et al. 2010, 5-6).

In sum, recent research on youth and media leisure has identified a series of strictly interrelated trends2: 2

See Ito et al. 2010, Boyd 2008, Livingstone and Bovill 2001, Feilitzen and Carlsson 2002, Buckingham 2000, Graue and Walsh 1998, Sefton-Green and

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x Youth media leisure must be situated within the broader context of social relationships and structures. It is not only a psycho-cognitive phenomenon originated in the mind-medium encounter, but also a social practice variably influenced by age, gender, class, ethnicity, as well as family structures and incomes, education systems, media policies and regulations. It is also a socializing practice, both online (social network sites such as Facebook or MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft3 develop high levels of peer interaction) and offline (a whole series of youth daily interactions are connected to media, like when they talk about their favourite soap or hang out together at the cinema or meet at a friend’s house to play videogames)4. x Contrary to pervading assumptions that local leisure traditions will be naturally displaced in favour of digital media, a growing body of research suggests that evolving media leisure practices are fundamentally shaped by existing, offline (face-to-face) patterns of interaction so that when youth take up digital media they do so by integrating them, in diverse and unexplored ways, into more

Buckingham 1998, Seiter 2005, Cappello 2009, Jenkins 2006, Livingstone and Haddon 2009, Livingstone and Drotner 2008, James and James 2008, Holloway and Valentine 2000, Buckingham 2008, Ito, Okabe and Matsuda 2005, Mazzarella 2005. 3 MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) are a more advanced and expanding form of MUD (Multi User Dungeon), where multiple users can connect and play together. MMORPGs are 3D virtual worlds (with highly detailed graphic environments) where players move embodying an avatar. As with classical role-playing games, they pursue goals and missions that bring them to confront not only with the virtual environment (PVE: player vs. environment; PVM: player vs. monsters) but also with other players (PVP: player vs. player) belonging to other teams (called clans or guilds). 4 Interestingly, as Livingstone and Bovill show (2001), if faced with a choice between spending time with friends or using media alone, youths definitely choose friends, although their very first choice goes in fact to a combination of both, that is spending time using the media with friends. “Although many children and young people prefer to watch television or play computer games alone, they are nearly as likely to want to watch or play with a friend, suggesting a sociability that is not so much oriented toward isolation as oriented away from the family and toward friends. In short, although the primacy of peer relations serves to put media ‘in their place’, it is also obvious that one can no longer imagine youth culture without music, computer games, soap opera, or chat rooms, and that multiple-screen homes are becoming increasingly commonplace” (2001:316-317).

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x

x

x

x

traditional playground and outdoor games and leisure activities with peers. A tribal logic (Maffesoli 1996), rather than a homogenizing one, seems to be at work, as youth experience media leisure according to segmented and diversified modalities. Although some findings suggest a trend towards conformity, and although segmentation may prove to be a further sophistication of the market to optimize consumption and profit, there is nonetheless enough empirical evidence suggesting that the relationship between media leisure and youth can be described in terms of appropriation and negotiation according to certain subjective and context-bound characteristics. Media leisure seems to evoke (and be evoked by) an affective and ritualizing dimension, as youth are not attracted by media content per se but rather by the pleasure and rituality derived from it, as argued in the next paragraph. As the retail price of media technologies has steadily fallen and their capabilities and usability increased, youth have gained significant new opportunities to engage in various forms of media production, blurring the distinction between consumption and production, and proving quite knowledgeable in “remediating” (Bolter, Grusin 2000) old media with new media, i.e., refashioning television, radio, film, print content through computer games, digital photography, user generated digital content, the Web, virtual worlds, etc. From a strictly methodological point of view, this body of research shows that no dominant variable can be said to determine youth media leisure, hence no general theory about it is ever going to be attained. At best, one can develop a multidimensional approach, sensitive to different contexts and situations based on elements such as: the nature and intensity of regulation exerted by the parents; the motivation to use, often according to peer-driven meanings and modes; the actual technical and communication skills; the availability of time, income and proper spaces; the technical and ergonomic quality of access to technology; the interaction with other media; the socio-cultural context of the child, etc.

Last but not least, this research suggests a light-and-shade configuration such that youth media leisure cannot be reduced to polarized positions that either celebrate or stigmatize it. The idea, for example, that youth are an “active” audience does not necessarily imply that the media

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cannot influence them: although they may skilfully use them, there still remain many areas they need to know more about. While it is important to recognize the ways in which media leisure provides a site for youth to exercise agency and authority, it is also important to keep in mind the central role of the market. For instance, in her analysis of children’s TV channel Nickelodeon, Sarah Banet-Weiser describes how the channel constructs a form of “consumer citizenship”, that “has as much to do with recognizing a particular political economic agency of children as it does to the unprecedented ways in which children are constituted as a commercial market” (in Ito et al. 2010, 8). Similarly, the ethnographic tenet according to which researchers should make sense of youth media leisure in their own terms (rather than simply rely on social statistics) can lead to a romantic view of them. Arguably, ethnographic research implies the naïve assumption that individuals are an authentic and transparent source of meaning, so that the analyst’s job is to give them a voice, to let them speak: data and findings will flow smoothly from that. In fact, one should work and at the same time transcend the level of linguistic behaviour and connect it with nonlinguistic elements (such as the social or the emotional, non-verbal dynamics of youth media leisure engagement5) as well as with broader macro-social contexts and structures. Also the empowering qualities of a more generalized access to information and communication opportunities cannot be taken for granted as the media industry concentration ultimately downsizes them, exacerbating the global vs. local controversy. In other words, overall improvements are accompanied by widening inequalities which have implications for almost every area of youth daily lives: the poorer and marginalized have fewer of these opportunities, they are less exposed to diversified cultural options, and obviously have less possibilities to purchase the technological leisure commodities and services that define youth today. But also for the media-rich these opportunities cannot be taken for granted. Their hi-tech bedrooms are in fact the result of a process by which their leisure (and everyday life as a whole) is increasingly being privatized and supervised by adults, ultimately bringing a restriction of their autonomy, especially for the younger. The combined effect of parental anxiety about the dangers and risks of the “outside world”, of higher family incomes and lower numbers of children per family, is increasingly moving youth leisure from outdoor, public-run spaces (the 5

For example, David Gauntlett (2005) has conducted many interesting studies with children of all ages in order to verify the validity of using creative visual methods in audience research.

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street, the park, the public library, free extra-curricular activities, etc.) to “safer”, private (both in terms of domestic and commercial) locations. Since the 1970s, playing outdoors has been replaced either by domestic technology-based entertainment6 or by some kind of commercial leisure activity. Paradoxically, while youth leisure is increasingly privatized and confined into their hi-tech bedrooms, it is also de-localized through the “doorway” of online interactions and mobile devices which make it possible, as we will see in more detail below, to somehow tactically circumvent parental/adult control and unfavourable structural conditions. As Meyrowitz foresaw almost thirty years ago, the family home is now a less bounded and unique environment because of family members’ access and accessibility to other places and other people through radio, television, and telephone. Even within the home, media have reshaped the social significance of individual rooms. At one time, parents had the ability to discipline a child by sending the child to his or her room—a form of ex-communication from social interaction. Such an action, however, takes on a whole new meaning today if the child’s room is linked to the outside world through television, radio, telephone, and computer… Electronic media have altered the significance of time and space for social interaction (1985, vii-viii)7.

To put it briefly, not only is youth leisure becoming more and more media-oriented, it is also being increasingly adult-supervised, institutionalized and consumer-oriented: indeed, a turn to commodification and privatization that leisure studies have not been blind to8.

6

The so-called “bedroom culture” (Livingstone, Bovill 2001). Combining Erving Goffman’s situationism (the exploration of the ways in which social behaviour is shaped by and in social situations) with Marshall McLuhan’s medium theory (the historical and cross-cultural study of the different cultural environments created by different media), he argues that electronic media affect social behaviour not so much through their content (the message), but by redefining the social setting in which people live and blurring the boundaries between physical space e social place. Although, undeniably, the social situation is a key element in identity formation processes, in transitioning from role to role, in ranking social hierarchies, it is to the same extent undeniable that today it is mostly defined through electronic media: people (youths) combine their “sense of place” within new mediated forms, hence gaining new (often contradictory) notions of appropriate social behaviour and identity. 8 For example, Chris Rojek (1985) describes the functioning of these processes (commodification and privatization) in the Thatcherite Great Britain, alongside pacification and individualization, as the key to understanding modern leisure. 7

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The complex scenarios arising from this light-and-shade configuration ultimately counteract the celebratory drift increasingly recurring in the rhetoric of policy makers, educationalists, media gurus and entrepreneurs about communication technology. As Manuel Castells quite convincingly reminds us, For all the ideology of the potential of new communication technologies in education, health, and cultural enhancement, the prevailing strategy aims at developing a giant electronic entertainment system, considered the safest investment from a business perspective. Thus, while governments and futurologists speak of wiring classrooms, doing surgery at a distance, and tele-consulting the Encyclopaedia Britannica, most of the actual construction of the new systems focuses on “video-on-demand,” telegambling, and virtual reality theme parks. (1996, 397-398).

Bodies in action: Notes for a social aesthetics of media leisure Whatever the controversies about the role and effects of media leisure in youth daily life, there is no doubt that they enjoy it, that media leisure is a major source of pleasure. As Silverstone suggests (1999), the main source of popularity for media does not lie not in its ideological effects, but in the consumerist production of pleasure. Together with play, pleasure represents a central dimension in media consumption and social experience as a whole, even if they are often disavowed or dismissed. As I shall argue in this paragraph, the non-rational, the bodily, the erotic, profusely offered by the media, provides an important arena for identity experimentation, where the boundaries and tensions between seriousness and play, fiction and reality, social roles and subjectivities may be blurred, circumvented, reinvented, if only temporarily. This connects to recent debates within sociology about the notion of “aesthetic reflexivity” (Lash, Urry 1994) as well as the notion of the self as a reflexive project (Giddens, 1990, 1991), that is individual actors who, in an age of heightened demands for flexibility and variation, engage in their identity-formation process also in terms of relaxation, pleasure, leisure and so forth. In other words, the rise of aestheticization, perceived by Georg Simmel in early XXth century Europe, proves that in the twenty-first century, at a time when aesthetic forms of ordering are increasingly prominent, and as organizations are increasingly concerned with producing agents as well as products, the aesthetic bases of social life are—or at least should be—relocated at the heart of sociology’s paradigm (De Nora 2000, xi).

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As said, the notion of pleasure is a key term, increasingly recurring in scholarly writings of different disciplinary backgrounds (from literary studies, to psychoanalysis, to cultural studies, etc.). Roland Barthes, in his seminal The Pleasures of the Text (1975), employs the term plaisir to refer to a pleasure (in reading the text) which is essentially socio-cultural in origin since it originates from its relationship and conformity to the social structure, while the more ecstatic word jouissance refers to a physical pleasure, located, like sexual orgasm, in the senses of the body rather than in the workings of the mind or social structure. The important point Barthes makes is that pleasure, of either type, is not to be found immanently in the text itself, but in its conjunction with the reader, hence emphasizing the pragmatic effects of the act of reading. Pleasure does not originate from what the text is, from some intrinsic quality of it, but from what it does to the reader and from what the reader does to and with it. Barthes’ notion of pleasure has significantly paved the way for the recognition of the aesthetic dimension as an important interpretative category for social action, reversing a quite common tendency in modern epistemologies—based on the Cartesian split mind/body—to establish the semantic plane as the exclusive site of mediation between the individual and reality, thanks to which chaos is transformed into a meaningful order. As a result, it has been assumed that social action necessarily implies the production of meaning. From this typically modernist model of social action, it follows that all connections between production and consumption, structures and individuals, texts and readers, have been reconstructed in terms of expression, meaning, representation, and content. How the nexus between action and structure is actually lived out in the material and affective life of individuals has been either taken for granted or left to psychologists, or else dismissed as formless and disorganized, and hence empirically unverifiable. On the contrary, I am arguing here that in fact pleasure—particularly the pleasure evoked in and by certain forms of media leisure—is also an organized and organizing principle of social action. As such, it produces and operates within certain “mattering maps” (Grossberg 1988) that direct people’s investments in how they can become absorbed in what they do and with what intensities, determining where and how otherwise disparate individuals may locate themselves into a certain configuration of social order, albeit temporarily, superficially, or inadvertently (De Nora 2000). If meaning is not the only variable for determining/explaining social or cognitive outcomes, we then need to study the affective/aesthetic bases of social life as they are acted out/performed (and not merely expressed) in media leisure practices. We need to develop a social aesthetics of media

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leisure to empirically document how media leisure activities, such as listening to music with our iPods while travelling on a train, watching a TV series with friends, managing our Facebook profiles or our avatar in World of Warcraft, work as affective machinery in the construction of our identity and memory, in the activation and maintenance of certain physiological, micro-behavioural and motivational processes, in the material scheduling of everyday activities. For example, if we want to study the relationship between adolescents and videogames, we need to look at how videogaming is part of their everyday routines, where and when it occurs within the domestic economy of the home, how parents regulate it, how children negotiate and circumvent this regulation, how they use their videogaming experience to develop social status among peers, to acquire expertise in domains such as information retrieval on the Internet about games and gaming, etc. Similarly, if we want to study the practice of listening to music, we have to start from the assumption that music does much more than convey meaning through non-verbal means. As Tia De Nora argues (2000), once music is routinized in everyday life, it matters not merely because it means or expresses something, but because it makes people do something to and with music. Music may, for instance, influence how people compose their bodies, how they conduct themselves, how they experience the passage of time, how they feel—in terms of energy and emotion—about themselves, other people, certain situations. In other words, we need to move away from a kind of approach based on the idea that the power of music can be “read” as a text and that such a semiotic/ideological analysis may suffice to tell us how it works “as dynamic material of social existence” (2000, 49); how, for instance, it implies, constrains, or enables certain modes of conduct, evaluative judgments, social scenarios or emotional conditions. Does music make people do things? Is it like a physical force or a drug? Will it affect all its recipients in similar ways? Is it possible to, not only to document music’s effects, but to begin to explain how music comes to achieve these effects? And, finally, what part does a focus on music’s mechanisms of operation form within sociology’s core and critical concerns with order, power, and domination or control? It is time to reclaim the matter of music’s powers for sociology (De Nora 2000, 18-19).

De Nora’s last question critically evokes an increasingly recurring concern within media sociology and cultural studies: is pleasure just an effect of commodified entertainment, just another sophisticated and alienating by-product of the Culture Industry (as Frankfurtians would say) or can it also be a resource for subjectivity and self-empowerment? Can

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youth pleasurable engagement with media leisure represent a form of “guerrilla” (Fiske 1991), a “tactics” by which they escape “strategic” order and discipline (de Certeau 1984)? There is no easy answer to these questions: the ways media leisure is experienced inextricably connect with access, subjectivity and social control, power and commodification. Pleasure is both self-empowering and “manufactured”. That is in fact the “insoluble contradiction”, the paradox, by which symbolic domination is reinstated at the very moment it is questioned. As Bourdieu would put it, When the dominated quest for distinction leads the dominated to affirm what distinguishes them, that is, that in the name of which they are dominated and constituted as vulgar, do we have to talk of resistance? In other words, if, in order to resist, I have no other resources than to lay claim to that in the name of which I am dominated, is this resistance? Second question: when, on the other hand, the dominated work at destroying what marks them out as “vulgar” and at appropriating that in relation to which they appear as vulgar (for instance, in France, the Parisian language), is this submission? I think this is an insoluble contradiction (…) inscribed in the very logic of symbolic domination (in McGuigan 1992, 11-12).

In sum, Barthes’ distinction between plaisir and jouissance is an important key to understanding the fascinating power of popular media without falling into the stigmatizing discourses of both conservative and radical intellectuals, a key to figuring out the contradictory position individuals occupy in their media leisure activities: simultaneously attracted by the socio-cultural plaisir of sharing a common set of values, tastes and experiences (a need for identification) and by the bodily jouissance of experiencing something which is radically personal and, in a way, anti-social (a need for individuation). If plaisir is socially produced and shared within the dominant ideology in search of social recognition, jouissance produces the pleasures of evading social order as a carnivalesque practice, in the Bakhtinian sense. Insofar as people are multidimensionally positioned in society, in simultaneous relationships of conformity and opposition to the dominant social order, so the forms of pleasure they experience may vary from the reactionary to the subversive (Grossberg 1992). Media leisure apparently engages individuals in contradictory pleasurable activities whereby they appear to consent to dominant commodifying practices and at the same time “resist”—more or less consciously and radically—and appropriate them in subjective, selfempowering ways. Indeed, it is through the daily experience of pleasure that power is courted, contested, mediated, organized and embodied. As

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such, it becomes the site where self-determination may be met, within and beyond “more grandiose demands”9. We can then conclude that the same activity will function as a different practice and have different relations to and effects on those who experience it, according to the different dynamics enacted between individuals, institutional settings and social constraints. Let us make the final example of a rock concert. As Grossberg argues (1992), it usually brings together texts, music and dance, industrial and professional relations, social representations of rock stars and fans, social relations (such as gender, race, friendship) and stereotypes (again, about gender, race, friendship, musical genres and styles, etc.), aesthetic conventions, etc. It is within these intricate contexts that the relations between audience members, institutions, performers, social constraints and media leisure are to be defined, and it is precisely pleasure that is the ordering principle which makes all these heterogeneous elements cohere within the “mattering maps” of the concert goer, that is the satisfaction of doing what others would have you do, the enjoyment of doing what you want, the fun of breaking the rules, the fulfilment— however temporary and artificial—of desires, the release of catharsis, the comfort of escaping from negative situations, the reinforcement of identifying with a character, and the thrill of sharing another’s emotional life, and so on (Grossberg 1992, 55).

Youth media leisure as “participation” As said, recent research looks at youth engagement with digital media and online communication first and foremost as a participatory and creative process (Jenkins 1992, 2006, Jenkins et al., 2006), as they do not simply consume professionally-produced media, but also produce their own, sharing them within different circles of peers and networked circles of the public (boyd 2008). Drawing from the extensive fieldwork carried

9

An example of the political potential of pleasure can be found in Erica Carter’s analysis of postwar West German female commodity consumption practices. She describes how working-class girls, when purchasing nylon stockings with their hard-earned cash, were in fact buying a kind of pleasure that had been orchestrated by the market and yet that same fragile stockings were a mode of escape and an indulgence in a legitimated sphere of pleasure, a “moment of disorder and disruption (that) marks the displacement of potentially more grandiose demands for self-determination onto the only site where they may be realistically met” (1984:212).

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out recently by Mizuko Ito and her team10, I am going to close this chapter by mentioning three different, yet highly interconnected kinds of engagement, three “genres of participation”: hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. As Ito et al. explain (2010), the notion of “genre” makes it possible to draw distinctions a posteriori, as a result of the ethnographic material collected, rather than a priori, upon the premises of pre-given socio-demographic categories such as social economic status, gender, ethnic identity, or media-centric parameters (such as time and frequency of media use, or type of media platform). Thus, by moving from a categorical to a genre-based approach, it is possible to talk about the relationship between youth and the media in contextualized, multidimensional and dynamic terms. As we shall see, youth may be active loosely hanging out on Facebook and at the same time be more seriously engaged in some kind of geeky, interest-based community that has to do with gaming or creative production. Before going into detail in describing these genres of participation, a preliminary distinction needs to be made between friendship-driven and interest-driven participation. Friendship-driven participation refers to the dominant and mainstream practices of youth as they go about their dayto-day negotiations with friends and peers. These friendship-driven practices center on peers youth encounter in the age-segregated contexts of school but might also include friends and peers they meet through religious groups, school sports, and other local activity groups (Ito et al. 2010,16).

Youth online lives soPHKRZ PLUURU DQG IXUWKHU GHYHORSʊWKURXJK VRFLDOQHWZRUNVLWHVRQOLQHFKDWDQGPRELOHFRPPXQLFDWLRQʊWKHVHORFDO offline networks as well as the usual practices of hanging out and communicating with friends, of flirting and dating. Interest-driven participation is instead cantered on specialized activities, interests, or niche and marginalized identities come first. Interest-driven practices are what youth describe as the domain of the geeks, freaks, musicians, artists, and dorks—the kids who are identified as smart, different, or creative, who generally exist at the margins of teen social worlds (Ito et al. 2010,16).

10 From 2005 to 2008, with funding from the McArthur Foundation, Mizuko Ito and her team carried out a $3.3 million research project interviewing over 800 children and young adults, and conducting over 5000 hours of online observations. Despite being carried out in the U.S., its findings can still be indicative of youth media engagement across post-industrial countries as a whole.

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Through these practices, youth develop a different network of peers where it is the interests and hobbies that structure friendships relations, rather than vice versa. As with friendship-driven activities, online communication provides youth with unprecedented opportunities to find and connect with interest-based networks that might not be easily available in their local communities. Yet, in contrast with friendship-driven networks, the interest-driven varieties generally do not have to adhere to existing formal institutions such as school or church, or be locally bound (although they may). Sites such as YouTube, fan forums, gaming networks such as the Bad Company Guild of World of Warcraft, LiveJournal communities, deviantART, give youth access to niche settings where they can connect with others for both acquiring or giving expert advice, and also distributing, publicizing, and sometimes even getting money out of the work they create. Although the data collected by Ito et al. (2010) show that more geeky and creative practices continue to be marginal as compared to friendship-driven activities, they also show that the balance between these two kinds of networked activities is constantly shifting. Many youth maintain a double identity, engaging with multiple online profiles for different sets of friends that do not necessarily overlap with the friends they hang out with in school or other local contexts. Given the general distinction between friendship- and interest-driven practices, I can now turn to describe the three specific “genres of participation” identified by Ito and her team: hanging out, messing around and geeking out.

Hanging Out One important tenet of the sociological literature on teen and youth culture holds that their coming of age is generally marked by a shift from primary socialization relationships (mostly with family members) to secondary ones (friends, schools teachers and non-family adults in general). As such, although these relationships may vary in relation to ethnicity, class, and particular family context, the desire to hang out, meet friends, just “be” with friends (either as peers or romantic partners) is ontologically part, so to speak, of their identity formation and growing desire for independence. This desire, however, must be constantly negotiated and cultivated within institutional frameworks (schools, families, neighbourhood infrastructures like public transportation or recreational facilities) that tend to restrict and regulate the occasions and the places where youth can get together unsupervised by some adult figure. Especially in highly urbanized areas, they usually move from

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school (where they are physically together but with few moments to talk and hang out freely) to home (where they can use their time more freely and yet are not physically together with friends), to afternoon leisure activities (like sports or dance classes) where, once again, their time is regulated by adults (Ito et al. 2010, Buckingham 2000, James, Jenks, Prout 1998). While physical hanging out with friends may be quite complicated, online and mobile communication gives youth a persistent space of peer sociability where they exercise autonomy for conversation that is private or primarily defined by friends and peers. Although in most cases they would prefer to hang out with their friends offline, the limits placed on their mobility and use of space means that this is not always possible (Ito et al. 2010, 38, italics added).

Although browsing social network profiles of friends, engaging in instant messaging, phone conversations and text messaging is peculiar to online and mobile communication, many parallels could be traced to how teens hang out offline. For example, as Ito and Okabe (2005) suggest, quickly checking people’s status on Facebook or exchanging SMS indicating general status (“I’m so tired,” “just finished homework”, “I’m thinking of you”), are examples of an “ambient virtual co-presence” that in many ways reproduces the sharing of physical space. At other times, however, when they want to engage in lengthier and more articulated conversations, they start a chat or a telephone call11. In other words, by flexibly mobilizing different networked communications capabilities, young people circumvent some of the limits that prevent them from hanging out with their friends. When young people want to get together and hang out (for both online and offline meetings), they typically go online first, since that is where they are most likely to be able to connect (Ito et al. 2010, 39).

Messing Around The second genre of participation is messing around. Unlike hanging out, which largely corresponds to friendship-driven practices, messing 11

For example, C. J. Pascoe reports the case of seventeen-year-old Clarissa who uses MySpace and LiveJournal when she needs to coordinate her offline hanging out with girlfriends, and the community of an online role-playing game (Faraway Land) when she wants to hang out with a larger, non-locally bound group of friends.

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around is the first step towards a more engaged use of digital media and online communication. Of course, in order to mess around, youth must have high-speed Internet access, gadgets such as MP3 players and DVD burners, and a great deal of free time, private space, and autonomy12. A typical messing around activity is the use of search engines to retrieve information. Many searches are goal-oriented, like looking for information to carry out homework and school projects or for a “cheat” in a particular game. In other cases, searches are more random, like when youth look for material for their creative productions, or copy and paste stuff in order to update and customize their MySpace or Facebook profiles. In both cases “lurking” in web forums, chat channels, etc. makes it easier to reach specialized information and, more importantly, to do it anonymously, with no need to display their ignorance. For example, SnafuDave, a web comic creator interviewed by Ito, explains that he learned many of his initial skills from online tutorials and web forums and that eventually he became an active participant in a web comics community (Ito et al. 2010, 311). Although this kind of “self-directed learning” arising from “complex leisure”, as Stebbins would put it (2012), does not necessarily result in long-term engagement, youth do use this form of knowledge acquisition as an initial base to deeper social and practical engagement with a new area of interest. Through these processes, they develop their sense of agency and often exhibit it publicly in a discourse where they construct themselves as “self-taught” and “masters” of their own learning processes. In other words, when youth have the opportunity to pursue projects based on their own interests and share them within a network of peers with similar investments, the results are highly active forms of learning that are quite far from being properly investigated and documented from an empirical point of view. In addition, they also develop strong ties with peers in terms of cooperative learning, acquiring the status of “techno-mentors” (Ito et al. 2010, 59) and, at times, making it a kind of work they get paid for, as we shall see later. As such, messing around, just like hanging out, has a strong social dimension insofar as the ability to play around and experiment with the media is always a collaborative endeavour. It is a kind of social play that can be an extension of local family and friends, or, more frequently, of purely digital relationships. Once again, taking videogaming as an example, we can say that

12 Yet, that is not necessarily the case, as youth may find ways to circumventing a limited media access For examples, see Ito et al. 2010, 61.

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In sum, messing around highlights the advantages of growing up in an era of media saturation, interactive media and social software. Although it may also imply problematic aspects, such as the information overload, or the need for a more critical access to information sources that may not be so reliable, it ultimately represents a challenge to traditional ways of finding, sharing and processing information and knowledge, a site for informal, peer-based learning, a highly creative space in which youth can begin to explore and eventually cultivate specific interests connecting with people outside their local friendship groups. As such, it can be considered as a “transitioning practice” from purely friendship-oriented hanging out activities to more interest-based ones, like those included in geeking out, the last “genre of participation”. The mechanism of transitioning helps us understand the ways in which youth identity and learning are dynamically constructed through participating in different contexts of media leisure, Transitioning between hanging out, messing around, and geeking out represents certain trajectories of participation that young people can navigate, where their modes of learning and their social networks and focus begin to shift. Examining learning as changes in genres of participation is an alternative to the notion of “transfer,” where the mechanism is located in a process of individual internalization of content or skills. In a participatory frame, it is not that kids transfer new media skills or social skills to different domains, but rather they begin to identify with and participate in different social networks and sets of cultural referents through certain transitional social and cultural mechanisms. It is not sufficient to internalize or identify with certain modes of participation; there also needs to be a supporting social and cultural world (Ito et al. 2010, 17).

Geeking out Geeking out primarily refers to a continued, intensive and very sophisticated engagement with digital media and online communication. Particularly for youth with access to newer technology and high-speed connections, the Internet can provide access to a huge amount of information related to their particular interests so that they can develop

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reputation and expertise within highly specialized communities, and possibly even get paid for it. Let’s once again take videogaming as an example to show how the ability to find, produce and share specialized knowledge is part and parcel of the geek identity, and also how in fact the practice of geeking out largely extends beyond the boundaries the core activity (the game play) to include other forms of activities (both online and offline). Particularly when it comes to MMORPGs, the intensive engagement associated with this genre of participation includes all sort of para-texts (from official magazines and guides published by game manufacturers, to playergenerated tutorials, to online chat channels and web forums) that support, facilitate and extend the gaming experience. For example, Rachel Cody in her study of Final Fantasy XI, notes that the players use guides in order to save time, resources, or to draw upon advice from players who have successfully completed a task with which the player is struggling. In this context, user-generated guides often have greater credibility with players because they have been created by other players rather than by the producers of the game (Ito et al. 2010, 70).

In the videogaming world, players and game designers expect that the gameplay will be supported by an online knowledge network that provides tips, cheats, walkthroughs and reviews generated by commercial manufacturers but especially by fellow players. Indeed, personal knowledge exchange among local gamer friends, as well as with this broader online knowledge network, is a vital part of the videogaming experience. It follows that certain players reach a status and a credibility that does not have to coincide with the hierarchies of status at school, at home, in the offline world in general. In fact, we could say that, whereas a geek person may feel marginalized by peers, classmates, even family, for his/her niche interests, within an online interest-driven group it is precisely this niche interest that grants him/her status and brings people together in the first place. Gaming represents both an activity that forms and engages kids in social networks and also a way for them to produce knowledge. This knowledge is about game content, at one level, but it is also (and more importantly) about learning from it, about using game engines to create new cultural artefacts, about how games are modified, designed and constructed. In addition to being knowledgeable and well-esteemed for that, the geek identity implies the capacity to “rewrite the rule” (Ito et al. 2010, 71), not so much in terms of circumventing and subverting the social rules and restrictions set by parents or schools on access to friends, spaces or

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information (as is often the case with hanging out and messing around), but in terms of challenging technological rules and restrictions, and blasting the black box of technology, so to speak. At times, it may also imply challenging legal and commercial norms, like in the case of acquiring media products that have not yet been commercialized in shops (such as animes that have not yet been released in the United States, as Ito reports in her Anime fans study, 2010), or media that are unavailable because of the cost of buying them. Practices like fan fiction, video mashups and fan art, or code hacking, creating and exploiting cheats, machinima, are all representatives of these peculiar characteristics of the geek identity. Finally, the geek identity implies a strong social dimension, both online and offline. In fact, contrary to popular myths about the isolated media fan, almost all geeking out practices observed by Ito et al. (2010) are highly socially engaged and engaging, often in a quite complex and articulated way. Most interest-driven groups surrounding fandom, gaming, and amateur media production are loosely aggregated through online sites such as YouTube, LiveJournal, or DeviantArt, or more specialized sites such as animemusicvideos.org, fanfiction.net, and gaming sites such as Allakhazam or pojo.com. In addition, core participants in specific interest communities will often take a central role in organizing events and administering sites that cater to their hobbies and interests. Real-life meetings such as conventions, competitions, meet-ups, and gaming parties are also part of these kinds of distributed, player- and fan-driven forms of organization that support the on-going life and social exchange of interestdriven groups, blurring the borders between offline and online lives. Precisely because of this social dimension, the issue of leadership and team organization is a central one, as in Rachel Cody’s study of Final Fantasy XI gamers. Cody spent seven months participant-observing a high-level “linkshell,” or “guild”. It was a special linkshell, an “endgame” one, whose aim was to defeat the high-level monsters in the game. In order to be effective, the group was organized as a hierarchical system led by a chief and officers who also had the authority to approve the membership of new participants. Often, in order to be admitted, new members had to go through a formal application and interview, officially conform to the standards of the group and demonstrate their capacity to fight effectively in battle as a team. This highly structured organization would often hold “camps” where more than 150 people would move and act following a long and well-planned battle strategy. In this sense, gaming can function as a site for organizing collective action, varying from the more casual

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arrangements of youth getting together to play at a friend’s house to the more formal and structured arrangements observed by Cody13. Cody’s study shows how videogaming can shift from the playful toward more serious and work-like arrangements where participants are “professionally” accountable to the expectations of the group. These online gaming networks provide an opportunity for youth to exercise adult-like agency and leadership that is not otherwise available to them. Although the relationships they foster in these settings are initially motivated by media-related interests, these collaborative arrangements and on-going social exchanges often result in deep and lasting friendships with new networks of like-minded peers. Gaining recognition in these niche and amateur groups means validation of creative work in the here and now, without having to wait for rewards in a far-flung and uncertain future in professional creative production.

Geeking out across serious leisure and work In this final paragraph, I want to look at geeking out practices through the lens of the serious leisure perspective (Stebbins, 2007) in order to suggest that they may represent an interesting example of how serious leisure actually blurs the distinction between paid and unpaid work. Unlike casual leisure (a short-term pleasurable activity whose enjoyment requires little or no training) and project-based leisure (a more complicated, occasional, short-term creative activity), serious leisure is the systematic amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity which participants find substantial and fulfilling in that they acquire and express a combination of special skills, knowledge, and experience (Stebbins 2007). As described so far, geeking out perfectly fits Stebbins’ definition of serious leisure, as Ito’s study on Anime Fans exemplifies (Ito et al. 2010). She researched the practices of amateur subtitlers, or “fansubbers,” who translate and subtitle 13

“One of the important things about these camps, as Cody comments, was that linkshell members behaved professionally and in line with a linkshell’s expectation of conduct. Enki, the head of the linkshell, was known for reprimanding or even kicking people from the linkshell for unsportsmanlike behavior during camp, spamming the linkshell during ‘focus’ time, or making a fairly big mistake during the actual killing of an HNM. Even without Enki’s reprimanding people, linkshell members placed a good deal of pressure on themselves to be “perfect” at these camps and not make mistakes. They realize that their behavior is a reflection on themselves and their linkshell mates. While they had a good deal of fun between focus windows, these were high-stress times demonstrated by the constant drama that occurred” (in Ito et al. 2009, 219).

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animes and release them through Internet distribution. They form tightknit work teams with jobs that include translators, timers, editors, typesetters, encoders, quality checkers, distributors, and often work faster and more effectively than professionals, reaching millions of fans around the world. Fansubbing, like much of digital-media production, is hard, grinding work—translating dialogue with the highest degree of accuracy, timing how long dialogue appears on the screen down to the split second, fiddling with the minutiae of video encoding to make the highest-quality video fi les that are small enough to be distributed over the Internet. They often work on tight deadlines, and the fastest groups will turn around an episode within 24 hours of release in Japan. For this, fansubbers receive no monetary rewards, and they say that they pursue this work for the satisfaction of making anime available to fans overseas and for the pleasure they get in working with a close-knit production team that keeps in touch primarily on online chat channels and web forums (Ito et al. 2010, 325-326).

Another example (this time with monetary reward) can be found in Patricia Lange’s study of YouTube and Video Bloggers (Ito et al. 2010). One video blogger is 14-year-old Max. His “career” started when he recorded and uploaded a video about his mother singing along to the Boyz II Men song, totally unaware that people around her were listening and laughing at her. The video attracted the interest of ABC television show Good Morning America which then aired it. In the two years since it was posted, the video received more than 2 million views and more than 5,000 text comments, many of them expressing support. Max’s work attracted attention also from another media company, which bought other videos off him for an online advertisement. On the Internet you may also find cases of hip-hop artists who market their music, fan artists who sell their work, and youth who freelance as web designers. By linking these kinds of niche audiences, online sharing sites make amateur- and youth-created content visible to other creators and audiences, who no longer having to look exclusively to professional and commercial networks to distribute and sell their craft. Indeed, in all these cases young people are definitely paving the way to more accessible, grass-root forms of creative production and distribution. As in the case of Max, most of the content creation that youth engage with is focused on documenting their everyday lives, sharing it with friends and family, and at times turning it into more professional-oriented kinds of creative production. In any case, the boundary between casual, friendship-driven media production and a more “serious” interest-driven

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one is not so clear cut. As said, youth can quickly transition from one into the other. For example, the more friendship-driven practice of managing one’s own profile on a social network site or taking photos with friends can lead to a more interest-driven practice like digital media production. Conversely, interest-driven practices like fansubbing can lead to friendship relations that might eventually go beyond the particular interest they started with and become a socializing experience as strongly felt as the friendship-driven networks in their local school or community. Although these practices may never turn professional and produce sound economic profit, they are still rewarding, as they validate youth status and reputation among specific creative communities, albeit small and self-referential. Gaining status and reputation does not necessarily equal fame, at least in the mainstream commercial sense. “For some participants, being famous was not as important as improving their skills and receiving legitimation from a select few peers they deemed capable of understanding their contribution in a meaningful way” (Ito et al. 2010, 289). These examples may serve as an illustration of the ways in which youth engage in labour and economic activity through digital media leisure. Of course, existing forms of class distinction resiliently structure young people’s access to particular media leisure practices and their potential to be turned into some kind of economic activity. The vast majority of youth engagements with media leisure do not necessarily translate to paying jobs and successful careers, especially when it comes to under privileged young people. But even among privileged kids and young adults, Ito et al. report the tendency for them to see these forms of work as a simple serious hobby that has nothing to do with real-life trajectories that lead them into a stable career following more canonical forms of education. In addition, these practicesʊDV RIWHQ RFFXUV ZLWK \RXQJ people’s labour DFWLYLWLHV LQ JHQHUDOʊPDy be dismissed as “unskilled”, “informal”, motivated by “helping” motives rather than financial ones. Yet, despite these conservative tendencies, Ito et al. (2010) report a whole series of youth media leisure experiences that apparently question them by showing evidence that new media are helping to open new avenues for young people to exercise new forms of agency with regard to labor and work. (…) These forms of grassroots economic mobilization are particularly evident among youth from less privileged backgrounds. (…) Much like how different forms of volunteerism and internships have functioned historically, networked peer production provides opportunities for kids to experiment with different forms of work and public participation. These

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Youth choose to participate in this kind of creative/technical work for the sheer pleasure of engaging on it in their own terms, for the pure satisfaction of exercising autonomy and efficacy and making their labour visible in a public way, regardless of whether or not it provides economic profit. Unlike mainstream professional media production supporting a relatively small elite of creators, amateur digital media leisure can promote an ever growing number of creators, buoyed by their own followers, albeit small and self-referential. It is to these niche audiences that we need to look at if we want to study the ways in which youth may engage in new “genres” of public participation and labour activity. They may also serve as a kind of vocational training which—unlike formal educational programs—engages youth in actual labour activities rather than simply “preparing” them to. As said, they provide immediate gains in terms of status and reputation, at times also in terms of profit. Youth are looking for real-life tasks and responsibilities here and now with no need to wait for reaching some kind of “maturity” or “diploma” that certify their capacity to accomplish them. Digital media leisure gives them the chance to be “taken seriously” by their peers/co-workers in forms of work that clearly prove productive to others and that grant them public validation and visibility. Regretfully, in spite of all the theory about the importance of “learning by doing”, of implementing apprenticeships and real-life work in schools, these forms of learning are quite far from being systematically institutionalized in formal educational settings (Cappello 2012). In sum, digital media leisure intersects in quite complex and complicated ways with youths’ experiences of work. Ito et al.’s fieldwork amply documents how youth, despite being excluded from the “high-status labour economy”, do find ways to develop self-rewarding work activities within the (only) field of experience they have plenty of, that is leisure. Digital media leisure is providing news ways and places to make these activities more visible and valued, also proving the greater role played by informal, peer-based economies of labour. Indeed, there is much research to do to verify how these peer-based economies interact with existing mainstream commercial economy, and whether they “result in resilient changes to the relationships among public engagement, cultural exchange, and economic participation” (Ito et al., 2010, 336).

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CHAPTER SEVEN FROM PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL LEISURE: A FOCUS ON TOURISM GABRIELLA POLIZZI Introduction Cyberspace has recently become a larger and larger “location of leisure” (Rojek 2005), today absorbing an increasing amount of time from people’s daily life (Nie et al. 2002). Such reallocation of time to virtual leisure can generate different kinds of impact on traditional leisure activities, in some cases reducing or replacing the time previously spent in physical places or in other “mediated” locations, such as TV (Wellman and Haythornthwaite 2002), in other cases enabling people to save time or money, that can be invested into more media-based activities, or non-media based activities (Mokhtarian et al. 2006). This paper aims at exploring the features of virtual leisure and their impact on tourism. According to the definition by the World Tourism Organization, tourism consists of The activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for no more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes (World Tourism Organization 1995, 1).

Since such activities have always been based on the corporeal travels of people through physical places, it is interesting to explore how the use of ICTs is changing the nature of tourism. In order to reach this goal, the paper is divided into three main sections. Section 1 presents a mobility-based approach to virtual leisure that focuses on virtual mobility (Urry 2000, 2002). Looking at tourism as one of the main fields of leisure activity that are based on mobility, this section explores the transformations of the concepts of “space”, “time” and “mobility” and the ways the new media are able to blur the traditional

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distinction between “co-presence” and “absence”, consequently reshaping the boundaries between “physical space” and “virtual space” (Katz, 2003; Licoppe 2003; Mallett 2004; Polizzi 2010; Wellman 2001; White and White 2007). Starting from the consideration that virtual mobilities refer to a different concept of space—“cyberspace”—that, like any other place, can be visited and explored, Section 2 analyses how virtual travel interacts with physical travel. The extreme case of such interaction is cybertourism, whose features are presented in Section 3 with reference to the concept of “virtual reality”, and the related possibilities of substitution of virtual travel for physical travel are discussed. Conclusions provide a list of the main key-issues on virtual tourism that need to be investigated by future research.

A mobility-based approach to virtual leisure As I argued elsewhere (Polizzi 2011), cyberspace is a new location of leisure time. Leisure activities in cyberspace can be interpreted within Sheller and Urry’s (2006) mobilities paradigm, which considers our present world as a “flux” of people, objects and information. In this regard Urry (2000) identified four different kinds of travel corresponding to four types of mobility: a) the corporeal travel of people; b) the physical movement of objects delivered to producers, retailers and consumers; c) imaginative travel, which can be done through the images of places and peoples encountered on broadcast media (especially TV); and d) virtual travel, which refers to all those kinds of mobility that have their “location” on the Internet. Starting from Mascheroni’s (2007) review on virtual mobility, I derived some key-transformations of the concepts of “time” and “space” that have been shown to have a strong impact on the traditional types of corporeal mobility over the last few years: x perpetual contact (Katz and Aakhus 2002); x replicated co-presence (Sheller and Urry 2006); x doubling of place (Moores 2004). The concept of perpetual contact, as proposed by Katz and Aakhus (2002), refers to the possibility for individuals to start and maintain connections with each other through the new media, by means of which connections can be activated any time, any place and with a potentially unlimited duration, the only limit of theirs being the interruption of the

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contact due to the will of one or more of the individuals involved in the interaction, to technical problems, or to other circumstances beyond individuals’ control. Looking at the tourist experience, a good example of such a perpetual contact is the possibility for travellers to continue to maintain contact with relatives and friends who have left at home by using what Mascheroni refers to as “mobile media” (a mobile phone or an Internet point), through which travellers can send and receive sms and e-mails while on vacation, consequently never interrupting their interactions with their own domestic sphere (and, often, even with the working one). A further example of perpetual contact in tourism lies in the potentially unlimited visibility in time and space that a single destination and tourism service businesses can benefit from through travel and tourism websites, as well as through newsgroup and travel diaries. This visibility can help travellers not only to plan their itinerary before their departure but also change it throughout their holiday at will. Deeply intertwined with the concept of perpetual contact is the other concept of replicated co-presence (Urry 2002) characterizing computer and mobile phone-mediated communication: in spite of physical distance, individuals who interact by means of such devices can recreate interactions that are very similar to face-to-face interactions because of the almost instantaneous interactivity of these media. According to Mascheroni (2007), perpetual contact and replicated copresence made possible by mobile media produce the phenomenon that Moores (2004) has defined as doubling of place. Moores borrowed this concept from Scannell (1996), who originally proposed it with reference to the public events transmitted by broadcast media (television and radio): Public events now occur, simultaneously, in two different places: the place of the event itself and that in which it is watched or heard. Broadcasting mediates between these two sites” (Scannell 1996, 76).

As Scannell stated, broadcast media allow viewers and listeners to be in two places at once (Scannell 1996, 91). Moores applied the concept doubling of place to the analysis of electronic media such as the Internet and the mobile phone. As already claimed by Schegloff (2002), a person who is speaking on the phone is, in fact, in two places at once: in the physical place from which s/he made or received the call and on the phone. Since any kind of mobility is based on a movement through space and time—no matter if such movement occurs through physical or virtual places—and the three phenomena above described in terms of perpetual

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contact, replicated co-presence and doubling of place have changed our experience of both space and time, so generating a new kind of mobility— the virtual one—we can consequently conclude that such changes affect all our activities that are mobility-based, including the leisure ones. The point is that the existence of “doubled places” seems to involve the co-presence of leisure activities that can be carried out in two or more different places, i.e. simultaneously in a physical and in a virtual place (or, eventually, in two or more virtual places). For such reasons it is interesting to examine the interactions between leisure activities in virtual and physical locations. As Mokhtarian et al. (2006, 264) highlighted, the relationship between the use of new media and leisure time activities has started to received more and more attention as a specific object of research only in relatively recent times. Research has traditionally focused on the study of the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (hereafter ICTs) on the transformation of mandatory activities (such as work or work-related activities), or maintenance ones (shopping, medical, banking, other personal business). However, less attention has been devoted to the study of the impact of ICTs on discretionary or leisure activities, which can be defined as those activities that are freely chosen and do not fall either into maintenance or into mandatory ones. In order to analyse this impact, Mokhtarian et al. (2006) have previously explored the role that new media play in blurring the boundaries between activities classified as mandatory, maintenance or leisure. First, the use of such media has been generating an increasing fragmentation of human activities: Whereas before, work, shopping, and leisure activities took place more or less in undivided blocks of time at specialized locations, we now see such activities broken into smaller chunks, interspersed with fragments of other activities, and spread across a larger number of locations (ibid, 269).

In other words, ICTs can make the boundaries between leisure and non-leisure activities more porous, as happens every time we shop from the Internet or play computer games during a break at the office, and work from home in the evenings (perhaps interwoven with family interaction activities). We send and answer e-mails while on vacation, and engage in sightseeing activities while on business trips (ibid).

The possibility for the individual to fragment activities (be they leisure ones or not) enables a more flexible management of time, more freedom from the constraints that an exclusive devotion to a specific activity could

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lead to, and a wider possibility to seize the opportunities that during the day may gradually occur. As Mokhtarian et al. (2006) stated, For example, one may choose to watch a movie on DVD rather than in the theatre precisely because the DVD can be stopped and started at will, and therefore woven into other activities at home rather than requiring the commitment of a larger block of time and perhaps a separate trip (ibid).

These examples show that multiple types of activities (mandatory, maintenance, leisure) can be fragmented and sequentially interleaved. However, besides the cases where a sequence of activities is undertaken, there are other cases where multiple types of activities (mandatory, maintenance, leisure) can simultaneously overlap, as happens every time One may watch television (leisure) while doing a routine work task (mandatory) at home in the evening, or while cooking dinner (maintenance). One may phone a friend while travelling home from work, make work-related calls while watching one’s child play soccer, or receive a call while eating with family or friends. Here again, the ability to multitask may affect one’s choice of activity mode, location, and timing” (ibid).

The point is now to explore the different kinds of impact that virtual activities can have on the ones traditionally based on corporeal mobility, namely “physical leisure activities”. A useful classification can be derived from Mokhtarian et al. (2006), who distinguished four kinds of impacts: 1) ICTs give support to physical leisure activities; 2) ICTs allow people to reallocate the time/money originally spent on physical leisure activities to other leisure activities (be they physical or virtual); 3) ICTs help people in partly replacing the traditional physical leisure activities with their virtual counterparts; 4) ICTs help people in totally displacing those physical leisure activities that have no virtual counterpart with virtual leisure activities. In the next pages such a classification is going to be applied to the analysis of the transformation of the corporeal mobility-based tourist experience due to virtual mobility.

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Physical and virtual leisure time in tourism: What interaction? As discussed in the previous section, leisure time has been getting more and more complex because of the combination of forms of physical and virtual mobility. Since tourist experiences are based on mobility, tourism represents one of the most interesting fields to explore for understanding how physical and virtual mobility-based activities interact with each other. Starting from the four kinds of impact of the use of ICTs on leisure activities identified by Mokhtarian et al. (2006), this section is going to explore 4 types of interactions between virtual travels and physical travels, which are going to be described from the weakest impact of virtual travels on physical travels to the strongest one: 1) virtual travels can support or enable physical travels; 2) virtual travels can reallocate the time/money spent on physical travels to other physical/virtual mobility-based activities; 3) virtual travels can partly replace physical travels; 4) virtual travels can totally displace physical travels. Table 7-1 summarizes the four types of interaction between physical and virtual travels, showing for each of them the mechanism by which the interaction occurs and the nature of the virtual travels involved. The first type of interaction between virtual and physical travel consists of the use of ICTs as a support for physical travel. In this case, travelling through physical space is the individual’s final scope and virtual travel plays the role of making the physical one possible. The final result of such interaction is the integration between virtual and physical travels. First, ICTs provide future travellers with information about destinations and services and can help them in the planning of their itineraries. Besides tourism websites, travel recommender systems play an important role in the decision making process by independent tourists (Danzinger et al. 2002; Furner 2002; Resnick and Varian 1997; Ricci and Werthner 2006; Schafer et al. 2001; Xiang et al. 2007). Moreover, nowadays an increasing number of travellers make use of social media before leaving and while on vacation, since electronic word of mouth is considered as the most reliable source of information (Litvin et al. 2008; Ye et al. 2011).

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Table 7.1 Interactions between virtual and physical travels: types and mechanisms of interaction, and nature of the virtual travels involved Type of interactions between virtual and physical travels

Mechanism by which each type of interaction occurs

Nature of virtual travels

Integration between virtual/physical travels.

Virtual travels can enable or support physical leisure activities.

Virtual travels are means of physical travels.

Reallocation of the Virtual travels can reduce the time/cost Virtual travels time originally spent required to conduct a physical leisure are means of on physical travels to activity. The saved time/money can be physical and/or other leisure activities spent on other leisure activities other virtual (physical/virtual). (physical/virtual). leisure activities. Reduction of the time/money originally spent on physical travels.

Virtual travels can partly replace physical ones. People can choose between virtual and physical leisure.

Virtual travels are ends of leisure time.

Elimination of Virtual travels generate new virtualphysical travels with only leisure activities. Virtual leisure no virtual counterpart. displace physical leisure. Adapted from Mokhtarian et al. (2006).

Virtual travels are ends of leisure time.

Besides searching for tourist information, other interesting cases of the support provided by virtual mobility-based activities for physical travel deserve attention. In this regard Sørensen (2003) stressed the role of the Internet as a facilitator of backpackers’ meetings with each other at certain destinations. As he wrote, The Internet also facilitates communication between backpackers. Email addresses are frequently exchanged with other backpackers encountered on the road. Some of the addresses may never be activated, but others are, and communications are continued while traveling. In some cases, itineraries are adjusted to allow meeting again. Communication is also continued between pre-arranged travel partners who plan to meet at a later date. In both cases, the coming of the Internet has caused a near-revolution of scheduling flexibility. Previously, meetings with other persons were either coincidental, as when encountering other backpackers again along the same route, or planned in advance, as when joining someone at a prearranged time and place. Compared to this, the Internet enables a running contact, which enables continuous adjustment of itineraries. This includes more flexible options for travel partners to temporarily separate and later reunite (Sørensen 2003, 860-861).

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In addition, the use of the Internet makes it possible to establish perpetual contacts between tourists and people at home, as emerged also from the research that White and White (2007) carried out for exploring how the use of cell phones and access to Internet cafes by tourists is able to blur the traditional distinction between the feeling of being “home” and “away. As the two scholars found, The participants spoke about how important it was for them to feel that despite their physical absence, they were still socially and emotionally integrated into their home relationships and that they continued to be participants in events that marked these relationships. This integration or co-presence was signified in three principal and interdependent ways. First, on-going integration into home events and relationships was signalled by messages from friends, family members, and work colleagues. These messages included tourists as participants in distant social interactions and events. Second, tourists’ sense of integration was forged through receipt of information about events and people at home. Third, they gained a sense of integration by initiating messages, particularly those describing their touristic experiences. These descriptions had the effect of creating “virtual” travel companions (White and White 2007, 95).

The second type of interaction between virtual and physical travels consists of a different case of integration, i.e. when virtual travels allow people to reallocate the time/money originally spent on physical travel to other physical or virtual mobility-based activities. For example, retrieving and reading tourist online information on the Internet can reduce the time/cost required to physically go to a travel agency. Buying a package tour sold by an online tour operator often allows travellers to save time/money. The saved time/money can be spent on other leisure activities located in physical places (i.e. buying a new bike or a ticket for a live concert). According to Lyons (2002), the impact of telecommunication on the individuals’ will of physical mobility and on the subsequent development of transportation systems simultaneously generate ambivalent effects, consisting sometimes of the substitution and sometimes of the increase in the options of personal movement through physical space: “As many researchers have suggested or observed, the saving in travel time accrued by substitution may be reinvested in other travel” (2002, 342). In this regard several scholars agree with the idea that the development of ICTs and the related forms of virtual mobility can support the development of physical transportation systems, since virtual mobility increases the individuals’ will and opportunities of corporeal mobility instead of reducing them (Hjorthol 2002; Lyons 2002; Mokhtarian 1997;

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Urry 2002), as well as the spread of the telephone and that of the subsequent distance-communication which, despite the initial expectations, have never replaced but have fostered the corporeal mobility and face-to-face meetings among people (Mokhtarian 1997). So far I have described some examples showing how virtual travels allow people to reallocate their time/money to leisure activities located in physical places. However, the time/money saved by means of the Internet (i.e., the online purchase of low-costs package) can be spent on virtual leisure activities, too. For example, this is the case when the money saved can be reinvested in the purchase of a new video game, or the time saved by means of online shopping can be reinvested in the participation in a newsgroup supporting civic engagement, i.e. in what Stebbins (2007) called serious leisure activities. The two kinds of interaction between virtual and physical travels described so far are based on virtual travels as a means by which people can carry out prevalently physical places-located leisure activities. However, tourists can consider virtual travels as ends of their leisure time, so that two other kinds of interaction between virtual and physical travels are generated. In the first case, virtual travels can partly replace physical travels, since they act as counterparts. In this case, people can choose between virtual and physical leisure activities, as happens, for example, every time friends living in the same town and who have travelled together in the past decide to spend their time in virtual meetings within a newsgroup rather than in face-by-face meetings. In such cases, virtual meetings represent the final aim of the use of ICTs, not a means for carrying out a leisure activity in a physical place. However, such a replacement is not irreversible, since people maintain the possibility to engage in physical travels rather than virtual ones. Finally, the last type of interaction between virtual and physical travels consists of the elimination of physical travels that have no virtual counterpart. This happens every time new leisure activities that can be conducted only in virtual spaces displace the physical ones (Nie et al. 2002), as in the case of such activities as videogaming or the construction of a personal profile on social media. Referring to the tourist experience, one interesting example of displacement can be found in cybertourism, a new form of tourist experience where virtual travel can become the end of the use of ICTs, as is going to be discussed in the next section.

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Virtual leisure and tourism: The case of cybertourism In the previous sections it has been claimed that virtual leisure activities are based on virtual mobility and its time and space-related transformations, which, in turn, produce an effect of doubling of places, or, potentially, of multiplication of places. The point that is interesting to face now is that, once such places—known as cyberspaces (Benedikt 1991; Lévy 1994)—have been created, they may become so many locations for leisure and non-leisure activities. In particular, cyberspaces can become tourist destinations, so generating a new form of tourist experience—cybertourism—which Prideaux and Singer (2005) defined as an electronically simulated travel experience that is a substitute for a physical tourism experience (Prideaux 2005, 5).

According to Prideaux (2002, 320-321) three likely transformations in tourism at an international level seem to support the growth of cybertourism: 1) the growing of tourist flows, due to several factors, among which new cohorts of travellers coming from the developed economies of Asia, Latin America etc. and an increased life play an important role; 2) a subsequent reduced environmental sustainability of tourism, since tourist flows risk damaging the resources in a destination, which have represented its source of attractiveness up until now; 3) the possibility to make virtual travel experiences that are cheaper than the corporeal ones and that, if they partly replaced physical travels, would reduce the crowding of destinations. The likelihood that virtual travels could totally or partially displace physical travels is an interesting issue which an increasing number of scholars started to take account of from the 1990s onwards, especially because of the development of “virtual reality”-based applications. Starting from reviewing Cartwright’s (1994), McClure’s (1994) and Feiner et al.’s (1993) research, Cheong (1995) defined virtual reality as a computer-mediated, multisensory experience that serves to facilitate access into dimensions that differ from our own. It attempts to replace much or all of the user’s experience of the physical world with synthesized 3D material such as graphics and sound (418).

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Recently Guttentag (2010) has provided a definition of virtual reality as The use of a computer-generated 3D environment—called a “virtual environment” (VE)—that one can navigate and possibly interact with, resulting in a real-time simulation of one or more of the user’s five senses. “Navigate” refers to the ability to move around and explore the VE, and “interact” refers to the ability to select and move objects within the VE” (638).

In the mid-1990s Cheong (1995, 420-421) identified the main arguments supporting the possibility for virtual travels to substitute physical travels that are still the core of the current debate. The reasons for such a substitution can be summarized as follows: x virtual reality provides access into a controlled environment, since all the components of a holiday (e.g. weather conditions) can be modified according to the wishes of the cybertourist, so as to create “the perfect virtual experience”; x virtual reality allows tourists to avoid the drawbacks typically affecting physical travels such as high costs (or not budgeted ones) and the waste of time usually needed for arranging a holiday and booking travel packages or single tourist services, and for moving from home to the destination; x virtual reality provides access into places that are not easily accessible (e.g. the Amazon jungle or the moon) or that do not exist anymore (e.g. ancient Rome) or that have never existed (e.g. fantasy worlds created by the tourist or not), or that will be probably exist in the future (e.g. Rome in 5000 AD). In particular, the chance to visit places that are not easily accessible could represent an advantage for people who usually do not travel because of their physical handicaps or debilitating illnesses; x virtual travels eliminate the accidents and the subsequent risks of getting injured or even killed that travellers can be exposed to while on a corporeal vacation; x virtual travels have no physical impact on the natural environment of the destination and avoid the social problems that can be generated by negative host-guest relationships, so as to preserve the integrity of both the natural environment and life quality of the host community; x virtual reality can reduce the need for business travel, since business persons can attend meetings or conventions via virtual-

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conferencing, so as to reduce the costs that an enterprise has to face for organizing such events or for sending their personnel to take part in them. Despite such arguments supporting the possible displacement of physical travels with virtual ones, Cheong (1995) identified a list of five arguments refusing the idea that such substitution will occur: 1) as Musil and Pigel (1994) claimed, virtual reality is not able to completely and exactly replicate the sensations deriving from the individual’s material perception of physical environments, and consequently is not able to provide the tourist with experiences that could replace the ones he or she can experience within physical spaces; 2) travels and holidays are activities that satisfy the individual’s needs of direct social and cultural interactions with other people. According to Boden & Molotch (1994) social life requires moments of physical proximity and interactions based on copresence. Consequently, for the extent to which human interactions cannot be completely recreated through virtual connections, virtual travels cannot be totally satisfying for travellers, so are hardly becoming a surrogate for corporeal travels; 3) virtual reality is not able to reproduce the complexity and the uncertainty affecting the physical world (McClure 1994), so restricting the range of activities that individuals can carry out through it and making virtual experiences poorer and less desirable than the corporeal ones; in other words, since virtual reality has a low capacity to provide the user with a feeling of physical “immersion”—that Guttentag (2010, 638) defined as “the extent to which a user is isolated from the real world”—the virtual visit to destinations is perceived as not realistic and, therefore, neither comparable nor preferable to the corporeal visit; 4) according to opposite reasoning, virtual reality can generate a powerful and dangerous feeling of immersion that could reduce the user’s capacity to distinguish between the virtual and physical world (Cartwright 1994), so potentially creating risks for his/her mental health in extreme cases; 5) the income of countries with economies totally based on the revenues deriving from the tourist flows would adopt restrictive and retaliatory measures towards those operators who decided to sell virtual tours rather than traditional ones.

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In more recent times an increasing number of scholars have examined the advantages that different stakeholders would benefit from thanks to the application of virtual reality to the tourist sector. One of these advantages would consist of the possibility for decision makers to simulate the impact of the implementation of a certain action of tourism policy and planning on the transformations of the territory (Caneparo 2001; Guttentag 2010; Heldal 2007). In the same direction, decision makers could use virtual reality as an effective tool for communicating tourism plans to members of local communities. As Guttentag (2010) remarked, This capability is significant, as it has long been recognized that the involvement of local communities in the tourism planning process can be integral to the success of a destination (640-641).

Applications of virtual reality to the tourist sector would represent a marketing tool supporting tourist businesses, tour operators and travel agencies in the selling of their services to prospective travellers (Cheong 1995; Lee and Oh 2007; Prideaux 2002; Thomas and Carey 2005; Wan et al. 2007; Williams and Hobson 1995). From the travellers’ point of view, the virtual visit to a certain physical destination would give them a preview of such a place and its attractions and services. In other words, the virtual exploration before the physical one would become a tool for making travel decisions with more awareness, so reducing the travellers’ anxiety affecting the planning process of corporeal travels (Lee and Oh 2007). In addition the increased tourists’ awareness of the features of their future corporeal travel would lead them to the formation of realistic expectations, so reducing the risk of facing unsatisfying experiences. Finally, the immersion of travellers in a virtual environment would make them live a pre-visit experience that is more cognitively and emotionally absorbing than the one derived, for example, from reading a brochure (Wan et al. 2007), so increasing their wish to go and visit the corresponding physical place. As Thomas and Carey (2005) found in the case of virtual museums, visiting virtual destinations can encourage the visiting of their physical counterparts rather than reducing or eliminating the traveller’ wish for a direct experience of such places.

Conclusions and implications for future research This paper aimed at exploring the features of virtual leisure and their impact on tourism. Since tourist experiences have always been based on

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the corporeal travel of people through physical places, the paper faced the following research question: how is the use of ICTs changing the nature of tourist experiences? In order to answer this question, first, a mobility-based approach to virtual leisure that focuses on virtual mobility was adopted. Looking at tourism as one of the main fields of leisure activities that are based on corporeal mobility, the paper examined the transformations of the concepts of “space”, “time” and “mobility” due to virtual travels, and the ways the new media are able to blur the traditional distinction between “copresence” and “absence”, consequently reshaping the boundaries between “physical space” and “virtual space”. Second, four different kinds of interaction between virtual travels and physical travels were reviewed and analysed, showing for each of them the mechanism by which the interaction occurs and the nature of the virtual travels involved. Third, the paper focuses on cybertourism as a new form of tourist experience simulated by virtual reality technologies. A review of the arguments supporting and refusing the idea that virtual travels could displace physical travels was presented, and the possible advantages and disadvantages for different tourist stakeholders derived from the spread of cybertourism were highlighted. Looking at cybertourism, some interesting implications for future research can now be derived from this theoretical reflection. A research direction could deal with a further investigation about cybertourists’ perceptions of the authenticity of virtual destinations and virtual tourist experiences, as Guttentag (2010) has recently suggested. In other words, it is important to understand what virtual destination-related factors play the major role in increasing the travellers’ sense of “immersion” into it and what limitations affect the ability of virtual reality technologies to recreate a sense of “real world”, as perceived by travellers. Cybertourist-related factors, such as personal and social characteristics, motivations and past holiday behaviours, should be considered, too, since different kinds of tourists have different expectations and, consequently, different perceptions about what can be defined as “authentic”. Future research could aim at exploring the image of existing destinations as formed by their virtual counterparts, as well as other virtual “locations”, such as traditional destination web sites and social media. The focus on destination web sites is strictly related to the issue of web site quality and the methods that can be used for its evaluations (Law et al. 2010), whereas the focus on social media leads to exploring electronic word of mouth, in terms of the influence of user-generated content on traveller behaviours (Ye et al. 2011).

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Finally, further research could explore intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental constraints (Daniels et al. 2005) affecting the physical and virtual mobility of disabled people. Since the number of people with disabilities is expected to increase all over the world as a result of improved medical technologies, reduced child mortality and increasing life-span (Yau et al. 2004), a significant tourist market niche is growing (McKercher et al. 2003; Murray and Sproats 1990; Ray and Ryder 2003), which could benefit from different alternatives ranging from the integration between physical and virtual travels to the partial or total substitution of physical travels with virtual ones.

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Katz, J.E. and M.A. Aakhus 2002, Perpetual Contact. Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Katz, J.E. 2003, Machines That Become Us. The Social Context of Personal Communication Technology. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Law, R., Qi, S. and D. Buhalis 2010, “Progress in tourism management: A review of website evaluation in tourism research”, Tourism Management, 31, 297-313. Lee, O. and J.E. Oh 2007, “The impact of virtual reality functions of a hotel website on travel anxiety”, Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 584-586. Lévy, P. 1994, L’intelligence collective. Pour une anthropologie du cyberespace. Paris: La Découverte. Licoppe, C. 2003, “Two Modes of Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships through Telephone. From the Domestic to the Mobile Phone”, in J.E. Katz Machines That Become Us. The Social Context of Personal Communication Technology. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 171-186. Litvin, S. W., R.E. Goldsmith, and B. Pan, 2008, “Electronic word-ofmouth in hospitality and tourism management”, Tourism Management, 29(3), 458-468. Lyons, G. 2002, “Internet: investigating new technology’s evolving role, nature and effects on transport”, Transport Policy, 9, 335-346. Mallett, S. 2004, “Understanding Home. A Critical Review of the Literature”, The Sociological Review, 52, 62-89. Mascheroni, G. 2007, Le comunità viaggianti. Socialità reticolare e mobile dei viaggiatori indipendenti, Milano: FrancoAngeli. McClure, M. 1994, “The travel experience. Technology as threat or opportunity?”, in Information Technology for Travel and Tourism Marketing: A Tool for Profit”, Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Travel Association-PATA Conference, February 22-24, 1994, 1-11. McKercher, B.T., Packer, M.K. Yau and P. Lam 2003, “Travel agents as facilitators or inhibitors of travel: perceptions of people with disabilities” Tourism Management, 24(4), 465-474. Mokhtarian, P.L. 1997, “Now that travel can be virtual, will congestion virtually disappear?” Scientific American, 277(4), 93. Mokhtarian, P.L., I. Salomon and S.L. Handy 2006, “The impacts of ict on leisure activities and travel: A conceptual exploration”, Transportation, 33, 263-289.

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Schafer, J.B., J. Konstan and J. Riedl 2001, “E-commerce recommendation applications”, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 5(1-2), 115-153. Schegloff, E.A. 2002, “Beginnings in the Telephone”, in J.E. Katz, and M. Aakhus, Perpetual Contact. Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 284300. Sheller, M. and J. Urry 2006, “The New Mobilities Paradigm”, Environment and Planning, 38(2), 207-226. Sørensen, A. 2003, “Backpacker Ethnograpy”, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(4), 847-867. Stebbins, R.A. 2007, Serious Leisure, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Thomas, W. and S. Carey 2005, “Actual/virtual visits. What are the links?” in J. Trant and D. Bearman, Museums and the Web 2005. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Proceedings of the International Conference for Culture and Heritage Online, http://www.archimuse. com/mw2005/papers/thomas/thomas.html, accessed May 2012. Urry, J. 2000, Sociology beyond Societies. Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century, London: Routledge. —. 2002, “Mobility and Proximity”, Sociology, 36(2), 255-274. Wan, C. S., S. H. Tsaur, Y.L. Chiu, and W.B. Chiou 2007, “Is the advertising effect of virtual experience always better or contingent on different travel destinations?”, Information Technology & Tourism, 9(1), 45-54. Wellman, B. 2001, “Physical Place and Cyber-Place. The Rise of Networked Individualism”, International Journal for Urban and Regional Research, 25, 227-252. Wellman, B. and C. Haythornthwaite 2002, The Internet in Everyday Life. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. White, N.R. and P.B. White 2007, “Home and Away. Tourists in a Connected World”, Annals of Tourism Research, 34(1), 88-104. Williams, A.P and J.S.P. Hobson 1995, “Virtual reality and tourism. Fact or fantasy?” Tourism Management, 16(6), 423-427. World Tourism Organization 1995, Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics, Technical manual 2, http://pub.unwto.org/WebRoot/Store/ Shops/Infoshop/Products/1034/1034-1.pdf, accessed May 2012. Xiang, Z., S.E. Kim, C. Hu and D.R. Fesenmaier 2007, “Language representation of restaurants. Implications for developing online recommender systems”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26, 1005-1018.

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Yau, M. K., B. Mckercher, and T.L. Packer 2004, “Traveling with a Disability. More than an Access Issue”, Annals of Tourism Research, 31(4), 946-960. Ye, Q., R. Law, B. Gu, and W. Chen 2011, “The influence of usergenerated content on traveler behavior. An empirical investigation on the effects of e-word-of-mouth to hotel online bookings”, Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 634-639.

CHAPTER EIGHT EMOTIONAL REPORTING AND LEISURE: NEWSMEDIA, CRIME AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ITALY FRANCESCA RIZZUTO Introduction Since the 1960s many Italian studies have analysed specific media products, created data bases about TV audiences or newspaper readers, or underlined the peculiarities of this media system, like the absence of tabloid papers, the “dependence” of journalists on the political system as well as the dominant role of public television and its pedagogic function (Morcellini 2000; Murialdi 2006; Sorrentino 2008). Moreover, media sociologists have also focused on cultural consumption connected to variables like age, gender, and professional condition. Nevertheless, according to Lo Verde (2009, 9), a more precise sociological perspective should try to analyse the media universe by considering this relevant part of leisure time, not only, like a lot of different activities, experienced during free time, but like a coherent process where each individual makes choices, in a general construction of individual and collective meaning. Nowadays, mass and personal media, like the Internet, give people the possibility of being connected to the world while staying in a private and safe situation, where they can spend their leisure time protected, in the condition of a narrow sociality (ibid., 113). From this point of view, the media consumption of different products shows that users are active and try to answer different needs: watching TV news is a daily ordinary activity which has been studied both as a passive and as an active practice. Journalism tells real facts, offers cognitive resources one can use to understand reality, but it also occupies a relevant part of leisure time, gives gratifications to individual needs and offers low cost entertaining products to audiences at home. As a matter of fact, audiences can simply be .

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exposed to journalistic television programs in a passive way but they also can make rational choices and watch a specific journalistic product in order to find answers for different needs. For example, watching journalistic talk shows or prime time information programs has become an activity chosen and experienced to get informed, as well as to relax, to be entertained, to create social relationships, or to build emotive communities (Santos 2009). Historically, journalism has always been a serious activity, about relevant themes, the basis of the democratic debate in western political systems. As Habermas (1962) argued, newspapers read in the British coffee-houses during the 18th century were the platform where the modern public opinion created rational debates about important issues. On the contrary, nowadays, many journalistic products present a complete blurring among information and entertainment: TV news programs have recently become in Italy a large mediated “place” for leisure, absorbing an increasing amount of time from people’s daily life (Morcellini and Roberti 2001; Agostini 2004; Froio 2010). Therefore, watching a journalistic product is a different experience in comparison with the same experience lived by individuals a few decades ago: television perspectives and their commercial logic transformed the experience of getting information in order to become an informed citizen into an emotive and entertaining experience. This radical change must be also connected to the increasing use of ICT devices in journalism, which imposed a new logic in newsmaking and brought about a new role of users (Morcellini 2011), who spend much more leisure time in indoor private activities and become newsmakers as well as performers (Codeluppi 2009). One of the most important trends of contemporary Italian journalism is the success of the entertainment logic in newsmaking: the use of a spectacular frame and commercialization of news has roots in the first American popular journalism. In 1833 the penny press created a new form of daily newspaper, sold to a large audience which had to be attracted: a newspaper, for the first time, was an experience of leisure, produced and sold with an industrial logic (Schudson 2003). At the end of the 19th century, industrial production multiplied goods and products which became affordable for most people. In the shops everything had to be presented in the best way, as beautiful, useful and able to give gratification to each consumer. Nowadays, the entertainment logic in journalism can be connected to the social rise of a “shop-window” communication model and to a new way of considering the experience of getting informed about the world: like the windows of a shop, people are in front of objects, watch them,

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want to buy what is shown, struck by all that is new. In the shop-window society everything is thought and built to seem spectacular, beautiful, immediately available, attractive: this logic spread in the entire social system, where the aesthetic dimension is fundamental in almost every part of life. Codeluppi argued that “the window of a shop is transparent, creates relationships, it is the perfect metaphor of a new communication model among individuals” (Codeluppi 2009, 17). Living in a shop window means absolute transparency: it is not showing myself to others, which means that I can keep something secret and private for me; on the contrary, I am obliged to show everything. It is impossible to leave any emotion, desire or feeling in the darkness. News media, above all TV, make private information visible and public to a planetary audience: in the electronic media age privacy is a different topic in comparison to the pre-television era (Meyrowitz 1985; Thompson 1995). According to Colombo (2005), television has transformed everything into something that must be watched, and this altered traditional journalism by imposing the entertainment framework, with its formats, contents and criteria to select events and transform them into news. Moreover, multichannel TV is now a platform for personalized media use: each member of the audience has become producer as well as performer (one can be both the director and the actor of a personal movie and offer a television product to other viewers). In other words, we live in a world where cameras are never in the off position. As a consequence, life is more and more lived as a drama experience: many individuals are ready or desire to show themselves on a stage, like products in the windows of shops; therefore, their exposure in the media arena is accepted and more and more often looked for. Emotions, passions, dreams and desires are presented to millions of people all over the world; an absolute transparency destroys privacy and attracts audiences. This new kind of television has the goals of entertaining audiences and giving information at the same time: it is focused on showing and invading the personal and familiar space of individuals, offering the “spectacle” of sufferings, dramatic experiences and psychological analysis (Boltansky 2000).

Criminality shows: A dramatic reconstruction of the world to entertain In the contemporary culture of exposition, where each place is or can be a stage, the traditional definition of news and the meaning of news consumption must be changed: journalism does not present objective news, concerning real events, but it offers dramatized reconstructions of

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parts of reality, focusing on the visual impact of the events and on the narrative strategy used to create and tell a “story” (Froio 2000; Schudson 2003; Zelizer 2004; Rizzuto 2009). At the same time, reading a newspaper or watching TV news are no longer only serious activities, useful for political and social participation: they have become ordinary activities of leisure time, since they offer entertainment, emotions, dramatic reconstructions of reality, using the same language of movies or fiction. The success of news about crimes is the best example: crime has always given material and stories to the media, but the entertainment frame makes terroristic attacks, serial killers and slaughters much more interesting because they contain many dramatic elements, useful to create media products able to inform as well as to entertain audiences. The most important and visible risk is that media representation of crimes influences not only the way people consider the presence of crime in society, but also the definition of security and danger (Surette 2007; Bennett 1988; Sorrentino 2008). Infotainment focuses on scandals, accidents, family tragedies, uses the logic of hyperbole and sensationalism: it is a sort of meta-communication, which selects events by using its frame and news-values. According to Zelizer (2004) the word infotainment refers to the media tendency to present news as a show, in order to attract audiences. From this perspective, journalism doesn’t try to understand events or problems: opinions or analyses are not visible and, therefore, are less important. New journalistic products are now successful: they are hybrids, like TV magazines or talk shows where weddings, relationships, serial killers or car accidents are presented with similar words and the same dramatic emphasis. As a consequence, today reporting is a different thing: a few decades ago, a topic was independent from reporters and their opinions; a journalist had to tell events as a witness; on the contrary, nowadays, many events are selected and presented by news media only because of their dramatic content or because there are images available. Surette (2008) argued that infotainment can be defined as the marketing of edited, highly formatted information about the world in disguised entertainment media vehicles. The feel with infotainment media is that you are learning the real facts about the world; the reality is that you are getting a highly stylized rendition of a narrow, edited slice of the world.

Infotainment combines aspects of news, entertainment and advertising under a single umbrella: they are no longer unique media spheres. Crime perfectly fits infotainment demands for content about real events that can

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be delivered in an entertaining fashion. As a matter of fact, information content based on crime and justice has existed for centuries: from reporting about the crimes of Jack the Ripper to the traditional journalistic attention to courts and trials, criminals have always been reported by newsmedia. If we ask why infotainment exploded in the late 20th century, the basic answer is that as the media, led by TV, became more visual, intrusive, and technologically capable, the viewing audience simultaneously became more voyeuristic and entertainment conscious. The ability of satellites to beam information around the world has allowed the public to watch riots, wars and other events as they happen, heightening the dramatic, unedited entertainment value of what previously would have been reported as afterthe-fact news events, or not reported at all. Irrespective of its social importance, a visual event that might not have been mentioned in the news twenty years ago can be a lead news story as a result of simply having been videotaped. By providing a large inexpensive pool of visual events to market, such technological improvements increased the potential amount of infotainment, showing crimes as they happen (Surette 2007). Of course, there are important differences among the western declinations of infotainment, connected to the cultural and economic context of production: in Italy the traditional advocacy model was dominant until the 1980s. As a matter of fact, from the second half of the 19th century, Italian journalism was an instrument of political participation: reporters were members of a party, defended a political perspective or, which is even more dangerous, remained parallel to power and leaders. Italian journalism newspapers have often been used as microphones of politics, to offer visibility to leaders, without giving a voice to readers. Only in the 1990s, with the emergence of commercial television, the success of its language and formats, as well as the private TV news, made a radical change possible (Forgacs 1990; Castronovo and Tranfaglia 1994; Murialdi 2006; Rizzuto 2009). We can say that an Anglo-Saxon news model, based on the watchdog ideal of neutrality and control of politicians, affirmed in a peculiar mix with the commercial perspective. For the first time in Italy, the market became important in news. According to Schudson (2003), in the market model, news is a product and must be sold to an audience; journalistic programs must attract people: in other words, there is no longer a separation between informative and commercial goals. Therefore, Italian infotainment presents some peculiarities deriving from its traditional parallelism with politics, the recent success of market TV journalism and the new central

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role of some anchormen (Bruno Vespa, Michele Santoro, Giovanni Floris) who contrast or claim to contrast with politicians, according to a watchdog function of the press. In two decades traditional news values almost disappeared: criteria linked to the entertainment frame tend to give more visibility to emotions, to avoid complexity in news, to dramatize events and to exaggerate reactions. The end of the great narratives, the fragmentation of culture, the loss of authority of the written text, which are typical dimensions of our postmodern liquid age (Bauman 2000), created the cultural premises for a light use of news. Individual curiosity and relaxing satisfaction of knowledge needs are now more important than the traditional moral and cultural duty to be an informed citizen. As a consequence, in Italy, journalism no longer gives a ticket to social participation (Morcellini 2011). In order to describe the contradictions of American TV journalism Bennett (1988) used a strange but clear expression: newsdramas, which is an oxymoron deriving from “news” as the most objective and factual, and “drama”, which is an invented plot for a stage in a theatre. According to the author, newsdramas mix reality and fiction, events and narrative reconstructions: journalists prefer short, visual stories, full of emotive elements with an actor (hero or villain) at the centre of the story. The consequences are the banalization of public debate and the selection of themes, problems and facts which can be easily transformed in a drama. At the same time, many themes or events are completely ignored and an explication of what happens is seldom presented: in other words, journalism no longer helps people to understand the complexity of social life. By using a lot of stereotypes and definitions reality is simplified, dramatized, fragmented and personalized. Today a clear demarcation between news and entertainment in the media no longer exists: this blurring is particularly apparent in traditional news content where even the most serious and violent crimes are often given an entertaining slant. Accidents, homicides, familiar tragedies become the content of a TV show reported for months by magazines, newspapers, talk shows: events are presented with many references to classical myths and tragedies, different media productions create a sort of serial based on a real fact which is deeply distorted. Some criminal behaviours are perfect for spectacular journalistic presentations: Italian news coverage of the murders in Cogne, Erba, Perugia, and Avetrana shows the success of a new format, the criminality show. In the criminality show, journalists do not offer coverage of real events; on the contrary, they tell television stories using the language of fiction and soap operas: therefore, a murder becomes a re-created event,

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useful to attract larger audiences. Even if the events are real, there is always a television author who writes the stories and transforms them into a narrative product: deriving from the logic of reality shows, every criminality show has a complete cast with characters divided into heroes and villains, an anchorman, a jury and a location (usually an ideal little town, like Cogne or Erba) where the murder destroys order. According to Polesana (2010), in these information products it is possible to find many elements of the classical tragedy: there is a terrible event which destroys a normal daily life, making us feel anxious and upset because it shows the presence of Evil in our life. As in the Greek tragedy, the murder is a turning point in the characters’ lives: they have to manage the consequence and, in doing so, let us think about our human condition; we are obliged to face Death and terrible actions made by normal people who live a normal life in normal houses. Crime news, therefore, gives the tragedy back to us: the event is the starting point of the story, it is separated from its context, framed by journalists with the simplified opposition Good/Evil or Before/After. From the first presentation of the murder to the different steps of the investigation, the suspects, the jury of experts (above all psychiatrists or coroners), each viewer wants to know how the story will end. In other words, we watch and read a feuilleton and daily wait for the next episode. Crime news success could be explained in two ways: they encourage identification. The town might be our town, the house, often reproduced in plastic in TV studios, is very similar to ours and therefore, we are in danger. At the same time, in contemporary liquid society, where nothing is certain and solid, we are gratified because we know that at the end the murderer will be discovered and punished. According to Perissinotto (2008), crime news shows that we need security and want to control the situation. For all these reasons audiences are attracted by criminality shows and create a sort of emotional community. The anchorman is like Virgilio with Dante: he lets us know the truth, he comes with us during the path of investigations, and lives our feelings with us, our fears or doubts. Nevertheless, we see the success of a journalism where the presentation of crime does not reflect the official statistics or trends: it pays more attention to psychological and visual dimension, and uses linguistic strategies which are not objective but emotive. The emotional logic has become central also in print news both on the content and iconic level, for example in the use of photographs and graphics (Lepri 2005; Muraskin and Domash 2007). The Italian journalism infotainment, therefore, represents a turning point with the complete fusion of information and entertainment:

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nowadays, news is a mythical story; it has a narrative scheme with many different segments and actors, so that it is not possible for the viewers to separate reality from media re-construction of reality. The most dangerous consequence is that perceptions of social problems and priorities are influenced by these media narratives that are appealing but also are exaggerated and distorted (Polesana 2010). More than ever before, today an individual can experience crime through the media and come away with the sensation of actual experience. Media presentations are evolving toward a media reality that is ever closer to an actual real world experience and thus is more popular and more profitable. We still look at news to provide a reliable record of what is real, but today it is difficult to establish what is real regarding crime and justice reporting. As a result, the Italian crime and justice media landscape is populated with many other infotainment products that did not exist two decades ago: newsmagazines (La vita in diretta e Verissimo), reality based crime shows (Quarto grado, and sometimes Porta a porta or Matrix), trials or investigations (Storie maledette or Chi l’ha visto?). Employing real crimes and documentary-like formatting, the realism in which these programs cloak themselves encourages their acceptance as accurate pictures of the world. However, contrary to their image of reality, they are structured along entertainment lines and use the oldest crime story structure known: crime-chase-capture. Their acceptance and impact as true renditions of social reality is underscored by viewers’ attempts to get the police to arrest the actors. The most interesting stories are the most sensational, violent, dramatic or scandalous ones: an event can be fully constructed as an entertainment vehicle with stereotypic storylines, plots, characters, victims, villains and dramatic endings. For the first time in Italian journalism, public and commercial television offers programs which are electronic versions of the supermarket tabloid newspapers we have never had. These programs include trash TV talk shows, emphasizing confrontation and sexual deviance, as well as tabloid news focusing on bizarre, violent crimes, and above all on individual random acts of violence (Surette 2007; Marsh and Melville 2009; Rizzuto 2011). Concerns with these programs arise directly from their claim to be presenting reality, that they are objective purveyors of true stories about crime: on the contrary, they mix reconstructions, actors and interviews and employ camera angles, music, lighting and sets to enhance their dramatic and entertainment elements. As a consequence, people are encouraged to accept the content presented by correspondents or reporters with their stereotyped portraits of crime, criminals and victims. Crime in

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these productions is almost attributed to individual characteristics and failings rather than to social conditions: cameras have moved into courtrooms to cover deliberations, to record the emotional responses of participants, and to conduct interviews with family members. Nevertheless, made-for-TV courtroom shows are more similar to game shows than to judicial proceedings, media coverage of trials has become important content of Italian information and is marketed with entertainment style storylines.

Media construction of female criminals: A distorted mirror If we move away from the media portrayal of crime and look at how criminals are represented, we must underline that different categories of criminals are shown and reported by news media. Age, gender, ethnic group, and location play important roles in the representation of criminality: even if it is realistic, the news media never represent a correct mirror of society; they portray criminals by using prejudices and stereotypes. For example, men have done and continue to commit the vast majority of crimes, but female criminals have a great amount of coverage in newsmedia: many recent Italian criminality shows are interested in female offenders (Anna Maria Franzoni, Rosa Bazzi, Sabrina Misseri, Amanda Knox). Views of and explanations for women in their involvement in crime, show a widely-held acceptance of common sense assumptions regarding natural female behaviour. The acceptable female norm is linked to female biology: women are naturally caring, maternal, emotive, and what is natural is morally right and desirable. The stories about female criminals therefore are based on the assumptions about the appropriate behaviours of women, and the media pay attention to those female criminals that contrast with these ideas (Rizzuto 2011). During the last ten years, Italian journalism has presented many criminal women: every story comes in the form of binary classifications coming from the gothic novel; for example the virgin or the vamp. Therefore, we can find female portrayals which remind us of the Lady Macbeth figure (in the Rosa and Olindo relationship), the unnatural monster who kills her child (Anna Maria Franzoni), as well as the jealous witch (Sabrina Misseri). Marsh and Melville (2009) argued that the media, and news above all, are guilty of socially constructing femininity. Powerful messages, which are unrealistic yet persuasive, are used within the media to encourage women to fit the feminine stereotype. For example, women are expected to be forever slim, youthful, heterosexual;

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in terms of female offenders, unlike their male counterparts, their appearance is subject to intense scrutiny. According to Marsh (2009), physical appearance becomes an important aspect in the reporting of female offenders. Rather than the offence or the victim, the female offender becomes the central focus: a male, sexist gaze portrays female criminals by underlining their beauty, clothes, jewels, make up, so that most news seems divided into a dichotomy between attractive and unattractive women (Meyers 1997). From this point of view, news media encourages a distorted biological interpretation of female behaviour by making connections, a sort of justification, between the murder of a child and post-partum depression, or explaining a rape as a consequence of weak male control of the fragile girl. Moreover, reporters often focus on the unacceptable idea that a “normal” woman is naturally maternal and fragile, therefore, those who kill someone lose their humanity and become fictional personifications of sins and weaknesses. In 1978, Tuchman argued that female criminals, above all murderers, are symbolically destroyed by news media. If involved in child-murders, female criminals are portrayed like witches: they are no longer human beings, are always liars, selfish, and unattractive (like Rosa Bazzi). These villains offer modern versions of Medea, Iago, Vampires, and Devils, and are all very far from the socially accepted roles of mother and wife. Many recent Italian criminality shows present this distorted news perspective and use a stereotyped, sexist language: under this point of view, news coverage of Cogne, Garlasco, Avetrana has many elements in common. By using the strategy of allusion and implication, journalism has definitively mixed real events and fiction, going from the reality of hard news to a fictional tragedy, based on a script and offered by the media to the market.

Conclusions In the last two decades, news consumption has become an important ingredient of leisure experience in Italy: in order to attract an audience for commercial aims, many reporters present a complete blurring of information and entertainment, playing an important role in the provision of leisure through journalistic programs, which can definitely be considered as a large mediated “arena” for free time. As a consequence, journalistic stories about social or political problems are no longer a rational, detached or ideological representation of reality, rather media products are used by people to be informed as well as entertained. Moreover, this new emotive and dramatizing dimension of journalism about serious issues, like crime, which are presented with a spectacular

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perspective, affects the construction of political and individual agendas, with a strong long term impact both on the perception of reality and on the political solutions adopted against the presence of violence in daily life. Violent crimes are worthy of being reported because they attract people, and the involved actors, whose behaviour contrasts social norms in a cruel way, become TV stars. News coverage of female murderers is a clear example of the completed fusion between show business perspectives and reporting: criminality shows are the result of the success of infotainment logic in journalism with its criteria in the selection of facts. Emotional choices, stereotypes and sanctifications are used to tell stories about crime to the television audiences, who decide to spend much time watching newsmagazines or journalistic talk shows. If we say that journalism can influence our definitions and perceptions of social problems, we recognize its importance in our life. In the postmodern society, media messages are more and more important: we live in a fluid situation, moving among real and mediated worlds. News media help us to build meanings and definitions, create a common knowledge, which is useful to face the increased social complexity, offer a virtual location to spend our leisure time, which is characterized more and more often by practices experienced in a private and solitary condition. Under this point of view, the biases of reality presented by infotainment not only encourage prejudices, stereotypes and negative attitudes towards some individuals or ethnic groups, but also offer an anxious representation of social problems and priorities. This issue is central in a democracy because we live in a context of increasing cognitive dependence on the media: news biases may deeply influence our perception of problems like criminality and, above all, might let us accept a banal and over-simplified representation of violence, close to crime shows or movies and far from the concrete context we live in.

Reference List Agostini, A. 2004, Giornalismi, Bologna: Il Mulino. Bauman, Z. 2000, Liquid Modernity, Oxford: Blackwell. Bennett, L. 1988, News: the Politics of Illusion, New York, Longman. Boltanski, L. 2000, Lo spettacolo del dolore. Morale umanitaria, media e politica, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore. Castronovo, V. and N. Tranfaglia 1994, La stampa italiana nell’era della TV, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Codeluppi, V. 2009, Tutti divi. Vivere in vetrina, Roma-Bari: Laterza Colombo, F. 2005, Atlante della comunicazione, Milano: Hoepli.

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Forgacs, D. 1990, Italian Culture in the Industrial Era. Cultural Industries, Politics and the Public, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Froio, F. 2000, L’informazione fa spettacolo. Giornali e giornalisti oggi, Roma: Editori Riuniti. Habermas, J. 1962, Strukturandel der Offentlichkheit, Hermann Luchterhanh, Neuwied. Lepri, S. 2005, Professione giornalista, Milano: Etas. Lo Verde, F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. —. (ed.) 2012, Consumare/investire il tempo libero. Forme e pratiche del leisure time nella postmodernità”, Milano: Bruno Mondadori. Lyons, G. 1996, Fools for Scandal, New York: Franklin Square Press. Marsh, I. and G. Melville 2009, Crime, Justice and the Media, New York: Routledge. Meyers, M. 1997, News Coverage of Violence Against Women: Engendering Blame; Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Meyrowitz, J. 1985, No Sense of Place, New York: Oxford University Press Morcellini, M. 2000, Mediaevo. Tv e industria culturale nell’Italia del xx secolo, Roma: Carocci. —. 2011, Neogiornalismo. Tra crisi e rete come cambia il sistema dell’informazione, Milano: Mondadori. Morcellini, M. and G. Roberti 2001, Multigiornalismi. La nuova informazione nell’età di Internet, Milano: Guerini. Muraskin, R. and S.F. Domash 2007, Crime and the Media. Headlines vs. Reality, Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River. Murialdi, P. 2006, Storia del giornalismo italiano. Dalle gazzette a Internet, Il Mulino, Bologna. Perissinotto, A. 2008, La società dell’indagine, Milano: Bompiani. Polesana, M.A. 2010, Criminality show. La costruzione mediatica del colpevole, Roma: Carocci. Rizzuto, F. 2009, Giornalismo e democrazia. L’informazione politica in Italia, Palermo: Palumbo. —. 2011, “News, donne e discriminazione: logiche di notiziabilità e stereotipi nell’era del giornalismo spettacolo” in M. Mannoia (ed.) Il silenzio degli altri. Roma: XL Edizioni. Santos, J. 2009, Daring to Feel. Violence, the Newsmedia and their Emotions, Lanham: Lexington books. Schudson, M. 2003, The Sociology of News, New York: W. Norton & Company.

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Sorrentino, C. 2008, Attraverso la rete. Dal giornalismo monomediale alla convergenza crossmediale, Roma: Rai Eri. Stebbins, R.A. 2007, Serious leisure, New Brunswick N.J.:Ttransaction Publisher. Surette, R. 2007, Media, Crime and Criminal Justice. Images, Realities and Policies, Belmont, Ca: T.Wadsworth,. Thompson, J. B. 1995, The Media and Modernity. A Social Theory of the Media, Cambridge, Polity Press. Tuchman, G. 1978, “The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media” in G. Tuchman, A.K. Daniel and J. Bennet, Hearths and Home, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zelizer, B. 2004, Taking Journalism Seriously, London: Sage.

CHAPTER NINE CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE LEISURE DIMENSION OF INDIAN TECHNO-IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN SILICON VALLEY NEHA KALA Migration of people in search of better prospects of living has been common since the beginning. The economic boom of the 1960s, coupled with the technological boom of the 1990s, spurred successively larger waves of migrants from non-western to western societies in order to fill the labour gap. By the end of the 20th century, international migration emerged as one of the main factors in social transformation and development in all regions of the world. Consequently, many western societies have become multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, especially America, which celebrates its heritage and identity as “the nation of Immigrants”. America is envisioned as a land of unbounded opportunity. Cherishing the American Dream, Indians have migrated to America in several waves since the 1700s, but the largest influx of Indians arrived in the last decade of the twentieth century when the forces of globalization gained momentum. Population mobility in this decade not only grew in volume but also took a new form. Unlike earlier migrants who were farmers, students, and professionals, the “dot com” boom heralded large scale movement of technocrats to work in and contribute to the software companies in the US. Today these immigrants are amongst the highly paid professionals and constitute a significant percentage of the IT work force globally. The concentration of technically skilled Indian immigrant population is quite high in the United States in general and Silicon Valley in particular. Migration from non-western countries to western countries has generated a lot of research focusing on work, housing, education, and health. Yet, very little is known in the leisure studies about the role leisure plays in the lives of migrant groups. Lately, a handful of research has focused on the leisure behaviour of immigrant groups (Tirone and Shaw

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1997; Stodolska 2000; Junui 2000; Shinew and Floyd 2005) and paved the way for further expansion. Since migration has emerged as a significant phenomenon representing the evident impact of economic and cultural globalization in the contemporary world, examining its interface with leisure provides an interesting theme for investigation. Drawing on the above works, the present paper explores and analyses the leisure dimension of recent Indian techno-immigrants in the US. It is well-known that significant shifts in the experiences, lifestyles, social circumstances of the migrant population occur following migration. At the same time, with the influx of new and different groups, the social structure and cultural system of the host region is also impacted. In the recent decades, Silicon Valley experienced flux not only in the economic domain but also in social, political and cultural spheres. Instead of dealing with the total impact of migration on the lives of migrants, the paper confines itself to the issue of leisure, which is an important part of the patterns and styles of life and consumption in modern society. It seeks to examine the conception of leisure among Indian Techno-immigrants and discuss their leisure patterns. Besides identifying the factors which enhance or constrain their leisure participation, this presentation analyses the influence of age and gender on their leisure experiences. Finally, while exploring the elements of continuity and change, it describes the dynamics in post-immigration leisure lives of Indian Techno-immigrants and the role leisure plays in defining people’s identities, experience and consciousness. The forces of transformation, such as globalization, migration and the information and communication revolution, have created dynamics in all societies, leading to cultural contacts and exchange. Silicon Valley truly exemplifies this fact, and therefore provided the best choice as a universe of study. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California, Silicon Valley is the leading high-tech hub, housing almost all the major software companies. It is popularly identified as the High-tech Capital of the world. Silicon Valley comprises of cities like Santa Clara, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Campbell, and San Jose which is the self-declared capital of Silicon Valley. The presence of technological giants like APPLE, CISCO, YAHOO, GOOGLE, ORACLE, BROADCOM, BROCADE, LSI and many other companies attracts a huge number and unique calibre of engineers, computer scientists, venture capitalists and innovators from all over the world. Since Silicon Valley truly boasts a diverse migrant population, it is an important region in the international and multicultural context. This paper is an outcome of a micro-study based on the experiences of recent first generation Indian techno-immigrants working

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and residing in Silicon Valley. The sample size was small, consisting of twenty families falling in the age group of 30-45 years. Among the twenty families, ten had both partners working. All the families had kids. Sample selection was done by using the snowball technique. Qualitative methodology was employed for the research. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the help of a semi-structured interview guide to gather indepth information pertaining to the leisure lives and experiences of the respondents. This was supplemented with participant observation to gather the primary data. An interpretative technique was utilized to do the data analysis.

Post-immigration leisure lives The meaning, connotation and perception of leisure varies across societies and cultures. The universal phenomenon of leisure has been defined by various scholars. Some consider it as a means of personal fulfilment (Miller and Robinson 1963) or a form of human expression, while for some it is an instrument of therapy (Kaplan 1999). The most common definition of leisure views it as a residual time, unobligated time, or discretionary time, which one can freely use according to one’s own choice. The understanding of the concept of leisure among the respondents came closer to this definition. The respondents described leisure in terms of time emphasizing non-working hours or time left after paid work hours. Precisely, it meant residual time which is not used for subsistence and therefore it is at one’s own disposal, wherein one can participate in any activity according to one’s own interest/preference/choice. Familiar words like recreation, enjoyment, fun and relaxation were intermittently used by respondents to describe their perception of leisure. A consensus emerged to refer to leisure as an activity/interest/time which leads to de-stressing, rejuvenation, and relaxation. An interesting observation showed that the stress relieving aspect of leisure was emphasized more by males. Most females, especially the work-at-home females, described leisure as a block of unoccupied time where they could relax or pursue their interests, while most working females specifically called it time for the self, or “me time,” which meant time unclogged by job and domestic responsibilities. While acknowledging that kaam (work) is alternated with aaram (rest) in India, respondents expressed that unlike here, work and leisure appeared as overlapping phenomenon there. After immigration, the prevalence of sharp work-leisure dichotomy in America made respondents familiar with the western conceptualization of leisure. Although no direct parallel to leisure could be found in Indian

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language, some common terms employed in common parlance to convey a sense of leisure are “aaram”, “avkaash”, “ fursat”, “ khaali/faltu samay”. “Aaram” as an antonym of work implies relaxation or rejuvenation. “Avkash” generally means leave from work, while “khaali/faltu samay” is unoccupied time. While the former denotes a break from work, the latter generally holds a negative connotation referring to wastage of time/useless time or unproductive time. “Fursat” has a more positive connotation, indicating state of mind in peace and not being in a hurry. “Ananda” is another term which represents a state of existence full of bliss and joy. In a true sense, Indian culture encourages the “ananda” (inner calm) aspect rather than just the recreational aspect of leisure. Americans value leisure as much as their work, which is evident from the broad and easily accessible leisure framework that exists here. Under the impact of globalization and technology revolutions, similar work life and leisure culture is gradually gaining popularity in India, at least in urban centres where universal leisure patterns are being established and huge leisure frameworks catering to the choices of people are being developed. Yet the respondents agreed that leisure is more structured and commoditized in America, whereas in India it is still spontaneous and random. They affirmed that on getting inundated with so many leisure opportunities after landing in the US, some felt overwhelmed and confused, while some got excited and motivated. Different patterns emerged from the post-immigration leisure experiences of respondents. The leisure lives of some respondents were more active, frequent, extrinsic, and varied in the beginning, but later they confined themselves to a few activities. The focus of some respondents was more on work stability, as they felt they had arrived in US to earn and remit money back. Consequently, they interacted with the most common forms of leisure and that too in a continually encountered domain like the home, neighbourhood, or city. A few felt privileged being in America and showed strong interest in making their leisure lives as vibrant and enriching as they could. However, the underlying commonality among all was that leisure was emphasized only after basic material goals were realized. Although individual leisure lives differed, the present leisure pattern among families appeared more or less same. In philocentric families, the schedule of kids and their pursuits are given priority. Consequently, the leisure lives too are predominantly kid centric. With familial responsibilities demanding attention and kids becoming the focal point, the leisure lives of first generation Indian Technocrats in America showed many common hues.

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Following migration, the respondents acclimatized themselves into the American routine which has a clear-cut distinction of weekday and weekend, demarcating work and leisure respectively. Weekdays offer a similar routine, governed by office and school schedules throughout, with little variation and even less scope for leisure. After work people preferred to have family time, so home-bound leisure, dominated by passive activities like watching TV, net-surfing, reading etc., usually prevailed on weekdays. Weekends and long weekends provided longer stretches for leisure. A common feeling prevailed that Friday night and Saturday are the most relaxed days, while Sunday evening brings with it Monday blues. Interestingly, women at home felt that weekdays provided them more time at hand as compared to weekends. Working women too felt that although weekends provided a break from their hectic work life, they become too overwhelming sometimes. In general the leisure space of families is filled with electronic multi-media usage. Various applications in smart cell phones not only fill randomly distributed small chunks of free time throughout the day with minimal effort, but also provide a wide range of choice. However, some women opined that except connecting to family and friends they rarely used other applications in cell phones. The greatest participation in sedentary activities of a social nature was evidenced. People enjoyed telephonic conversations, online chatting, social networking sites, playing video-games, watching TV, relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. Some activities were participated in more at weekends and vacations. The findings revealed that other leisure activities in which respondents engaged include shopping, family centric activities, religious, cultural, sports, fitness, and intellectual activities, adventurous pursuits, art and culture related activities, excursionist activities, volunteering activities, group oriented activities and hobby-oriented activities. Frequently socializing with close friends is very common among immigrants. Either friends visit each other on an individual basis or groups of friends meet for potluck or picnics. Kids’ birthdays and festivals also provide an occasion to meet and celebrate. Since health is of prime importance, many respondents have incorporated fitness related activities like walking, exercising, Yoga and meditation on a regular or weekly basis in their leisure time. Biking and Hiking appeared to be more popular adventurous activities among respondents than camping. Parks, libraries, recreational centres, museums and temples were visited by families on a regular basis, as such visits were relatively inexpensive and suited the needs of kids. This not only provided a break from monotonous routine but also combined education and entertainment. Visits to libraries and parks were a

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fortnightly or monthly affair, while amusement parks, museums, aquariums, and carnivals were visited once in a semester. Long weekends provided good opportunities for tourism. Tourism, however, was not limited to long weekends. Many preferred to plan a trip for when the flight costs are cheap and there is less traffic. Short trips were periodically made, but long trips to popular tourist sites or cities were annual or biannual. These trips are not always an outcome of desire or interest, rather they are escape from routine life or from the unpleasant thoughts of uncertainty that frequently loom over their professional lives. The families eagerly await an India trip to connect with extended family back home, and many respondents reported that they try to accumulate as much leave as they can to have a long stay in India. A stay in India gives them peace away from busy work life here, and the satisfaction of connecting with family members. Besides providing access to desirable leisure pursuits, immigration allowed opportunity to develop new leisure tastes. Respondents believe that all one needs is money to fit within the leisure framework here. It was seen that immigrants had equipped themselves with all kinds of modern gadgets. With newly found wealth, most tend to immerse themselves in materialistic culture and become part of the buy and spend cycle. Since time is money, people have to invest more hours in work to maintain a desired income. Respondents reported that work often encroaches and many times consumes their leisure time. Reduction in leisure time was noted by most respondents. The shrinkage in leisure time was directly proportional to rising up the professional ladder. Increasing familial responsibilities and domestic chores also leave less time for leisure. The rise in material status of families shows an increase in the commodities bought for pleasure, but the small size of the leisure time window hardly allows its consumption in a leisurely manner. People usually resolve the dilemma of limited leisure time and available numerous leisure options by engaging in multiple leisure activities at the same time. For instance, watching a movie on a cell phone while running on a tread mill, or talking on the phone or listening to music while walking. Domestic jobs are often performed with the accompaniment of TV or music. In order to maintain overall balance in one’s routine, planning becomes a pre-requisite here. Most leisure plans are planned well in advance to effectively utilize the free time.

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Leisure enhancers and leisure constraints There are various factors which determine the periodicity of leisure and leisure experience. Socio-economic factors such as age, gender, marital status, education and income play a very significant role in determining the leisure behaviour of a person. In the case of immigrant groups, leisure behaviour is greatly influenced by the extent of acculturation too. Usually young and single people show a more active leisure life. Similarly males enjoy leisure more both in quality and quantity than females. One’s income certainly influences the leisure choices one makes. In the present study, all the respondents were married, had a similar educational background, and belonged to more or less the same income group. All the respondents were presently at a point in life where work and family intersected and both work and domestic life posed multiple challenges demanding equal attention. The primary goals emerged as attaining material goals, investing in a child’s education, saving for the future, and taking care of old parents and family members back home in India. The study identified the factors which either enhanced or constrained the leisure participation of respondents. Silicon Valley undoubtedly provided respondents lucrative employment with handsome salaries and numerous avenues for professional growth. Immigration provided social mobility through financial gain which enabled leisure and conspicuous consumption, which included leisure related goods and services. The weekday-weekend distinction provided ample time to participate in leisure. Immigrants displayed work-patterns similar to the mainstream population but different from residents in India. Changes in family relations also occur following immigration. Nuclear family structure with no strict social bindings and obligations allows much freedom to individuals. Male participation in domestic chores and child rearing reflects egalitarian division of labour, which definitely allows more free time to females than their counterparts in India. Discretionary income and leisure time at disposal coupled with no undue interference of kith and kin facilitates spending quality time together in intrinsic as well as extrinsic leisure domains. High income, carownership, easily available information regarding any leisure activity, and well developed accessible leisure facilities catering to multiple tastes certainly play a great role in enhancing the leisure participation of immigrants. A pleasant weather throughout the year is also a plus point for variety of leisure activities. Besides this, Indian technocrats are wellversed in the English language and their high education greatly assists them in familiarizing easily with the ways of life in the host country. Since

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there is a huge Indian Population in the Bay Area, constraints related to minority status or insufficient access to any recreational activity did not figure in the study. As a matter of fact, the age, income and education of techno-immigrants seem to positively influence their leisure lives in America. Immigrants thus displayed leisure time patterns very similar to Americans and, as compared to people in their home country, their leisure lives were more organized, diverse and vibrant. However, despite all enabling factors the leisure behaviour of respondents appeared passive, limited and less diverse than the host population. There are various factors which either limit formation of leisure preferences or inhibit participation in leisure. Immigrants perceive America as a “land of opportunity” and in the race of utilizing this to the maximum, leisure time becomes less valuable to some who are busy in realizing their soaring aspirations. Many respondents reported the blurring of the work-leisure dichotomy. The hi-tech folks are hooked up to work even when they are home. Immigrants on a work visa felt discriminated and reported working on weekends too many a times. In the workaholic Silicon Valley culture, work permeates everywhere and consequently leisure time is intruded on in some way or the other. Moreover, overwhelming work pressure and the stress associated with it interferes with participation in any activity of interest or preference. Burdened with work pressure, respondents either show indifference towards leisure or participate in a half-hearted manner. Consequently, instead of entailing freshness, leisure causes either exhaustion or frustration in certain circumstances. The daily grind of office hours, driving kids to school and home, cooking and essential chores drain all energy and interest. Even on weekends, parents drive their kids to various hobby classes. Since hiring a maid is expensive, leisure time is often sacrificed for routine chores. Technocrats expressed their ability to acquire material goods and services but they preferred investing or saving to excessive or wasteful material consumption. Often leisure related items and services are bought but the thought of illusory “time of need” restricts the spending. Conflicting or incompatible leisure preferences of spouses also limit formation of leisure preference. Home and family figure so significantly in the general social consciousness that individual pursuits are negated despite the conducive atmosphere. Intrapersonal constraints like perceived appropriateness of an activity also hamper leisure participation. In many cases, parents encouraged swimming among their kids but preferred to sit idly near the pool while kids engaged in swimming sessions. Similarly, beaches were visited frequently but many respondents especially females would not actively participate in beach games. Despite being modern in approach,

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many females had inhibitions wearing swimming costumes or beach outfits. Religious and cultural beliefs also influence leisure participation. Teetotalism, vegetarianism and other dietary prohibitions associated with the purity and pollution notions of Hinduism also restrict participation in certain leisure activities. For instance, not tasting wine during wine tours. Certain superstitions too affected leisure choice. The belief in vulnerability of kids to the evil spirits prevalent in forests discouraged a few respondents from going camping. Younger respondents definitely displayed more eagerness in leisure participation. Many had enthusiastically been involved in outdoor activities like camping, excursions, cruises, scuba-diving, balloon rides, etc. However, new jobs, uncertain future and high costs involved in such activities restricted such participation very often. Important life priorities like family, work, relatives and friends push back spare time activities. Leisure consumption and participation was significantly affected by one’s economic status in India and financial responsibilities/liabilities back home. Similarly, gender also has great influence on leisure choice and leisure behaviour. Male respondents were more frequently engaged in physically demanding activities as well as TV viewing and mobile usage activities, while females participated more in shopping and socializing. Many females complained of time crunch, as managing home, kids and sometimes the office hardly allowed them to squeeze out time even for personal care. Unlike India, where middle class women mainly supervise household works, delegating physically exhausting chores to maidservants, the onus of household chores falls on the self here. Relative deprivation syndrome surfaced as many females expressed that with no helping hands or support, one remained preoccupied, cautious and alert mentally, despite all comforts and facilities. Working females especially felt doubly burdened with work and home responsibilities. Females had reduced leisure time, their participation in leisure was lower, and the quality of leisure was questionable. Immigration is fraught with various adaptation issues which mainly deal with food, dressing and other cultural practices. Females bear the major responsibility of upholding the native culture and, in order to preserve Indianess in cuisine and habits, they often compromise their leisure. In their attempt to preserving Indian habits, females exhausted themselves cooking and arranging for the comforts of family members even when going for picnics or short/long trips. As a matter of fact, the socially and economically empowered women in technocrat immigrant families were victims of time-famine and faced the big challenge of maintaining a fine balance between two divergent cultures. Interestingly, they acknowledged that they felt more independent

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socially, as there was no cultural binding on them here, yet they voluntarily compromised their leisure to fulfil their roles as wives and mothers as per Indian norms.

Dynamics in leisure dimension Leisure experiences are socially and culturally constructed. At the same time, they are shaped by the contemporary forces of social transformation. The values, norms and socialization patterns of Indian Technocrats differ considerably from the majority population. Yet their education and knowledge of English facilitate the process of acculturation. The modern day professionals easily gel with their American counterparts. However, it must be acknowledged that acculturation occurs selectively in the case of techno-immigrants. Generally the inter-ethnic interactions were limited in scope as such contacts were more or less official. Respondents who came to the US during their college days showed higher levels of cultural orientation towards American culture. Generally, respondents had adopted some new leisure habits, and in many cases they endeavoured to cultivate and be comfortable with new leisure tastes, especially to keep pace with their kids who are growing up here. Indians actively participated in the increasingly prevalent culture of edutainment. Some activities like sports or physically demanding activities were more popular among nonimmigrants than immigrants, while others like the use of electronic-media, visits to parks, libraries, etc. seem to be equally popular among both. As a matter of fact, technocrats seemed to acculturate faster with the peripheral aspects of the host society rather than the core ones. It was observed that immigrants appreciate existing leisure facilities but exhibited low participation. The “just enjoy” or “worry-free” leisure attitude of Americans was not very evident in the leisure behaviour of respondents. As discussed above, various structural, psychological and social constraints interfere with leisure participation. Residents however devise methods which work through constraints in order to experience leisure. Among Indians, family and friends are the primary source of leisure. On the other hand, the American way of life promotes individualized leisure and leaves less common leisure time to spend together with family. Taking advantage of the technological advancements, professionals adopt a flexible-timing approach in their work pattern. In order to meet the work deadlines, they work from home even beyond working hours but at the same time try to ensure their presence in family gatherings and social celebrations too when needed. There are various other instances where constraints are negotiated in different ways. Since the native festivals find

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no place in the American calendar, Indians compromise in their celebration by shifting events to weekends. The temporality of a festival is compromised but the essence is maintained. This holds true not only for great traditions but also for little traditions. Keeping up with the American social milieu, middle of the week festivals are celebrated within the homes in a low key manner, but grand celebrations are organized at the weekend amidst family and friends. With certain modifications, leisure pursuits so typical of America are happily embraced by respondents. Hiking, camping and tourism figure in the leisure space of technocrats and the food related cultural restrictions are resolved by carrying pre-cooked Indian meals with them. Managing leisure time in a manner which is more fulfilling during overwhelming weekends poses a big challenge. Some couples have devised a perfect division of labour, giving each one some time for themselves. They tend to emulate the “Saturday is Dadurday” formula where kids spend time with dads on alternate Saturdays if not every Saturday. This way mom spares some time for herself. Similarly, on some weekends dad goes hiking or volunteering, while mom drives kids to library or weekend hobby classes. The sizeable Indian fraternity in the Bay Area and the already established services catering to the Indian needs helps to a great extent in maintaining the Indian lifestyle, including leisure. Capitalizing on the typical Indian leisure tastes, various radio and TV channels have appeared, with Desi (Indian) flavoured programs. Concerts based on performances of Indian artists too are organized from time to time in the Bay Area. Because of the huge influx of Indians in this area, several religious and cultural establishments have proliferated. Existence of these religious and cultural centres in the Bay Area provides technocrats ample choice to suit their cultural beliefs. They particularly provide culturally relevant and meaningful leisure opportunities to residents. Respondents regularly visit places of worship of their faith. Most of the respondents had enrolled their kids in certain classes teaching a native language, classical music and dance, painting etc. Respondents engaged themselves in voluntary activities in such centres during their leisure time. The frequency of involvement varied among people. Over the years many centres have grown into large organizations playing a prominent role in the promotion of Indian culture. These centres contribute largely to preserving many popular cultural events by organizing them in a manner which involves large community participation and can easily fit into the leisure space of busy technocrats too. Such cultural programs, in a way, represent traditional leisure pursuits and by participating in them immigrants feel a sense a collective identity in which they find anchorage while being swept

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by stress and busy life. It is interesting to note that enactment of “Ramayana” and performance of “Dandia” and “Holi” celebrations have become a popular feature in the Bay Area not only among Indians but also among other communities. In fact, the study illustrated inter-ethnic interactions that occur during cultural leisure activities. Such multicultural festivals become vehicles for stimulating integration and creating mutual understanding. On the whole, the leisure lives of Indian technocrats are in the state of transition reflecting elements of continuity as well as change.

Conclusions Work and leisure activities constitute an important theme of contemporary life-style. The way leisure is perceived, experienced and valued differs from society to society and person to person. Post immigration experience developed the understanding of seeing work and leisure as dichotomous categories among the respondents. The study revealed that immigrant professionals engage in fewer different leisure activities than natives do. Observations showed that technocrats with sound economic status and urban background back home tended to experiment with various leisure pursuits, especially adventure sports, tourism, golfing, camping, fishing etc. On the other hand, respondents who had financial liabilities back home confined their participation to ordinary and inexpensive leisure activities, despite being surrounded by a myriad of leisure options. Less diverse leisure lives and low participation is attributed to various constraints. Respondents appreciated the American concept of leisure but at the same time admitted that their work commitments led to reduced opportunity for leisure. The “income-rich time-poor” syndrome surfaced in the study. The study indicated the irony where leisure facilities are abundant but individuals do not have sufficient time to utilize them. The periodicity of leisure during weekdays and weekends varies from person to person and depends not only on how one perceives leisure but also on the work profile of the person. Women feel doubly burdened and experience time crunch. Their leisure lives are not as enriching and fulfilling as one would expect. The focus is more on the priorities of children. The Indian technocrat families truly exemplify the phrase “workhorse parents, royal kids”. In a nutshell, a tech-centric, kid centric, multi-dimensional, planned and commodified leisure surfaced from the leisure experiences of immigrants. Technocrats are more economically and socially mobile which helps them in embracing the leisure lifestyles of middle class Americans easily. They adjust well in the new work-leisure time patterns. At the same time,

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they face the dilemma of adopting new leisure tastes as well as retaining their ethnic ones. In order to have ethnic leisure experiences, various strategies are adopted to facilitate reinforcement of culturally determined leisure tastes. The study affirmed that cultural leisure tastes and their expression help in maintaining ethnic identity. The majority of studies have defined leisure in terms of time (de Grazia 1964), activity (Brightbill 1960, 1961) and state of mind or state of being (Neulinger 1974). The findings revealed that leisure represents segmented portions of time in American society and the activities pursued during that time. However, the linkage of leisure to the state of mind or state of being appeared weak, as the fear of uncertainty, work pressure and divided loyalties between family here and back in India is overwhelming most of the time. The postimmigration leisure behaviour was characterized by selective proassimilation tendencies, pecuniary emulation (conspicuous consumption) and individualized leisure only to a certain extent. With certain modifications, the cultural leisure pursuits were retained in the leisure lives of technocrats. Through such cultural leisure activities, technoimmigrants maintained social and cultural connections, emphasized positive ethnic identities and experienced harmony in life. Transformation in some aspects as well as reinforcement of ethnic practices is evident simultaneously, signifying a phase of transition in the leisure lives of Indian techno-immigrants.

Reference List Brightbill, C.K. 1960, The Challenge of Leisure, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. —. 1961, Man and Leisure. A Philosophy of Recreation, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. de Grazia, S. 1964, Of Time, Work and Leisure, New York: Doubleday. Floyd, M.F., J.N. Bocarro, and T. Thompson 2008, “Trends in leisure research on racial and ethnic minorities”, Journal of Leisure Research, 40(1), 1-23 Junui, S. 2000, “The impact of immigration: leisure experiences in the lives of South American Immigrants”, Journal of Leisure Research, 32, 358-381. Jackson, E.L. 2005, “Leisure Constraints Research: Overview of a Developing theme in leisure studies”, in E.L. Jackson and T.L. Burton (eds), Leisure Studies: Prospects for the Twenty-first Century, State College, PA : Venture Publishing.

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Kaplan, M. 1960, Leisure in America: A Social Inquiry, New York: John Wiley and Sons. —. 1999, “Some new international issues in leisure”, Society and Leisure, 22(1), 191-193. Leitner, M. and S. Leitner 2004, Leisure Enhancement (2nd ed.), New York: Haworth. Li, C., H.C. Zinn, J.D. Absher and A.R. Graefe 2007, “Ethnicity as a variable in leisure research”, Journal of Leisure Research, 39(3), 514545. Miller and Robinson, 1963, The Leisure Age: Its Challenges to Recreation, California: Wordsworth. Modi, I. 1985, Leisure, Mass Media and Social Structure, Jaipur: Rawat Publications. Neulinger, J. 1974, The Psychology of Leisure, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Stodolska, M. 2000, Changes in the Leisure Participation Patterns after Immigration, Leisure Sciences, 22 (1), 39-63. Shinew, K.J. and M.F. Floyd 2005, “Racial inequality and constraints to leisure in the post-civil rights era. Toward an alternative framework”, in E.L. Jackson (ed.), Constraints to Leisure, State College, PA : Venture Publishing. Stodolska, M. and J. Yi-Kook 2005, “Ethnicity, immigration and constraints”, in E.L. Jackson (ed.), Constraints to Leisure, State College, PA: Venture Publishing. Tirone, S.C. and S.M. Shaw 1997, “At the center of their lives. IndoCanadian women, their families and leisure”, Journal of Leisure Research, 29.225-244. Walker, G.J., J. Deng and R.B. Dieser 2005, “Culture, self-construal, and leisure theory and practice”, Journal of Leisure Research, 37, 77-99.

PART III LEISURE ACROSS GENDER, AGE AND ETHNICITY

CHAPTER TEN SECOND-GENERATION “MIGRANTS” ON THE BORDERS: A BRIDGE GENERATION BETWEEN TWO “LEISURE WORLDS” LIANA DAHER The study of new generations is a very essential step toward the analysis and understanding of contemporary times. Young people are leading actors of social and cultural change; they are ahead of the times, expressing and bringing about changes. Nowadays, in Italy the configuration of new generations is in a transitional phase. Fundamental changes in the structure of the host society stem from migratory processes and permanent establishments of new communities, and especially result from the inclusion of second generation migrants in the host society. Even though the term “second-generation migrants” could simply be defined as “the children of at least one immigrant parent that were born both in Italy and abroad” (Ambrosini 2005, 166), it is still a social category very complex to determine. In 1984, the European Council defined second-generation migrants as the children of foreign parents who were born in or arrived with their parents to the receiving country, or who joined their family thereafter, and who had also made at least a part of their schooling or of their professional training in the host country.

Moreover, this document stressed how these immigrants lived in the specific condition of hanging between two countries and two symbolic worlds. A few years later, to better distinguish between the numerous cases Rumbaut (1997) introduced the concept of “generation 1.75”, to denote the young who leave their country at a pre-school age (0-5); “generation 1.5”, for those who started their socialization process and

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primary school in their home country, but finished in the receiving one (612), and “generation 1.25” to define those who emigrate between 13 and 17. This classification is still widely-held today and stresses the possibility of giving restrictive or extensive definitions to the term. Also, as Cesareo (2005) more recently points out, the restrictive one includes only the young who were born in the migration country, whereas the extensive definition includes both those who were born in the host country and those who arrived in the first years of life (4-5). Finally, according to the more extensive definition, all the foreign children born abroad or in Italy, belong to the social category “second-generation”. In the empirical work that we are going to introduce, we have no choice but to use this last definition, especially because nowadays the rate of second-generation young in Sicily is rather limited (for example, the rate of foreign pupils is about 2% whereas in the north of Italy it is over 30% in primary school and 20% in secondary school), even though these figures are growing. The study was divided into two steps: 1) a range of interviews (45) with young children of migrants already of age (18-32 years), and a range of interviews (45) with first-generation migrant parents; 2) a survey with a section which served to supply information about habits/behaviours related to leisure and consumption on a semijudgment sample of Italian and foreign pupils (334; 9-14 years old) in the primary and first level secondary schools of Catania. The main goal was to obtain information on the integration of first and second-generation migrants, particularly regarding the children’s conditions and also to know about similarities and differences they have with their parents and native peers. The topics discussed through qualitative and quantitative interviews were various and included the impact with the new language, schooling, work placement, family relationships, relationships with legal institutions, requests for citizenship, native culture and the condition of “double belonging”. Topics also included material and symbolic consumption and uses, friendships, and cultural and religious traditions. Only these last issues will be discussed in the following analysis. The choice of analysing the “consumption of leisure” within a broader framework that includes “consumption of tradition” depends on the nature of the observed social category, also taking advantage of the “generality” of the concept of leisure, and the possibility of seeing it as time devoted to one’s “self-fulfilment” (Lo Verde 2009, 11-15). The “double belonging” condition of the second-generation young, if related to the use of free time, must in fact take into consideration behaviours arising from cultural belongings and traditions, as well as their religious implications. By

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observing the “ways of belonging” (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004) of first and second generation migrants, one can see how traditions clearly affect their choice of leisure activities; indeed, even more often, leisure time pertains to traditional uses and habits particular to the family and native community. As shall be demonstrated, the young usually play the role of “bridge” between the local and the migrant culture; consequently, their choices of leisure are most definitely affected by the resulting inter-relationship between belongings and traditions, sometimes conflicting with each other. The models of consumption are related to the shared and negotiated ties and choices both with compatriots and native peers. In these negotiation processes, the above ways and kinds of consumption could play different roles (exchanges, gifts, conflicts, mediation) through traditional and new rituals (de Cordova and Inghilleri 2009, 92-3) even though differences could still be seen as causing difficulty and inadequacy and sometimes discrimination. Therefore, if on the one hand, the children of migrants use the affinity of consumption as grounds for selected communication with their parents and compatriots, they then express, on the other hand, the need to get out from the community’s segregation, and follow the typical consumption trends of the Italian young. In their everyday lives, second-generation migrants usually play an inclusion and/or exclusion game within a rather complex identity profile that implies compromises and difficulties, potentially challenging to overcome.

The complex identity: A profile of second-generation migrants Second generation migrants feel they belong to two different cultures since they were born in a place that they consider to be their own country and, at the same time, because they are bound to a family with a different culture. Second-generation migrants are an unintentional generation, suspended between a sense of belonging and extraneousness, and hence, naturally live in a condition of double belonging and/or ethnicity. They are “immigrants” who are not immigrants, i.e. they are not immigrants in the full sense of the word (Sayad 2004, 291). They have never migrated because they were born in the receiving country, or in any case they have not “chosen” to migrate because they joined their families before coming of age. Unlike adults, their first request is not a house or a job but to be accepted by society. Members of the second generation usually feel themselves to be Italian and plan their futures in the host country, but they

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often find themselves relegated to the same deprived contexts as their parents, and the difficulties they face regarding upward mobility derive from a sectorial work market biased from an ascribed social capital (Ambrosini 2009). Even worse, they often continue to be considered foreigners as the social structure discourages their complete integration. The second generation could be defined as a “bridge generation” (Besozzi 2009, 42) because it is placed between the family migratory plans and the chances of an autonomous and personal life path that could act as door and hinge (Simmel 1909) for a connection/exchange between the two worlds; the host, and the migrant. Migrant children are in fact actors within the host society and have at the same time strong intergenerational ties with their family that could also be defined as “relational bridges” (Baldascini 1999, 22-3). They live in, however, the in-between spaces through various forms of integration that do not always involve parents and the native community. It is extremely difficult for minors and teenagers to mediate between two different cultures. There is a very high risk that the convergence/collision between the two cultural models provided by the family and the local society may provoke an identity crisis. In these cases, young people formulate a series of strategies to deal with a complex situation that is unstable and totally lacking in reference points. These strategies depend on the migratory experience and/or on the level of inclusion and integration in the receiving country. The study of leisure, cultural consumption, and the relative kind of sociability of children of migrants allows researchers to catch some meaningful aspects of this generation’s symbolic and expressive world, and at the same time, to read the typical dynamics of the so-called “consumer” society in a different perspective1. This kind of perspective takes into account the innate existential ambivalence of the migrant children. Behaviour and style of life are influenced by cultural consumption that also coincides with the social construction of identity, personality, as well as the cognitive stock of the very young and adolescents. In fact, particularly due to the ambivalence of the concept of consumption, modern society achieves the highest concentration of immaterial, 1

It is, however, necessary to consider that the link between leisure and culture is a very problematic research topic. Specific questions and complexities emerge, in fact, from the study of migrant leisure; variables and information very different than the case of natives must also be considered. This is stressed by a great deal of international works as well as a recent Italian one (Lo Verde and Tuminelli, 2011).

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expressive, and cultural opportunities through cultural consumption (Buzzi et al. 2002, 401). Second-generation young immigrants are different from, but similar to, their Italian peers. On the one hand, they are boys and girls with desires, aims, and behaviour which are in many aspects very similar to that of their Italian counterparts. On the other hand, however, they become a segment with particular dynamics which derive from their families, ethnic and friendship networks, linguistic and cultural resources, media pressures, juridical boundaries, and opportunities or lack thereof. Every adolescent who has built his identity on relationships and consumption plays an acrobatic game between imitation and differentiation (Simmel 1905). During this process, children of migrants could find positive resources in their ethnic community, and not only sources of probable marginalization; their community represents a symbolic place to return to or to refuse, in a game where their ethnic roots (true, dreamed, abandoned, etc.) are, in any case, a fundamental reference for the construction of their own identity (Ambrosini and Caneva 2009). Even in this way, the second generation could become a bridge among cultures, nations, generations, as well as be the principal actors of a mixing effect in the consumption model of their Italian peers.

Leisure, consumption and migration The migration process obviously exposes a person to multiple cultural pressures, particularly as far as the definition of his or her personal and social identity is concerned. The acculturation process involves, in fact, different ethnic and cultural groups in a permanent and direct way; this produces changes in the original cultural configuration of one or both groups influencing each other. The so-called acculturation strategy originates from the conjuncture of two dimensions: the will to preserve their own culture and the wish to come in contact with members of the host society; also, for these reasons acculturation can be considered a phenomenon that involves both the individual and groups. The above process is influenced by several social and individual factors, especially related to the complex relationship among the migrant such as his family, the native community within the host country, the native, and the host society, but also include individual skills (linguistic, emotional, relational), and the various contexts through which they live their lives (Berry et al. 1989; Bohuris et al. 1997). Consequently, results could differ depending on the interrelation of the above variables, particularly with regards to the

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dimension of his/her belonging to the original and host cultures, and the degree of freedom he/she has in the link with both cultures (Berry 1980). Often the preservation and the continuous renewal of the original culture are made through consumption. Thus, the study of consuming behaviour and lifestyles could serve to provide a glimpse into the way in which migrant people mix or place the two cultures side-by-side, as well as be meaningful grounds on which to observe social integration. Particularly, the study of consumption could offer a view of the possible de-localized social reconstruction of the original culture by migrants in the host country (Peñaloza 1994; Oswald 1999; Askegaard and Kjeldgaard 2005). Expressions such as “border crossing identity” (Peñaloza 1994; Lindridge et al. 2004), which define the permanent exchange among cultural codes and the transitions of borders among different cultures, as fluid as the context allows, are suitable, in fact, for children of migrants who were born or re-joined with their families in the host country and permanently open to two cultures. However, the above expressions are not always applicable to their parents. These children must continuously build and negotiate their identity among different groups, the “meaningful others” (i.e. their parents and the peer group, but also their teachers and others meaningful persons), and within different contexts that often openly clash with each other. They have a “multiple identity” (Elster 1995), which rarely could be defined as plural 2 (Daher 2011). In this case, the system of consumption, as determined by the belonging culture, becomes their “spoken system” (Baudrillard 1968). Their identity reflects their cultural position, based on the mixing of cultures and undefined boundaries. Their feeling of belonging changes according to the context and relationships of one or the other culture, as can their consumer behaviour. Their “self-designed ethnicity” could, in this way, become less meaningful than their “situational ethnicity”, i.e. the intensity of identification of a subject with an ethnic group in a particular situation (Stayman and Deshpande 1989). 2

The double cultural belonging condition is the result of a long and deep individual analysis; thus, the identity is built through an endless comparison between the two worlds, never finding a definitive or extreme solution. This identity strategy allows the child to grow according to both cultures, fostering the synthesis of both values. This kind of strategy could also be defined as integration, because the subject wants to maintain and preserve all the peculiarities of his cultural identity, without denying himself contact with different cultural groups, or the possibility of adhering to his own original cultural models (Daher 2011).

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The practices of consumption have, in fact, important relational features (Douglas and Isherwood 1979)3, particularly how the value of an object is reciprocally determined (Appadurai 1986, 3). The choices of consumption consequently become crucial within the family both in the relationships between children and parents and in the primary socialization process (Kline 1993; Seiter 1993). However, these practices also mark social inclusion and exclusion (Bourdieu 1979), a point that is very significant to the present topic. The consumer habits and economy of an immigrant family seem to reflect, on the one hand, the principal strategies of solidarity and the definition of the family networks, and on the other, the positioning strategies in both the receiving culture and that of the culture of origin. Consumption seems to be overall a privileged “space” (de Certeau 1980) where one can better understand the multiple creative practices that could also emerge from imitative strategies (Fiske 1995; Di Nallo 1997; Bovone 2000), through which both the migratory and the global commercialization processes are negotiated. These practices produce and reproduce meaningful solidarity networks and come together to define new intercultural styles of life (Howes 2000). Consumption as a “space” of family

and friendship negotiation Both the data on the ground in Catania along with that of other studies on the ground in Italy (Visconti and Napolitano 2008; Bovone and Lunghi 2009; Napolitano and Visconti 2009; Leonini and Rebughini 2010; Meglio 2011), reveal that second generation immigrants and their Italian peers have similar consumer habits. The comparison between data coming from the semi-judgment sample of immigrant and Italian children also shows how immigrant children, similar to their Italian classmates, listen to music with English lyrics, watch Italian television, and have Italian friends; they are more willing than their parents to learn about technology and, as well as they can, use the computer. All the interviewees are of schooling age and show a certain degree of integration with Italian-peer tendencies: they 3 Consumer goods constitute the system of cultural and symbolic meanings which are the grounds on which society exists. Meanings are produced, fixed, shared and validated through the use, exchange, production, store, and distribution of objects in an interpersonal context. Consequently, the rules which make up society are institutionalized, and the thresholds of social participation and belonging to groups and social worlds are defined. Consuming practices reveal the sharing of a cultural system and the control exercised over it.

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predominantly consume Italian food, and have similar taste in clothing styles, as well as, to some degree, a preference for brand names. These tendencies of consumption and leisure are also confirmed by the interviews with the young adults. Second-generation immigrants negotiate their identification processes with their parents and the outdoor milieu through choices and behaviours that draw from both the original culture and the host one. Within the complexity of these processes, meanings and expectations related to the choices of consumption (clothing, music, technology, etc.), become important in that they also relate to some generational dissonances 4 between young people and their families. We are dealing with families embedded in transnational relational networks, and grounded on multiple cultural and territorial identifications (Bryceson and Vuourela 2002). They need to negotiate their ordinary life resources (consumption, savings, debts, loans, investments) referring to the above transnationality and multifaceted aspects of their lives; they move through the borders of the formal economy, distinguishing between practices and attitudes not only according to the familiar roles, but also to the specific placement of the community and to the amount of time spent on the above relationships. Moreover, the choices they make regarding their financial savings are usually linked to their original network of relatives (parents or sons that remain in the country of origin), to whom adults have to send money or other forms of support. In such a situation the “ordinary” intergenerational conflicts may be exacerbated (Dinh et. al. 1994; Nguyen and Williams 1989) for different reasons. First of all, the different rates of acculturation on the part of parents and adolescents have a magnifying effect on intergenerational conflicts, particularly because family members usually do not have the same opportunities to learn and adapt to the host culture. Parents tend, in fact, to stay within the confines of close-knit original communities and to have little interaction with the host culture, whereas their children tend to learn the new language and culture quickly, thus being assimilated by the host culture at a faster pace. Consequently, adolescents often become family spokespersons because of their parents’ lack of proficiency in the host language and lack of understanding of the host culture. Parental 4

As Zhou (1997, 995) points out “Generational dissonance occurs when children neither correspond to levels of parental acculturation nor conform to parental guidance, leading to role reversal and intensified parent-child conflicts. According to Portes and Rumbaut, these acculturation patterns interact with contextual factors, racial discrimination, urban subcultures, and labour market prospects to affect the adaptational outcomes of children”.

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authority can easily erode when parents have to depend on their children to carry out the activities of daily life, such as paying the bills or talking to authorities. For the above reasons, parents become unable to guide their children and take care of their needs so that they adjust to the mainstream society while they themselves are struggling with the task of adjusting to the host society. Some other problems come about from adjusting to the family. The migration of family is in fact a several step process. The “reunited family” becomes in fact very different from the initial one, and it is also different from the family dreamed of during separation or the one experienced during holidays. The family lives together again, after a forced separation period in a very different social reality, where the support of the parental network is deficient or totally non-existent and where the schooling for children is quite problematic. This is a source of stress that tests the solidity of the couple and of the whole family (Ambrosini 2007). Finally, as outlined above, children of migrants face adolescent phases of personal and social malaise while also enduring a cultural break. If for every adolescent this process is very complex and intricate, for second-generation young immigrants it could be very critical, due to their being foreigners but not considering themselves as such. This could indeed reinforce the obstacles in the path of achievement and consolidation of personal and social identity. These feelings could provoke crisis in different spheres of their lives: personal, familiar, social, and cultural. Second generation migrants have the same interests, lifestyles, consuming desires, and leisure activities as their peers, and consequently they adapt with difficulty to the rules of a subordinate integrative process (Ambrosini 2004, 11-20), that were instead accepted by their parents. These adolescent consumer choices are not always accepted by parents, but this area of conflict is actually not particularly different from the one within native families. Especially with regards to mass media exposure, as well as musical tastes, the generational differences have to fit with relation to adolescent consumption tendencies, and not to the specific differences that exist between the first and the second-generation immigrants. The data on mass media consumption show that children of migrants have the same interests as their Italian classmates and friends. Television could also have a particularly crucial role in teaching the new language and helping them acquire new cultural references. Often young migrants put into practice so-called anticipatory socialization; in their native country they learn, in fact, through television or other mass media, some cultural elements of the new country. In contrast, the first generation expresses its belonging to the native country by almost exclusively

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watching their country’s channels through satellite TV; this choice is sometimes due to linguistic reasons as they cannot understand the Italian language well. Even with regards to musical tastes, the second generation absolutely refuses native music and prefers Italian, or even more so, Western music (pop, rock, house, etc.); a transnational musical culture is, in fact, currently widespread through the internet (Gasperoni et al. 2004). Issues concerning food habits and “style of clothing” should instead be considered according to the ambivalence of some ethnic and religious symbols. Children seem to prefer Italian food more than their parents whereas parents, initially suspicious, later get used to Italian cuisine. Here, we cannot observe a real clash even though, as other studies have shown, food establishes itself as a useful ethnic marker, a way of defining “who we are” (Padolsky 2005), and as one of the first means of crossing cultural borders (Rebughini 2011, 139). Particularly if both parents work, they usually resort to fast and simple food on a daily basis such as some Italian specialties (spaghetti, breaded veal cutlet, etc.); traditional food, which is more complicated to prepare and has robust flavours is usually left to Sundays or holidays (i.e. leisure time). This is especially true for some ethnic groups such as Mauritians, citizens of Sri Lanka, and Africans. Moreover, members of the first generation sometimes learn about Italian food thanks to their work experiences, whereas their children have many more chances through school and friendships. In this case, it is also true that the children often introduce their parents to the new habits, sometimes meeting with opposition. One’s distance or, conversely, affection to the culture of origin can be expressed also by the style of clothing. Clothing is, in fact, one of the characteristic features of ethnic identity. Some of the women interviewees (first generation) have totally denied the typical clothing of their country; others instead, have an ambivalent behaviour, changing styles of clothing according to places and situations. Members of the second generation struggle with the fact that they have a style of clothing different from their peers. They cannot follow Western fashion sometimes because of economic reasons or issues related to their ethnic traditions. This difference could become a stigma, made more evident by their somatic features and other differences. Likewise, when considering tradition, we observe several rules and behaviours that do not belong to the host context nor to the modern western culture, such as arranged marriages or a lifestyle of segregation, which is particularly typical of Chinese communities. These behaviours are not accepted by younger generations. They represent one of the causes of conflict between parents and children and one of the main causes of

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generational dissonance. The “belonging culture” is in fact usually perceived by the young as a source of “obsolete knowledge”. Parents often “expect” their children to follow the rules and traditions of their native country. The reactions of the young could be opposition or explicit refusal, but also a sort of implicit dissociation that results in a strong malaise toward the subject, living between two kinds of perspectives of life that openly clash with each other. These positions could be ethnically situated: for instance, Muslims rarely accept that their children partake in mixed marriages, and within the Mauritian, Sinhalese and Chinese communities, of course, the preference for arranged marriages is known. In these cases, community pressure becomes notable and the decisive factor is the permanence of a strong tie within the native community. Misunderstandings between the first and the second generation are sometimes due to a different way of understanding and “feeling” the native religion. Sometimes the children are impatient with religious duties because of their adolescence and their innate ambivalence that results from the deeper inclusion in the host society. They are in fact socialized to new rules and models of behaviour that often clash with the rules and models supplied by their parents’ religion. The ambivalence or refusal with some traditions could instead concern the need of the young person to be like his or her peers and live the same habits and practices. An example of this involves the veil tradition; sometimes girls make the most of this religious tradition/duty by combining it with Western or oriental-fashion dresses (hijab style) whereas others categorically refuse this symbol of belonging to their religious community5. It is finally clear that friendships are the outcome of identity-strategic choices6. Actually, the majority of the first generation interviewees7 stated 5

Nevertheless, the issues of faith and beliefs, as well as the acceptance/refusal of religious symbols, are very complex; thus, they need a close and exclusive examination. 6 These choices are connected to four identity strategies: 1) cultural resistance, which is the general acceptance of the cultural model given by the family and the refusal of any of those offered by the new context. This strategy gives rise to a reactive identity; 2) assimilation, which is the total acceptance of the cultural models offered by the new society as well as a more or less outright refusal of every model and behaviour belonging to the original culture that are incompatible with the new one. This represents for them a better future and is defined as negative identity; 3) marginality refers to the refusal of both cultures: young people feel that they do not belong to either civilization and consequently put themselves passively in the middle, unable to choose between their origins, also represented by their family ties and the new culture, and which may represent a possibility for emancipation. This identity grows by distinction; 4) the double

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that they make friends with people of their nationality, above all, because of the presence of a large community in the host country, but also because of a reciprocal suspicion between the members of the two cultures (the migrant and the host). This is not the same as far as the second generation is concerned. The children of migrants are certainly advantaged because of their being involved in richer and more complex social networks than those of their parents and because they could make friends with Italian classmates, especially at school. However, these relationships are not always positive, as when a member of the second generation has previously experienced racial discrimination by a group of peers or is not interested in or outright refuses the host culture and lifestyle. As mentioned above, the adherence to the cultural and religious traditions of their parents could influence their leisure choices; members of the second generation (especially women) often set limits in relationships with Italian friends because some kinds of leisure such as going to a disco are denied by their culture.

Why should migrant leisure behaviour and consumption be different? Some concluding remarks One of the principal questions was to understand if, and in what contexts and situations, the young of foreign origin are different in the behaviour and lifestyle with respect to their Italian peers. To answer this question we examined the perspectives of young and very young children of immigrants, through their consumption trends and perceptions of everyday life. Leisure behaviour and consumption choices such as food, clothing, mass media, sport and others seem to be aspects simpler to discuss than other more personal topics, but at the same time, contribute to the construction of the personal and social identity of the person, as symbolic consumption and traditions do. In the above areas, the subject becomes aware of his/her personal skills and of the different contexts where ethnicity or double cultural belonging (see note 2 above), as explained previously, is the result of a slow and deeper work of analysis, that shows the integration of the subject (Berry et al. 1989; Bourhis et al. 1997; Camilleri 1997; Braccini 2000; Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Valtolina and Marazzi 2006). 7 They especially come from Mauritius and Sri Lankan, which, with Senegal, were until 2009 the most numerous ethic groups in Catania. Nowadays, the first are Romanian (Caritas 2010), who are not included in our sample because they are of a more recent migration flow.

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strategies to manage the multiplicity of self are played. Furthermore, the above principal contexts seem to be family and friendship. Particularly, the reading of interviews has revealed that the “ordinary” intergenerational conflicts may be exacerbated in migrant families because of dissonances due to the different cultural references and behaviours of children and parents. The above causes of conflict are typical of migrant families even though we can state with some degree of certainty that Italian families have similar problems8. In any case, the peculiarity of the problem had to focus on the consequences of the migratory phase on the one hand, and on the unavailability of both sides to find some common ground on which to start the dialogue on the other. It has to be read in light of economic factors, choices of life, traditions, and original culture. It was shown that often life and future plans of the first and the second generation diverge. Parents are closely linked to their origin and habits, and plan to return to their native country with the whole family as soon as they overcome the initial reason of their migration (work, war, religious persecution, etc.) whereas their children, born and/or raised in the host country, plan their future in the host community. They recognize Italy as their country, the place where they have lived most of their lives, where they were socialized and built their own identity, and the place where they foresee staying in order to achieve their social fulfilment. Often the consumption needs of the children of migrants cannot be satisfied due to economic reasons9. As stressed above, the so-called transnational families hold very strong ties with their relatives in the native country and usually support them economically. They have dedicated a part of their savings to future plans in their native country such as the building or buying of a home, and work as subordinates with nominal salaries. Thus, it is clear that the amount of money they can give their children for them to satisfy their consuming desires become exiguous. Finally, the most important watershed between parents and children specifically regarding leisure consumption is that usually free time for adults is highly compressed and tied to cultural and religious traditions (e.g. consuming the foods of the native country during free time), and take 8

Also, Italian adolescents often move away from the behavioural models of their family in order to satisfy their belonging to a subcultural adolescent group. This is a widespread cause of conflict that disturbs the familiar balance. 9 The issues arising from the difference of class are very linked to the family’s economic situation. For example, as other Italian research has shown (Dalla Zuanna, Farina and Strozza 2009, 41-3), some kinds of leisure (e.g. skiing, riding, or fencing) are precluded to the children of migrants as well as to the Italian low classes.

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place within family and community rituals. For children, consumption choices happen in a family and on friendship negotiation ground. As has already been shown, consumption practices have a relevant relational feature, and could determine social inclusion and exclusion borders. In this way, the “problem” of the second generation could derive from the impossibility to permanently and univocally answer the questions related to their inclusion and/or exclusion from social groups. How is it possible to mark their belonging? Are they Italian or foreigners? Are their identity needs satisfied by their inclusion in the community of origin, in the receiving one, or both? Borders should not be insurmountable. Often the young immigrants, through their material and symbolic consumption choices, seem to move to the mixing and hybridization of borders rather than to a clear line of boundary. In this case, the identity strategy chosen by the children becomes fundamental. Among the different strategies of migrant children (see note 4 and 10 above) it is, in fact, possible to point out various kinds of conflicting attitudes such as a tangible refusal of the host culture or, on the contrary, of the original culture and traditions. It seems evident that they live in a state of confusion, where they cannot make a final choice as to which cultural they belong. The issue of belonging is rarely overcome in cases of plural identity that develop through a negotiation of consumption and cultural legacies in everyday life. This is possible only if the history of the interactions between family and extra-family contexts is grounded on dialogue and mutual experience.

Reference List Ambrosini, M. 2004, “Il futuro in mezzo a noi. Le seconde generazioni scaturite dall’immigrazione nella società italiana dei prossimi anni”, in M. Ambrosini and S. Molina (eds) Seconde generazioni. Un’introduzione al futuro dell’immigrazione in Italia, Torino: Edizioni Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, 1-53. —. 2005, Sociologia delle migrazioni, Bologna: Il Mulino. —. 2007, “Italiani col trattino: figli dell’immigrazione in cerca di identità”, paper presented at the Conference Seconde generazioni in Italia. Presente e futuro dei processi di integrazione dei figli di immigrati, Bologna. —. 2009, “Giovani di origine immigrata in mezzo a noi: uno sguardo all’Italia che verrà”, in M. Ambrosini (ed.), Né stranieri né ospiti:

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Camilleri, C. 1997, Stratégies identitaires, PUF: Paris. Caritas/Migrantes 2010, Immigrazione. Dossier Statistico 2008. XX Rapporto. Roma: IDOS. Cesareo, V. 2005, paper presented at the conference Seconde generazioni. Scenari di un fenomeno in movimento, www.cestim.it/seconde generazioni.htm, accessed October 2009. Daher, L. 2011, “Identità plurali. Immigrati di prima e di seconda generazione a confronto” in M. Ferrari Occhionero (ed.), I giovani e le sfide del futuro, Roma: Aracne, 115-128. Dalla Zuanna, G., P. Farina and S. Strozza 2009, Nuovi italiani. I giovani immigrati cambieranno il nostro paese? Bologna: il Mulino. de Certeau, M. 1980, L’invention du quotidien. 1. Arts de faire. Paris: UGE. De Cordova, F. and P. Inghilleri 2009, “La relazione con le prime generazioni” in E.M. Napolitano and L.M. Visconti (eds), Cross generation marketing, Milano: Egea, 59-72. Dinh, K.T., B.R. Sarason and I.G. Sarason 1994, “Parent-Child Relationships in Vietnamese Immigrant Families”, Journal of Family Psychology, 8(4), 471-488. Di Nallo, E. (ed.) 1997, Il significato sociale dei consumi, Bari: Laterza. Douglas, M. and C. Baron Isherwood 1979, The World of Goods, New York: Basic Books. Levitt, P. and N. Glick Schiller 2004. “Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society”, International Migration Review 38(3): 1002-1039. Elster, J. 1995, The Multiple Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. European Council 1984, Raccomandazioni sulla formazione degli insegnanti ad una educazione inter-culturale, soprattutto in un contesto di immigrazione n. 18, http://www.paisi.it/documenti/ Raccomandazioni%20formazione.pdf, accessed December 2010. Fiske, J. 1995, Understanding Popular Culture, London: Routledge. Gasperoni, G., L. Marconi, and M. Santoro 2004, La musica e gli adolescenti. Pratiche gusti educazione. Torino: EDT. Howes, D. (ed.) 1996, Cross-cultural Consumption. Global Markets,Local Realities, New York: Routledge. Kline, S. 1993, Out of the Garden. Toys, TV and Children’s Culture in the Age of Marketing, London-New York: Verso. Leonini, L. and P. Rebughini (eds) 2010, Legami di nuova generazione. Relazioni familiari e pratiche di consumo tra i giovani discendenti di migranti, Bologna: il Mulino.

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Lindridge, A.M., M.K. Hogg and M. Shah 2004, “Imagined multiple worlds. How South Asian women in Britain use family and friends to navigate the ‘border crossings’ between household and social contexts”, Consumption, Markets and Culture, 7(3), 211-238. Lo Verde, F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Lo Verde, F.M. and G. Tuminelli 2011, “Family leisure e migranti” in V. Granatella (ed.), Reciproci sguardi. Sistemi migranti e costruzione intersoggettiva di pratiche e saperi, Milano: FrancoAngeli, 210-232. Meglio, L. (ed.) 2011, I colori del futuro. Indagine sul tempo libero e la quotidianità dei giovani immigrati di seconda generazione in Italia. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Napolitano, E.M. and L.M. Visconti (eds) 2009, Cross generation marketing. Milano: Egea. Nguyen, N.A. and H.L. Williams 1989, “Transition from East to West. Vietnamese adolescents and their parents”, Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 28(4), 505-515. Oswald, L.R. 1999, “Culture swapping. Consumption and the ethnogenesis of middle-class Haitian immigrants”, Journal of Consumer Research 25(4), 303-318. Padolsky, E. 2005, “You are where you eat. Ethnicity, food and crosscultural spaces”, Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal 37(2), 2-13. Peñaloza, L. 1994, “Atraversando fronteras/border crossings A critical ethnographic exploration of the consumer acculturation of Mexican immigrants”, Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1): 32-54. Portes, A. and R.G. Rumbaut 2001, Legacies. The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Berkeley-New York: University of California Press and Russell Sage Foundation. Rebughini, P. 2010, “Identificarsi attraverso gli oggetti. Cultura materiale e pratiche di consumo tra i discendenti dei migranti” in L. Leonini and P. Rebughini (eds), Legami di nuova generazione. Relazioni familiari e pratiche di consumo tra i giovani discendenti di migranti, Bologna: il Mulino. Rumbaut, R. 1997, “Assimilation and Its discontents. Between rhetoric and reality”, International Migration Review, 31(4), 923-60. Sayad, A. 2004, The Suffering of the Immigrant, Cambridge: Polity Press. Seiter, E. 1993, Sold Separately. Children and Parents in Consumer Culture. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Simmel, G. 1909, “Brücke und Tür” in G. Simmel Das Individuum und die Freiheit. Essais, 2-12, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag; Translated by M. Ritter 1994, “Bridge and Door”, Theory, Culture & Society, 11(1): 5-10.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN “ALL THE GIRLS GET TO LOOK PRETTY”: BALLROOM AND LATIN AMERICAN DANCING AS LEISURE VICKI HARMAN Introduction This chapter explores gender, “ideals” and body image in Ballroom and Latin American dancing, from the perspective of people who take part in this form of dancing for leisure. While Ballroom dancing has a long history (see for example Quiry 1976) it can be argued that a mediainfluenced resurgence of interest has taken place relatively recently, partly due to “Strictly Come Dancing”, a popular television show that began in the UK on BBC 1 in May 2004. In this show celebrities are paired with professional dancers and they compete against each other for the coveted “glitter ball trophy”. At the time of writing, nine series have been filmed with the most recent final (December 2011) being watched by 13 million people (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, 2011). From the British TV Series “Strictly Come Dancing”, an international version called “Dancing with the Stars” was created and distributed by BBC Worldwide. In 2010, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the show as the world’s most successful reality TV program. Australia was the first country to adapt the program, and versions have also been produced in many other countries including the United States, New Zealand, Russia, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and India. These programs have been important in terms of raising the profile of Ballroom and Latin American dancing amongst a younger audience, increasing public interest in this pastime and encouraging some people to try it for the first time. Given that dancing has often been associated with femininity (Risner 2009), the fact that sportsmen were shown enjoying this form of dance is likely to have made it seem more legitimate for men to participate in.

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Turning now to the academic literature, it has been argued that Ballroom and Latin American dancing falls “between the cracks of scholarly purview” because it is “neither high art nor grassroots tradition” (Bosse, 2007, 28). It has also been argued that Ballroom and Latin American dancing does not belong to a clear academic discipline, meaning that it fails to receive sustained treatment from any (Bosse, 2007). Studies of ballroom dancing have been published by scholars working within anthropology (Nurse 2007, Marion 2008) ethnomusicology (Bosse, 2007), dance studies (McMains 2006) and geography (Cresswell, 2006) as well as sociology (Leib and Bulman, 2009; Ericksen, 2011). Despite the relative lack of sociological attention, studying this form of dance can help to illuminate salient elements of society and culture. Dance often reveals interplay between the physical body and the social body (Polhemus 1993). As such it can reflect and model gender roles, including heterosexual courtship and power inequalities between men and women (Hanna, 1988; Polhemus, 1993; Thomas, 1993). Given that gender roles in wider society have changed considerably, the division of or in Ballroom dancing with the men as “leaders” and the women as “followers” can initially appear old-fashioned (Leib and Bulman, 2009). This chapter aims to contribute to the existing literature on Ballroom and Latin American dancing by focusing on gender, “ideals” and body image. As Shilling notes, “(i)n conditions of high modernity, there is a tendency for body to become increasingly central to the modern person’s sense of self-identity” (2003, 1). Bodies have come to be seen as “constitutive of the self” as well as malleable and improvable through body projects (ibid). Bodies are the key instruments through which Ballroom and Latin dancing takes place and physical appearance is of central importance at Ballroom and Latin competitions.

Methodology This paper draws particularly on the in-depth narratives of two dancers, Nigel and Emma. They were interviewed in October and December 2010 respectively, as part of on-going ethnographic research at a dancing school in the South of England (TopDance1). This wider study aims to explore how contemporary men and women negotiate the traditional gender roles in this form of dance (Harman, forthcoming). The interviewees were taking part in Ballroom and Latin American dancing as part of their leisure 1 The names of interviewees and the dancing school have been changed to protect anonymity.

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activities. They were working towards dancing medals and taking part in dancing competitions for leisure. Medallist competitions attempt to fill the gap between social and full time competitive dancing. It can be argued that Nigel and Emma’s participation in dance fits with Stebbins’ concept of “serious leisure” (2007) because working towards dance medals and preparing for competitions involves a considerable investment in terms of time, energy and money. I asked Nigel and Emma questions about why they started to dance, what they most enjoy about it, any areas of difficulty, their images of the ideal dancer and attitudes towards the gender roles in this form of dance. Their responses are not claimed to be representative of all male and female dancers, rather their accounts help to engage with sociological debates concerning gender and body projects. The chapter begins by exploring how Nigel and Emma started to dance, before considering the ideal images they were aspiring to. It then focuses in more depth on three salient areas: the ideal of a slender body, a wellgroomed appearance and body confidence. Finally, the paper explores the relationship between the ideals in Ballroom and Latin American dancing and those in Nigel and Emma’s paid employment.

Starting to dance: Emma Emma is a 28 year old woman from a middle class background. She holds a master’s degree and works as a scientist. She began Ballroom and Latin dancing at the beginning of her undergraduate degree. She explained that: At Fresher’s Fayre they had a stand. And I guess it was the whole—all the girls get to look pretty! Be like a princess! And erm, I’d always liked dance anyway, because I used to do dancing at school…It just seemed a bit more glamorous than the normal sort of dancing.

It is clear from Emma’s comments that glamour was an appealing factor when choosing ballroom dancing in particular 2 . In this sense, Ballroom dancing can provide an opportunity to act out traditional and idealized images of femininity. It is interesting to note that this provides a contrast to Emma’s daily life where she works in a professional field traditionally associated with men. Emma continues:

2

See McMains (2006) for a discussion of the relationship between glamour and ballroom dancing.

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I guess I also liked the fact that they actually teach you steps, actually teach you to dance, you don’t make it up. You go along and they tell you move your left foot here and your right foot there, and somehow that doesn’t seem quite so scary.

This raises the value of the prescribed nature of Ballroom dancing, something that other (male and female) dancers also highlighted as beneficial. Ballroom dancing today has been codified and standardized, partly through the attempts of Victor Silvester and the Imperial Society of Ballroom Dancing teachers in the 1920s (Cresswell, 2006). The standardization of ballroom steps and technique helps people to measure their improvement and progressing through the medal and competition grades gave the dancers a sense of achievement. Part of the standardization is, of course, that of gender roles and expectations. At the time of the interview, Emma was taking part in one dancing lesson per week. She wanted to dance more, however she had been unable to find a partner since leaving university where she had danced extensively and won trophies in competitions for university students. She had advertised online and spoken to the dance teachers, but without success.

Starting to dance: Nigel Nigel is a 40-year old man from a working class background. He left education at the age of 16 and works as an engineer. At the time of the interview, he had been taking part in dancing competitions for three years although he got to know TopDance eight years ago through taking his daughter there for dancing lessons. Seven years ago the school held a charity fundraising competition for non-dancing parents, which Nigel entered. For this competition non-dancing parents were partnered with a teacher in the style of the dance-based TV show “Strictly Come Dancing”. Nigel learnt a Waltz, a Jive, a Tango and they needed to put together a freestyle dance. He relayed the interaction between him and his teacher regarding this: She said “what can you do?” I said “I don’t know.” I never knew. ‘Cos she said “Can you do the worm?” And as a man I said “What?” (laughs) And she said “look on YouTube”. And I went away, and I looked on YouTube. And I worked out how to do it on my own. And I went back, and I said “Is this what you mean?”

Nigel won the competition and had a great time: “It was brilliant. It was really, really good fun. And that’s what it (dancing) is really. It’s fun.”

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However, he did not begin dancing Ballroom and Latin straight away. It was two years later that he went to a social class, following encouragement from the teachers. Then, six months later, the teachers mentioned that there was an experienced female dancer looking for a competition partner. They began a successful partnership and Nigel was at the beginning of a new partnership at the time I interviewed him. He dances approximately three times a week. As well as fun, Nigel spoke about dancing as an important source of routine, friendship and stability. He also likes the fitness aspect and the mental challenge of learning routines. Nigel and Emma’s narratives link to the way in which patterns of entry into dancing are influenced by gender. Dancing is seen as part of the natural and appropriate leisure activities for girls, and many girls attend dance classes in childhood (Risner, 2009). Male dancers tend to start dancing later, and for some it seemed to be down to chance that they had begun dancing at all. However, while Emma has experienced problems finding a partner, Nigel has not. Dancing partnerships can be seen as key to participation in the activities of the dance school and competitive dancing. At TopDance there are more females than males looking for a partner at all ages, from Under 5s, through Junior and Adult divisions (1634 years) to Seniors (over 35s), although it was less acute in the older age group, in part because there were more married couples and those without partners may have simply stopped dancing or moved to another form of dance where a partner is not needed. Female dancers could, and often did, partner other female dancers, but this was often seen as a response to the lack of male partners rather than an ideal situation. Male dancers may receive more attention from teachers (ibid) and the relative lack of men in ballroom dancing puts them in a more powerful position in terms of partnership selection.

Exploring images of “The ideal dancer” Ballroom and Latin American dancers have dual roles as both audience members and performers and they switch between these during a competition (Karatsu, 2003; McMains, 2006). Given this, I wanted to explore the words and images that came to mind when asked about the ideal male and female dancer for each discipline. These responses give some insight into the images that dancers are aspiring to when they go to competitions, and also that they hope we will find in a partner. In the UK, the Ballroom dances include Waltz, Quickstep, Foxtrot, Tango and the Viennese Waltz. When asked about his image of the ideal

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male Ballroom dancer, Nigel said: “Someone probably 6ft plus, slim, flexible, handsome”. In turn Emma said: Sort of graceful, you don’t want somebody sort of clumpy. I suppose in a way you sort of imagine they need to be charming, even though that’s a character trait rather than a physical trait. You somehow feel that that would come across in the dancing. Yeah, and then both ballroom and Latin dancers you think they should be slim and athletic… Nice tan, short hair. It’s like your traditional 1920s image of a guy going to a ball in a tuxedo jacket, gentlemanly.

Turning to the ideal female Ballroom dancer, Emma said the ideal would be “graceful” and “elegant”. Nigel said she would be “feminine” and “petite”. He clarified this: Well, I say petite because I’m small. If you had someone who was six foot you wouldn’t want them too small, would you. It’s difficult, they’re going to be, they’ve got to be shorter than the male but in proportion. That’s the thing. They’ve got to be glamorous.

In the UK context, the Latin dances comprise the Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso Doble and Samba. Nigel said the words that came to mind for the ideal male Latin dancer were: “tanned, dark hair, slim, flexible” and “sense of rhythm”. Emma said: He’d have to be sexy and feisty, and confident. Well, both need to be confident, but it’s different, with the Latin it’s more, you know, very much physical confidence…Latin you’ve got to be well, probably bordering on arrogant a little bit just because it’s over the top, it’s like an act, a pantomime, you’ve got to be flirty.

For the ideal Latin female dancer, Nigel said “nice tan, definitely flexible”. While Emma said this was much the same for the men: “Feisty and sexy” and “toned” as well as “cheeky”. There does not appear to be a marked difference between Nigel and Emma’s responses, although he tended to mention physical characteristics while she talked more about embodied character traits such as confidence. A variety of influences helped to form these idealized images, including historical media representations such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as well as current professional dancers in dance-based reality TV shows. Watching professional dancers doing demonstrations, shows and at competitions also helped to shape these ideas. Emma added that the music also plays a role: “Latin music is so sort of raw and sexy that I guess it sort of makes you feel that that would be the way to move to it”. Nigel added

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that guidance from teachers is important too. For example, when trying out different partners the teachers had commented on the shape they made as a couple. As part of this, they advised him that his partner should ideally be shorter than him, and ideally slim to balance out the partnership. Guidance given during private lessons, classes and training sessions also helped to transmit messages of the images dancers should aim to create. We can see that some of the characteristics Nigel and Emma invoked were fixed (such as height) while others were potentially changeable (weight, tan, hair style and “attitude” or confidence). This links to the notion of body projects where people engage in activities to reconstruct and improve the size, shape and appearance of their bodies (Shilling, 2003). In the following sections, I will further explore three aspects highlighted by Nigel and Emma as being of importance to the image of the ideal dancer: a slender body, a well-groomed appearance and the ability to project a confident attitude.

The ideal of a slender body Emma believed strongly that dancers should maintain a slender body. She talked about not wanting to dance with a partner who was overweight. She said: I mean, it is a very physical activity. And then if they’re overweight they’ll (laughs) have trouble with it. And that, I think, does make a difference to the judges as well, to some degree. You know, you don’t see any overweight professional dancers, do you? So there’s got to be a reason for that. It can’t just be that they exercise so much that they can’t put on weight. It must be that it’s expected of you.

Emma carefully monitored her diet to maintain her slim figure and took pride in being able to wear tight and revealing costumes. One of the reasons she liked dancing was because it helped her to retain her figure, which interacts with the gendered ideals for women in wider society. On beginning the research, I had thought that as the women dance in more revealing costumes, they would face more pressure in relation to their weight and body shape. I was surprised about the extent to which these concerns were found to affect both men and women. Those at the higher levels of competitive dancing were most affected. Another interviewee, Darren, who had been one of the top dancers on the medallist circuit since childhood, explained that having put on weight in his 20s, he had been told by his dancing teachers that he needs to lose weight as he would not win unless he did. During the interview he explained his

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decision to take a break from competitive dancing in order to assess how much he wanted to do it, and to decide whether to lose weight and return. Nigel, who was a competent dancer but who had started dancing later in life, felt less pressure but was nonetheless aware of the guidance from the school. He said: They’re never going to say “you’re too fat” but on the other hand they’re always looking for things to improve…They’re always talking about diet, forcing the point, because we know really, underneath it, that’s what they’re thinking. That’s the next step up. For me, I’m not your typical (dancer), I’m short, stocky, cut me in two and you’ll make two of these blokes. I’ve got too many muscles, but that’s the way it is.

Nigel enjoys going to the gym and weight-training. This creates a muscular physique congruent with the traditional ideals for working class men but this does not entirely fit with the slender build expected of a ballroom dancer: Once they (the teachers) said I needed more “oomph” and I said he’d better get down the gym then and they said “oh no, don’t do that. Don’t build that anymore.” I mean I like going to the gym. I wouldn’t change how I am. I wouldn’t change my diet just because they say. We’re not at that level. That’s how I think anyway.

Nigel felt that the ideal images of the professional dancers were not necessarily realistic goals for those taking part for leisure. However, it could be argued that a slender body is part of what is culturally valued in Ballroom and Latin dancing and that this is part of what is being judged at competitions. The judges at medallist competitions are usually current and former professionals and this can replicate the same values. Professional dancers work as teachers and try to instil an understanding as to what is required to succeed at competitions, and weight loss was seen as an important part of this. Shilling (2003) argues that “body experts” are involved in policing or encouraging “the legitimate body’. In the dance world this includes judges, school principals and dancing teachers, the audience at competitions and other dancers. Guidance about diet and fitness was given both formally and informally within the dance school as part of the training for competitive dancers. A nutritionist visited the school during a training session and gave advice about eating a balanced diet including carbohydrates for energy. However, before and after the nutritionist’s visit, one of the female teachers also conveyed much more restrictive notions including cutting out all carbohydrates and sauces. It

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was implied that if dancers were committed to their dancing, they would achieve and maintain a slim body.

Creating “The Look” Turning now to grooming, Emma had been partly attracted to Ballroom dancing due to the promise of looking “like a princess”. Most female dancers wear false eyelashes, heavy make-up, fake tan and false nails for competitions. These elements help to make competitions feel like a special event, a space removed from everyday life. However, it also takes considerable time to achieve the required level of grooming. McMains (2006) notes that the work needed prior to a dancing competition is similar to that of a wedding or a prom, events that women usually expect to do only once. Emma talked about the need to build up her fake-tan over the three days leading up to the competition, resulting in bed-sheets covered in fake-tan. She said: It’s such a pain, and you feel like you’re judged on your skin colour. Which is a bit unpolitical, isn’t it? But you never see a pasty white person doing well at a dance competition, do you? …You’ve got to look the part, and it’s sort of expected.

Male dancers were not under such pressures in relation to personal grooming, although they are expected to look neat and tidy and to be clean-shaven with short hair. Make-up was not generally a concern for men, although some wore light eye make-up. Tanning was less of an issue for men than women, because they tend to have less of their body on show. Some male dancers tanned their face, arms and chest while others did not. Marion (2008: 70) argues that much of the spectacle of dance comes from the costuming involved and that a “judge’s lower marks for an unkempt appearance are, in part, about breaches in artistic conventions’. Although competing for leisure, there could be sanctions for those who do not perform an acceptable level of grooming and costuming. For example, they may not reach the final where they otherwise would have done or female dancers may be overlooked in the struggle for a male partner. Drawing on the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, bodies can be seen as an important form of physical capital (Shilling, 2003). For competitive dancers investing in their physical capital involved work and financial capital (for products and beauty services). Furthermore it could also involve social capital for procurement (e.g. connections with good quality dress makers) and insider-knowledge about products and materials. As a symbol of her social capital, Emma treasured a Latin dress that a

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professional dancer who had taught her had given her as a present. This also affirmed her physical capital because she could fit into the dress of a petite professional female Latin dancer.

Body confidence For some dancers, negotiating the gap between themselves and their ideal image of a Ballroom or Latin competitive dancer meant engaging in body projects (such as losing weight) or was based around consumption practices (such as buying new costumes). For Emma, closing the gap between her and her idealized image was about feeling and appearing more confident. She talked about learning to convey a confident, sexualized female persona on the dance floor: In Latin you’re expected to be a sex goddess, you know. Well that’s how it feels, and I’m not sure you’d get that far if you didn’t give off that image to be honest. If you conveyed the image that you were not interested in having sex with your dance partner it wouldn’t make for much of a chemistry, sort of interesting thing to watch. ‘Cos it is like a...yeah it’s like an act, it’s a show. It’s all telling a story and that, and if you’re not giving of that...like in rumba if you’re not teasing and stuff then it’s not a rumba, you know. So you have to sort of be that person if you want to. You have to learn how to act it, if you’re not like it naturally, which is hard.

Dance training helped Emma feel more comfortable being centre of attention and learning to engage with an audience. She also talked about increased confidence through meeting and speaking to different people. Interestingly, Nigel spoke about body confidence as acting as a buffer between him and the physique idealized for male Ballroom dancers. He said: “it’s just your head, isn’t it? You’ve got to believe everything that you do”. For Nigel, body shape considerations could be seen to matter less if a confident persona could be conveyed on the dance floor. The dancing teachers encouraged the portrayal of body confidence and confidence exercises were part of the training for major competitions.

Work-dance interaction Given that Nigel and Emma were dancing for leisure, I was interested to find out if the embodied ideals within dancing fitted with their employment. Emma drew attention to her changing physical appearance in the days leading up to and following competitions, and in particular the problem of tanning and appearing “all orange and stupid at work”. This

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could suggest that different kinds of feminine ideals were colliding. Being too tanned or too “fake” is seen to convey a lower class image, at odds with that of a female professional scientist. Nigel works in a mainly male working class environment and described getting called “twinkle toes” and receives some good-natured teasing. This was based on the knowledge that he dances, not any particular physical characteristics he displays. He said: “I always get ‘do you wear your tutu?” or something like that. And I’m like ‘yeah, whatever” (laughs). Although Nigel felt secure in his masculinity and was not concerned by teasing such as this, others found it more difficult. Darren, for example, was dancing four days a week for most of his childhood but didn’t tell people at school that he danced because he didn’t want people to “take the Mickey” out of him. This echoes previous research which has found that male dancers help to widen “the allowable markers of masculinity” (Ericksen, 2011, 151) and may receive increased attention as a result.

Conclusion Given the centrality of the body and consumption to self-identity in high modernity (Shilling 2003), it is perhaps not surprising that Ballroom and Latin American dancing remains an important form of leisure for many men and women. Within this social field, dancers, judges and dance teachers have an image of what “good dancing” looks like and this includes the dancer’s physical appearance, what they are wearing and their projected confidence. The findings suggest something of a paradox: not only could dancing make people aware of where they do not meet the image of the tall, slim, tanned, toned “ideal” Ballroom and Latin American dancer, it could help people feel more confident about performing in public. The findings also suggest that Ballroom and Latin American dancing is a rich site for repeated acts that help to create the illusion of gender. According to Butler (1990), gender is not something someone is, but something one does: “a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being” (33). Furthermore, as there is seen to be no “being’ behind the “doing”, the doing itself is ascribed central importance. Butler invokes the example of drag to argue that it is not mocking the original but calls into question very existence of an original. Emma’s discussion of dance as an “act”, “a show” or “telling a story” clearly echoed the way in which masculinity and femininity is performed in dancing. The repeated

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acts include, for example, the grooming necessary to achieve the “look” of a female competitor. It has been argued that once a performer has learned the rules and opportunities available in different dancing roles and styles, it becomes easier to assume that gender in daily life also has a performative component (Fisher and Shay 2009: 10). As such, the study of Ballroom and Latin American dancing affords sociologists many opportunities to examine the contradictions and complexities of gender in contemporary society.

Reference List Bosse, J. 2007, “Whiteness and the performance of race in American Ballroom Dance”, Journal of American Folklore, 120 http://muse. jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_american_folklore/v120/120.475bosse.htm l, accessed September 2012. Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board Weekly Viewing Summary (1218th December 2011) http://www.barb.co.uk, accessed September 2012. Butler, J. 1990, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge. Cresswell, T. 2006, “You cannot shake that shimmie here. Producing mobility on the dance floor”, Cultural Geographies, 13 55-77 Ericksen, J. (2011) Dance with Me. Ballroom Dancing and the Promise of Instant Intimacy, New York, NY: New York University Press. Fisher, J. and A. Shay (eds) 2009, When Men Dance. Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hanna, J. 1988, Dance, Sex and Gender. Signs of Identity, Dominance, and Desire, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Harman, V. (forthcoming) The Sexual Politics of Ballroom Dancing, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Karatsu, R. 2003, “Cultural absorption of Ballroom Dancing in Japan”, The Journal of Popular Culture, 36, 416-440. Leib, A. and R. Bulman 2009, “The Choreography of Gender: Masculinity, Femininity, and the Complex Dance of Identity in the Ballroom”, Men and Masculinities, 11(5) 602-321. Marion, J. 2008, Ballroom. Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance, Oxford: Berg. McMains, J. 2006, Glamour Addiction. Inside the American Ballroom Dancing Industry, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. Nurse, G. 2007, Competitive Ballroom Dancing as a Social Phenomenon. An Anthropological Approach, PhD thesis, Roehampton University.

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Polhemus, T. 1993, “Dance, Gender and Culture” in H. Thomas (ed.), Dance, Gender and Culture, London: Macmillan. Quiry, B. 1976, May I have the Pleasure. The Story of Popular Dancing, London: British Broadcasting Company. Risner, D. 2009, “What we know about boys who dance. The limitations of contemporary masculinity and dance education”, in J. Fisher, and A. Shay (eds), When Men Dance. Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shilling, C. 2003, The Body and Social Theory, Second Edition, London: Sage. Stebbins, R. 2007, Serious Leisure, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Thomas, H. (ed.) 1993, Dance, Gender and Culture, London: Macmillan.

CHAPTER TWELVE LEVERAGING LEISURE TIME FOR DOMESTIC COMFORTS: A STUDY OF THE WOMEN SELLING HOMEMADE FOOD IN MUMBAI CITY BRAJAKISHOR SWAIN AND KANAK ATA SAMAL Introduction Leveraging leisure time for domestic comforts through selling homemade food has been a phenomenal characteristic of the developing societies in the era of globalization. Small groups of women of low income families coming together in leisure hours as freelance workers for preparing, packing, parcelling and supplying of food against the daily need of the swelling population of Indian cities is an emerging trend at present. This kind of food supplying culture is developing in Indian cities in response to the mass public demand and is hence being increasingly adopted mostly by the women of workers’ families as they become unfit to find a job in the formal or organized sector of the economy due to the unrealistic working conditions imposed by the labour market. Extremely burdened with financial constraint, these women take up the work of preparing food at home as well as in the eateries to be sold to thousands of working people in the greater city of Mumbai. Their access to the time saving modern household gadgets like washing machines, cooking gas, water filters, pressure cookers, tapped water connections and use of refrigeration produces more leisure time to pursue this incomegenerating activity with full sincerity and commitment. The selling of homemade food, being a women-centric type of work, befalls these women as a matter of the feminization of labour under the impact of the growing culture of globalization. Unlike the highly skilled and well

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educated women who quickly grab the opportunities of globalization to join highly paid and lucrative outdoor work, these women force themselves into this informal or unorganized sector without any institutional support. However, with their hard work, dedication, sincerity and perseverance they develop this work into a full-fledged profiteering enterprise by extending the food chains from their own kitchen and the eateries in order to achieve the purported material gain for their own sustenance and comfort while looking to the convenience and comfort of their customers.

Leisure as a concept “Leisure” as a concept has varied meanings and implications in contemporary society. In the ideal sense of the term, leisure refers to a phase of time in one’s life that is never used in earning money. Lundberg and others consider leisure as free time for respite and relaxation (Lundberg et al. 1934). Leisure for them in the above sense seems to be an end in itself. Leisure, according to them is clearly distinguished from the formal works carrying the payment of wages. This implies the fact that leisure is a non-working time. Leisure, for some others, also means free time, but after the day’s formal work is accomplished. However, this aspect of leisure time is useful for people to engage in multiple activities as a matter of their subjective choice and interest. Roberts looks at leisure as a freedom of choice and hence argues that it may not involve the whole of non-work (Roberts 1978). For him, it may involve certain activities of a performer which are self-determined but not as a matter of obligation. This implies people’s freedom to choose between what to pursue and what not to pursue when in leisure. Clarke and Critcher, following the neo-Marxist line of approach, disallow leisure implicating freedom of choice (Clarke and Critcher 1985). They characterize leisure by the constraints of capitalism. For some scholars the time required to meet one’s physiological needs like eating, sleeping, etc., does not form part of leisure. Leisure includes the part or whole of a person’s non-working time, a time characterized as his residual category of time (Parker 1976; Soule 1957) differentiates leisure time from the work time by characterizing leisure as unsold and work as sold time, respectively. By conceptualizing leisure as free time, Gross views that man’s sustenance needs should not be realized in his free time, that is in leisure (Gross 1961). Leisure for many scholars rules out from its realm working, travelling, sleeping and eating (Giddens 1964; White, 1955).

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Leisure as free time or non-working time seems to have remained as a concept of the past. Now people think of development as an integral component of the leisure time activity. The general notion is to make maximum use of leisure for more creative work to realize development in material, cultural and social senses. The protestant ethic of valuing time for money has been emphasized as an aspect of leisure time in today’s society. Recent definitions of the concept by scholars add a positive value to leisure for enhancing its importance in terms of the contributions it is likely to make to the individual, his family and society as a whole. Thus leisure refers to a time that may include such things as “household duties, rest, relaxation, social contact, family life, voluntary work, sport and hobbies and an opportunity for man’s mind and mood and whole being to move in a different world from the world of work and production” (Hunter 1961, 16); Brightbill defines leisure as that time which is necessary for one’s survival (Brightbill 1963). All, that people do for their biological survival such as eating, sleeping, etc., as in work, constitute a part of their leisure. However, leisure rules out the pressure of work on the individual. Leisure involves discretion on the part of the individual in order to make him use his time independently as per his own choice. Though leisure ideally implies disengagement of the individual in any form of remunerative work, he undoubtedly engages himself in some sort of works for his personal satisfaction without any pressure from others. Gist and Fava nevertheless see leisure being pursued under social pressures while defining it as free time used for relaxation, recreation, social achievement and personal development of the individual (Gist and Fava 1963). Leisure has a special role in an individual’s life. It gives the individual enough scope to think and do things independently for his development. Thus what the individual expects from his leisure he may not get from his work.

Leveraging leisure time Leveraging leisure time has acquired a distinctive character over the years. With cities being increasingly characterized by rapid processes of industrialization and urbanization, accompanied by the unprecedented rate of population growth, followed by the growing need for revamping of the formal sector of economy in terms of the length of working time, change in the work pattern, emerging work culture and need for efficiency, all those who are a part of the formal sector of economy hardly have any time to look after themselves. With the everyday burden of the routine work in the office, people find it very hard to cook their own food. It is this aspect of the formal economy which requires an informal sector to emerge to

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sustain the formal sector by looking after the food necessity of its employees. On the other hand the informal sector of the homemade food selling units also needs to have a responsive market to sale its product in order to sustain itself. In the process there seems to be a growing interaction between the formal sector of the manpower employed in various offices and the informal sector of the homemade food selling units in the big cities. In the big cities of the developing countries the dependence of the swelling manpower of the formal sector on the informal sector for the necessity of food appears as a blessing in disguise for those having plenty of leisure time in the informal sector. Leveraging leisure time has been operationally defined to make maximum use of leisure for material gain and consequently family comfort. In the modern society with the multiplication of human needs and changing emphasis on conspicuous consumption, those belonging to the lower classes rise to grab the opportunities of leisure among them due to their inability to work in the formal sector of the economy against regular monthly pay and all other benefits. Leisure is being increasingly leveraged by these people for their personal and family development. The basic philosophy that drives the lower class women to leveraging leisure is to get involved in some sort of innovative activity and supplement the family income in order to meet the challenges of the present society rather than spoiling leisure for unproductive purpose. The working class women of the greater city of Mumbai are found increasingly leveraging their leisure for the production of homemade food for the office-going population. The engagement theory of leisure time seems to be more in vogue than the disengagement theory in the present era of development multiplying human needs while restricting the entry of the swelling population into the formal structure of work in the larger cities due to the constraints of required skills.

Area and sample of the study The Greater Mumbai, the capital city of the state of Maharashtra in India has been chosen for the present study. Mumbai is the leading city of India in terms of both hugeness of population and complexity in the growth of the formal sector of its economy. As per the Census of India (Mumbai, 2011) the population of the city is 2,293,000. The city being a major centre of economic activities pulls in hundreds of thousands of people from various walks of life across the country every year. The manpower of the city always becomes extremely busy and alert regarding office work. The work culture of the formal sector of economy of the city

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makes people very attentive, efficient, vibrant and deeply committed to the goals of the organization they work in. Those who are educated, skilful and capable of fulfilling the conditions of employment in the formal sector get jobs of their choice and those who lack these aspects of the labour force in the formal sector of the economy force their entry into various informal sectors. Mumbai is such a city in India which never disappoints a person seeking for any employment. It provides various opportunities to the people to grow and flourish. The food supplying culture in Mumbai has evolved as a leisure time activity among the poor and the families of the working classes in response to an increasing demand from the teeming millions of formal sector employees, including the women, for homemade food. The housewives of the poor and workers’ families who need to supplement their family income enter the flourishing activity of supplying homemade food to the office goers due to the ever growing demand for such food from them. The present study is based on the empirical analysis of data concerned with the food supplying work as a leisure time activity of the women from workers’ families in the city of Mumbai. Leisure is perceived by these women as proactive and productive, thus giving enough space for them to engage in income-generating activity for family benefit and comfort. The sample of the study consists of 200 women workers picked up from the eateries of the Dombivili area, one of the largest educated suburbs of the greater city of Mumbai. Dombivili has 100 registered poli bhaji (bread and cooked vegetable) eateries catering to the needs of the natives. More than 80 per cent of the eateries operating in Dombivili have women as owners/entrepreneurs. However, most of the women owners/entrepreneurs of the eateries are Brahmins, the uppermost caste in terms of the caste hierarchy of the Hindu society. The eateries operate both in morning and evening shifts. On average 10 women workers are engaged in each eatery to make homely food for the customers. All the women workers hail from poor economic family backgrounds. The women workers prepare both breakfast and lunch in the morning shift and only dinner in evening shift. Freedom is given to the workers to choose which shift they would prefer to work. Initially only the upper caste women were chosen to work in the eateries as cooks and assistants. However, with the gradual increase in the number of the customers and the business of food supply gaining momentum, the women of other caste groups have also been recruited by the higher caste women entrepreneurs and given an opportunity to work along with the upper caste workers. The eateries have been run strictly following the domestic pattern of cooking, such as

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making simple food with less spice and oil. The foods are prepared and kept in parcels at the counter for the customers (office goers) to come and pick them up for the office as well as home.

Why study women workers Traditionally the Indian society has been influenced by gender based division of labour in which men get associated with all works of masculine nature and women with those of feminine character. Therefore, in India, one finds women invariably engaged in cooking food and dishing it up. Since modern times are witnessing an unprecedented rise in different diseases and health hazards arising out of eating spicy and oily foods, there is an increasing demand for homemade food from the people living in larger cities. The homemade food cannot be supplied by the formally structured hotels/restaurants operated by the professionally trained and skilled male staff. It is the women in the family set-up who have been traditionally trained and are efficient enough in preparing such food. Moreover, the feminist characteristic inherently nurtured in women fits them well in the world of the informal sector of making homemade food largely in demand by the people in bigger cities in India. The eateries in Indian cities exclusively run by women entrepreneurs with the help of the women workers of poor economic class are in greater demand. The eateries are becoming very popular and thus emerging as flourishing businesses because of the persistent efforts put in by the women workers as the makers of homemade food. Women of poor economic background seeking jobs in informal sectors like the food supplying business is now becoming a trend worldwide because of the feminization of labour due to the impact of globalization, especially in developing countries. In many developing countries like India the women seem to drive the economy of the informal sector. Women’s engagement in various informal sectors of the economy is indeed changing their socio-economic status and scenario of life. In Indian cities more and more women are curtailing their time spent on household drudgery in order to work in informal sectors of the economy for supplementing the family income in order to meet the increasing demands of the modern time. Their earning now becomes crucial for the maintenance of the family. As studied in the present context they have entered into the market place for their family subsistence by selling homemade food. Thus the main logic behind choosing the women workers for the present study was their increasing entry into the flourishing trade of

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homemade food demanded by the swelling working populations in the greater city of Mumbai. These days in big cities like Mumbai household chores are being increasingly looked after by modern domestic devices like vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dishwashers, driers, food processors, microwaves, refrigerators, gas stoves, water filters, pressure cookers, freezers, tapped waters and detergents. With the growing use of these household appliances in more and more houses, the housewives from the poor economic class or workers’ families have plenty of leisure time at hand and hence think of utilizing such leisure in income generating activities for fulfilling their family needs rather than spending it unproductively. The poor women studied in the context of the present study have joined the eateries run by women entrepreneurs due to the pressing needs of their family. They have been able to work in the eateries because they have plenty of leisure time which otherwise proves unproductive.

Methods and data The study was designed keeping in view the exploratory nature of research as no significant studies in the field concerned were available for review and testing of the hypotheses. The exploratory design rather afforded a scope to plan the problem and formulate the hypotheses for more structured investigation in the future. It also increased the possibility to develop familiarity with the phenomenon of supplying homemade food and to explore in detail the strategies that help in sustaining such a business run by women. The method used for collecting data was mainly interview, occasionally supported by the personal observations of the researcher stationed in the greater city of Mumbai. The women workers of the eateries belong to various age groups ranging from a minimum of 20 years to a maximum of 50 years. The percentagewise distribution of the women workers reveals that majority of them (69 per cent) belong to the age group varying from 20 to 40 years, while the rest of them (31 per cent) belong to the age group from 41 to 50 years. The age composition of the women workers engaged in the production of homemade food indicates that the largest proportions of them are in their younger years. The data reveal that the women belonging to the higher age group, that is, beyond the age of 50, are not seen engaged in the eateries making homemade food. This implies that the production of homemade food in the eateries necessitates only those women workers who have an aptitude to prepare food according to the taste and suitability

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of the customers. Unlike in the past, now there is no restriction with regard to recruitment of the women workers from various caste groups. Although the eateries are run mostly by the higher caste women, particularly the Brahmin women, the workers recruited invariably represent various caste groups. The castes are operationally defined as the social groups having higher or lower ranks in terms of their ritual purity. In the present study, out of 200 women workers engaged in different eateries the majority 38 per cent are Kunbis, 21 per cent Telis, 16 per cent Kostis, another 14.5 per cent Brahmins and 10.5 per cent Mahars. In the castes hierarchy the Kunbis, Telis and Kostis are supposed to be the lower castes and Mahars the lowest compared to the Brahmins. The women workers are not at all literate. Barring a few (11.5 per cent), the rest of the women workers (88.5 per cent) belong to the nuclear family system consisting of themselves, their husbands, and their unmarried children. The women workers’ husbands are engaged as construction workers (58.5 per cent), plumbers (31.5 per cent) and electricians (10 per cent). All of these works taken up by the husbands are in informal sectors thus meaning no guarantee of regular income. The monthly incomes earned by the husbands are very inadequate. Most of the husbands (70 per cent), for example, earn a monthly income varying from Rs. 2500 to Rs. 4500, while the rest of them (30 per cent) earn a monthly income ranging from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 6500. With the meagre income as given above, the workers’ family is unable to meet the basic requirements of life including education for the children. Thus it is their economic hardship which makes them join the eateries supplying homemade food to the office goers in the city. These women prepare food both in the eateries and in their own kitchens. There is maximum freedom granted to the women workers with regard to choosing their place of work as well as the shift of work, such as day or night. Those women workers who live a little distance away from the eateries or have small kids to look after are unable to prepare the food in the premises of the eatery and thus are allowed by the owners to prepare the food at their respective places and send it to the eatery through a food carrier engaged by the owner. The women workers who live nearby usually prepare food in the premises of the eatery itself. The freedom enjoyed by the women boosts their commitment and sincerity to the work and helps in maintaining the quality and taste of food they prepare. Besides those who make breakfast, lunch and dinner, there are the women assistants who make packages/parcels of all eatables to be kept ready at the counter for sale. The foods are usually supplied to the regular customers working in various offices as well as to the retail shops in the city. It is seen that the tiny groups of people coming together to prepare,

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pack and parcel food has been an unique supply chain to meet the daily demand of the vast working class population in and around the city of Mumbai. During the last four decades these centres have mushroomed in and around Mumbai and have grown into a large informal sector engaging hundreds of workers. Interestingly, women constitute the bulk of the workforce in these centres. These women, as seen above, are illiterate and hence unfit for any regular job in a formal sector. They are from the lowest income group, having been constantly threatened with acute poverty, deprivation and insecurity. The eateries are run only by Maharashtrian women and locally known as “poli bhaji kendras” (bread and cooked vegetable centres). The women workers engaged in these kendras or centres work hard to supply good hygienic food to the customers. These eateries or poli bhaji Kendras are the main stay of people and families who find it difficult to cook at home due to their coming home late on account of their long hours commuting to work on local trains. Moreover, as these eateries provide tasty homemade food at a reasonable price, the office going people fully depend on them for their breakfast and lunch, as well as dinner. Not only do they themselves depend on the eateries for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they also pack all such items for their children and elderly dependents at home. Students from the city and bachelor employees of the city from the rural areas also become regular customers of these eateries, thus providing a sound base for the growth of these food producing units. Women workers behave with the customers like their family members. During the festive occasions they prepare exceptionally delicious food, keeping in mind the jolly mood of the customers. Leisure for the women workers of the eateries is not passive, but rather a proactive element that enables them to do something meaningful and beneficial for themselves as well as for the people of the entire community as their customers. The women workers make use of their free time more pleasurably to earn income for bringing happiness to their families. Each woman worker works for five to six hours of her leisure time a day. She is free to work either in the day time or in evening to produce food for the customers. As exemplified in the works of these women, the concept of leisure has changed from being a non-working free time for respite to being a working busy time for the production of material means for subsistence and comfort. The women workers above the age of 40 (31 per cent) who have grown up children usually join work in the eatery early in the morning for preparing breakfast and lunch to be kept ready for the customers from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. After making breakfast and lunch these women workers come back home and get engaged in their own household

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chores. Most of these women workers are also seen again joining the eateries early in the evening for making dinner to be kept ready by office closing hours, at around 7 p.m. The younger women workers below the age of 40 (69 per cent) are seen joining their work a little later after finishing their work at home for making lunch for the customers of the eatery. However, many of these women workers also prepare lunch for the eatery from their own kitchen and send it through the boy engaged by the eatery. Many of the younger women workers also work for the preparing of both lunch and dinner. As stated earlier there is no such restriction from the eatery owner about who will make breakfast, lunch or dinner. The women workers themselves, looking at their own convenience, decide when to come to the eatery or what to make—whether breakfast, lunch or dinner. Since the women workers have plenty of leisure time and since they plan their own household work their own way, they hardly find any difficulty while working for the eateries.

Income and saving activity of the women workers The income earned by the women workers varies from a minimum of Rs. 2000 to a maximum of Rs. 5000 per month. From among 200 samples of the women workers, 22.5 per cent are in the income group of Rs. 2000 to Rs. 3000, 25.5 per cent in Rs. 3000 to 4000, and the majority (52 per cent) in Rs. 4000 to 5000. It is found that those women workers who make all three items, breakfast, lunch and dinner, earn a higher income compared to those who make only breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The majority of the women workers (52 per cent) who earn the maximum amount to the tune of Rs. 5000 per month do so because they make all three items for the customers of the eatery. The families of the women workers engaged in eateries around the Dombivili locality were totally unable to save any money due to the meagre and unstable income earned by their husbands. It is only after their engagement in the eateries and the regular monthly income they started earning that they have been able to save some money in the bank every month. Besides keeping money in the bank, they are seen lending money to the needy people at a reasonable rate of interest. The women owners are seen to be encouraging the women workers to save money in the bank. Their work for making homemade food in the eateries has reduced the financial burden of their husbands and brought a reasonable amount of comfort to the family by fulfilling most of its requirements. The work in the eateries has made the women workers develop a kind of social bonding and fellow-feeling which would not have been possible in unproductive leisure, leaving them all alone and isolated.

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Leisure for pleasure The women workers studied in the context of the present study have plenty of leisure time at their disposal. After their work in the eateries, which they do in leisure time, they have still enough leisure time left. This leisure time they have left after their work in the eatery is spent for their personal pleasure and satisfaction. They are seen engaged in watching tele-serials, movies and dramas on television, and discussing among themselves the characters in them. They often indulge in playing cards, gossiping, and making fun of each other. They help the needy and sick of their locality. They discuss their family issues and matters including their husbands’ plans to take the families for outings, children’s engagements on vacations and religious and family celebrations, etc. They make plans to go out to visit holy places together with neighbours. They join each other for the daily market to buy candy for the children or the daily needs of the home, or even for a walk and talk. There is a working class psychology to realize pleasure, not with carelessness, but materializing it with the grace of God.

Conclusion The eateries in the Dombivili suburb of the greater city of Mumbai have been a creation of the leveraging of leisure time by the women of the workers’ families. The women look for some income sources to supplement their poor family income for overcoming the economic constraints. Their purpose is to fulfil the basic needs of the family. The state of illiteracy prevents them from getting employment in the organized or formal sector of the economy to realize their goal of fulfilling the family needs. However, they do not lose hope of getting some remunerative work despite their inability to enter the formal employment market. Abundant leisure at their disposal allows them to prove their skill in cooking homemade food for the office goers in the greater city of Mumbai. The women entrepreneurs/owners of the eateries grab the opportunity of these unemployed but resourceful women of the poor workers’ families waiting for a paid job. They give these women workers a job of their choice in order to allow them to fulfil the dream of supporting their family. Leisure creates for these poor women the opportunity to live a meaningful and dignified life full of self-respect, vigour and humility. It makes their world simple and rewarding. It appears that leisure for work and pleasure, as understood in the context of the present study, seems to operate in making sense of the social

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system of the women workers engaged in producing homemade food in the eateries. The women workers have formed a social system consisting of the elements of sentiment, activity and interaction, as understood in the context of the social system of a small group studied by Homans. Their sentiment, which acts as a motive for earning money for the family, induces their activity i.e. their commitment and dedication to work, which in turn leads to interaction among them, i.e. their mutual help with each other’s work in the eatery. The interaction among the women workers in the formal situation of work within the eatery leads to a new sentiment i.e. a permanent bonding in their neighbourhood situation. This new sentiment among them leads to the new activity manifested in the form of exchange of eatables and usable household goods, which in turn leads to a new interaction in the form of making them more intimate for playing, making fun, and roaming together to realize their leisure for pleasure.

Reference List Brightbill, C.K. 1963, The Challenge of Leisure, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Clarke, J. and C. Critcher 1985, The Devil Makes Work. Leisure in Capitalist Britain, London: Macmillan. Gross, E. 1961, “A functional approach to leisure analysis”, Social Problems, Summer. Giddens, A. 1964, “Notes on the concept of play and leisure”, Sociological Review, March. Gist, N.P. and S.F. Fava 1964, Urban Society, New York: Crowell. Hunter, G. 1961, Work and Leisure, London: Central Committee of Study Groups. Lundberg, G., M. Komarovsky and D. McInery 1934, Leisure: A Suburban Study, New York: Columbia University Press. Parker, S. 1976, “Work and leisure”, in E. Butterworth and D. Weir, The Sociology of Leisure, London: Allen & Unwin. Roberts, K. 1978, Contemporary Society and the Growth of Leisure, New York: Longman. Soule, G. 1957, “The economics of leisure”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September. White, R.C. 1955, “Social class differences in the use of leisure”, American Journal of Sociology, September.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN LEISURE PRACTICES AND SELF-CONSTRUCTION AMONG YOUNG STUDENTS IN PALERMO FIORELLA VINCI Introduction The recent sociological literature on leisure has focused on the multifaceted and ambivalent practices that contribute to explaining some of the major contradictions of modernity (Lo Verde 2009; 2011; Roberts 2006). The intertwinement between the institutionalization of practices for the realization of the self, characterizing modernity, and practices which indicate the use of community leisure, foreground the crucial role that, in leisure practices, have the framework conditions in which social actors live. In particular, the processes of de-differentiation that characterize contemporary life make it interesting to study the impact of leisure in contexts in which the processes of individualization were less intense and, in relation to social categories that are especially involved in the construction of their own individuality, as young people. How do young students spend their leisure in Palermo? How do they combine family influences with leisure aimed at the realization of the self? And in a procedural perspective, is there any relationship between their leisure practices and their future plans? Drawing on the sociology of youth in Italy (Cesareo 2005; Cavalli 1990; Garelli, Polmonari, Sciolla 2006) and using categories belonging to the sociology of action we present the results of exploratory research carried out through interviews with students in Palermo who are attending the penultimate and the final year of high school.

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The research plan Moving from the observation of specific leisure learning characterizing the life of young people, the research tried to identify the key players of the different life contexts, and especially the cognitive and normative mechanisms that mediate the use of leisure. The interviews were carried out with 30 youngsters of both sexes, aged between 16 and 19 years; they were structured moving from a continuative conception of leisure, identifying the different lifetimes of young people as separate spheres of life, distinguishable for the purpose of the analysis, but in fact very often continuous and interdependent. The analysis of the interviews was conducted by placing as the central hypothesis the existence of specific stories on leisure developed by young people in various areas of socialization and conditioning their future projects. The focus of the leisure practices learned in families, at school, among friends, and in different places of the city has allowed us to connect them to different processes of socialization and social mechanisms through which young people legitimate their uses of leisure. The discovery of the leisure learning context has highlighted possible inconsistencies and dissonances between the various frames of reference and prompted reflections on private and public actions that can adjust or modify those contexts.

The practices of leisure time The ways in which respondents spend their leisure time seem similar. Residence and sex appear immediately as variables that differentiate their leisure: girls go out more frequently with their mother and/or friends, they go shopping; while boys spend more time in bars, and/or places where people go to gamble on football teams. A more accurate analysis of the interviews, however, shows some specificities: although the practices are similar, and appear mainly marked by the seasons, the neighbourhoods of residence, the commitments of study and friendship networks, young people show a different way of making up their leisure. When we talk about leisure, the stories refer to relations of authority and the corresponding degrees of freedom of the respondents. Not only that, they also refer to the domestic use of leisure time as if the chances of young people to negotiate alternative uses were the result of representations of family time, revealing different lifestyles. In fact, the representation of leisure shows the influence exerted in its uses by specific cognitive and normative mechanisms of self-representation.

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The management of leisure time, as reported by Lo Verde (2009; 2011), is a retroactive process, in one way it reveals choices of consumption or time investments done in relation to socially shared beliefs, values and norms; in another way it causes certain behaviours and expectations or specific life practices. Trying to homogenize the practices of leisure emerging from the interviews, two different types have been identified. The first one, defined as autonomous practice, includes ways to live leisure which show the youngsters’ capacity to choose based on their preferences, sometimes disregarding the expectations of parents and/or habits of friends. The second type, defined as routine practice, includes more standardized ways to enjoy leisure time, but, above all, more reticent stories, where the youngsters struggle to bring out the personal motives that induce their choices. Between the two types of practice and the realization of the young students’ projects there seems to be some specific correspondences, even if they are retraceable with difficulty. The time of the students in this age group seems to be, as already reported in the literature, above all a present time (Garelli 1984; Cavalli and Galland 1996), but it gains depth when the youngsters tell of school experiences lived in previous years; as if the school time was for them, a strong time, requiring a large narrative space, allowing them to run with the memory of previous years; almost a kind of rebound effect to imagine something of their future. The tendency of youths to tell of their present and their difficulties in telling of their future projects, even in situations where there are only a few months left before the time for making university choices, has led us to expand the analysis of the discourses to the way through which they represent themselves in the specific contexts: in the family, at school, among friends, in the city. This perspective has also allowed us to think about specific and interdependent leisure learning contexts. In particular, what is surprising is the recurrence of the representations idealized by family stories, as if in front of their families the youngsters appear really minor, and are willing to offer a perfect representation of family life and the different parental roles. Is there a relationship between the representation of family stories and young people’s opportunities to imagine their future? And through which cognitive and normative mechanisms of the representations of idealized family stories could hinder the chances of realization of young people? The reconstruction of different learning contexts of leisure allows us to make some research hypotheses.

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Learning contexts of leisure The existence of learning contexts of leisure emerged from the observation of the different stories which contribute to legitimize the different practices of leisure. As noted by Wittgenstein, the meaning attributed to discourses is subjective and located in specific areas of legitimacy, it is rooted in the intentionalities that subjects feel familiar with1. Young people connect their leisure stories, on the one hand, to physical places and defined spaces belonging to specific frames of socialization, for example their room and/or a soccer field, and on the other hand, to the degree of freedom, the permissiveness of parents, the teachers’ attitude, and their friendship networks. The leisure that emerges from their representations is much more than a space-time; it is rather a way of understanding life. These representations may appear to the social scientist as individual stories involving many voices that affect them differently. The exploration of the most common mechanisms of influence can show that the place and forms of residence, but also the relations of authority that young people experience at home and at school, strongly contribute to conditioning their representations of leisure time. In particular, a crucial aspect—as shown by Seligman (2002)—is the meaning that in the construction of their intentionality individuals attribute to otherness. Willing to explore more closely the mechanisms forming youth intentionality, we built two separate models of leisure learning: a directive model and a participatory model.

Directive learning: The conquest of leisure Schon (1983) defines learning as a conversation with the situation in which the subjects involved have the opportunity to constantly revise their interpretation of the facts. Starting from this definition, we can define directive learning as the one where leisure practices are fully accepted by subjects with minimal possibilities to reinterpret their leisure. The influences that families have on young generations have helped to structure over time, especially in Mediterranean societies, one of the main sociological mainstream concepts: familism (Banfield 1958). The analysis of leisure offers the opportunity to focus on some of the operational 1

For this interpretation, see Boudon 1995.

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mechanisms of the process of individualization within families, a process which affects not only the various components of the different families, but also the relationships between families and other educational agencies. Within families, the protagonists of the various processes of individualization are not only the children—as shown by Sciolla and Ricolfi in research published in 1980—but also parents and, frequently, other adults (grandparents, brothers and/or sisters). The analysis of the interviews shows that many children represent their leisure as a conquered time that parents control from a distance, for example by setting the time to return home in the evening, not imposing defined rules. As one interviewee says: “My father at most tells me to be careful in what I do” (Int. 1). And another: “My parents leave me free enough, but it was me that slowly gained my freedom” (Int. 3). The youth representation of leisure as a conquered time seems to contradict the idea that there is a strong family conditioning. Many stories show the hard and continuous negotiation that young people constantly make for their leisure: on the one hand, they do not want to be controlled, and on the other hand, however, they also seem to request, albeit implicitly, rules and limits. As if rules and limits were a sign that allows them to proceed independently and as if some particular kind of rules and limits, as those validated by the community at large, were likely to make them perceive the contribution each person can give to the community life. In some cases, the conquest of leisure, although it requires considerable negotiation between parents and children, looks like a quest for personal experimentation accomplished almost by necessity, as if intentionality, understood as a tension to the subjective experience or towards the experimentation of the self in the world, is not able to be performed. As another respondent said: “my parents have always left me free, but I do not know if in the long run it has been good …” (Int. 4). And another: sure there are many forms of conditioning, the anxiety of my mother, for example, is a limitation for me.. the other night she waited up all night for my sister and me and finally she made a big deal because she thought I was angry (Int. 6).

The directive learning of leisure is characterized, at the family level by the representation of a situation of risk for the youngsters. In these situations, the risk that parents perceive is amplified in the eyes of their children, often exaggerated. Parents do not actually control their children by asking for information about the places attended by them or about the practices of leisure they engage with, imposing further restrictions, but

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often they subject their children to a considerable effort of negotiation of their leisure time. These representations, by which children consider their leisure practices, such as going to nightclubs or on vacation with friends, almost like a driver of autonomy, while also being unable to explain their personal construction of leisure time, allow us to hypothesize the formation of a defensive intent, as if in the process of self-construction, there is a definite border between us, safe and familiar, and others, and then a need to defend from others through strategies which strengthen well-known contexts of cohesion, first of all through the celebration of our family history. The lack of rules deemed appropriate by the youngsters, indicating some sort of rift between the private and the public, reports the bid and, in some cases, the abundance of “domestic” rules, but also the scarcity of “more general” rules. In this situation, the outside world appears completely dull and indistinct, a set of viewers to whom they demonstrate their difference/superiority. The representation of a conquered but hard to personalize leisure is not necessarily found only in authoritarian contexts. It appears, however, in a context where subjective time is included in a negotiation of time characterized by dominant influences, by mechanisms of direction of the preferences of individuals, and especially by the defence/imposition of a unilateral vision of family interests. What are the conditions favouring the emergence of a leisure that is conquered but difficult to interpret in a personal way? Ramella (1999), in a study on the representations of young people, argued that often we talk about young people without considering them as children, without being able to simultaneously look at their parents, their expectations of social mobility and their satisfactions/disappointments. The efforts of the young students from Palermo in giving personal meanings to hard-won leisure appear consistent with the lack of institutional trust reported by sociologists of youth since the early 1990s (Cavalli 1990; Garelli et al. 2006); as if the social construction of individuality occurred through family narratives aimed at marking the youth process of differentiation from others, with no intention to found the process of individualization on the process of similarity with others. The analysis of leisure learning processes reveals the game of legitimation between the various areas of socialization (Berthélot 2001). Children who manifest leisure learning in more directive ways complain that they had to give up their sport activities “not because of school commitments, but because some teachers believe that sport is good for nothing, it is just a waste of time” (Int. 2). They argue, therefore, to have

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suffered, in their organization of time, from dominant influences. The leisure learned in school is represented by many students as a time negotiated with teachers “who use more the mouth than the ears” (Int. 3). The legitimacy and, in some cases, the invitation from teachers to give up sporting activities, occurs in almost all the interviews, revealing the diffusion of an idée reçue, by which, in the formation of young people at this age, school as a formation agency may be self-sufficient. As a matter of fact, at school we register a leisure learning process similar to that found in the family, which is a directive process based on an educational project carried out according to logic of institutional self-sufficiency. The importance, however, that respondents gave to the legitimacy of leisure at school, provides useful exegetical inspiration. Young people at school would like to feel unique, at the centre of the universe, but through a specific mechanism. The children’s request of an almost independent attention from teachers is in fact related to a question of fair rules, or rules applied to everyone, that allow kids to experience their individuality not beyond the others, but with and through others. As one of them says: “At school it is important to follow clear rules …” (Int. 3). And another: “Teachers with whom I identify most are those who know how to enforce rules” (Int. 6). And another: “Teachers can achieve a lot, but not by putting themselves on high chair” (Int. 8). Again, the application of rules expressed by these youngsters is clear: the right rules are those valid for anyone. How to spend your free time can be learned even among friends and classmates. The peer group has long been considered in sociological literature as a field of minor socialization. Recent research, however, has marked a difference. As Galland (2007) argues, the peer group is for young people the most important context of experimentation of their individuality. Although it seems separate from family and school, they are in fact interdependent. The directive leisure learning appears to be more frequent among those groups of young people who have grown up in networks of family friends who have attended the same school and the same sports group. These youngsters, although following their peers in leisure practices, often fail to identify with them. Time spent with friends, however, is often a time when kids tell each other about themselves, often using caricatures, scenes of family and school life. This kind of time generates, as a perverse effect, a holding back from family and school contexts, in a way a questioning of family and school lexicons. Peers and the time spent with them is also the first space not directly controlled by adults, the one in which public actions become available. Yet, the public, understood in this case as the offer of

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spaces, infrastructure, facilities and social events do not always reach kids. Often the opposite happens, that is, a place becomes popular among youth simply because they attend it, and not because it was originally created for them; other times, the youngsters, lacking the public offer of leisure, are led to regain the domestic space where they came from. As a matter of fact, respondents frequently tell us about the organization of evenings at home with friends. As one respondent said: it is not easy to find new things to do, we often do the same things, sometimes for hours waiting for someone and then everything fails, besides there are not billions of things to do (Int. 4).

The directive learning of leisure reveals some of the critical processes of individualization and a system of collective responsibility. In the narrative of biographical experiences there are different representations of leisure: it can be discontinuous, public, private, it can also change the relationship of the youngster with the world and with the others.

Participatory learning: The choice of leisure The students’ stories help us better understand the mechanisms of legitimation of family leisure. Their different experiences frequently appear functional to the construction of a family history also representing its educational project as the best possible design. These stories are not some possible stories, but story with a capital S, the only possible one, a “story historicizing” that loses the relationship with the person who narrates and appears objective2. These representations suggest that parents frequently propose models of individuality construction based mainly on the self, as if families live in scarcely populated areas or where to the public just one role is recognized: that of a spectator. But from the interviews it emerges also that we have another kind of leisure learning: the participative one. My bedroom is my heaven, it is where I find myself... I do not always go out... sometimes I give up, most of the time because I have too much homework, sometimes because the evening program does not excite me .. (Int.4).

2

The expression “story historicizing” is used by Simiand to indicate a reconstruction of the facts presented as certain and invariable. To examine topics related to the historical representations of facts, see Simmel (1984).

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The kids who are able to discuss the use of their leisure time by resorting to personal preferences are those who see their parents as people who impose precise rules. I know the rules since I was a child, for example... for them if you do not respect time you have to call... so I got used to calling... and we are all more relaxed... (Int. 5). For my parents it is necessary to follow some rules, then I can do what I want... they are permissive, the main thing is to follow certain rules, such as not smoking... (Int. 5).

Garelli et al. (2006) consider the demand of rules by young people as an important fact which signals the absolute lack of discontinuity between their formation and that of the previous generations. The sharing of rules within the family is an important process with regards to leisure practices. The acceptance of the rules as an experience of limitation puts young people in relation to others, populates their worlds, and at the same time gives the knowledge of those possibilities of action considered legitimate by the community. Learning the rules is, consequently, a process of selfknowledge in the world and, more specifically, a means for the continuous processing of one’s orientation toward others. I do not have much free time... when I can I try to stay with friends, I play music, I do what relaxes me and I like to do, I think... when I grow up, my parents, what they do for me, if I will disappoint them or not... (Int.12).

The subjective construction emerging from participatory leisure learning seems oriented toward others. With Weber, we might say that it responds to criteria of social action, as if these young people give proof not of ideal or stereotypical images of the self but real ones, responding to their own inclinations and dispositions, defined in relation to other subjects. The ability of parents to set rules that are public, rooted in a collective good and not only within the family, seems to be the first step in the construction of an individuality based on an inclusive conception of otherness. This ability seems to teach children to look around, to build their own individuality considering the subjectivity of their representations and giving to others the roles of leading actors in the various narratives. At school, almost surprisingly, the more authoritative teachers are those who are able to better understand the use of leisure time by young people. Understanding the importance of it, they are able to help their students to make personal reflections on the use of their time. “It’s

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important—says a student of the fifth year—that there are teachers who know how to listen more than talk”. Sport is vital for me, and then it is educational, you learn many things, I don’t dare say more than at school but perhaps the same as at school... but then I could also give up a week’s training and do only one, but to give it up completely was not right, I have spent a terrible time at school and my grades have not improved (Int.10).

All the respondents who had the same high school math teacher talk enthusiastically about their experience with this extraordinary teacher. He organized games of soccer, involving everyone, including girls, in the soccer field we called him by name… sometimes we also called him by name in class but mistakenly, we nearly always called him professor in class... he has been with us for two years, in maths... we all manage a little, this year there are exams, but among ourselves we help each other a lot, I think we’ll be able to do the test .. (Int. 10).

Listening, nearness, shared interests, the right evaluations are the most common expectations that students have towards teachers and teach students to include others in the construction of their own individuality. I cannot stand the fact that in this school there are small groups .., of some schoolmates I barely know the name, then I do not know anything else... I think that there are small groups because of the teachers, some of them on the second day already knew everything, who studied, who had problems, even those who would have not passed... and it was so (Int. 11).

The school experience for many children is the most significant and most compelling, it can legitimize traditional constructions of individuality but it can also question them, propose more critical representations of the self, teaching young people to understand their own attitudes, to relativize their experiences and consider in their representations the similarity/diversity with others. The students interviewed were very sensitive to the evaluative skills of teachers. Teachers who can be fair in the pupils’ evaluations, as one respondent said, “do not show much their likes and dislikes, because in my opinion, they all have their likes and dislikes” (Int. 10). Teach kids, implicitly, to feel the same and give them the cognitive tools to develop accounts of their story more realistic. Relationships with friends and classmates that promote participatory leisure learning are relationships connected to the public offer of leisure. The existence of public and safe spaces, equipped with sports facilities, cycling lanes,

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sports club, produces a sort of crossing between the public and the private, communicating to young people and their families the liveability of the city. This kind of crossing, while facilitating the identification of young people’s spaces, conveys the public attention to young people, allowing them to be considered as individuals, and prompts them to search for those opportunities that best fit their leisure preferences. It also helps them to recognize the possibilities of leisure that their city offers, hindering the paradoxical situation of having nothing to do because they really do not know what they can do or they do not find it interesting.

The potential dissonance between different learning contexts The construction of these two learning models of leisure reveals a possible emerging dissonance with the mainstream socialization processes that form them. The experience of learning leisure in the family can be contradicted by the one lived at school, among classmates and friends, and by the leisure opportunities which the city offers to young people. Bourricaud, at the end of the 1970s, proposed to reflect on institutional individualism. The reflection of the French sociologist moved from the identification of a principle of institutional specialization and from the emphasis given to the individual composition of many different institutions. The analysis of the various areas of socialization as vectors of distinct specialized activities operated by concrete individuals can facilitate the understanding of some critical areas of leisure learning. Garelli and others believe that school education differs from that of the family, especially for the universalistic orientations of the former; instead family education—in the most classical Parsonsian interpretation—is largely based on a kind of legitimization of affection, a more defenceoriented maintenance of family cohesion (Garelli et al. 2006). The analysis of these two distinct leisure learning models invites us to reflect on the different processes of specialization offered by the family and the school. The processes of de-differentiation, understood not only as a hybridization of contexts and practices but as the need to change the most common logical patterns of interpretation of reality, brings out the local characters of institutional individualism and in particular, their ambivalence. These processes hinder the identifiability of a number of social roles, such as the distinct functions of school and family, and they focus on the self-reflexivity emerging from the fragmentation of different personal and family stories. What emerges from these considerations is

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central: under what conditions can families and schools promote in a city like Palermo processes of individualization of young people that are focused on the development of their individuality? Through which mechanisms can young people root themselves in the society, deconstructing their solitude, elaborating their personal stories in a less heroic and more realistic manner? In a similar perspective, leisure is not seen as a field of research that focuses only on the creation of recreational areas, sports and, more generally, entertainment for young people, but it reveals the indirect function that public policies have on leisure legitimacy in the context of families and schools. What emerges from the interviews seems to be that in families where both parents work, leisure time is more involving, not only expected but almost lived more consciously. It is as if the parents’ economic independence, valued by their public commitment, puts the families in contact with society, allowing less self-oriented narratives of family stories and more attentiveness to the contextual conditions that justify them. The interviews confirm that school is a critical learning context of leisure; it facilitates the construction of more self-confident representations of leisure only when it does not claim to be the only educational agency but is able to compete with other agencies and other educational fields (sports, artistic, religious, associative). The relationships with classmates and friends are the contexts in which young people are more willing to modify their usual ways to live leisure. These contexts encourage innovative forms of self-representation to the extent that they are open, are not exclusive and are strengthened by normative orientations based on the acceptance of constitutive differences with others. One respondent reported that he had hung out for years with a group of friends, simply because they were my friends, even though at times I disagreed with them, I always was with them... then one evening it happened that we organized a joke to a guy,... a heavy joke... I did not agree, but... I was there... and then I felt ashamed a lot..., and I felt bad... then I realized that in this way I did not enjoy myself... to have fun for me does not mean to offend others and to make fun of them... (Int.12).

The public actions aimed at leisure in the two learning models constitute a kind of cement of different social mechanisms. Public policy is involved in the leisure learning process either directly through actions aimed at building sites dedicated to leisure, or indirectly by creating the social conditions that legitimize certain leisure practices.

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Concluding remarks The processes of individualization, fundamental features of modernity in Western societies, do not have the same characteristics in all contexts. In Mediterranean societies in particular, they reveal specific functions, influenced by various forms of social conditioning, first of all that exercised by different family contexts. Leisure time is considered from recent sociological studies as one of the emerging effects of the processes of modernization. The article investigates the relation between young people’s leisure time and their processes of individualization in a city of southern Italy like Palermo. In particular, the question is whether the analysis of leisure may reveal specific characteristics of the processes of individualization. The research, using analytical categories from the sociology of action and youth, offers a procedural analysis of leisure. In this perspective, leisure is a time that young people learn to use through the multiple processes of socialization they experience. The interviews were done with young students attending the fourth and fifth years of high school. They were very free in the use of their time, very independent from the families they belong to, and spend their leisure in a very similar way. The contextual analysis, however, indicates, beyond similar behaviours, different justifications. These different justifications of similar uses of time reveal the existence of practices of leisure fuelled by specific cognitive and normative processes relating to the construction of various social individualities. How to spend leisure is learnt at home, at school, among friends, in the city where you live; in the various processes of learning, family plays a fundamental role: parents teach children to capitalize on their time from an early age but they also teach them to consider different practices; how to negotiate their freedom. The construction of two models of learning, one in which leisure is represented as an achievement and another in which leisure stresses the subjective choices made by young people as to how to spend it, emphasizes the consequences that different conceptions of the Other have on individualization processes, as well as the binding function that rules equal for everyone, and not only for the members of groups, have in rooting young people in their community. The specificity of the processes of individualization that emerges from our research is—most unexpectedly—in the faint light given to others in the processes of self-construction, in that difficult conjugation of deliberate behaviour is oriented to others that define social individuality. The weak role of otherness in the construction of youth individuality is

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surprising when one considers that one of the most recurrent interpretations of southern Italy emphasizes the strength of social relationships. The analysis of the leisure practices of youth provides insights to investigate the dimension of otherness in the construction of social individuality. Students more aware of their choices of leisure are students who are learning through the rules and limits imposed on their freedom, who know that their universe is populated by others who are experiencing sociality as a form of self-knowledge. How to teach them to choose their leisure, how to promote the social dimension of subjectivity, in a time when family and work, public and private, time and space, lose the known definitions and become elements to be modelled in relation to individual situations, remain as questions that the research leaves open, while suggesting that the work, or rather the relationship between productive forces and production relations of Hegelian memory, still remains an area of social consequences too often vaguely evoked.

Reference List Banfield, E. C. 1958, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, Chicago: The University of Chicago. Berthélot, J. M. 2001, Epistémologie des sciences sociales, Paris: PUF. Boudon, R. 1995, Le juste et le vrai. Etudes sur l’objectivité des valeurs et de la connaissance, Paris: Fayard. Bourricaud, F. 1977, L’individualisme institutionnel. Essai sur la sociologie de Talcott Parsons, Paris: PUF. Cavalli, A. 1990 (ed.), I giovani del Mezzogiorno. Una ricerca Formez Iard, Bologna: Il Mulino. Cavalli, A. and O. Galland 1996 (eds), Senza fretta di crescere. L’ingresso difficile nella vita adulta. Napoli: Paradigma. Cesareo, V. 2005 (ed.), Ricomporre la vita. Gli adulti giovani in Italia, Roma: Carocci. Diamanti, I. 1999 (ed.), La generazione invisibile, Milano: Il Sole 24 Ore. Durkheim, E. 1998, De la division du travail social, Paris: PUF. Galland, O. 2007, Sociologie de la jeunesse, Paris: Armand Colin. Garelli, F. 1984, La generazione della vita quotidiana, Bologna: Il Mulino. Garelli, F., A. Polmonari and L. Sciolla 2006, La socializzazione flessibile. Identità e trasmissione dei valori tra i giovani, Bologna: Il Mulino. Lo Verde, F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma: Laterza. —. (ed.) 2011, Consumare-investire il tempo libero, Mondadori: Milano.

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Ricolfi, L. and L. Sciolla 1980, Senza padri né maestri. Inchiesta sugli orientamenti politici e culturali degli studenti, Bari: De Donato. Roberts, K. 2006, Leisure in Contemporary Society, CABI, Wallingford, UK. Schon, D. 1983, The reflective practitioner. How professionals think in action, London: Temple Smith. Seligman, A.B. 2002, La scommessa della modernità. L’autorità, il sé e la trascendenza, Roma: Meltemi. Simmel, G. 1984, Les problemes de la philosophie de l’histoire: une étude d’épistémologie, Paris: PUF.

PART IV LEISURE ACROSS SPORT, BODY AND EMOTION

CHAPTER FOURTEEN BEYOND PLAY, PLAYFULLY: THE CULTURAL LOCATION OF FITNESS ACTIVITIES ROBERTA SASSATELLI The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes places every day. Samuel Beckett

Introduction This paper explores the cultural location of fitness training. It locates fitness training as a particular style or frame of activity intersecting the fields of leisure, sport and body transformation. It shows that non-competitive, recreational physical activities may indeed be as imbued with ideological values as competitive sports, and that the instrumentalization of pleasure is a powerful element of contemporary commercial leisure culture. However, it also goes further to consider how “fun”, which is organized as a relevant experience of fitness training, is related to a particular image of self which stresses autonomy, flexibility and “positive thinking” as key elements of wellbeing. To proceed in this way, the paper investigates in some depth the meanings associated with fitness training and the fit body, drawing on a variety of qualitative sources (from ethnography, to in depth interviews, to expert discourse analysis collected in Italy and the UK for over fifteen years) which I have fully discussed elsewhere (Sassatelli 2010). The ideal of the fit-body reinforces the superiority of training over other sports and active leisure activities, as well as against other techniques of body transformation. Against what is broadly claimed by both critics and supporters of the commercialization of physical activity, individualism is not expressed in total freedom, but within the confines of responsibility and self-control. In turn,

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this seems to break away from the post-modern paradigm of absolute plasticity: today’s gym seems to be an expression of another, perhaps older and modernist culture, certainly a less permissive and indulgent one. Fitness enthusiasts are not simply invited to choose the body they prefer, but to work diligently and, as it were, with humble determination, towards their own goals, in short, to choose to discipline themselves. While fitness centres are encoded as a means of self-expression for the individual consumer who knows and must realize his or her most fundamental needs, training in gyms implies concentration, discipline, the ability to follow rather strict rules, to know one’s place, to get into the right mood, and so on. To be sure, with its complex internal organization and rules, the fitness gym testifies to the absence of real “free time”. Yet, in dealing with subjects who pay and can always decide they no longer need the gym, it must play up fun elements and subvert daily routines. Training in the gym is neither time free from rules, nor is it framed as inconsequential distraction. It is proper “re-creation”, but individualistically managed. Unlike the physical education rigidly organized by nation states to govern their populace, contemporary commercial fitness culture responds to a mixed group of private individuals who want to take care of their body, enjoy themselves: they can be persuaded, but not coerced. While clearly situated in the sphere of leisure and consumption, fitness training is framed as wellorganized productive time. It not only produces physical changes, but it also fosters a special notion of what is natural, what is right to do for one’s own body and self. If, as many clients claim, fitness promotes a special vision of subjectivity, relatively disarticulated from class distinctions, but still linked to a moral image of self and the world. The image, characteristic of pluralistic, totalizing and individualizing institutions which are expressions of latemodern consumer culture, hinges on social mobility. In the background there is the idea that, with adequate work on oneself, anyone can obtain both a more disciplined body and social success.

Fitness culture and fitness gyms Fitness gyms are non-competitive environments aimed at providing recreational exercise to boost physical form and wellbeing. As such, they are at the core of a much broader fitness culture. All in all, fitness culture is a constellation of hybrid, shifting and rather diverse phenomena which are growing across the world. It comprises a variety of commodities: news-stands are full of magazines on physical exercise, health and beauty, which promote an increasingly nuanced vision of the fit body and offer advice about exercises and diet that may help in getting it; bookshops have

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an increasingly large and varied collection of exercise manuals; fitness festivals are increasingly getting media coverage and contribute to the professionalization of trainers. Besides this, there has been a remarkable diffusion of fitness training aids—from aerobics videos to home-fitness equipment—for individual use at home. Urban jogging is still popular and traditional sports may be practiced for fitness purposes rather than competition or play. Accurate figures of the amount of people involved in fitness training across the population are not readily available, as workout routines may be exercised alone in front of the television set, at the workplace, on an urban sidewalk, in a class set up by a community leisure centre, in or indeed in commercial fitness gyms. Furthermore, fitness culture can be said to be much broader than the people who actually and regularly train, as the growing market for sportswear clearly witnesses; indeed fitness outfits are not only increasingly sold to the fitness fan, they are also bought by casual consumers and have long contaminated other type of clothes. Even more broadly, as hinted before, keep-fit activities in the gym and the fit body have become commercial icons in themselves, signs used in the patchwork images surrounding commodities. Reflecting the increasing diversity of fitness culture, keep-fit exercise is ever more hegemonic within contemporary physical recreation activities, attracting in its orbit a number of different, even rather established forms of recreational physical practices such as boxing, martial arts or Nordic walking. Today, a number of activities are coded as “fitness”, including established sports such as swimming which are increasingly practiced for fitness purposes rather than competition; oriental techniques such as yoga which have been both incorporated within fitness exercise in the gym and are available in more “pure’ forms in specific institutions; leisure activities such as orienteering, walking, gardening and dancing whose fitness benefits are increasingly underlined both within and without the fitness world narrowly defined; physical activities such as jogging whose birth is indeed co-extensive with the emergence of contemporary fitness culture; and, as suggested, fitness exercise at home. As is apparent, these activities are diverse and varied: some are highly institutionalized and commercialised, some are not; some are more clearly geared to body maintenance, others refer to sociability, recreation and spirituality. It was not possible within the scope of a single volume to offer an in depth study of each of these, nor would it be advisable. Rather than try and zoom in on the whole spectrum of places and activities which can be coded as fitness, I have focussed on gym practices as the more iconic, if not significant, aspect of the wider family of keep-fit exercise.

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Typically organised via market relations, fitness gyms are central to the fitness market. On a global level, the US stands out as having a significantly stronger commercial fitness sector than any other country. In 2005, in the US there were 29,000 health clubs with a clientele of about 14% of the population. In comparison, the EU-states taken together had 33,400 fitness clubs with a mean penetration rate of 8.1% (Sassatelli 2010). The gym obviously occupies a crucial symbolic space in the fitness culture. Gyms are firmly present in fitness discourse on exercise as the main site where the fit body is both produced and consumed, they are specific institutions where trainers translate their expertise for the public to meet the expectations, illusions and delusions of consumers, and they provide a dedicated space where the meanings and objectives of fitness training are continuously negotiated alongside participants’ identities. The negotiation of meanings and practices which take place within fitness gyms between clients and trainers is crucial to the dynamic of the fitness world at large. Recreational physical activities are indeed being continuously monitored and selectively exploited by the fitness industry which is firmly grounded on fitness gyms. Fitness gyms draw on emergent, grassroots or parallel phenomena to continuously define the content and meaning of fitness, broadening their scope to include fun, sociability and mental fulfilment. While increasingly complemented and challenged by a host of less institutionalized or emergent phenomena, commercial fitness gyms are the hegemonic cultural and institutional form within fitness culture. All in all, they do offer a vantage point to consider the family of activities branded as fitness. Whether tiny and half-hidden between a shop and a cafe, or imposing and brightly lit, fitness gyms have become part of late modern cities in Europe as well as the US, Australia and Japan. The contemporary world of gyms is an extremely complex and varied reality, yet, since the late 1970s there has been a considerable growth in commercial recreational centres which have presented themselves in a new way: gyms have been tightly associated with the notion of “fitness”, and old labels have been replaced in professional texts by neologisms such as “fitness centres” and “fitness clubs”, and more recently as “health centres” or “wellness clubs”. These neologisms have a more luxurious feel attached to them, as well as diverging attention from the competitive, harsh and often very masculine world which was originally associated to the term gymnasium. Still, most fitness participants I have come across refer to their clubs using the word “gym”, something which reflects the fact that, even in large fitness centres, the core training space is indicated as such.

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Fitness gyms are a special breed of leisure institution (Rojek 2000). Gyms are different from social clubs—both working class and upper class—in that a set of specific tasks are to be carried out, with sociability being either a by-product or a facilitator of those tasks. In some ways, going to a fitness gym is a form of “serious leisure” (Stebbins 2009) which allows the development of a project and to a degree a “career” within one’s own free time. In others, it is a form of “therapeutic leisure” (Caldwell 2005) which is believed to prevent negative life events, can help us coping with them, and can generally have healing functions. Perhaps to best characterize them, we shall contrast fitness gyms with Casinos and theme parks (see Bryman 1999; Gottdiener 1998). These institutions are aimed to provide for emotional release and chance playing. On the contrary, fitness gyms are meant to provide for body involvement and risk control. They are probably best understood under the banner of “rational recreation”. A notion of Victorian heritage according to Foucault (1977), rational recreation stresses that recreational activities should be morally uplifting for the participant and have positive benefits for the wider society. At a difference with more informal, spontaneous forms of leisure, or with sub-cultures of commodity appropriation (Willis 1979) they appear, at least at a first glance, functional to social order and dominant classifications, rather than “anti-structural” or “subversive”. Considered in this light, fitness gyms are a special breed of gym as well. Of course, gyms which concentrate solely on one competitive physical activity, such as boxing, martial arts or on muscle development and body-building, do still exist, but they represent niche phenomena as compared to the often much bigger premises which offer a variety of exercise possibilities collected under the banner of an ever-shifting notion of fitness. Body-building gyms, and even more so, boxing gyms, are often strongly connoted in terms of sex, class and ethnicity, and provide for the consolidation of veritable sub-cultural environments, quite markedly cut out of mainstream cultural formations (see Klein 1993; Lowe 1998; Wacquant 2003). For the most part, fitness gyms present themselves as unisex and appeal to as wide a public of consumers as possible. Indeed, the fitness phenomenon is commercial at its core. And fitness gyms are generally modelled as spaces to be consumed, used and appropriated via some sort of commercial relation. Different countries across the Western world surely have different traditions of physical recreation provision. Nordic Countries rely more on public provision in the context of a strong voluntary sports sectors and strong links between sports, non-profit idealism and volunteerism (Steen-Johnsen 2004), the US relies more on market relations (Smith Maguire 2007), and counties such

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as Britain (Crossley 2006) and Italy (Sassatelli 2000) rely of an fair mixture of private health clubs and fitness scheme in public facilities. Still, fitness gyms as such are inextricably intertwined with consumer culture; heavily imbued with a promotional logic and the idea that leisure products have to be targeted to clients or consumers. Taking a look at the international expansion of fitness, there seems to be trend in many Western countries for commercially owned fitness centres to take over other, community based, forms of fitness provision and in fact dominate the market; there also seems to be a correlation between the presence of large sections of the population with the financial means to pay for commercial fitness services and the rise of fitness training in general (Sassatelli 2010). As I shall show, this partly reflects the official framing of fitness training, namely the improvement or maintenance of individual body qualities and wellbeing. Emphasis on individuality and the duties and pleasure of “taking care of oneself” is paramount in fitness culture, which also speaks in the seemingly universalistic voice of a fight against the ills of urban living and its deskbound patterns. This entails a pluralistic ideology, which works on pluralistic personalization rather than class distinction and elaborates a particular brand of tamed hedonism (for a broad theoretically-grounded elaboration of the term, see Sassatelli 2000a and 2011).

Leisure and discipline beyond play Time spent in the gym is typically coded as “leisure” by both expert discourse and actual participants. This is so even though many gym-goers, especially regular and keen participants, submit themselves to relatively demanding bodywork. Many sociologists have indeed interpreted their role as the de-mystification of the leisure, free-time, cheerful quality attributed to fitness (Glassner 1992; Le Breton 1992; Maguire and Mansfield 1998). In such views, fitness is the example of an allegedly body loving era which is in fact obsessed with the body to the point that inactivity is not an option and work enters the sphere of leisure. The ultimate objective of many such diagnoses is to maintain that, as commercial institutions, gyms are consumption generation devices: while mere “resting” cost nothing, keep-fit exercise needs paraphernalia of commodities to be carried out. While this is an interesting line to pursue if we are to consider the relative advantages of different systems of leisure provision (commercial or not), it does not allow us to focus seriously on the way the experience of leisure is organized in contemporary consumer societies. Fitness gyms are, to a degree, entertainment industries: they

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largely manage involvement as fun. In this section, experiences of fun as narrated by a variety of participants are taken seriously and placed in the context of the emotional structure of the fitness scene. The fitness industry runs after clients’ pleasures—to the point that clients may be classified by the palette of pleasures provided by fitness and how they manage to respond to it. While regular clients embrace a mix of hedonism and asceticism, estranged and marginal clients, or even gym dropouts, are as much recalcitrant to discipline as they are to “positive thinking” and institutionally governed “cheerfulness”. The vocabulary of regulars is rich in pleasure. Pleasure is present in many ways in the gym tales told by regular and enthusiastic clients. There is surely a vocabulary of duty in regular clients’ justifications for training, but they invariably also view fitness as “recreation”, “entertainment”, “fun”, “diversion”, “play”, “leisure”, “a hobby”. Before getting to the particular mix of pleasure and duty which characterizes fitness culture, let’s consider the analogy with play from a distance. Although it has some of the typical characteristics of play-type situations—elements of sociability and a relatively limited centre of attention which requires the filtering of all external considerations, the possibility for subjects to test their limits, to face up to the difficulties involved and to do their utmost to carry out these activities—the physical activities which take place in fitness centres are very far from being structurally like play. Relatively more similar to athletics, play is generally defined as an “autotelic”, activity, a practice which is an objective in itself, and which can therefore offer an “experience of flux par excellence”, i.e. in which flux is “sought above all in itself, and not for the incidental extrinsic benefits which may derive from it” (Csiksenmihalyi 1982, 36; see also Bateson 1972; Goffman 1961 and 1967). Play, in other words, is presented as a field of action which is “not serious”, in which “individuals openly participate for the pleasure of it”, and not for the consequences their actions may or should achieve. This is probably most evident in role playing and fantasy games such as those studied by Gary Alan Fine (1983). In these worlds, participants may act quite reflexively in relation to the moves of the game and yet they are rather seriously engrossed, and what is more, the instrumental pursuit of external gains is typically stigmatized. Unlike those who really play, those who carry out physical activity in the gym do not do it so much just to enjoy themselves. While play offers the possibility of “sanctioned exhibition”, or the “opportunity to exhibit attributes valued in the wider social world” (Goffman 1961, 61 my italics; see also Perinbanayagam 2006), fitness gyms are backstage institutions. In

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other terms, they allow preparatory activities through which bodies may acquire attributes that are positively valued in other, often decisive, social occasions. Keep-fit exercise is not, in the final analysis, an end in itself: clients’ efforts are justified as they produce embodied qualities that appear as external incentives to the activity’s progress. However, fitness activities do offer the possibility of temporarily playing down their own seriousness and consequentiality. If games are “mimeses of the interaction life of human agents who live in organized societies” (Perinbanayagam 2006, 25) fitness is a body discipline that, in a way, mimics games. The emotional structure of keep-fit work-out-the-spirit participants are required to embrace while training, irrespective of their own emotions, is characterized by the same “surrealistic clarity” (Bateson 1972) as that of play, only inverting its poles. Fitness reflects and subverts play by trading on its conventional meanings and turning them upside down. Play is a domain of non-serious seriousness, a reality separate from the wider social world by means of a membrane which makes it relatively nonconsequential, important in itself and highly absorbing. Exercise, by contrast, is a domain of serious playfulness, a field of serious social action which plays down its own seriousness in order to encourage involvement in the proceeding of action. Fitness activities thus rest on a precise paradox: physical exercise is presented as having serious effects on clients’ bodies, but is to be carried out as something which, like play, is relevant in itself and allows participants a sanctioned self-centeredness. Clients are encouraged to experience work-out as a time which has the quality of a meaningful, enjoyable present, in the dual meaning of heightened perception of the here-and-now and of gift, something special for oneself. As a result, clients may become more seriously involved. As emotional leaders, instructors and trainers have an important role in promoting this emotional structure. Their job is primarily to manage the playfulness of exercise as a local experience, balancing this against its consequential seriousness. This is a delicate task. They must promote a relaxed and informal atmosphere, but must not undermine the ultimate value of bodywork, reducing it to a game with no purpose. They encourage clients by inducing concentration on the movements to be carried out, coding such concentration as “fun” while simultaneously claiming that exercise will have tangible body “pay-offs” for those who work hard. In exercise-to-music classes, rhythmic incitements are used as a way to provide a playful twist to the routine. Reference to fatigue is typically matched by cheerful expressions and appreciative comments. What Nina Loland (2000) found in her study of aerobics in Norway— namely a strong emphasis on “corporeal work ethic” emphasizing the

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instrumentality of aerobic work-out—was matched by a variety of playful, cheerful accompanying expressions in most of the training scenes I witnessed across both Italy and Britain. Merely ascetic expressions, such as “I know this isn’t fun… it shouldn’t be fun… however, it will be good afterward” reported by Loland (ibid., 120) as spoken from an aerobics instructor during training, were indeed rather infrequent. Common was instead the qualification of training as a pleasurable duty, and not only because it may respond to deferred gratification. To be sure, a “duty plus treat” logic certainly impinges on the training scene, with exercise being coded as work which allows for relaxation or relaxed consumption afterwards, of food, for example (see Spielvogel 2003; Crossley 2006), but even more so of the wellness variety (saunas, spas, massages) which is increasingly offered in large, upmarket premises. However, rather more frequently, bodywork is itself coded via reference to involvement, energy and fun. Cheerfulness strongly qualifies the emotional fashioning of training as strenuous self-challenging commitment. Considering the Italian and British fitness scene, and a broader set of activities besides classic aerobics, what strikes me is that all fitness participants indeed work hard at supporting cheerfulness, coding the sweat produced by physical exertion as effort and enthusiasm, considering the repetitiveness of moments as providing energy and exaltation. In this sense, fitness also inverts the emotional structure of many contemporary sports and leisure activities which have been understood under the rubric of “a quest for excitement” (Elias and Dunning 1986): rather than “mimetic excitement”, fitness training is shaped as excited mimesis and cheerful enactment of a quest. Let’s explore this with reference to emotional structure of boxing. As suggested by Loic Wacquant (2003, 94-5), the boxer’s “learning of indifference to physical suffering is inseparable from the acquisition of the form of sang-foid specific to pugilism”: the boxer has to develop a gradual resistance to being violently punched and has to off-set his own “initial reflex of self-preservation that would undo the coordination of movements and give the opponent a decisive advantage”. By and large, what fitness participants display with strenuousness is not so much an indifference to fatigue, pain or fear—such as in the case of boxers which have to become “resistant to excitement” —and not only because in the fitness gym there is very little physical fear, much less and much different pain, and relatively less fatigue. Leaving new combat keep-fit techniques aside, the hazardous excitement of games organized through strategic conversational structures (Perinbanayagam 2006), the “euphoric interaction” of a practice of “uncertain outcome” (Goffman 1961, 68) are not there and somewhat

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need to be artificially recreated. So fitness clients have rather to become— to paraphrase Wacquant—excited to resist. They need to display their will to work dutifully and laboriously, to perform their tasks vigorously (in resistance training) or precisely (in postural gymnastics), as fast as required (in aerobics and Spinning) or as slow as required (in Pilates). As compared to boxing narratives, fitness fans’ comments appear sanitized and ceremonial (see also Sassatelli 2012 for a broader discussion). Exercising bodies in the fitness gym do sweat and get tired, but indifference has to be acquired more to the ceremonial exposure which workout commands than to actual physical effort or danger. Being looked at may be as tough as fatigue, and taking responsibility for one’s own body while accepting its defects is indeed a major, if different, challenge to one’s own reflex of self-preservation. To steer emotions in this direction, quite often gym instructors include themselves in the scene as training partners, and they use phrases such as “we are really warm now!”, “I’d like to stop, but it’s not finished”, “you really made me work hard today!”. They may even draw attention to imperfections in their own body, and they do so to downplay both body ideals and fatigue, to then stress both by complimenting achievement. In doing so they balance the internal meaningfulness of the exercise with its external effectiveness, fun with consequentiality, local experience with embodied performance. Their role in managing the emotional structure of keep-fit exercise accounts for trainers’ centrality in the success of any club. However, as I shall show in the next paragraph, this emotional structure has, in many ways, become objectified in fitness culture.

The seriousness of fun and tamed hedonism In a much-quoted review of social psychological studies of leisure and free time, Seppo Iso-Ahola (1989) showed that leisure activities are best conceived as being the result of a trade-off between extrinsic motivation (including external control, ultimate benefits and competition) and intrinsic motivation (carrying out an activity for the pleasure of doing so). Furthering this broad observation, my work on fitness culture has stressed the objectified, institutionally sustained balancing configuration of internal and external elements. In fitness “fun”, a typically internal ingredient, strongly related to the contingency of interaction, becomes (also) a prescription within the industry and an institutional thrust for cheerful selfchallenge takes the place of competition. Indeed, companies producing fitness equipment take great care to make their products user-friendly, increasingly mixing work-out with entertainment solutions (often of a

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simulational kind). Keep-fit videos also reveal the normative character of “fun”: the trainers-demonstrators on videos relentlessly display cheerfulness, and enjoyment or fun are repeatedly invoked together with self-competition. Fitness manuals are likewise coded: “the simple truth is that the quickest way to fitness is the one you enjoy the most” plainly says the popular selfhelp manual Teach Yourself Fitness (Archer 2006, ix). More broadly, current fitness marketing, in Italy, Britain and the United States, also posits fun as crucial to exercise adherence: managers and trainers are thus encouraged to put emphasis on the provision of entertainment and clients should learn to take charge of their exercise programs, including the activities that they enjoy most. There is, thus, clearly a normative element in “fun”. And the institutionally sustained re-framing of training as “fun” circularly legitimates the fitness gym as a commercial institution. For the provision of fun, fitness gyms cannot rely on the possibility of taking up a strategic, dialogic position through competition, something that in the typical structure of games offers a solid basis for involvement and internal rewards (Perinbanayagam 2006). Joyful self-competition is certainly fundamental, yet a somewhat “conversational” element is injected in the fitness scene. This happens through informal, aside exchanges among participants. Moments of reciprocal distraction from training—in the form of glances, gestures, laughter and dialogue inspired by the codes of informality and role-distancing—appeal especially to regular clients. It is to these clients that they provide for a sense of “freedom” and “liberation” (see Sassatelli 1999). In general terms, we know that there is a strong correlation between informality—in other words the possibility of deviating from the rigid requirements of role and interaction—and the perception of doing something which corresponds to the expression of oneself, and between these two characteristics of interaction and the definition of something as fun and free (Samdhal 1988). Yet, once we factor in participation dynamics and their rhetorical rendering, we shall consider that informality itself, and the perception of doing something freely, is perceived differently according to whether the participants feel they are actually contributing to the emotional structure of the scene or, indeed, find it imposed on them. There is a double-bind relation between participation and involvement which the organization of fun can only partly address. The obligatory nature of feeling is indeed deeply felt by quitters and irregulars who explicitly mention “the false happiness” of keepfit training and even the “superficiality” of relationships in the gym. In one case, a gym quitter even provided me with a bitter caricature: “you should have fun being regimented inside a crowded, small, indoor place: why?” A coercive tinge is not perceived by fans and regulars in the gym, who code

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pretty similar scenes just as “full of energy” or “enthusiasm”. Along with “benefits” and “results”, they stress the importance of cheerfulness. They feel rewarded by the most “attentive” trainers, who “inspire enthusiasm”, they appreciate a gym where other participants “don’t want to muck about”, they are pleased with a “serious” and at the same time “relaxed” atmosphere where one “can make a joke”. “Fun” has important rhetorical uses and practical consequences. As such, it is an extremely serious element in fitness. On one hand, it is geared towards something more than simple entertainment (i.e. body modification, keeping fit). On the other, it produces effects on the perception of what exercise is, and what it offers. Involvement experiences are important for their effects of reality (see Goffman 1961). When coded as “fun”, involvement experiences are also crucial for their effects of subjectivity (see Foucault 1983). They become part of the reflexive narrative about self and participation or consumption. So many regulars describe bodywork in the gym as “not work, but a space which must remain entertaining”, something which needs “commitment” and yet “you must feel that you are not forced to do it”. The sequence of exercises may thus be described, not just an external given, but as something alive in the clients’ experiences, absorbing the whole of their attention for a brief moment but with quite low risks of failure. Fun is both predicated on, and confirms the, intrinsic relevance of keep-fit exercise. By and large, regular clients are adamant that they have learned to enjoy themselves and to use enjoyment in order to continue training. This duality of feeling—which entails both real engrossment and reflexive, even instrumental agency—is not to be understood as evidence of the merely ideological nature of fitness. It is rather a feature of all engrossment or “flux” experiences in games: as Robert Perinbanayagam (2006) has quite convincingly argued, it becomes the basis of the possibility of stabilizing and narrating the self through games. All in all, fitness activities in the gym do illustrate quite well that the sociologist’s job goes beyond the demystification of fun in leisure. It precisely entails the discovery of the social mechanisms through which fun is produced. In regulars’ accounts fun does not derive from time spent free from all rules; indeed, it is socially organized. In particular it is generated by engaging with well-organized social practices and by learning to embrace their rules. The emotional structure of a keep-fit work-out not only highlights the procedural, present vividness of exercise movements, it also classifies participants’ engrossment as “fun”. The successful gymgoers whom I have met both in Italy and Britain mention self-challenge, on the one hand, and informality, on the other, as sources of fun. In their

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words, doing fitness is “entertaining” because it provides a “moment of concentration: try to do better every day”; because it furnishes a clear arena for self-evaluation: “to find out how far I can go, and I really like being able to measures my performance”. But, to be fun, self-challenge is coded via the relational and emotional structure of the fitness gym. Courtesy, little informal exchanges during the exercises, a cheerful ambiance which allows for a respectful joke from time to time, the staging of a supportive attitude, all these small interaction devices are managed so as to make strenuous exertion and self-challenge pleasant. Rather than friendship, carnal fraternity or shared membership in “a small guild renowned for toughness and bravery” which are the small pleasures of boxing training (Wacquant 2003, 68), fitness training provides a rather more detached, urban, polished sociability to brighten up the monotony of training, with a chance for diversion. Besides, regulars and enthusiasts describe their work-out experiences as involving intense perception of their own body as defined by the exercise. Successful initiation to fitness training is often described as the carnal harmonization of body and exercise. However sanitized it may be as compared to that of boxing, the very carnality of the process accounts for much of the pleasures of training. Carnality or embodiment is achieved, as in sports activities (Chambliss 1989; Heikkala 1993) or indeed ballet (Faure 2000), via the seemingly endless reiteration of movements which are strict and repetitive. This, however, is not felt as mere subjugation to the rather obvious strictures of keep-fit techniques. On the contrary, a disciplined body is conceived of as a proof of one’s own improvement, and linked to satisfaction. Thus, the concentration on one’s own body while training may be described as a heightened sense of embodiment, which is conceived of as a “liberation” from all external pressure. As such it concurs to the vocabulary of fun. Just like other sports or amateur practices—especially those which are constructed as “the Other” of ordinary urban life, for example mushroom collecting (Fine 1998) or Nordic walking (Shove and Pantzar 2005)—fitness training is perceived as a moment of release from the tension produced by urban living, deskbound professional demands and family obligations. Experiences of fun are, in many ways, a function of participation: regulars are more likely to engage and feel comfortable with the physical demands, motivational logic and emotional structure of training, while novices play at the margins. As suggested, this produces a double-bind configuration and a recursive relation between fun and participation: participation produce fun, and fun produces participation. Such a configuration perhaps lies beneath what we normally call routine: it is only

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via participation that we learn to relax in a social scene, and yet a measure of relaxation is quite often fundamental for on-going, successful participation. Two further analytical considerations stem from my extended fieldwork observations and encounters. Firstly, that external or social habitus (class, gender, ethnicity, etc.) works precisely at the intersection of fun and participation, as a mediating factor, which facilitates (or otherwise) their adjustment. Secondly, that internal social arrangements (degree of informality, focusing of activity, etc.) filter the working of external or social habitus to generate a “separated” reality where fun and participation can be negotiated also against external identities. In other terms, as with other leisure spheres, the gym allows for a partial de-coupling from external habituses and allowing for internal “careers” that partially allow for participants’ fun and participation. As my research extended across quite a long period of time, I could witness an increasing emphasis on fun from the mid-1990s to the present. Today, in Italy and in Britain at least, fun appears to be increasingly drawn upon to provide fitness with legitimation, having become a crucial basis for a public account as to why and to what extent fitness is good for people. Indeed, in broad cultural terms, fitness training rests on a specific combination of asceticism and hedonism, both of which tend to stress the notion of individual autonomy. This is clearly consistent with a more general trend in Western consumer culture, one that stresses the role of (domesticated) individual pleasure in the legitimation of consumer practices (Sassatelli 2007). Fitness gym insiders associate the energy produced by training with the possibility of living a fuller life and using the body to the fullest: fitness provides the body with energy that helps to “do everything better”, with “less effort”, to “organize the day”, to have “more drive”, to “get more done”. The energy produced in the gym is “good” because “it charges you up”, and “enhances your life and your environment”. Asceticism is thus coupled with hedonism. This is the polite, efficient and tamed hedonism that contributed to the diffusion of mass leisure in the twentieth century. It is a script which resonates with the cult of individual autonomy and self-control which are both crucial to Western consumer culture as intertwined with bourgeois embodiment. Let’s take a theoretical step back and consider that in all consumption there is the double necessity to desire and to govern desires, so that a convincing and strong image of the self can be projected. Model consumers have to busily enjoy the commodities they have chosen and at the same time they must know that their deepest selves lies somewhere else. Hedonism must thereby be domesticated or tamed to work as the hegemonic legitimating narrative in consumer culture. Articulated in various contexts and by different people

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to account for consumption practices, tamed hedonism might be succinctly expressed in the paradoxical formula: “consumers must be after pleasure only when pleasure is after them” (Sassatelli 2000a, 100). No matter how different they may be, consumer practices considered as “normal” all have in common the fact they are viewed as both the realization of desires and their containment: they are presented and regulated as moral worlds responding to autonomous and self-possessed selves. The commoditization of dieting or of low-fat food—goods which articulate self-control within choice or offer pleasure without excess—may be taken as an attempt at overturning the anxieties about the corrosive nature of consumption (Bordo 1993). Likewise, the development of a market for body care and maintenance which fitness culture is part of provides a telling example of how immediate gratifications and longer-term projects of wellbeing which stress an autonomous self are normatively articulated. Fitness culture in particular provides a normalized picture of consumption with reference to the individual’s capacity to take care of himself and plan his future in a context of general wellbeing and social responsibility. These codifications consolidate a picture of the self through time. They are close to the classic Smithian view of the consumer as a rational desiring animal, anchoring individual pleasures to long-term projects of wellbeing which embody a vision of social order. They harmonize personal and social benefit, translating individual self-realization into a wider perspective. In practices such as fitness training we perfectly see how hedonism and asceticism are articulated though notions of wellbeing. As rendered through commercialization, fitness training not only displays the capacity to “suffer a little” to fulfil one’s own “obligation towards oneself”, the will “to improve yourself instead of complaining”. It also stresses “accomplishment” and “positive thinking”, articulating an ethic of selfcontrol with one of self-realization (Lears 1983). The energy acquired by training is thus positive because it is docile and expansive, making life grow. “Ready for everything”, the fit body is a powerful, docile universal utility. Its instrumentality matches the individualistic universalism of the fitness gyms. What is more, it illuminates an allegedly infinite horizon of potentiality adumbrating the existence of a self that is not confined to different social roles. A self which is able to master and govern roles and contingency by self-control operated, quite dualistically, via body-control.

Personalization, omnivorousness and narratives of self Let’s conclude by briefly exploring what a successful gym career typically means for exercise practice. Regulars claim that they have tried

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to “understand” right from the beginning which exercise combinations were most suitable for them, and to have tried, as one of them mentioned with telling words, to “structure myself inside the gym”. Regular clients are often determined to exploit the potential of fitness centres to the maximum by exploiting their experiences of “fun” translated as “satisfaction” (on this translation and the consolidation through time of local selves, see Sassatelli 2010). This matches the emphasis on personalization which is a feature of expert discourse. Exercise manuals both in Italy and in the UK, for example, remind readers that “one’s own tiredness” is a “good rule of thumb” for establishing when to stop exercising; they encourage individuals to choose “their own menu” for their fitness level. Personalization is an individual selection from prepackaged options. In the gym, both gym staff and gym instructors typically advise participants to “do different movements” by following the “different classes” or “techniques” offered by the institution. Personalized training programs are very important as they consolidate self-challenge, the motivational logic of fitness, through time and match the provision of structured variety which is typical of commercial fitness gyms. An on-going personalized training program is the main way through which a fitness fan can capitalize on the time spent exercising. As gyms operate on a differentiating pluralism, and there are official limits to internal recognition for those who have acquired a better physique, fitness capital may be displayed more easily via one’s own “omnivorousness” in fitness. Just as happens in other spheres of consumption such as music (see Peterson 1992; Peterson and Kern 1996), omnivorousness becomes a sign of one’s own centrality in fitness culture. Now, this is also expressed through participation as much as through a language of fun. Gym enthusiasts liked to socialize around fitness activities, engaged in small talk about them, displayed their insiders’ habitus relishing the horizon of variety available. Structured variety is described as a source of pleasure, offering an apparently non-exclusivist sense of achievement which matches the democratic ideology of fitness. Omnivorousness appears indeed well adjusted to that consumer capitalism which fitness culture is articulated with, enlarging markets and allowing for continuous provision of slightly different novelties. Marginal innovation indeed both diminishes consumers’ learning efforts and provides a sense of change and choice, being often coded as pleasurable realization of one’s own well-governed curiosity. As is evident, the government of desires is crucial in fitness culture. “Fun” in training is related to a particular image of self which stresses autonomy, flexibility and “positive thinking” as key elements of wellbeing.

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As articulated in fitness, subjectivity is rendered through a particular narrative of self. Of course, people do not go to the gym to discuss philosophy. By training they, so to speak, elaborate the body as materiality. The ultimate significance of the gym, however, shifts from the body to the self. Many clients indicate what gym attendance has given them as a “greater mastery” over their bodies, and the notion of the body as a docile instrument accentuates the idea of the self. More control over their bodies is often translated as more selfhood: working out at a gym enables the individual to “acquire energy and strength and, consequently, confidence and trust in themselves” (Rizzi 1992, 7). Individuals are no longer at the mercy of unhealthy urban environment. Instead, they become confident, rational managers of their resources: keep-fit exercise trains them to “control their own emotions and feel more balanced” (Caplin 1992, 298). Training in a gym is thus often described by clients as “a twofold phenomenon” which not only “serves to separate” the individual from everyday life, but also helps to “rediscover oneself”. These words allude to the centrality of the notion of authenticity. The combination of pleasure and duty—which stresses active, direct, constant work on one’s own body through one’s own body—sustains authenticity. Being acutely aware of the danger of discrediting oneself in the search for the perfect body, fitness fans refer to “authenticity” as a moral guarantee of the transformations they seek and may obtain. Gym insiders (instructors, trainers and fitness fans) articulate an overarching script stressing that fitness participants can claim physical improvements to be legitimately theirs. Let’s explore this more analytically. Clients often insist that a fit body is a “fair reward”. It truly belongs to the subject because he or she has learnt, through sustained dedication, to put the body to work, rather than pursuing fast, external, ephemeral transformations. Reference to the pleasure of training and one’s own disciplined investment in training is paramount. This may take quite ascetic tones. Repeating an old cliché, an Italian fitness manual for women (Brusati 1992, 7) describes fitness training as responding to the idea that “a better physique is not a free gift that accompanies us at birth, but rather the result of self-study and an informed choice that can turn every woman not only into a better person.” Indeed, going to the gym is presented on moral and moralistic grounds as the “right thing to do”, everyone has to “to look after themselves”, “we are the first responsible for ourselves”. All clients I have come across both in Italy and Britain seem convinced of the moral stance of fitness training, on the grounds that it allows for a legitimate appropriation of body transformation. The naturalness of fitness is reflected in a certain

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subjective quality: fit people are more authentic than before because they have worked on their potential and are aware of how to use it. Clearly keep-fit bodywork has a moral value which transpires in interpersonal relationships: it may provide for better social relations because authentic body improvements make people “feel good about themselves”. Fitness fans thus suggests that training helps you “to be at ease with yourself” and “therefore with others too”; or that “I try to have a good relation with my own body and feel at ease with myself; and this improves my relations with others”. Of course there is an element of ambiguity in the crossreferencing between recognition and self-recognition. Fitness fans are often quite vocal about the fact that how “other people see you” depends on how “you feel about yourself”. However, how you feel about yourself may depend on how much you manage to consider yourself “adequate”, “to your age”, “your body type”, “your work”, that is, to a set of generalized cultural ideals which, as suggested, are mediated by practices such as keep-fit bodywork. While self-recognition relies inevitably on addressivity (Perinbanayagam 2006), fitness training is organized in nondialogic form, emphasising another paradoxical trait of the gym. Reference to authenticity is supported by engagement with both routine and rupture, which matches duty and pleasure. On the one hand, authenticity is predicated on the natural plasticity of the body, which is demonstrated by the gradual character of the improvements. Gradualism is the result of “long-standing”, “regular commitment” to the routine of keep-fit workout. Some fitness fans suggested that they may “perceive the changes and be aware that they are natural”, that “you only become aware of them very gradually” because “there is no overnight change”. Gradualism is both the cause and the result of clients’ engagement with the routine of training, and of their emerging as reflexive trainees that continuously control their training programs. This allows clients to claim that some of their body defects are just a temporary condition that will be re-dressed with work and exercise and to feel they own whatever body amelioration they may obtain as well as. This also allows them to reject and take distance from crude versions of consumerism which propose quick-fix solutions to body defects and dissatisfaction. On the other hand, while many clients stress choice and commitment, they also feel as though they have acquired something that they “did not expect”, which was “almost accidental” and “spontaneous” and therefore all the more authentic. Amy, for example, concludes her account with the assertion that her efforts have opened up a new, unexpected self-awareness: “I now have a relationship with myself that is different, confident and self-assured. It has been an enlightening change”. Claire, too, claims to have “discovered

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something” she was “previously unaware” of. Such comments from fitness fans echo fitness discourse as expressed in manuals. As a trainer wrote in her popular gymnastics manual available both in English and in Italian, engagement with fitness routine helps people “to meet their aims and discover their hidden qualities” (Goodsell 1995, 9). In the context of fitness culture, commitment to both routine and discovery is particularly interesting. It helps us explore embodiment as ongoing emergent practice. We may do this by looking at how routine and discovery are articulated in experiential narratives. Reference to “discovery” is used at least twice in fitness narratives. The initial discovery of something wrong is described by clients as having prompted them to go to the gym. In success stories, this is matched by the discovery of something good and unexpected. Those who join a gym often tell stories about having become more conscious of their bodies as a result of an embodied misfit experience in everyday life which derived quite often from some breaching experiences, a rupture in ordinary routines. A salient misfit experience mediates commercial images or medical discourse on the body. In the interviews I have collected, misfit is not derived from facing normative discourse or idealized commercial body images. It is an utterly practical experience through which we may read such norms and ideals. Misfit experiences often have to do with a comment from a friend or a lover, with facing one’s one aging body when carrying out everyday ordinary activities, or with finding out that one has gained weight when trying out an old favourite item of clothing. Some, even the youngest, had not even been aware that they were, in fact, “becoming weaker” up to when their bodies “did not respond” as expected in one or more instances in ordinary life, to the point that “simple activities like going up stairs were an effort” or one “got out of breath just running after a bus”. The fitness gym is thus described as a response to a (mostly sudden) realization that ordinary routines and taken-for-granted requirements of daily life cannot be easily sustained, a response which provides names for discomforting experiences, and solutions to named problems. A response that requires one to come to terms with routine again, to engage with the repetitive nature of workout, investing time and effort to bring out, discover, the fit body, something that, as previously suggested, is normatively measured against one’s own embodied capacities in ordinary life. Thus, while fitness culture identifies problems and offers remedies, this happens through lived culture. Embodiment, as a dialectic of routine and rupture, should not be underestimated: in many ways people feel neither fit nor unfit because they see a magazine; they feel fit or otherwise because they experience their bodies in certain ways. Clearly expert

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discourse on fitness contributes to shaping the language of fitness, but it does so articulating people’s ordinary experiences, of failings and success. In a likewise fashion, attending a gym is less a rational choice than it is a creative learning process. Turning to the normative side, commitment to routine and discovery also helps us explore the particular rendering of the work ethic within fitness culture, considering how asceticism and hedonism are intermeshed. Gym insiders deploy slight variations on the same script, which elaborates a rather Puritan work ethic of Weberian memory. Reference to the notion of “discovery” is often used by gym insiders to complement the idea that fair rewards are the result of sustained bodywork. As in the classic version of the work ethic, mundane asceticism is working towards something which is already inside of us. Discovery, rather than invention, furthers the claim to authenticity: the subject of fitness has found the strength to work on his or her body to realize his or her nature. In other terms, discovery is something which cannot be simply factored in as part of a rational project, and brings authenticity back to normalizing reference to nature. Keep-fit workout is certainly described as a moral imperative, a secular form of salvation (see Glassner 1992; White and al 1995). Rather than the demonstration of a desire to be aesthetically pleasing, fitness fans often claim that training is just like “taking responsibility for oneself”. This may well be a strategy to gain control over the sense of self which derives from the mastery of physical activity. Yet, self-mastery may be jeopardized by presenting oneself as primarily an object of gaze, something which is implicit in body work as beautification or aesthetic technique (see BraceGovan 2002). The aesthetics of positive functionality which so clearly accompanies the ideal of the fit body (see Sassatelli 2010) may indeed translate, in contemporary terms, that “austerity of appearances” (Perrot 1987) though which the modern bourgeoisie controlled the meanings of their bodies and ultimately legitimated their moral claims to superiority and power. To conclude, it may be true, as Christopher Lasch (1979) suggested, that self-realization is now explored in leisure and consumer culture rather than in work. However, commercialized leisure, such as keep-fit activities, is often organized in ways that both draw upon and subvert work. An economizing rationalization, made of effectiveness and efficiency clearly places fitness workout close to the bureaucratic sphere of work. But trainees have to make sure that all benefits are theirs. Routine acquires a liberating potential for the individual, if it is taken both seriously and lightly. Engagement with routine is officially geared to the discovery of one’s own hidden qualities, to the realization of one’s own potentiality.

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And, what is more, the process of routine engagement itself has to become pleasurable, involving, relaxing, to the point that neither routine nor rupture, duty nor pleasure, may take over the autonomy of the self.

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—. 1998, Morel Tales. The Culture of Mushrooming, Cambridge: Mass. Harvard University Press. Foucault, M. 1977, Discipline and Punish. Harmondsworth: Penguin. —. 1983, “The subject and power”, in H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, Michel Foucault. Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Glassner, B. 1992, Bodies. Overcoming the Tyranny of Perfection, Chicago: Contemporary Books. Goffman, E. 1961, Encounters. Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction, London: Penguin. —. 1967, Interaction Rituals. Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior, New York: Pantheon Books. Goodsell, A. 1995, Obiettivo forma, Milano: IdeaLibri. Gottdiener, M. 1997, The Theming of America. Dreams, visions and Commercial Spaces, Boulder: Westview Press. Heikkala, J. 1993, “Discipline and excel. Techniques of the self and body and the logic of competing”, Sociology of Sport Journal, 10, 397-412. Klein, A.M. 1993, Little Big Men. Bodybuilding Subculture and Gender Construction, NewYork: Suny Press. Iso-Ahola, S. 1989, “Motivation for leisure”, in E.L. Jackson and T.L. Burton (eds), Understanding Leisure and Recreation, State College, PA, Venture Publishing. Lasch, C. 1979, The Culture of Narcissism, New York: Norton. Le Breton, D. 1990, Anthropologie du corps et modernité, Paris: PUF. Loland, N.W. 2000, “The art of concealment in a culture of display. Aerobicizing women’s and men’s experience and use of their own bodies”, Sociology of Sport Journal, 17, 111-129. Lowe, M. 1998, Women of Steel. Female Body Builders and the Struggle for Self-Definition, New York: New York University Press. Maguire, J. and L. Mansfield 1998, “No-body’s Perfect. Women, Aerobics and the Body Beautiful”, in Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 2, 109-137. O’Toole, L. 2009, “McDonald’s the Gym? A Tale of Two Curves”, in Qualitative Sociology, 32, 1, 75-91. Perrot, Ph. 1987, “Pour une généalogie de l’austerité des apparences”, in Communication, 46, 157-180. Peterson, R. 1992, “Understanding audience segmentation. From elite and mass to omnivore and univore”, Poetics, 21: 243-258. Peterson, R. and R. Kern 1996, “Changing highbrow taste. From snob to omnivore”, American Sociological Review, 61, 900-907. Perinbanayagam, R. 2006, Games and Sport in Everyday Life. Dialogues and Narratives of the Self, Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publisher.

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Rojek, C. 2000, Leisure and Culture, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Samdahl, D.M. 1988, “A symbolic interactionist model of Leisure. Theory and empirical support”, Leisure Sciences, 10, 27-39. Sassatelli, R. 1999, “Interaction order and beyond. A field analysis of body culture within fitness gyms”, Body and Society, 5(2-3), 227-248. —. 2000a, “Tamed hedonism. Choice, desires and deviant pleasures”, in A. Warde and J. Gronow (ed.), Ordinary Consumption, London, Harwood. —. 2000b, “The commercialization of discipline. Fitness and its values”, Journal of Italian Studies, Special Issue on Sport, 9(4), 332-349. —. 2003, “Bridging health and beauty. A critical perspective on keep-fit culture”, in G. Boswell and F. Poland (eds), Women’s Bodies, London: MacMillan. —. 2007, Consumer Culture. History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage. —. 2010, Fitness Culture. Gyms and the Commercialization of Fun and Discipline, Basingstoke: Palgrave. —. 2011, “Tamed Hedonism”, in Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, 3 vols, D. Southerton (ed.), London: Sage. —. 2012, “Selves and bodies”, in F. Trentmann (ed.), Handbook of the History of Consumption, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 633-652. Shove, E. and M. Panzar 2005, “Consumers, producers, and practices. Understanding the invention and reinvention of Nordic Walking”, Journal of Consumer Culture, 5, 43-64. Smith Maguire, J. 2002, “Body lessons. Fitness publishing and the cultural production of the fitness consumer”, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37, 449-464. Spielvogel, L. 2003, Working out in Japan. Shaping the female body in tokyo fitness clubs, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Stebbins, R.A. 2009, “Serious leisure and work”, Sociology Compass, July. Steen-Johnsen, K. 2004, Individualised Communities: Keep-fit exercise organizations and the creation of social bonds. Phd Dissertation, Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education Wacquant, L. 2003, Body and Soul, Chicago University Press. White, P., K. Young and J. Gillett, J. 1995, “Bodywork as a moral imperative. Some critical notes on health and fitness”, Loisir et Société, 18(1), 159-181. Willis, P. 1979, Profane Culture, London: Routledge.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES DELHI 2010: VOLUNTEERS IN SPORT AND LEISURE SANJAY TEWARI Introduction In recent years, the role of volunteers and their contribution to sport and leisure has received much greater attention and scrutiny. This coincides with the growth in opportunities to study sport at further, higher, and most recently, foundation level. Voluntary action can be explained as acts of active citizenship that provide some form of benefit to the community without reciprocal financial reward being the primary motivator. However, volunteering is driven as much by self-interest as it is by altruism. Attitudes towards volunteering can be coloured by stereotypical labels that unjustly associate volunteering with the older middle-class community who support some form of public-service charity. According to Pfeffer (1997), if an individual can be persuaded to do something, and their behaviour is not attributable to a powerful external force such as a reward or sanction, then that person will become more committed to the action and to its implications for other attitudes and behaviour. He goes on to argue that there are three conditions which facilitate commitment: choice or volition, publicness and explicitness. Choice is required to ensure that there are implications for an individual’s behaviour and to reflect an individual’s beliefs or perceptions. Publicness demonstrates that an individual has acted and binds the individual to their choice. Explicitness means that an individual’s behaviour has clear implications, that they are committed to having chosen one action over another. Volunteering by its nature appears to demonstrate these three conditions. First, volunteers are there by choice, there has been no coercion. Second, their actions are public, and the term “volunteer” represents to others the bond between the person and their choice to give freely of their time. Third, the act of giving their time for no monetary or

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material gain has explicit implications: they must like the organization and the tasks they perform, in order to forgo carrying out other activities or being elsewhere. After the year 1982, the year of 2010 was a landmark in the context of sports, especially for the games which are in a process of establishing themselves apart from the very well accepted game of cricket. Talking of the Asiad Games held in Delhi in the year 1982, the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 were the biggest event held in the context of India after a gap of twenty eight years. Apart from the many activities which draw our attention in this mega sporting extravaganza, the participation of volunteers was one which needs to be analysed. It is not so that volunteering is a new context, but by all means is recent in India as compared to the advancements in the western world. Volunteering saw an influx of participants into the main stream of this sport, and they were hurled in from various segments of the society. Their commitment was second to none. Meyer and Allen have identified three components to individual commitment (1991), i.e. Affective Commitment (emotional attachment a person feels for the unit); Normative Commitment (feelings a person has for remaining with the unit) and Continuous Commitment (person feels that they have accumulated interests/investments which otherwise would be lost if they leave the unit). What emerged from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010 volunteering programs was the Continuous commitment, or rather establishment of long term commitment. The changing styles of volunteering, as witnessed comparatively from the Asia games, saw the demonstration of the core values of the particular profession, i.e. the CWG Delhi 2010. Core values that underpin the professional practices are education, conservation, preservation, community engagement and aesthetic approaches to display (Hooper-Greenhill 2000). The impact of this event was such that a feeling of patriotism, a feeling of active citizenship, was witnessed amongst the volunteers. Studies have found that the congruence between characteristics of the individual and the characteristics of the organization, in the instant case, the CWG Delhi 2010, can affect volunteer attitudes and behaviour (Cuskelly, McIntyre and Boag 1998). The last section, where I talk about the involvement of youth, impressed upon those who were less incomedriven and placed great emphasis on values that were distinctive. This is in line with what Farmer and Fedor have suggested (1999). It seems likely that people who are not income-driven may place a greater emphasis on values that are central, enduring and distinctive, or as value-fit.

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Thus, the commitment of the youth towards volunteering in the CWG Delhi 2010 was exemplary, whether they be the services rendered at the accreditation, accommodation, games village, transport, logistics, communications, press operations, spectator services or for that sake in any department wherever involved. The youth, in particular, found the services as a part of leisure. They found in it a leisure activity, as choosing to volunteer for the CWG Delhi 2010 made them adapt to new and innovative learning skills, personal satisfaction, and helped them in development of the self in an environment they found interesting and socially vibrant and active. The objective of this analysis is to explore the values and commitment of serious leisure volunteers in order to make a more appropriate representation of volunteers.

The concept of volunteering as leisure: ethics and values Volunteerism is a topic of increasing importance in this age of budget cuts, declining employment and amid the threat posed by other competing leisure pursuits. There are both social and economic benefits of volunteering. As we are becoming more reliant on volunteers, there is a need for a better understanding of why people take up volunteering, and how to recruit, manage, motivate, and support them. A common application of ethics is to use it to refer to the formal study of morals, or to the work-related aspects of morality (Newman 2000). In practice, Newman states: Ethics and morality relate to the human ability to make choices among values, and to the human conduct which differentiates between what is thought to be right and what is thought to be wrong (Newman 2000, 34).

Daily, people make decisions based on their values, on principles that they hold about what is the right or the wrong thing to do. “Values are standards or criteria for choosing goals or guiding action and are relatively enduring and stable over time” (Dose 1997, 228). Values have a positive connotation and suggest something that a person is in favour of. Work values have been defined as evaluative standards that relate to work or the work environment by which individuals discern what is “right” or assess the importance of preferences (Dose 1997). A person acting in a work capacity, while influenced by their personal values, must base their decisions on the values of the profession in which they work (Newman, 2000). Volunteering is not a formal profession, but an activity that takes place in many professions; therefore volunteers would be required to

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demonstrate the core values of the particular profession for which they work. Values also relate to the identification of participants with the organization and the internalization of its goals and values (Tayyab and Tariq 2001). Studies have found that the congruence between characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the organization can affect volunteer attitudes and behaviour (Cuskelly, McIntyre and Boag 1998; Farrell, Johnston and Twynam 1998; Finegan 2000) and assert that organizations which do not have overriding values of economic gain may have values that are more altruistic. The proposition that volunteering is a form of leisure is beset by a thorny definitional problem that is neatly side-stepped in the economic conception of volunteering as unpaid work. The economic conception, which dominates in volunteer studies, avoids this problem by being amenable to objective measurement, as expressed in absence of payment as livelihood, whether in money or in kind. Thus, it largely avoids the chaotic question of motivation so crucial to leisure conception. Notwithstanding the relative lack of scholarly attention to volunteering leisure studies specialists, making a case for it as leisure poses a little logical difficulty. If the word volunteering is to remain consistent with its Latin and French roots, it can only be seen, as all leisure is, as non-coerced activity. It follows that, as with all leisure, leisure volunteering is a satisfying or enjoyable experience (or a combination of both). It is also true that volunteering includes the clear requirement of being in a particular place, at a specified time, to perform an assigned function. But Kaplan observes that true leisure can be obligated to some extent, although certainly not to the extent typical of work (1960, 22-25). It is more reasonable to describe obligation in volunteering as flexible. Some of the earlier theoretical stirrings for this conception came from Bosserman and Gagan who argued that at the level of all individuals, volunteering is a leisure activity (Bosserman and Gagan 1972, 115). More precisely, the two leisure specialists, Kaplan and Neulinger observed how leisure can serve either oneself or other people, or both (Kaplan 1975, 394; Neulinger 1981, 19). It is assumed that these two theorists had volunteering in mind. Dickson observed that leisure is seen in common sense as part of voluntary action, and does in fact carry this “spare time connotation” (1974, XIII). Parker (1987) reported findings from research on a group of peace workers. He discovered that, whereas they worked as volunteers for the cause of peace, they considered this work as a part of their leisure. Thus, volunteering is a work-like-activity wherein a person accomplishes a task

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without any remuneration. At the same time, the activity, which is noncoercive, provides many a satisfying experience.

The commonwealth games Delhi 2010: A volunteering overview The three core values of the Commonwealth Games movement were Humanity, Equality and Destiny, which were adopted by the Games movement in 2001. These values inspire and unite millions of people and symbolize the broad mandate for holding the Games within the Commonwealth. The Organizing Committee Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi (OC CWG Delhi 2010) came into being on 10 February 2005, as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act 1860. It was resolved by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in the General Assembly held in Jamaica on 13 November 2003 to entrust the organizing and hosting of the XIX Commonwealth Games to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). As per Clause 2(C) of the Host City Contract, signed by the Government of India (GOI), the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), IOA, and CGF, the CGF delegated the organization of the Games to the OC CWG Delhi 2010. The vision of the Organizing Committee Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi was to inculcate sports consciousness and culture in every Indian. The mission read “Deliver the ‘Best Commonwealth Games Ever”; Build state-of-theart sporting and city infrastructure for the facilitation of the Games; Create a suitable environment and opportunities for the involvement of the citizens in the Games; Showcase the culture and heritage of India; Project Delhi as a global destination; Project India as an economic power; and Leave behind a lasting legacy. The objectives of the CWG Delhi 2010 were many, but the foremost was to conduct the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi in a manner that would encourage sports, development and physical recreation and promote the shared values of integrity, fair play, competence, team work, commitment to excellence, respect for gender equality and tolerance including the fight against the use of drugs and unhealthy or performance enhancing substances. The concept was of encouraging sports. The Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 event was the largest international multi-sport event to be staged in India, eclipsing the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. The CWG was a grand success from the Indian athlete’s point of view. The grand opening ceremony was a huge success, with the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, going on to say that India had made a good foundation for a future

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Olympics bid. The Indian establishment saw it as a chance to signal its coming of age as an economic and regional power, if not a burgeoning global power. This was especially true coming on the heels of Beijing’s Olympic success in 2008 and (albeit to a lesser degree) South Africa’s success with the Federation International Football Association Soccer World Cup in June and July 2010. The pool comprised of 30,000 volunteers, hailing from different segments of the society, including students from the Jawahar Lal Nehru University, the Delhi University, some Management Institutes, as well as foreign Universities such as the Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Senior employees from the Oil Sector, Non-Governmental Organizations, Banks, Insurance Companies too made it into the group. Not only from New Delhi, but applicants from all over the country vied to become volunteers. Such was the craze, of which I had been a personal witness, that the Organizing Committee’s office was flooded all the time with huge queues, which at times broke into the shape of crowds. The would be volunteers hailed from a variety of sectors and were prepared to work in shift duties even, notwithstanding their status, displaying and portraying the advancement of volunteering. Being a part of these games, I personally know many who could not get a chance to become a volunteer, given the great rush and preference for those living in Delhi.

Methodology A sample of 150 volunteers who had operated in the CWG Delhi 2010 was created. The data was taken from the OC CWG Delhi 2010. While gathering the data, a cautious selection was made to imbibe almost all parts of the volunteering action such as volunteers performing in the games village, accommodation, logistics, stadiums, etc. This gave me a chance to include each facet, so as to ensure that the analysis runs through all segments. Amongst these groups, some sub groups were arranged through a process of further division into geographical locations, caste, family and occupational backgrounds, qualifications etc. Methods used for data collection included a self-administered questionnaire mailed to the population of these volunteers, with a covering letter describing the nature and purpose of the study. Out of these 150 volunteers, ten semi-structured interviews were also conducted. These volunteers were the ones who lived in the vicinity. Questions such as motivation for joining the CWG Delhi 2010, whether their expectations were met, their satisfaction with volunteering action, whether it was a leisure activity, their values and

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commitment, whether they would like to go for event volunteering, the problem of politics of volunteering, and whether more youths should be a part of such volunteering in future were some of the questions which were asked. Table 15.1 Questions asked to volunteers QUESTIONS Took pride in the work that I did Proud to tell others I worked for the CWG Getting the job done was important The work I did was important Goals of the CWG were important It is important that I am allowed to use my initiative Doing my job as instructed by my supervisor is important It is important that I receive regular training It is important that I am recognized for my efforts It is important that I am involved in decision making process Did I enjoy this work as a leisure activity Am I satisfied Could I sustain my values and commitment Is volunteering a good opportunity for career growth The politics, if any, during the course of volunteering

% Agree 89 93 81 62 76

% Disagree 9 3 4 33 22

Not clear 2 4 15 5 2

94

2

4

42

51

7

88

4

8

96

1

3

97

1

2

82 84 78

5 11 12

13 5 10

92

5

3

78

13

9

Volunteers were appreciative of the recognition they received at the closing ceremony of the CWG Delhi 2010: Although I would continue to do the same work without acknowledgement, it is nonetheless REALLY nice that we were publicly thanked so warm-heartedly. It wasn’t always done so well and I appreciate the efforts made now.

About the supervision, they had things to say such as this: “I often wonder if my supervisor knows who I am. I would appreciate being informed I am necessary. I am treated as a number”. Volunteers enjoyed the game and found in it a leisure activity. They were sceptical in following the instructions of their supervisors, as more discrete investigation proved that many superiors were in real terms

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subordinates in original works, and as such an inferiority complex factor was present. They took the work as a matter of national pride, and were optimistic that more and more youths involved in the process would generate healthy and patriotic feelings. The motivational level was high and they were prepared for another big event, if chances of Olympic bid of 2020 go in favour of India.

Further Research/Limitations A limitation of this study is the narrow focus, wherein only one hundred and fifty respondents could be covered. Gendered aspects remained uncovered. It would be appropriate to address this research with a bigger sample, and with more quantitative data.

Conclusions The purpose of this study was to contribute to Volunteer representations in the form of leisure activity, especially in the context of the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010. The motivational factors, commitment, and future volunteering amongst the youths were some of the factors which had to be addressed. In this study volunteers represent a workforce who take pride in their work and are focused on realizing the goals of the institutions they work for. These volunteers were found to have both affective and continuance commitment to their respective institutions, and what they valued most was how well they performed their tasks. An underlying issue for volunteers is recognition, a lack of which can lead volunteers to feel undervalued and to wonder if what they are doing has value to the organization. The social and cultural dimensions of volunteering in the CWG Delhi 2010 were as follows: x volunteering in sports enhances social solidarity and promotes active involvement in the community; x it raises people’s self-esteem and makes them feel good about themselves as they have helped other people and have contributed to the betterment of society; x volunteering promotes altruism and a healthier society; it is one of the basic pathways of response to the needs of civil society and creates opportunities for the active functioning of individuals in society.

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The factors which motivate individuals to volunteer in sports are: x x x x x x x x x

personal growth building own system of values a sense of usefulness being together with other like-minded individuals accumulation of experience proactively spending one’s leisure time testing oneself the opportunity to acquire new skills reputation.

The findings confirm Pfeffer’s conditions for commitment: choice, publicness and explicitness (Pfeffer 1997). Pursuing a leisure activity by choosing to volunteer for an institution in which that activity can take place provides these people with rewards such as training, learning new skills, personal satisfaction, continuing to be useful, being in an environment they find interesting, and social interaction. There are other reasons that explain the commitment of these volunteers. First, the recruitment process acts as a form of socialization that prepares them for successful and positive interaction within the organization. Although respondents cited a number of problems they have in relation to the management and organization of volunteers in the respective programs, when asked if they were dissatisfied, the majority of them gave a categorical No.

Reference List Bosserman, P. and R. Gagan 1972, “Leisure and voluntary action”, in D.H. Smith (ed.), Voluntary action research, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath. Cuskelly, G., N. McIntyre and A. Boag, 1998, “A longitudinal study of the development of organizational commitment amongst volunteer sport administrators”, Journal of Sport Management, 12, 181-202. Dickson, A. 1974, “Foreword”, in D.H. Smith (ed.), Voluntary Action Research, D.C. Heath, Lexington, Massachusetts, xiii-xx. Dose, J.J. 1997, “Work values. An integrative framework and illustrative application to organizational situation”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, September 1997, 219-40. Farmer, S.M. and D.B. Fedor, 1999, “Volunteer participation and withdrawal. A psychological contract perspective on the role of

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satisfaction, expectations, and organization support”, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 9, 349-367. Farrell, J.M., M.E. Johnston and G.D. Twynam, 1998, “Volunteer motivation, satisfaction, and management at an elite sporting competition”, Journal of Sport Management, 12(4), 288- 300. Franken, R. 2002, Human motivation, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Graham, M. 2000, “Who wants to be a Volunteer?”, Museums Journal, 100(3), 28-29. Hooper-Greenhill, E. 2000, Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture, London: Routledge. Jones, M. and T. Stokes 2003, “The Commonwealth Games and urban regeneration”, Managing Leisure, 8(4), 198-211 Kaplan, M. 1975, Leisure: Theory and Policy, New York: Wiley. Institute for Volunteering Research 2007, “Leisure-seeking volunteers: ethical implications”, The Journal of the Institute for Volunteering Research, 8(3). Meyer, J. and N. Allen 1991, “A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment”, Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61-89. Neulinger, J. 1981, To Leisure. An introduction, Boston, Mass: Allyn and Bacon. —. 1981, “Leisure Lack and the Quality of Life: The Broadening Scope of the Leisure Professional”, Leisure Studies, 1(1), 53-63. Parker, S.R. 1987, “Working for peace as serious leisure”, Leisure Information Quarterly, 13(4), 9-10. Pfeffer, J. 1997, New directions for organization theory: problems and prospects, New York: Oxford University Press. Stebbins, R.A. 2001, “Volunteering-mainstream and marginal: preserving the leisure experience”, in M. Graham and M. Foley (eds), Volunteering in leisure: Marginal or Inclusive, Leisure Studies Association, Eastbourne, 1-10. Tayyab, S. and N. Tariq 2001, “Work values and organizational commitment in public and private sector executives”, Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 16(304), 95-112.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN THE NATURIST CONSTELLATION IN EUROPE ANNA FICI The present study introduces some reflections on possible approaches to the phenomenon of naturism. Our investigation starts from the main consideration that this phenomenon is now transiting from its subcultural and countercultural origin—that depended on the history of Western countries—to a new stage of consumption and legalization. The transition from a subcultural dimension to a dimension of “consumption” characterizes most of the leisure activities. For example, some of the musical subcultures are born with special values (black popular culture as the source of hip hop, or rap in USA) but they have undergone a process of institutionalization, and they became mainstream. However, the subcultural source of naked-naturism has ambivalent characteristics that have slowed the maturation of the phenomenon and that are holding back its institutionalization nowadays. With regard to the “consumption” of leisure time in highly developed societies, the practice of naked-naturism is still a marginal and emergent phenomenon. However, the importance of this phenomenon with regard to tourism planning and to the demands of tourist wellbeing is very strong, especially in some European countries: for example, in France there are fewer than two hundred tourist facilities of different sizes for naturists. Some of these resorts can accommodate ten or fifteen thousand people. In Germany naturism has an old tradition. This fact is indicated by a large range of camping, resorts etc. So, there is little sociological research in this field, despite the relatively large socio-historical literature. Although there are naturist associations (UNI, ANITA and FENAIT in Italy)—despite the fact membership of these associations is necessary for access to resorts, villages and spaces dedicated to the practice of the nude—the phenomenon is influenced by a strong problem of obscure numbers. Many naturists, then, reject what they perceive as a self-marking out. They get season passes for access to the naturist resorts. On the other

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hand, taking the card of one of the naturist associations mentioned above does not mean that the association knows and approves their weltanschauung. Naturists often take the cards for instrumental reasons or for reasons related to the need of the moment. A negative trend of associations in this area is recently noted. The general decline of affiliation under the INF-FNI in 2005 was 22% (equal to 65,000 people) compared to 1998 (D’Ambrosio 2008, 87)1. However, according to data of FENAIT2 dating back to 2009, there are more than half a million naturists in Italy, with 20 million in Europe, and in the U.S. 40 million. It is still hard to quantify naked naturists because they are not necessarily individuals but often couples or families. The reasons at the basis of the actual negative trend in the registration as trade associations are probably linked to a mix of factors: x the refusal of the naked-naturist (especially Italians) to make their commitment to the needs and practices of naturism public, on the basis of the dominant culture that is not yet ready to understand the phenomenon and approach it without change its meaning and/or associate it with the sexual breach; x the crisis of the representational capacity of associations with regard to the range of values shared by people who get naked; x lack of homogeneity among naturists about associated issues such as vegetarianism, the ways of understanding ecology, animal rights and other aspects of what should be the naturist ethos; x lack—as evidenced by previous points—of conditions favourable to the promotion and/or defence of the nude-nudism. In order to clarify and develop this last point it should be added that since the 1980s of the twentieth century, the practice of nude-naturism has certainly lost the values that often made it a political context symbolically linked to the emancipation of swimwear and it has increasingly become a choice tied to personal history or to that of their household. It is probably also why the numerous attempts to reach and pass a law regulating the naturism in our country so far have not gone well. Moreover, the obscure number depends on cultural and religious factors, which are different for each country. So, nothing is known about the “real” composition of the naturist population in Europe. We do not have sufficient information about the most relevant variables which describe it (such as gender, age, educational 1 2

See also McKelvie 2005. See http://www.fenait.org, accessed September 2012.

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level, profession, etc.) Currently an international quantitative research on naturist holidays is underway by prof. Konstantinos Andriotis of Cyprus University of Technology (Androitis 2010). The phenomenon of the naked-naturism could be approached as a part of general touristic issues in Europe. As a particular kind of tourism. But, we think that the phenomenon of the naked-naturism, with its countercultural origin, could be an extraordinary opportunity for social scientists, in order to: x reflect on the construction of socio-cultural practices, of taboos related to the nude in contemporary societies (embodied sociology) (Bendelow and Williams 1998); x reflect on how the body affects the social identity and consequently social identity models the ideals and concrete bodies (carnal sociology) (Crossley 1995); x ask questions based on the interaction between the biological and instinctual nature and the endless cultural mediations in which sociality is expressed (sociobiology) (Wilson 1975; Crawford and Anderson 1989); x reflect on the concept of wellbeing, from traditional societies up to modern and postmodern ones (sociology of lifestyles) (Nuvolari 1993, 1997; Maturo 2004). In addition, some of the difficulties which characterize the relationships between mere nudists and naturists—and between them and the so-called “textiles”—offers the unprecedented opportunity to observe the process of social interaction in an unstructured way. It may foster the understanding of genetic mechanisms of segregation and self-segregation, often reflected in legal standards adopted by different countries to regulate the relationship between them and others (sociology of law) (Iacub 2008). The body is one of the issues that has recently raised public attention in various fields, and has been subject of many discourses (from media, culture, science, politics, health, leisure, to name but a few). On the one hand, it is subject to intense mediatization in the form of images attracting glances, and expressively returning symbolic pictures and lifestyles existent in current society. On the other hand, it is also a favorite theme in social discourse, quite visible in the public profusion of aesthetic, technical, heath, juridical, moral or political discourses on its appearances, gestures and senses (Ferreira 2009, 5).

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The human body is now experienced as a sort of reflexive dimension or a carnal reflexivity, as has been defined by Ferreira (ibid. 7). In this sense, carnal reflexivity has to do with the individuals’ capacity to look at the body as something they own but, at the same time, that lies on an outer edge, something which we are not but rather something we own in order to be (that which we are not yet). In other words, carnal reflexivity has to do with the acquired capacity of, through the body, assuming oneself as another, accessing an outer perspective of self (ibid. 8).

In contrast to this tendency to reflexivity, according to some naturists, naturism would establish itself as a counterculture since the concepts of naturalness and spontaneity, at the core of it, can be considered synonymous with those of a-reflexivity. However, from a strictly sociological point of view, it is easy to show how this is definitely a naive view of the phenomenon of naturism and more generally of the relation between body and society. While man is a body in the same sense in which it can be said for any other animal organism, from the other hand man has a body. Man experiences himself as an entity that is not identified with his body but, instead, that body has at its disposal. The experience that each man has of himself always hovers in the balance between being and having a body, and this balance must be constantly re-established. This eccentricity of the experience that man has of his own body has certain consequences for the analysis of human behavior as in the material and how externalization of subjective meanings (Berger and Luckmann 2010, 72).

In other words, the ability to objectify the body would be for the man an indicator of a nature which is as natural as social, that makes the identity a constant dialectical process between the two dimensions (see Pepe: 2012, 51-100). It is possible to refer to an innate sense of reflexivity that is something different compared to today, undeniable reification of the body (Debord, 1979). The growing interest in the body in the social sciences was evidenced by the fact that the ASA (American Sociological Association), in view of the annual meeting of 2011, has held a section on Body and Embodiment. In the psychological tradition the attention to the processes of embodiment through the concept of cognition embodied has served as a battle and has overcome the first cognitivism. the embodied cognition, considers the body, as intense as the set of sensory skills that enable the organism to interact successfully within their

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environment, as a necessary condition for the cognitive and social development.

In an era where time is not devoted to work, it is often passively passed at home or in other private and solitary ways; the impact of media and, in particular, the media representations of the nude is intended to strengthen and influence “self-project”, which now passes also for one’s own body. This, then, because of the many stimuli offered by sport, biomedical technology, and cosmetic surgery, is no longer perceived as a “natural fact”, but as a socio-cultural process embedded in the general stream of current social changes (Borgna 2005). Lots of studies explored the genesis of social representations related to the body and, in particular, to the nude (nude seduction, the nakedness of purity and innocence, nude health) and the effects of this experience. A theoretical concept that we think can be a useful trait d’union is the concept of habitus proposed by Bourdieu. Before exploring this construct, it seems appropriate to introduce the topic of naturism. A necessary premise: Naturism is a movement that aims to promote contact with nature, devoid of artifice and social conventions, starting with respect for people, to get to the respect for animals and the environment through a lifestyle that sees nudity as logical consequence of their way to inner being. A naturist has a healthy life, is fed by natural products, practice sports outdoors and his being naked has a social component, Naturists put into practice their being naked both in private and public spaces. (The 1974 World Congress at Cap D’Agde, by the International Naturist Federation).

Nudism is rather more properly understood as the simple practice of the nude, mostly in bathing areas, with no implications of ecological problems and health. Sometimes, nudists and naturists share the same environments such as beaches or saunas. However, while being a naturist means to be a nudist, the reverse is not necessarily true. In the 1920s, naturism became a way to search for authenticity, spontaneity and freedom (Lo Verde 2009, 10). It would be simplistic to reduce this phenomenon to a mere expression of consumption of leisure. Only recently, thanks to some cultural and regulatory factors, naturism is enjoying a strong push towards the consolidation of its own commercial dimension. This review of the different approaches to the topic is, of course, far from being exhaustive. It may help to demonstrate how this research can provide both useful tools for planning in the sector of tourism and leisure ad hoc, and interesting insights for the analysis of the contemporary society.

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We are following two paths of investigation: 1. the first one, exploratory, wants to bring out the constellation of values, family and environment, within which is defined the choice of naturism, and how this choice defines a difference between kinds of naturists and between naturists and textiles; 2. the second one is a micro-sociological approach. Based on observing the dynamics of interaction between social actors naked, we want to understand how the boundaries of decency are placed in crisis and how they dynamically regenerate. After a long period of participant observation, we collected about two hundred interviews in an Italian campsite, taken as a case study. The focus was distinction between different kinds of naturist culture that affects political and social dimensions. The interviews explored the links between the practice of naturism in leisure time and values that affect the daily lifestyle, especially with reference to the sense of responsibility for the ecological-environmental and social issues. This work in progress examines the genesis of the cultural self-segregation processes, emerging from radicalized lifestyles, working towards the concept of habitus (Bourdieu, 1986). Habitus is a selective aggregation of meanings and practices, driven by the needs of social reproduction and social distinction (Bourdieu, 1979)3. At the moment, the naturist habitus, as emerging from the interviews, appears to be represented by a constellation of different values. We are working to produce a comprehensive naturist typology. From a constructionist perspective, we consider the body and nude as the result of social interaction in a context of meaning. We think it is not necessary for another specialized discipline to approach body and nudity in contemporary society. Moreover, we believe criticism against sociology for not being equipped with the proper instruments to grasp the role of natural, physical and instinctual dimension as regards choices and social action is groundless (see Pepe 2012, 51-100). Turner recently stated that within sociological tradition the role of the body as regards socialization has long been neglected, probably because of Durkheim’s and Weber’s former insistence on the centrality of social facts and on the difference between social actions and behaviour (Turner 2001). Yet, I believe that, if that really happened it is because both Durkheim and Weber have been misunderstood: the fundamental concepts of their sociological theory cannot be considered responsible of any carelessness about the role of the body. Both Durkheim and Weber only focused on 3

See also Bourdieu (1977).

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epistemological conditions according to which some sociological knowledge is possible from their point of view. If and when the reality of the body becomes fact, according to Durkheim’s concept of coercive and evident intersubjective reality, as seen today partly for its extraordinary spectacularity, and because it is an object of individual and collective, sometimes even political choices, due to its potential modifications (let us consider laws regulating cosmetic surgery or biogenetics, the claims of political and ideological definition of the concept of “death”), then it can become interesting for sociological theory. And it seems to be happening. As for Weber’s distinction between social action and behaviour, we too often forget that Weber himself introduces it as a merely analytic distinction, useful only for the theoretical discussion: thus, he is ready to admit that every human instinct, by means of socialization, has been modified and has become an object for cultural elaborations. According to some scholars, after that introduction or, to be more precise, those above-mentioned misunderstandings, both the active tradition and the one leading to the theory of social order (including structural functionalism) have shown indifference to physical bases of social interaction (Wrong 1961). During the 1960s and 1970s, the preponderance of Parsons macrotheoretical approaches, despite its focus on the role of socialization, didn’t quite foster reflections on the nature-culture relationship; it produced instead a hypersocialized model of body that was actually neglecting contributions coming from the just growing sociobiology. To be more exact, it wasn’t taking its demands into consideration. In the same years, the active side, by giving way to the issue of rationality in all its aspects, seemed to give priority to the abstract idea of social actor as being a disembodied agent. Therefore, both attitudes were heading countertendency according to the actual trend of those years: a powerful rediscovery of the body’s requests, spread mostly by feminism (Witz 2000). Actually, such a reconstruction overlooks the necessary difference and distance between social and sociological problems: the fact that a precise historical moment debates on cultural issues such as gender differences based on biological differences, doesn’t necessarily mean that in order for sociology to be involved it has to get to the heart of matters dealing with biological dimensions of social relations. The reason is that natural data set up the pre-text of the sociological issue, just as the climate in Durkheim’s explanation of choices that lead to committing suicide: something which can become sociological relevant merely for its meanings within social life.

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Anyhow, thorough sociologies, the ones sensitive to integration of micro-macro dimensions, and some micro-sociological approaches offered explicit hints for insight aiming at body sociology. Simmel had already mentioned interest for the sensorial basis of social experience (Simmel 1908). Some essays in his Soziologie, (ibid.) are dedicated to issues such as visual perception and the aesthetic meanings of the face4, where aesthetics means philosophy investigating structures of meanings in individual and social life. According to Simmel, the fact that human beings come into contact even merely through senses, such as glances, obliges sociologists to investigate that kind of alter ego awareness that can be achieved through sensorial data and their mental elaboration. Senses are, according to Simmel, real a priori, as Kant meant, and mediate social production in interaction to form together with other elements such as space and time to become “place” thanks to processes of interaction and symbiosis between action and context. As a consequence, hints suggested by Simmel for a possible sociology of the body are considered by Simmel himself as a basis for a sociology of knowledge, allowing it to be an instrument of sociability and awareness of reality, although some a priori hints have non-social origins. The essays dedicated to intimacy and love might reveal hints to instinctual dimensions, but the recognition of some extra-social a priori doesn’t lead Simmel to analyse conventions and customs in order to see universal and animal-like features in natural substratum in human interaction. On the contrary, Simmel underlines the ability of culture to elaborate nature, using it, and endowing it with changeable meanings. Simmel’s sociosomatic theory, far from considering somatic influences on the origin of some forms of interaction, is an analysis of incidental socio-cultural elaborations of the soma reality. On these grounds, Simmel’s sociology of awareness is the antecedent fact of any constructionist approach. In the most representative work on sociological constructionism (Berger and Luckmann 2010), the issue of the body is tackled in a paragraph dedicated to the relationship between organism and identity. It is important to underline…the fact that the organism keeps on influencing all phases of human activities of reality construction and in turn is influenced in turn by this activity. The body requires limits to what is socially possible… But, unlike the single organism, the social world is pre-existent and in turn dictates some limits to what is biologically possible 4

Pages dedicated to the influence of space as possible forms of interaction and those dedicated to the role of the foreigner are unquestionably remarkable to study problems related to naturism.

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for the body. The debate is carried out thus on the mutual restriction between single organism and society. A clear example of limits given by society to biological possibilities is the case of life expectancy, varying as a matter of fact according to social position (ibid. 225-226).

In this perspective, the individual must constantly experience himself as an organism, notwithstanding his social being and, sometimes, in contrast with it. Yet, from the struggle between these two identity dimensions the construction of the reality to which he is destined, originates. As a matter of fact “there is no human nature in the sense of a biologically fixed substratum to determine the changeability of sociocultural formations” (ibid. 70). According to the constructionist approach, socialization moulds the bodies, starting a circuit between variations linked to social conditions of development in the medical, biogenetical field, as well as all those sectors affecting the quality of life and changes related to social conditions leading to opportunities that are possible thanks to such achievements of knowledge. Society constructs life as well as death, though clearly regulated by an independent biological reality; yet, the meaning they have is given by the historical society of reference and by its cultural standards (Borgna 2005, 130). This is particularly evident when defining concepts such as old age or youth. In the light of what has been said in this brief and selective excursus about sociological theories which might be taken into consideration when referring to the body, we can deduce that a sociological perspective only needs the body in Weber’s terms, and that several complaints of sociology’s supposed carelessness about the body dimension, are groundless. Different and more appropriate would be the findings of a poor sociological production about the body. Actually, studies are not lacking: they are just fragmentary because they are related to health issues, to changes as regards wellbeing and quality of life5, sports practice and their spread throughout different social

5

In Italy, health sociology plunges into the tradition started by Achille Ardigò and other scholars, among whom Pierpaolo Donati and Costantino Cipolla who, in the 1980s, endowed the concept of “health” and “wellbeing” with a relational and socio-constructivist definition. As regards the international context, the history of the so-called medical sociology and its branches has been restored in one of Bloom’s texts (2002).

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classes, symbolic and/or media representation of the body, and some social pathologies such as obesity, anorexia and bulimia. The tradition started in the Anglo-Saxon world in the 1990s points out a Sociology of the body, dealing with what happens to the body and a Carnal Sociology, dealing instead with the way the body behaves in society (by means of a sentient and incorporated action), constructing symbolic orders which, for instance, can become instruments for social distinction (Crossley 1995, 43). It is a work subdivision within our discipline which can be useful if we keep in mind that they are two sides of the same coin. A concept bridging the two perspectives can be traced in the definition of habitus 6 given by Bourdieu (1979). It underlines how on one hand distinct consumption and cultural investment combine to shape the body and, on the other, how the body contributes towards codetermination of symbolic orders of distinction. According to Bourdieu’s thought, physicalness is so concretely expressed through socialization and social aspect, that embarrassment—which is the experience of body alienation par excellence—is more visible among unprivileged classes, whereas the opposite experience, feeling at ease (with one’s own body), is more common among members belonging to the ruling class, the society which imposes definitions and taste of the legitimate aesthetic rules (Sapiro in Paolucci 2010, 96).

“The habitus becomes thus the system of cognitive (habit) schemes that Weber called ethos, enriched by Bourdieu and Mauss as body habits” (ibid. 98-99). Therefore the habitus turns out to be a shaping structure according to which the body is active and passive at the same time; this explains why Bourdieu breaks away from the dramaturgy approach, even though he had already introduced in France studies about symbolic interaction, especially those carried out by Goffman: according to Goffman, the body is the very start of both improvisation and the breaking down of role schemes and thanks to such potentialities, individuals are capable of negotiating their own identity and the definition of situations; Bourdieu underlines the fact that improvisation and body experimentations 6 The original matrix of the notion of habitus goes back to Mauss (1976, 368) who assigned this term to the Aristotelic-Thomist tradition. It indicates those collective habits that circumscribe interiorized freedom as legitimate in a given sociohistorical context. In turn, collective habits consolidate and are defined according to a need of distinction within classes or social groups.

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are limited and restricted by legitimate expectations defined by the habitus. Some critics have ranked Bourdieu in an ambiguous position, half way between determinism typical of structuralism, and voluntarism belonging to symbolic interactionism. Anyway, it seems that when dealing with leisure and nude-naturist practices within spare time consumption, the concept of habitus can be useful and employed for those studies enquiring about the presence of cultural investments (which might show typicality) and consumption agreeing with the naturist ethos; not so much regarding a society structured in classes as Marx would define them, today anachronistic, rather keeping an explorative and open view, in order to discover possible social, economic and cultural features shared by practicing members. Nudity is only shortage of social traditional indicators. An interaction context of naked social actors suggests—from a sociological point of view—the necessity to concentrate our sociological attention on the discursive base of sociality, of social reality. Regarding the second our path of investigation, our hypothesis is that the interaction contexts of naked social actors resemble the interaction processes without body which have been labelled to the dawn of computer-mediated communication. The interaction without body, which is typical in social networking, on the one hand, and the interaction based only on body on the other, are then similar and represent two microcosms of some interest. It is very interesting to observe in detail these social dynamics. There is indeed a common feature to both the contexts, due to their relative isolation from the wider social reality which creates characterizations and boundaries value-based on a purely discursive base. On the one hand the network and its European users have experienced in the early nineties a general feeling of separateness between the size of online (area of outing, as opposed to the lack of authenticity of reality offline, of emancipation identities) and off-line. On the other hand, life experiences in the naturist villages represent the contexts in which social life is put in brackets and isolated from the outside everyday. These different experiences show similar aspects. Looking at the field of psychosocial literature, among the first research on Computer Mediated Communication, interesting paradigms have been developed. One of them is the Reduced Social Cues, on which this work draws, in particular with regard to a theoretical reading of the interaction process between nudists. It puts social actors in a context of poor social indicators which seems very similar to those that were the initial conditions of the CMC (Kerr 1982; Kiesler et al. 1984; Sproull and Kiesler 1986).

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During a long period of participant observation, in an Italian campsite, taken as a case study, we noted the occurrence of the group’s polarization process, very similar to those that Choon-Ling Sia, Bernard C. Y. Tan and Kwok-Kee Wei noted: a discussion conducted in an anonymous face-toface CMC setting or a dispersed CMC setting (with or without anonymity) tends to lead to stronger group polarization. Here, anonymity is the functional equivalent of nudity; and the definition of pure naturist was the topic on which discussion was polarized.

Reference List Andriotis, K. 2010, “Heterotopic erotic oases. The Public Nude Beach Experience”, Annals of Tourism Research, 37(4), 1076-1096. Bendelow, G.A. and S.J. Williams 1998, The Lived Body. Sociological Themes, Embodied Issues, London: Routledge. Berger, P. L. and Th. Luckmann 2010, La realtà come costruzione sociale, Bologna: Il Mulino. Bloom, S.W. 2002, The Word As Scalpel. A History of Medical Sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Borgna, P. 2005, Sociologia del corpo, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Bourdieu, P. 1977, “Remarques provisoires sur la percetion sociale du corps”, Acts de la recherches en sciences sociales, 14, 52. —. 1979, La distinction, Paris: Minuit. —. 1986, “Habitus, code et codification”, Acts de la recherches en sciences sociales, 64, 40-44 Crawford, C.B. and J.L. Anderson 1989, “Sociobiology. An Environmentalist Discipline?”, American Psychologist, 44, 1449-1459. Crossley, N. 1995, “Merleau-Ponty, the Exclusive Bodyand Carnal Sociology”, Body & Society, 1, 1, 43-63. D’Ambrosio, M. 2008, Il corpo nudo. Sociologia della nudità, Roma: Sylvia Edizioni. Debord, G. 1995, Society of the Spectacle, New York: Zone Books. Ferreira, V.S. 2009, Defining and Segmenting Carnal Reflexivity, Paper presented at the Regular Session “Sociology of Body II: Body Theory and Ethnography”, The ASA Annual Meeting “New politics of community”, San Francisco, USA, August 11th. Fourcade, M. 2010, “The Problem of Embodiment in the Sociology of Knowledge: Afterword to the Special Issue on Knowledge in Practice”, Qual Sociol, DOI 10.1007/s11133-010-9173-x, Belkeley. Iacub, M. 2008, Par la trou de la serrure. Une histoire de la pouder pubblique. XIX-XXI siècle, Librarie Arthème Fayard.

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Kerr, E. 1982, Computer-Mediated Communication Systems. Status and Evaluation, New York: Academic Press. Kiesler S. et al. 1984, “Social Psycological Aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication”, American Psycologist, 39(10), 1123-1134. Lo Verde, F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Maturo, A. (ed.) 2004, “Salute e società”, La sociologia della salute in Italia: bilanci e prospettive future, n. 3, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Mauss M. 1976, “Le tecniche del corpo”, in Sociologia e antropologia, Roma: Newton Compton. McKelvie, J. 2005, “Naturism in Europe”, in Journal Travel & Tourism Analyst, 9, 1-48. Nuvolati, G. 1993, “Qualità della vita. definizione, prospettive di analisi e indicatori sociali”, Sociologia urbana e rurale, 41, 99-121. Nuvolati, G. and F. Zajczyk 1997, “L’origine del concetto di qualità della vita e l’articolazione dei filoni di studio nella prospettiva europea”, in L. Altieri and L. Luison (eds) Qualità della vita e strumenti sociologici. Tecniche di rilevazione e percorsi di analisi, Milano: Franco Angeli, 11-34. Pepe, V. 2012, “Le emozioni del/nel leisure time: Una rassegna”, in F.M. Lo Verde (ed.) Consumare il tempo libero. Forme e pratiche del leisure time nella postmodernità, Milano-Torino: Bruno Mondadori, 51-100. Riva, G. 2006, “Comprendere la mente multiculturale: Embodiment, presenza e presenza sociale”, Giornale Italiano Di Psicologia, a. XXXIII, n. 2, maggio, 315-318. Sapiro, G. 2010, “Una libertà vincolata: La formazione della teoria dell’Habitus”, in G. Paolucci (ed.) Bourdieu dopo Bourdieu, Torino: Utet, 85-108. Simmel G., (1908), Soziologie, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot Sproull L. and S. Kiesler 1986, “Reducing social context cues. Electronic mail in organizational communication”, Management Science, 31(11), 1492-1512. Wilson, E.O. 1975), Sociobiology. The New Synthesis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Witz, A. 2000, “Whose body Matters? Femminist Sociology and the Corporeal turn in sociology and femminism”, Body & Society, 6, 1-24. Wrong, D. 1961, “The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology,” American Sociological Review, 26(2), 183-193.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN WORKING ENTERTAINMENT: THE KNOWLEDGE, EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL LABOUR PERFORMED BY ENTERTAINMENT WORKERS IN THE ITALIAN TOURIST INDUSTRY SOFIA PAGLIARIN Introduction One of the outcomes of the pacification of social interactions through control and de-control of excitement and violence is the rationalized amusement, leisure, entertainment and play as socially organized practices, regulated by specific rules and conventions (Elias and Dunning 1986; Elias 1988). In contemporary societies, tourism condenses all these different aspects in one single experience: holidays. As socially constructed experience, holidays are supported by a whole set of service workers who provide all the necessary services to clients in order to fulfil vacationers’ expectations (Savelli 1998; Sousa 1994), like flight crews, tourist guides, travel agents, restaurant workers, hotel staff, shop assistants. In Italy, a specific professional figure, who has received little attention by social theory and research so far, is entitled to take care of the leisure aspect of postmodern tourism: the entertainment worker. Through a qualitative methodology, the paper intends to offer a preliminary analysis of tourist entertainers focusing on their experiences as specialized tourism workers and defining their role and functions in the tourism service industry. Furthermore, this professional activity brings up important implications regarding the definition of leisure and tourist experience in postmodern societies. The present paper tries to answer to a broader research question: what is the role of managed entertainment in postmodern leisure? The analysis of tourist entertainers can effectively

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cast a light on the more general role of other professional figures working in the leisure and tourism sector (personal trainers and sport teachers, alternative therapists, children camp monitors, dancers, actors, singers, “natives”, performers, PRs, deejays, (fe)male disco dancers, hostesses in exhibitions and fairs) whose job position is characterized both by the embeddedness between work and leisure (the “occupational devotees” as per Stebbins 2004, 2009; see also Lo Verde 2009, 110) and by a more general casualization and diversification of work strategies (Butera et al. 2008; Reyneri 2009; Samek and Semenza 2003). Moreover, as producers of the tourist experience (Crang 2003), a special attention will be given to the work locations and contexts where tourist entertainers are entitled to perform, namely enclosed seaside resorts. The analysis of the setting allows us to discriminate between the “hard” aspect of their work, that is the institutionalized setting where managed entertainment takes place, and the “soft” side of their job, like non-material competence and light skills. As will be shown, tourist entertainers combine highly qualified competences (light skills) with a more physical and bodily performance that constantly puts them under tourist gaze (Urry 2002).

The process of leisurization of holidays Leisure is a whole set of culturally defined social practices that relate to “relaxation”, “freedom”, “restoration” (Edensor 2001, 61) taking place during the time “left” after work, that is “free time” (Savelli 1989; Urry 2002). A specific type of leisure is tourism: in modern and postmodern societies, vacations became the realm of extra-ordinariness, a temporary suspension of social order (Huizinga 1972; Savelli 1989). The binary opposition between working time and holiday time, as free time dedicated to leisure, settled at the core of mass tourism: paid holidays for all implied a democratization of free time, and holiday, as a specific form of leisure, became a workers’ right, as the essential mechanism to give sense to industrial work (MacCannell 1999). The specificity of holidays as leisure time pivots around the movement of vacationers towards holiday venues. Not only it is a work-free time, but it also implies the displacement towards a different, non-routinary place. Urry (2002) refers to this process as the leisurization of holidays. But since recreation, freedom and restoration are carefully provided within specific areas, and through institutionalized activities, holidays just superficially provide an extraordinary time and place. Tourism, as institutionalized leisure, implies the provision of a whole set of services, performed by workers, who allow tourists to abandon their leisure time. In (post)modern societies, vacations

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correspond to a structured experience of evasion: “getting away” implies the emergence of a whole set of service workers (Rojek and Urry 2003; Urry 2002), like travel agencies, tour operators or hospitality services (Morrison 2002), supporting the displaced vacationers.

Seaside resorts as total institutions in a service society Considering the beach as a liminal place within the leisurized holiday (Urry 2002), seaside resorts can be effectively compared to total institutions (Goffman 2007), as guests, like patients, are expected to perform precise activities within an enclosed environment, and in particular they are supposed to relax, recreate and amuse themselves. There is a specific time schedule to adjust to, different activities are addressed to as many subgroups as possible (children, the elderly, couples, etc.), and family demands are combined with the re-creational needs of the individual. Seaside resorts are functionally devoted to organize a “rationalized re-socialization” (Savelli 1989, 132): guests share the same location, which they freely and individually have chosen as the scene for their holidays, but they experience their holiday through a segmentation of activities. Gated (seaside) resorts (tourist venues, hotels, camping sites and, to an extreme degree, cruises) can be defined as “enclavic tourist spaces” (Edensor 2000, 2001), since they represent a closed setting for the social interactions that guests are institutionally expected to perform. As in total institutions, seaside resorts are supported by service workers (the staff) whose work, visibly or indirectly, allow the guests to perform their holiday. Tourism is a sector that can effectively represent contemporary societies as “service societies” (Goffman 2007), as the management provides “pre-packed” and convenient entertainment and amusement activities and opportunities (Edensor 2000). The comparison proves to be appropriate both for the internal organization (dichotomy between expectant guests and qualified working staff who “know how to”) and for being separated from the outside world. In tourism studies literature, research has mainly dealt with guided tours of mass tourists who were entertained by “traditional” shows and performances of “natives” (Urry 2002). On the contrary, the gated seaside resort considered in the present research corresponds to a specific holiday experience which has not been systematically analysed yet, especially from the point of view of the working staff who ensure the efficient functioning of this enclavic tourist space. Furthermore, while most research has focused on tourism and hospitality service workers (on B&B hospitality, Bouquet 1987; on flight attendants, Hochshild 1983; on chefs, Robinson 2008; on B&B hosting

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workers, Selwyn 2000; on travelling workers and migrant tourism workers, Uriely 2001; on restaurant and catering workers, Wood 1992), this papers contributes to the more recent stream of research focusing on entertainment service workers employed within enclosed settings, like tourist reps (Guerrier and Adib 2003) or cruise staff (Longo 2007, unpublished thesis; Tracy 2003). In this paper, it is argued that focusing on tourist entertainers working in enclavic tourist spaces will shed a light both on the recent transformations within the force employed in the service industry and also on the specificity of tourism service workers. By concentrating on tourism service employment, the differences between tourism and other sectors’ professions will “open up neglected conceptual spaces” in order to explain similarities and differences of jobs “within and especially beyond tourism-related industries” (Crang 2003,138). In particular, this paper intends to be a contribution to Crang’s analysis (2003) on how tourism workers actually become service-oriented staff. Furthermore, within the latter category, it will be shown how tourist entertainers own specific characteristics as professional producers of the tourist experience.

Methods Interviews were carried out in 2011 and took place inside one of the biggest European seaside resorts and camping sites, located in Northern Italy1. The team of tourist entertainers was composed by 18 Italian people, 14 of whom where both specialized or “multitasks” tourist entertainers, and 4 of whom dealt with support or management activities (team leader, choreographer, scenographer, sound technician). Of these, 13 interviews have been carried out, 11 with specialized or multitask entertainers and 2 with supporting figures (scenographer and sound technician). Interviews were undertaken by phone 2 , and have been partially transcribed; 1

My very special thanks go to the staff of tourist entertainers, and especially to their team leader, who accepted devoting their already small spare time to me for carrying out the interviews. I would also like to thank Prof. Ivana Fellini, Prof. Salvatore La Mendola, Prof. Alan Law, Prof. Fabio Massimo Lo Verde and Prof. Serena Vicari Haddock for their suggestions and their help. 2 Interviews were carried out by phone as a consequence of the difficulties in organizing on-site fieldwork, a problematic methodological constraint that will be overcome in a future ethnography. Nevertheless, phone interviews could better adjust to the workers’ tight schedule, as they were carried out in their few spare moments during the high season. Possibly the success in gathering suitable qualitative data was due mainly to the “open attitude” characterizing tourist

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anonymity has been provided by using pseudonyms. The interviews were organized to touch different stages of their experience as tourist entertainers: first, the individual process leading them to “become an entertainer” (profiles); second, the skills needed to carry out the job (competences); and third, the self-reflexive consideration of their own occupation (work and life perspectives). For these purpose, a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss 1999) has been adopted, emphasizing narratives and anecdotes (Cardano 2011; La Mendola 2009). A qualitative approach was also necessary for the lack of statistical data: among the almost 17,000 Italian tourist entertainment agencies3, and within the over 53,000 people working in the entertainer sector (ISTAT 2008), the same official classification corresponded to a wide range of jobs, mostly related to the itinerant entertainment activities and facilities for local fairs and festivities. Moreover, the author herself had worked as a tourist entertainer for one season (2006) in the same seaside resort as the interviewees, so this personal experience could complement the results obtained from the interviews, as other research proficiently showed (Botterill 2000; Morrison 2002; Robinson 2008). The combination between interviews and direct experience as an insider offered a rich fieldwork of qualitative data to support this preliminary study on tourist entertainment workers, which will anyway require further qualitative and quantitative analysis in the future.

Work location and setting The analysis of the spatial context where tourist entertainers perform is particularly relevant for understanding their role as professionals within the tourism service sector. The gated seaside resort which constituted the location of the interviewees’ daily work activities is a four-star luxury facility, addressed to both short and long term middle and middle-upper class vacationers. It provides spotless common facilities (bathrooms, sinks and showers), certified quality of sea water (Bandiera Blu label4), brand new water facilities (pools and waterpark), a broad variety of services, such as bars, restaurants, shops and, of course, day and night entertainment entertainers as such, facilitating the gathering of sensitive information (as it is easier to talk about certain issues on the phone rather than face-to-face), as Prof. Galit Nimrod suggested. 3 The statistical data refer to the general professional category code 93.29.90: “Sport, entertainment or amusement activities”. 4 The Bandiera Blu label is one of the most recognized certifications of seawater cleanliness in Italy.

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activities. Guests can stay in bungalows, but they mainly come to the campsite with their tents, caravans and camper vans, traveling from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Eastern Europe and also Italy. This type of vacationer travels “with their own stuff”, thus limiting the extra-ordinariness of their holiday. As an enclavic tourist space, the seaside camping and resort can be considered an example of the “transformation of the perimeter of the Mediterranean into a leisureoriented space for industrialized Europe” (Lefebvre 1974/1991, 58), offering to European families a cosy, controlled and familiar holiday site. The main avenue (fig. 1) is supplied with shops (supermarket, photographer, jewellery shop, garment shop, souvenir shop, shoe shop), restaurants and pizzerias, children’s amusement park, and also basic medical care. Figure 17-1 Schematic map of the considered seaside enclavic tourist space

The provision of these services combined with the presence of around 14,000 guests during high season was reported by the interviewees to be comparable to a small-size town, emphasizing the character of enclavic tourist spaces as small, closed worlds. The main avenue functions as a scenario (Goffman 1997) for the tourist experience (Gottdiener 1997, cited in Edensor 2000), as it ends in the main “square” which, at night, is fenced and converted into the stage where tourist entertainers perform. The seaside resort’s scenographic character is particularly evident from the map, as it constitutes a spotless, controlled and predictable setting for the tourist experience and an appropriate site for consumption (Freitag 1994; Gottdiener 1997; Edensor 2000; Lefebvre 1991), as Carlo emphasized:

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The point that attracts more attention is the main crossroad (...) at the centre of it, there...there is the stage for tourist entertainment (...) the stage is right at the centre of the campsite, there we carry out activities during the day and shows during the night, tourist entertainment is one of the most important points which goes around... which the campsite pivots on (Carlo, 23 yo).5

Symbolically, the organization of space (Gieryn 2000, 2002; Lefebvre 1991) reveals that in this facility the tourist experience is regulated by consumption and entertainment, and therefore reproduces the same social practice of leisure as it is found in ordinary life. The central area emphasizes the importance of shopping as a liminoid (Turner 1982, 2001) tourist experience, as per Edensor (2000, 329): The complex of facilities constituting the enclave is organized to provide a self-contained environment where tourists are encouraged to spend as much money as possible. (...). In order to keep them in this space, entertainment is usually provided by in-house recreational facilities, video shows, craft displays, and frequently “exotic” shows and simulation of local culture.

But, besides this recognized economic function, I argue that it is precisely this soft aspect of the holiday (the expectation to experience extra-ordinariness) through recreational facilities and spectacles that guides the consumption choices of the tourists. Pine and Gilmore (1998) refer to this mechanism as “experience economy”: the moment of consumption by the client/guest/user is converted into a memorable experience in order to multiply economic benefit. If, on one side, there is an institutionalized setting for leisurized holidays, addressed mainly to reproduce the same consumption patterns as in ordinary life, the provision of daily and nightly entertainment activities through qualified staff is essential for the considered seaside resort for making guests’ stays more liveable and worth remembering (the “added value”). Tourist entertainers are the suitable qualified staff to convert the ordinariness of the enclavic tourist space into an extra-ordinary holiday. Moreover, they experience their job as a complex management of staged roles, since “tourism employees are not just actors on a stage, they have to act out that stage” (Crang 2003, 146). Tourist entertainers actively construct and define the same settings where they are supposed to act; they are real “tourism producers” (ibid.). Tourist entertainers are thus “bringing back” the extra5 The extracts from the interviews have been translated from Italian to English by the author.

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ordinariness of the holiday to an otherwise quiet and familiar vacation experience, but they are also providing a specific type of it: they are combining spectacles (night shows) with daily leisure activities which encompass also education, sport and culture. A successful neologism has been coined to refer to this new phenomenon: edutainment. Tourist experience is culturalizing (Crang 2003), as it is aimed at “learning something” or being productive (Urry 2002) during the work-free time of the holiday. While it is accepted that vacationers have to productively benefit from their leisure time on holiday, here it is argued that also service workers, as in the case of tourist entertainers, have to enjoy their work time: tourism and leisure implode (Crang 2003), both for tourists and for workers. The mutual displacement between work and leisure (MacCannell 1974/1999) involves both the tourists and the tourism service staff.

Tourist entertainers: A profile Within the team of interviewees, there was an organizational cleavage between multi-tasks or front-line 6 entertainers, and management entertainer staff (team leader, scenographer, choreographer, sound technician) who supported the work of their front-line colleagues. Interviewees were young Italians between 20 and 30 years old, and most of them were university students or young professionals in sports or dance activities. All of them started as tourist entertainers by chance: they searched in the internet “something that could bring them far from home” (Daniele), a possibility to “exercise my language skills” (Roberta), or “an opportunity to do something totally different” (Carlo). For most of them, job interviews were carried out during the tourism fair in Milan or Turin, where they could show their language skills and general or specific qualifications. Once in their work setting, front-line tourist entertainers engaged both in daily and nightly activities (their staged roles), located in different areas of the campsite. During the day, leisure activities mixed playfulness and education. Both adults and children followed courses and engaged in activities with tourist entertainers as they would do back in their home countries with professionals and trained staff. Edutainment was particularly evident in the case of (female) entertainers working with children, as they engaged in educational and care activities (baby-sitting and teaching). During the day, there were also three common and compulsory activities for front-line entertainers: the afternoon’s group 6

The term “front-line workers” has been proposed by Guerrier and Adib, 2003.

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dances (5.00-5.45 pm), placing the chairs (5.45-6.15 pm), and the children’s evening “baby dance” (8.00-8.30 pm). Group dances consisted of dancing to popular theme songs to “activate” 7 guests and get them having fun. Placing the chairs was an activity that literally consisted of placing plastic chairs right in front of the stage where the night shows would have taken place, in order to allow the guests to sit down as in a theatre. Of course, after the shows, they also had to be removed. The baby dance consisted of tourist entertainers dancing to popular children’s song themes, with the child guests reproducing the same movements. These activities could also become objects for discussions and tensions: the workers who did not show up (alluding to any variably acceptable reason) were invited to explain their absence to all the team and, if repeatedly occurring, they could have incurred in official reproach by the team leader. Almost all the interviewees reported, as a potential situation for conflict within the team, the case when they saw or “caught” one colleague talking on the phone or having a break during work time, especially if this was done on purpose to “skip” these (boring) common activities. Anyway, these episodes were explained and justified by the interviewees as normal and comprehensible reactions to the stress and physical fatigue caused by the extended working time or the fatiguing hot weather. While daily individual or group activities were considered the serious “work” part of their job, for all the front-line entertainers, night activities (spectacles and shows, like musicals) corresponded to the most pleasant tasks, since they could really express themselves and eventually engage in “real” entertainment activities. As occupational devotees under the guests’ gaze, the staged shows were uniformly considered the core activities of the job (Stebbins 2009). Again, the stage is reconfirmed as a true performing space (Edensor 2000, 2001) for the tourist experience: night shows on the stage were thus considered the real front stage (Goffman 1997) of the job position. Interviewees emphasized that their shows even attracted around 2,500-3,000 people during peak periods, gathering along the avenue and the campsite’s stage, and referred to the consequent remarkable induced consumption of the commercial activities located along the main avenue. Interviewees were very much aware of the fact that their shows concretized the extra-ordinariness of the holiday experience as added value within the enclavic space, and that this service could be decisive for the location’s popularity. Indeed, some interviewees underlined how some guests got in touch with them by phone or email before planning their 7

Tourist entertainment workers in Italian are translated as “animatori turistici”, that is “tourist animators”, referring to “animation” (a sort of “activation from the inside”) as an even more revealing term for boosting and stimulating activities.

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holidays in order to reach them in the vacation site where they would have been working during the forthcoming season. Moreover, interviewees recognized that providing entertainment services—thus being tourism producers—implied a blurring and an implosion of work and leisure time, and a spreading out of activities across the day and the night. Tourist entertainers worked nearly around the clock, as they were engaged on average for 6 hours in daily activities, 4 hours in nightly activities, and from 2 to 4 hours in rehearsals as a preparation for the night shows.

Accredited competences and emotional work Besides accredited professional qualifications (dance, sports, foreign languages), tourist entertainers contributed to creating the tourists’ experience of holidays through a highly specialized and personalized treatment of guests, that is, employing non-material competences (light skills). Butera et al. (2008) stress how relational and emotional work is part of a whole set of non-material competences and knowledge that is deeply changing the service or market. Not only are workers required to use and exchange information, but they have to attain a wide range of knowledge that qualify them as “knowledge” or “organizational workers” within non-material processes of production (ib.). Tourist entertainers are true generators of tourist experiences as an immaterial service: the emotional work they carried out was so “well-done” that the provision of a service was replaced by closeness and friendship. Other studies underlined the complexities of the emotional work required by tourism workers (Guerrier and Adib 2003; Longo 2007; Tracy 2000), as it not only constitutes the connection between work and leisure for entertainers, but it also provides workers the meaning of their job experience, rewarding them as persons through an emotional relationship that they can establish while working. The “emotional care” service provided by tourist entertainers is a symptom of a more general change in the service sector, since emotional work (and specifically care work) is more consistently required of workers in order to personalize the clients’ experience of consumption (Hochschild 1983, who first coined the term emotional work) and to convert their spending in a real experience (Pine and Gilmore 1998). But, oppositely to a general service job, being kind is not enough: At the beginning you find yourself in a quite different world, with... it’s a whole of, totally different... Every week new people are coming, it’s a world on its own, almost nearly far from what is reality, because all the people that are coming are on holiday... people that come to you are stressed, tired, they simply want to have fun, they only want to see smiles...

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and your duty is like to give them this joy, these smiles, this quietness that they are searching far from home... The tourist entertainer... He must be happy of the work he does, because if you are not happy of what you do, you cannot make other people happy (Daniele, 26 yrs) (my italics).

This aspect of emotional work as giving “something of yourself” is essential in order to be a good tourist service worker. For contemporary tourism industry, not only “social and emotional skills” are highly relevant (Urry 2002, 72; Rojek 2010), but they should also be solid and authentic (Crang 2003, 148): going around with a smile or being kind to all the guests are “duties” that imply a staged conviviality but which also should be “really” felt by tourist entertainers. The staged roles performed by tourist entertainers are not only quests for excitement (Elias and Dunning 1986) or extra-ordinariness during the leisurized holiday, but also a quest for authenticity (MacCannell 1974/1999, 105). Thus, in the contemporary service industry, as tourism is clearly revealing, the experience of consumption is not only based on the customization of products, but also and more precisely on the commodification of the personality of the workers (Crang 2003, 153) and, it must be added, of their bodily presence. As a type of specialized tourism service worker, tourist entertainers both produce the gaze as they orient tourists regarding what they should gaze upon, and are also the object of this gaze (Urry 2002; Crang 2003). Light skills as relational and emotional work were also needed for handling the constant physical presence both of guests and workmates. On one side, tourist entertainers’ bodies were qualitatively connoting their work place as a performing setting: It is a good experience, but it is an experience that in my view is not for everybody, since anyway you have to be willing to step forward, you have to be willing to go up on the stage, to put yourself like also under the spotlights, because anyway we always have people constantly watching us (Roberta, 24 yrs).

Their bodies became objects of tourist gaze (Urry 2002), and as such they were subjected to constraints and controls. In connection to this, the care and emotional work required of tourist entertainers is similar to those required of a family assistant for non-autonomous elderly, a wide social phenomenon taking place in Italy (Ambrosini 2005; DeGiuli 2007; Grosso Gonçalves and Santagati 2010; Santagati 2008). They were physically and emotionally implicated in their work. So the light skills required of them as knowledge workers (Butera et al. 2008) are mitigated by this strong bodily component of their job: this is the main specificity of tourist entertainers as professional service workers. On the other side, this

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relational and emotional work had also to be translated into the ability to cope with the same team for several months within a closed environment. Intense working schedule, leaving few hours for spare time, had to be combined with a cooperative life with one’s workmates. The obvious result was that work and private life intertwined and combined together: interviewees referred to their workmates as a “big family”. Tourist entertainers could establish strong and long-term relationships among each other, but on an everyday basis they also had to be able to cope with tensions and conflicts within the team. Personal skills and qualities soon cropped up and many interviewees reported how tourist entertainment as a job accelerated social relationships: Well, obviously it depends on people. But in tourist entertainment, the time schedule, the time, is like it was expanded or amplified. If you consider that you live with them...18 hours a day... 20 maybe? (laughs) At the end it’s like you had the opportunity to get to know them for months and months (Carlo, 23 yrs).

Personal preferences, working pace, the quality of the working environment, groups’ and couples’ structures were very evident already from the outset of the working season.

Tourist entertainment as a work and life project Qualified tourist entertainment workers as dance teachers, scenographers, choreographers, personal trainers, swimming and sport teachers, considered their job experience as inscribed within a broader personal and professional project. Some of them were still studying and thus found this job as a suitable way to spend their summer, with the opportunity to place some “professional experience” in their curriculum vitae. While for others, tourist entertainment was just another temporary job to combine with an already uncertain working life (Samek and Semenza 2003) in sport or dance schools, gyms or cooperatives. Temporary employment contracts and diversification in wages were symptoms of the more general casualization of workforce that is acknowledged in European or studies (Reyneri 2009; Samek and Semenza 2003). Some others, whose work or education had nothing to do with tourist entertainment, emphasized their personal choice to embark in such a “totally different” working experience (Carlo, 23 yo). For them, being a tourist entertainer was considered a lifestyle, that is “a generic term for specific combinations of work and leisure (...) replacing “occupation” as the basis of social relationship formation, social status and social action”

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(MacCannell 1999, 6). The specific combination of work and leisure characterizing tourist entertainers is entertainment, edutainment and spectacle mixed with a disciplined work routine. The elective character of this job, for some workers, was anyway tempered by the awareness that wages were not sufficiently high to make one’s own living out of it. The highest wages were reserved for the team leader, the scenographer, the choreographer and the sound technician, thus excluding front-line entertainers as such. Although specific and proven qualifications are required to be employed, and beyond the demanding care work necessary for managing the multiplicity of staged roles that tourist entertainers continuously carried out in different locations and for an extended period of working time, this job was neither highly or sufficiently rewarded to be able to live through it (causing also a high turnover). The limited economic consideration assigned to tourist entertainment as a job position depends on the fact that it is not considered a “real” job: since it has to do with playfulness, leisure, entertainment, amusement, spectacle, it is deemed to be a playful working activity where “you amuse yourself while working”. On the contrary, the intense and long working schedule and the complex variety of skills and competences required make this job very demanding. Nevertheless, almost all interviewees stressed that despite the limited economic compensation, it was indeed the non-material reward that this work could offer that kept them working, season after season: many mentioned the priceless emotions of being on the stage, receiving applause, being “somebody” for the guests as soon as they wore their uniform, someone famous and collectively recognized as such for his/her own staged roles. Tourist entertainers worked for this thrill that was the rewarding positive aspect of this dynamic work activity making it worth living (Stebbins 2009). Non-economic compensations were highly fulfilling, and they helped to make this job the “life experience” some interviewees were referring to. But this mechanism has an end: when the uniform is taken off, the tourist entertainer goes back to the normal life as a normal person. At the same time, the low economic gain achieved though this supposed “work-by-play” job can be an excuse to select, for the agencies working in this sector and their clients (camping site, resorts, hotels and so on), the most motivated people, who will accept working hard for a low wage as they will be compensated with this non-material (thus nonquantifiable) work and leisure experience. Urry (2002, 64) also dealt with the strong motivation required by service workers, their low wage notwithstanding. The cruciality of their role is counterbalanced by the many attempts carried out by the management to control their work and

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reaffirming discipline and commitment to a certain corporate image, as for example in hotel chains. One interviewee indeed stressed: On the week that we had to stage a lot of shows (...) both the choreographer and the team leader had quite some problems to bring the group together, because we were nearly at the edge of a breakdown, but by the end of the day they tried to go and talk to every one of us in order to tell us that it would have been soon over, that we had to try harder, because anyway this was something that we did actually chose to do and that we amused ourselves, despite we were stressed up in that particular moment (Carlo, 23 yo).

Therefore, the enthusiasm shown by all tourist entertainers regarding their activity could also hide a subtle ideology in order to get both the discipline and the submission of workers.

Final remarks In this preliminary study, tourist entertainers turned out to be symbolically functional for the tourist industry as they provided an emotional work which, connected with high qualifications and professional skills, helped to convert vacations into real holy-days, as extra-ordinary, worth-remembering experiences. More in general, the case of tourist entertainers can be considered as a case study within the broader tertiary industry, where also personalized and emotional treatment of clients is needed to provide consumers with a “true” experience of consumption. According to the theoretical frame presented and the methods adopted, and as a main finding of the fieldwork of this preliminary and explorative research, it resulted that the function of tourist entertainers as specialized workers in the tourism industry, and especially in seaside resorts, is related to their role as “key workers” (Edensor 2002), as they facilitate, guide and organize the tourists’ experience of leisure. As workers within institutionalized entertainment services, their bodily presence and professional skills ensure that guests’ holiday is as satisfying and entertaining as expected, making their tourist experience (more than) sufficiently pleasant (Urry 2002). As was shown, in post-fordist tourism, travel and stay in a leisurized seaside resort are no longer synonyms of extraordinariness (Urry 2002, 84), thus tourist entertainers “bring back” the holiday into the realm of routine breaking. They are the “masters of ceremonies”, or “emotional mediators” (Lo Verde 2009, 113), who lead the guests along their holiday experience. Tourist entertainment boosts the

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realization of what leisure and entertainment should consist of on holiday as socially constructed practice (Edensor 2001). Furthermore, tourist entertainers have to be able to successfully manage the set of staged roles and façades within interrelationships with guests. “Non serious”, playful behaviour is permitted on holiday, according to certain paths (Elias and Dunning 1986; Turner 1982) and tourist entertainers are professionals trained to “bring out“ the playfulness of holidays by performing their staged roles. Thus, they do not just amuse the guests, but they entertain them: guests do not passively stand waiting to be amused, but they are actively participating in the playfulness of the situation. This is particularly interesting in relationship to what cropped up during the interviews: the tourist entertainer’s job was not only to stimulate, ensure and maintain leisure, but also to authentically play host to the guests. This function is contextually bounded to the empirical setting considered in this work (enclavic tourist spaces), to the type of tourists8 and to the theoretical frame presented above. The contemporary tourism industry as leisurized experience provides this specific emotional service to guests (not just “tourists”), which will arguably strengthen the relationship between tourism and the hospitality industry. Although scholars are still debating on this issue (Morrison 2002; Lugosi et al. 2009), the connection between the hospitality industry in providing “hard” service to tourism will eventually tighten through “intellectual abilities” (Lashley 2004) as found in the tourism industry as a form of leisure. The provision of accommodation, food and drinks will become a leisurized and memorable experience through the staged entertainment of (tourism) service workers. The specificity of tourist entertainers’ work which defines them as sui generis professionals is the combination of the emotional and care work with other specific skills and abilities (“soft” light skills), and their physical presence (“hard” assets). Consequently, service employment is not inevitably going towards a de-skilling of work (Samek and Semenza 2003), but on the contrary some job positions are going towards a specialization, even an over-skilling of work for the purposes of the experience economy. In this respect, it must not be forgotten that the experience of consumption as a memorable event (Pine and Gilmore 1998) is supported and orchestrated by a solid management, who tries to control and predict the satisfactory experience of extraordinariness of consumption: if the employees’ emotional work towards the clients/guests/users is essential to create the memorable experience of consumption, in any case the interaction between these counterparts has to 8 Further analysis is needed to clarify the profile of this specific typology of tourists.

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be indirectly controlled and guided. Service workers are pushed to be spontaneous and authentic but their service has also to be routinized and potentially controlled in practice. This implies a core problem of control of service quality for the management within the tourism and hospitality industries (Urry 2002, 63; Lugosi et al. 2009), constituting a fruitful area of research for future tests and inquiries.

Reference List Ambrosini, M. 2005, “Dentro il welfare invisibile: aiutanti domiciliari immigrate e assistenza agli anziani”, Studi Emigrazione, 42(159), 561595. Botterill, D. 2000, “Social scientific ways of knowing hospitality”, in C. Lashley and A. Morrison (eds), In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and Debates Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 177-196. Bouquet, M. 1987, “Bed, breakfast and an evening meal. Commensality in the nineteenth and twentieth century farm household in Hartland” in M. Bouquet and M. Winter (eds), Who From Their Labors Rest? Conflict and Practice in Rural Tourism. Aldershot: Avebury. Butera, F., S. Bagnara, R. Casaria, and S. Di Guardo (eds) 2008, Knowledge Working. Lavoro, lavoratori, società della conoscenza, Milano: Mondadori Education. Cardano, M. 2011, La ricerca qualitativa, Bologna: Il Mulino. Crang, P. 2003, “Performing the tourist products” in C. Rojek and J. Urry (eds), Touring Cultures. Transformations of Travel and Theory. London: Routledge, 137-154. Degiuli, F. 2007, “A Job with No Boundaries”, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 14(3), 193-207. Edensor, T. 2000, “Staging tourism: tourists as performers”, Annals of Tourism Research, 27(2), 322-344. —. 2001, “Performing tourism, staging tourism”, Tourist Studies, 1(1), 59. Elias, N. 1988, Il processo di civilizzazione, Bologna: Il Mulino. Elias, N. and E. Dunning 1986, Quest for excitement: sport and leisure in the civilizing process, Blackwell Oxford. Freitag, T. G. 1994, “Enclave tourism development for whom the benefits roll?” Annals of Tourism Research, 21(3), 538-554. Gieryn, T. F. 2000, “A space for place in sociology”, Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 463-496. —. 2002, “What buildings do”, Theory and Society, 31(1), 35-74. Glaser, B. G. and A.L. Strauss 1999, The discovery of grounded theory. Strategies for qualitative research, New York: de Gruyter.

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Goffman, E. 1997. La vita quotidiana come rappresentazione, Bologna: Il Mulino. —. 2007, Internados. Ensayos sobre la situación social de los enfermos mentales, Buenos Aires: Amorrortu Editores. Gottdiener, M. 1997, The Theming of America. Dreams, Visions and Commercial Spaces, Oxford: Westview Press. Grosso Gonçalves, V. and M. Santagati 2010, “Il corpo ‘imprigionato’ delle assistenti familiari. Spunti di riflessione a partire da un contributo di ricerca”, Paper presentato a Giornate di Studio AIP. Gruppo Disparità di Genere. “Il corpo in Psicologia Sociale” http://www. gdg.unipr.it/, accessed September 2012. Guerrier, Y. and A. Adib 2003, “Work at leisure and leisure at work. A study of the emotional labor of tour reps”, Human Relations, 56(11), 1399-1417. doi:10.1177/00187267035611006. Hochschild, A. 1983, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, Berkeley: University of California Press. Huizinga, J. 1972, Homo Lludens, Buenos Aires: Emecé, DL. ISTAT 2008, Local units and classification of professional activities, http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/3982, accessed September 2012. La Mendola, S. 2009, Centrato e Aperto. Dare vita a interviste dialogiche. Torino: UTET Università. Lashley, C. 2004, “Escaping the tyranny of relevance. Some reflections on hospitality management education” in C. Cooper, C. Arcodia, D. Solnet, and M. Whitford (eds), Creating Tourism Knowledge. A selection of papers from CAUTHE 2004. (61-74), Altona: Common Grounds Publishing, http://SustainableTourism.Publisher-Site.com, accessed September 2012. Lefebvre, H. 1991, The Production of Space, Oxford: Blackwell. Lo Verde, F. M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma: Editori Laterza. Longo, V. 2007, Dando l’anima alla città galleggiante. Il lavoro emotivo nelle navi da crociera. (Unpublished doctoral thesis.). Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova. Lugosi, P., P. Lynch and A. Morrison 2009, “Critical hospitality management research”, The Service Industries Journal, 29(10), 14651478. doi:10.1080/02642060903038879. MacCannell, D. 1999, The Tourist. A New Theory of the Leisure Class, Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press. Morrison, A. 2002, “Hospitality research. A pause for reflection”, International Journal of Tourism Research, 4(3), 161-169. doi: 10.1002/jtr.374.

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Pine, J.B. II, and J.H. Gilmore 1998, “Welcome to the experience economy”, Harvard Business Review, July-August (Reprint 98407), 97-105. Reyneri, E. 2009, “Occupazione, lavoro e diseguaglianze sociali nella società dei servizi”, in L. Sciolla (ed.), Processi e trasformazioni sociali. La società europea dagli anni Sessanta a oggi, Bari: Laterza, 39-64. Robinson, R.N.S. 2008, “Revisiting hospitality’s marginal worker thesis. A mono-occupational perspective”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27(3), 403-413, doi: 10.1016 / j.ijhm. 2007.09.003. Rojek, C., and J. Urry 2003, Touring Cultures. Transformations of Travel and Theory, London-New York: Routledge. Rojek, C. 2010, The Labor of Leisure. The Culture of Free Time, London: Sage Publications. Samek Lodovici, M. and S. Semenza 2003, “Lavoro atipico e lavoro sommerso” in C. Lucifora (ed.), Mercato occupazione e salari la ricerca sul lavoro in Italia, Milano: Mondadori, 237-247. Santagati, M. 2008, “Dentro la casa dell’anziano: l’assistente familiare e i molteplici significati dello spazio domestico” in Anziani, famiglie, assistenti. Sviluppi del welfare locale tra invecchiamento e immigrazione, Milano: Franco Angeli, 253-287. Savelli, A. 1998, Sociologia del turismo, Milano: Franco Angeli. Selwyn, T. 2000, “An anthropology of hospitality” in C. Lashley and A. Morrison (eds), In Search of Hospitality. Theoretical Perspectives and Debates Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 177-196. Sousa, A.A. 1994, El ocio turístico en las sociedades industriales avanzadas, Barcelona: Bosch Casa Editorial. Stebbins, R.A. 2004, Between Work and Leisure. The Common Ground of Two Separated Worlds, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. —. 2009, Personal Decisions in the Public Aquare. Beyond Problem Solving into a Positive Sociology, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. Tracy, S.J. 2000, “Becoming a character for commerce”, Management Communication Quarterly, 14(1), 90-128. doi: 10.1177 / 0893318900141004. Turner, V. 1982, From Ritual to Theatre. The Human Seriousness of Play. Performing Arts Journal Publications, New York City. Turner, V. 2001, Il processo rituale: struttura e antistruttura, Brescia: Morcelliana.

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Uriely, N. 2001, “‘Travelling workers’ and ‘working tourists’. Variations across the interaction between work and tourism”, International Journal of Tourism Research, 3(1), 1-8. Urry, J. 2002, The tourist gaze, London: Sage Publications. Wood, R.C. 1992, Working in Hotels and Catering, London: Routledge.

PART V LEISURE ACROSS LEGAL AND ILLEGAL

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN THE IMPACT OF BELIEFS ABOUT THE USE OF MONEY ON GAMBLING PATTERNS THOMAS AMADIEU Introduction After a long period of prohibition, gambling has become over the past several decades a major part of the leisure economy, increasingly considered as a trivialized “mainstream entertainment” (Reith 2002). In spite of these recent evolutions, gambling still appears to many as a potentially dangerous and immoral activity—mostly because of the risks of addiction (Reith 2007; Cosgrave 2010)—as well as an irrational one. Consequently, there is no general consensus about whether or not gambling is a legitimate activity, as illustrated by the fact that we observe a wide spectrum of legal situations from prohibition to liberalized markets. Despite this strong feature few attempts have been made to account for the importance of axiological beliefs on the consumption of gambling products (Lam 2006). Moreover, the impact of the social meaning of money on the recognition of gambling has been widely neglected and no systematic description of our moral reluctances toward gambling has been proposed. After a brief review of the literature on gambling in the following section, I describe the normative specificities of the gambling offer. In the next section I present the moral representations related to money and their consequences on views about gambling. Meanwhile, I show that these principles are weakening and tend to less systematically apply to gambling. The final section then examines the beliefs and cognitive strategies that gamblers endorse due to the previous statements.

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Explaining gambling behaviours If the field of gambling studies is expanding, it remains dominated by psychological inquiries on pathological players (Castellani 2000). Gambling studies do not have a strong tradition in sociology and no general explanation of the phenomenon has yet gained ascendance among sociologists (Frey 1984). This is mainly due to the fact that the social status of this activity is fluctuating, creating an indetermination about the field of research that it should be included in. Furthermore, gambling is transversal to our societies (not limited to one particular social group) and composed of heterogeneous games (in terms of play structure and amount of money staked). However, a renewal of interest is to be observed today because of the global success of these activities that permits one to explain them with the tools of the sociology of leisure and of consumption. The sociology of gambling reflects the evolution of its social meaning: from a deviant activity to a leisure one. In the first explanations of gamblers’ motivations it appeared as a way to show diverse qualities that are promoted by capitalist societies: the ability to lose money as a means of distinction (Veblen 2007), the ability to take risks, the will to improve economic situation, the mastery of rational decisions, etc. But at the same time gamblers were supposed to display an inability to succeed by legitimate means. Gambling has accordingly long been studied from a functionalist perspective as a “safety-valve’ in capitalist societies, individuals compensating for the lack of thrill in everyday life (Devereux 1980) and their social status frustration (Tec 1967) by trying their luck. Gambling appears as both appealing—because it resembles entrepreneurial activities elsewhere valued—and stigmatized—because it contradicts orderliness and predictability principles. The main characteristic of gambling in modern societies is thus to allow one to achieve valued goals through culturally unapproved means and to liberate one from a frustration linked to the inability to attain these goals and to gain self-esteem at work. Gamblers, consequently, gain a sense of control over their destiny and their financial situation (Herman 1976; Zola 1963). Therefore, gambling is associated with financial difficulties (Bloch 1963; Devereux 1980), deviant sub-cultures, as well as a risk-taking ethos (Goffman 1967). These theories are somehow outdated by the recent evolutions of our leisure activities and the insertion of gambling into entertainment consumptions (Abt 1984). Gambling being a routine aspect of everyday life, it nowadays falls within the scope of the sociology of leisure rather than of the sociology of deviance, as it used to. The sociology of leisure

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adopted the “risk society’ perspective to analyse emergent leisure forms: sociologists explained the success of gambling by our late-modern attraction to commoditized forms of “safe” risk-taking (Young 2010). However, games of chance are of various forms, some of them including very small stakes (lotteries and scratch cards) and the majority of gamblers enjoy winning or fantasize about the winnings more than taking risks. Consequently, gambling cannot, from my point view, be summarized by a perspective that associates gambling to “edgework” activities—a form of leisure characterized by a use of risks and dangers as a source of pleasure and enjoyment (Lyng 2005). Besides, advertisements about gambling insist on the winning opportunities rather than the enjoyment of taking risks. In a similar perspective, sociologists have shown that we observe a medicalization of social discourses about the dangers of this leisure—the real risks—that contributes to replacing a moral vision (“gambling is a vice”) by a medical one (“gambling may become an addiction”) (Cosgrave 2010; Rosecrance 1985). Gambling illustrates our tendency to frame risks and to individualize our understanding of consumption and leisure. Recent works in the sociology of gambler’s motivations tried to establish some correlates from an explorative perspective. The most important correlates seem to be the source rather than the level of income (Worthington et al. 2003), ethnic group (Tan et al. 2010), relative deprivation (Mishra et al. 2011), and religious orientation (Diaz 2000). They lead us to propose an explanation of gambling behaviours by the differences in terms of moral values that are hidden under these categories. While sociological works taking the moral aspects of gambling into account tend to focus on the history of gambling and more specifically on the evolutions of legislations, I believe this perspective would gain from being applied to individual behaviours. Because gambling implies staking money, the temptation is great to analyse it in pure instrumental terms. But gambling behaviour is a paradigmatic paradox in decision theory: how to explain the purchase of lottery tickets if their expected utility is negative? For many economists and most cognitive psychologists gambling is a clear example of the existence of irrational reasoning. Recent economic studies however show that gambling is to be compared with working: its attractiveness is the ability to gain “something from nothing”, i.e. gain an additional income without working for it (Nyman et al. 2008). In this enlarged frame the rationality of gambling is re-established. Gamblers display varying degrees of calculation and utility maximization. But the characterization of utility is problematic (Demeulenaere 2002) because one cannot postulate a criterion of decision on an a priori basis. The main problem may be

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formulated as follows: how to explain gambling decisions if the quantities of money are not measures of the utility of the activity? One has to take into account the fact that money is not completely objectified (Simmel 2004) and is a vehicle of social meanings (Demeulenaere 1997; Zelizer 1997). The common denominator of games of chance is a play structure that implies money staking and an unequal and random redistribution. Not only do we have to consider the economic context (social mobility, relative deprivation, demotion, working opportunities, etc.), but we also need to describe the normative setting. To conclude, sociological explanations generally tend to neglect the importance of our beliefs about money, while economic ones together insist on the importance of money as an incentive to play and neglect its social signification. We believe like economists that money is central in gambling (providing suspense, thrill, joy of winning, pride, etc.) but also that this object is a sociological one that does not have a universal meaning as might be the case in the decision theory. This entertaining form of leisure implies hedonistic dispositions (in order to be able to play with money) and may also be at the same time a serious form of leisure (with sometimes a playful value very limited for professional gamblers or in the case of purchasing lottery tickets).

The changing legitimacy of gambling in leisure societies Gambling is nowadays both a trivial activity (consumed by a growing number of people) and a significant public health concern (this phenomenon occurring somehow much later in France than in AngloSaxon countries). With some delay gambling has, indeed, become a health issue comparable to alcohol and tobacco: a legal but highly taxed activity due to its negative consequences on frequent consumers. But, while the latter have known a devaluation process in recent years, the former, on the contrary, has been legitimized. For 50 years gambling has, in fact, been an increasingly popular activity in most Western countries where the legal status of gaming is evolving toward an increasing legalization and liberalization. In Europe, for instance, it represents nowadays about 10% of leisure expenditures (only for its legal part)1, with some important cross-country differences reflecting variations in the availability of gambling products. To take but one example, slot-machines are often prohibited or limited to casinos. In 1 Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (2006) Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union: Final Report. European Commission.

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some states, however, one can play with these devices in gambling parlours, bars, or even sometimes airports, bus stations or hospitals. But in most countries the access to gambling is restricted (when it is not completely prohibited) and states still closely regulate these markets. It remains a specific product, policies fluctuating between tolerance and condemnation, between a “state-sanctioned commodification of chance” (Young, 2010) and a prohibition of dangerous activities. As a result, gambling is a complex market, divided in various areas, with sometimes a thin line between legal and illegal forms (Zola 1963), the most eloquent example being online betting. In France, where our research has been conducted, the general rule is that gambling is prohibited, while some forms of gambling are exceptionally allowed through monopolistic statecontrolled providers (for lotteries, scratch-cards and land-based betting) and regulated competition markets (for poker, online betting and casinos). These various legislations themselves are a consequence of political decisions oriented not only by instrumental considerations but also by moral ones. Gambling appears in fact to prominent religious and economic ethics as a problematic activity: a wide range of institutions labelled it as morally unacceptable. Amusement with money is indeed considered questionable due to a resistance to the possibility that chance plays a role in the “allocation and reallocation of property” (Brenner and Brenner 1990, VII). Even some social scientists saw in gambling an exploitation of the dreams of the economically disadvantaged strata of the population (see for instance Reith 1999). Juridical and political norms are by consequence elaborated in a context of tension between these moral principles sometimes still vivid, financial interests, and demands for an increased freedom of choice. The general trend of commercialization and institutionalization is the consequence of the development of three tendencies: 1) a secularization of most western societies, 2) the rise of hedonism, and 3) the emergence of a moral of responsibility that supposes a consumer free to consume what he wants as long as he doesn’t harm himself and others. The sociology of leisure highlighted this moral shift in the last decades. After having fought against traditionalism to impose a rationalization of economy via a frugal ethic (Weber 2009), capitalism is now valorising a hedonistic way of living (Campbell 1987). Consequently, leisure activities have developed in terms of quantity of money spent on them, proportion of the population having access to them and the scope of activities available. We observe, besides a monetization of social relations, a withdrawal of some moral concerns about a playful use of money. Moreover, games of chance are embedded in a “risk society” where they appear as legitimate sources of

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profit for organizations (Kingma 2004). The norms surrounding the use of money changed to encourage individual success (especially financially), the ability to take risks, and the mastery of one’s future. The legalization of gambling contributed in return to soften the moral condemnation of gambling by: 1) giving an economic and social legitimacy, 2) changing the image of gaming providers, and 3) improving the offer (safer and more diverse games are offered). In France, if gambling is a more and more popular leisure it still continues to divide French people; the recent debate about the liberalization of online gambling illustrates this controversy. I, furthermore, observe that gambling is more popular in some parts of the population: for instance workers and independent professions play more than farmers and executives. How to explain this discrepancy? My hypothesis is that depending on their social situation, individuals endorse various beliefs about money that are good predictors of their opinions about gambling. This article describes the axiological oppositions to this use of money and free time and their consequences on gamblers’ ways of playing. To analyse the various arguments of opponents to gambling I collected the reactions of readers of articles in French online newspapers in the 2009-2011 period. A possible bias of this method is a sociological selection of readers and a tendency of these readers to play a critical role. Their arguments are nonetheless a good illustration of possible reasoning. The second method relied on an analysis of the arguments provided by essayists as well as politicians, the latter expressing mostly ideas that they believe people share. This article then draws on semi-directed interviews conducted in Paris from 2009 to 2011 (n=40) with gamblers living in France to examine the impact of axiological beliefs about money on gambling behaviours and motivations. This article intends to clarify the reasons that justify moral reticence toward gambling and then to analyse the impact of these principles on the norms framing gambling habits and the cognitive strategies that gamblers adopt to counter them.

Money and game: the causes of a condemnation of gambling and their weakening I identify five main objections to gambling based on an analysis of discourses. These principles have religious and moral origins that I do not have the space to recount here. For my purpose it is sufficient to say that I observe them in the discourses. They deal with the allocation of money, together with the use of money. This is due to the very nature of gambling:

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at the same time consumption and investment, spending and a potential source of revenue. These principles, even if they are less pervasively present than they used to be, remain a source of moral reprobation and ambivalence for the individuals who gamble, as well as for the policy makers. If gambling is still considered problematic (morally suspect, economically irrational and medically dangerous), it is mainly due to the presence of money as a tool to gamble; a means and end of the games.

The meritocratic principle It is commonly admitted that money must reward merits or efforts. Accordingly, gambling that retrieves players on a random basis, is an illegitimate allocation of resources. Games of chance undermine the foundations of a meritocratic society by blindly promoting (on a financial as well as on a social level) undeserving individuals and, more significantly, by letting the majority believe that work is not the only and most efficient way to experience upward mobility (Caillois 1958). The history of gambling is shaped by this register of critics2. Interestingly, the growing critics towards finance and, more specifically, speculations on stock markets stigmatize these economic activities by comparing them to gambling (as illustrated by the expression “casino economy”). But, paradoxically, these critics tend to legitimate gambling as an activity that ultimately allows everybody to hope for a better future. In a cognitive context where the impact of random factors (such as birth and economic fluctuations) is considered as prevalent, gambling seems at least to respect a democratic principle by dealing equally with all gamblers. Gambling has, moreover, clear rules whereas the economic life appears to rely on obscure mechanisms that make social mobility a rare and difficult experience.

The saving principle Money is also framed in its uses and the norm has long been to be parsimonious. The main justification being that prodigality endangers its author, especially the most vulnerable populations. Workers used to be considered as incapable of saving money and spending most of their 2

Historians (see for instance Lavigne, 2010) and jurists have shown the importance of the association between money transfer and work in ethical views and consequently in the shaping of legislation.

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revenues on unnecessary consumptions like gambling (Zelizer, 2005). This register of condemnation still constitutes a reason for the State to protect its citizens by prohibiting gambling, for gambling has the particularity to imply the staking of money and is an intrinsically risky activity. The gambler is a negative character because he puts at risk his family and his own future by sacrificing other expanses, by risking indebtedness, bankruptcy or guardianship. These negative consequences of gambling have been abundantly described in literature and movies (Turner et al. 2007): the most spectacular one being crime and suicide. We observe, however, an evolution of the stigma carried by gambling due to the “pathologization” (or medicalization) of excessive betting (Castellani 2000). A small portion of gamblers (usually under 1% of the general population) appear to have problems regulating their spending and show a so-called “disease of the will”. The danger does not come from the games themselves but from the pathological use that some players make of them. The gambler becomes a consumer accountable for his consumption because a consumption ethic (self-control and reason) supplants a productive ethic (Reith 2007). Psychological sciences and practices have contributed to establish a clear distinction between a normal leisure activity and a detrimental compulsion characterized by an irrepressible urge to wager. States tend to endorse a protective role (interdiction to minors and majors under guardianship, voluntary ban, and reasonable gambling campaigns) that contributes to creating a secure context for recreational gambling.

The productive principle According to this principle, which deals with the way money should be spent, money has to be invested in economically productive activities. But gambling does not produce added value, it only operates a transfer of money from a large number of players to a smaller one. Veblen illustrates this opinion: gambling is economically nocuous, for it is a waste of money and time. The gambling propensity is (a) subsidiary trait of the barbarian temperament (…). It is recognized to be a hindrance to the highest industrial efficiency of the aggregate in any community where it prevails in an appreciable degree (Veblen 2007, 180)

The money devoted to gambling is not spent on apparently more productive sectors of the economy. This reader for example shares this view:

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Gambling, as an immediate satisfaction of hedonistic desires, diverts the agents from productive activities. This point of view is somehow dated because the leisure sector has become a legitimate one with positive economic consequences. Via taxation it is also a source of revenue for the authoritie3 and the collectivity (financing social policies, sportive projects, education, etc.). The state guarantees the morality of the gambling market by strictly regulating it with precise norms and even in some cases by organizing it. Some concerns have been raised nevertheless due to the regressivity of this form of taxation (Beckert and Lutter 2009): in France for instance—but it is also true for other countries—the proportion of gambling expenditures in the leisure expenditures is by far smaller in the biggest 10% of revenues than in the smallest 50% of revenues.

The disinterest principle Money raises, in addition, suspicions about its effects on individuals. The excessive desire for money is the principal argument of monotheistic religions’ antichrematistic view. 4 Materialism and egoism are the main defaults of gamblers. From a Marxist perspective, providing such games resembles an exploitation of people’s dreams of financial comfort. Games of chance are associated with spoliation because game providers make profit at the expense of players. It is nonetheless increasingly understandable to hope for better life conditions. Even more, one observes a growing imperative of enjoying one’s life and being able to maximize ones pleasures. A hedonistic logic seems to have supplanted the ascetic one (Campbell 1987). From the majority’s point of view gambling has become a “casual leisure”, a form of purely hedonic activity (Stebbins 1997). Besides, games of chance constitute clear contracts that gamblers 3

The history of gambling appears as a succession of prohibition and legalisation, the main consideration for the states being the financial one (Brenner and Brenner, 1990). Scholars have nonetheless shown that the costs of gambling are also quite high (see Goodman, 1996). 4 Simmel explains the distrust of religions for money by the fear that money would appear as a functional concurrent of god in the mind of people. In fact his very definition of a “universal equivalent of everything” implies a possibility of worshiping its power. Besides, we tend, according to Simmel, to consider money no more like a means but like and end.

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have agreed on and that authorize an unequal redistribution of the amount of money bet.

The rationality principle The main stumbling block of the economic analysis of gambling, the negative utility expectancy of most of the games, implies that gamblers are irrational. It is therefore an illegitimate use of money, for one cannot expect to maximize its utility by buying lottery tickets or scratch cards as Adam Smith already pointed out: That the chance of gain is naturally over-valued, we may learn from the universal success of lotteries. (…) The vain hope of gaining some of the great prizes is the sole cause of this demand (Smith 1776, chapter 10, part 1).

The normative consequence of this analysis is to condemn gambling. If one plays this would mean that he is driven by excessive hopes, irrational beliefs and emotional decision-making. The following reader criticized the organization of lotteries on this basis: Knowing that we have a chance in 40,000,000 of winning the game of lotto is a scam, I think. In fact, statistically, it’s the organizers who make profits, not the players (Bahmueller 1976, 755-756).

This view however is contradicted by a more sociological analysis, taking into account the context in which individuals gamble (for instance the mobility perspectives) and also the utility of the process (i.e. the pleasure that playing with money provides). There is a chance of his or her (the gambler) removal from the necessity of labor; and for the worst-off segments of society this means the chance to escape sometimes dreary existence, a life suffused with constant worry over money. The dream of escape, it may be argued, has value. If one wants to buy a little fantasy, a little hope, a few dreams of a better tomorrow-however slim the likelihood of their becoming reality-why deprive him of it?...The hope provided by some forms of gambling is still quite real and therefore of value even though in the aggregate it cannot be fulfilled.

To conclude, moral objections to gambling are deeply rooted and despite recent evolutions remain a source of moral debates between individuals and inside each of them.

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Consequences of these principles on gamblers The act of playing is a consequence of cognitive processes of individuals that are embedded in a social, cultural and economic context. Purchasing a gambling product or service requires some form of decision (whether after a deliberative process or as a routine) and consequently may be explained by describing the reasons provided by social agents. I believe that actors have good reasons to act and that mostly they are conscious of these reasons (Boudon 1997). The interviews I made reveal that gamblers play for a restricted number of reasons, each of them closely related to the presence of money.

Financial gain Every player wants to improve his financial situation and believes that games of chance could provide this improvement. This is the main motivation even if gamblers tend to diminish this hope in order not to appear too optimistic or naïve. Gamblers believe at least that “we never know” what could happen and that games are their only hope—even very narrow—to become rich.

Entertainment Playing provides a thrill because of the money at stake (Smith and Preston 1984). To this risk dimension it adds a suspense caused by the possibility of winning. The period between the bet and the reward allows one to dream about the joy of winning or to fear the pain of losing. It might in a way appear as a divertissement in a pascalian sense, because it permits one to forget ones problems in the “real world” and relieves boredom.

“Sense of control” over one’s fate By “beating the system”—i.e. “outsmarting it by rational means”— gamblers have the feeling of regaining a mastery over their destiny (Zola 1963, 360). In the play structure they control how much they are ready to lose and how much they may win. Their economic future relies on their gambling decisions and randomness.

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Intellectual challenge Players account for their pleasure in trying to predict the future. This is especially true for bettors and poker players. I observed in the latter a tendency to identify themselves as perfectly rational agents, able to calculate every odd and to elaborate strategies based on accurate psychological understandings.

Social recognition and sociability The gambling settings we studied are characterized by their masculinity. I noticed a valorisation of risk-taking abilities and a pride associated with successes. Among bettors especially, the knowledge of every detail about sports and horse-racing is highly considered (Goffman 1967). Despite this diversity—which does not seem to be specific to our study (Bruce and Johnson 1992)—gamblers have in common to deal with the axiological considerations related to gambling. In fact, a mix of detachment and attraction vis-à-vis the money is necessary to be able to experience the positive emotions listed above. Giving the fact that the use of money is framed with binding norms derived from the principles we described in the previous section, gamblers will adapt their behaviour accordingly. But what is the impact of uncertainties about the norms framing the use of money on gambling behaviours? In a context of growing availability, games of chance take various forms and invest an always wider range of supports (off-track betting, slotmachines outside casinos, lottery tickets and scratch-cards sold in supermarket or cafés, online sport betting and poker, card games in clubs, gaming parlours in airports, etc.), increasing the probability of playing. Gambling settings lose their image of ill-reputed places. The liberalization of online sport betting and poker in France in 2010 has, for instance, been accompanied by numerous advertising campaigns involving sport and business celebrities in the evident aim of giving respectability to these websites. Marketing gambling still implies efforts to appear as safe game providers. If players generally display this secularized view of money, they usually also show great ambivalences toward their practices. They are together conscious of the social stigma and usually find some moral problems with this leisure form. Depending on the context, the social actors also have interests in respecting the norms in their actions and also in their beliefs. There are, indeed, some costs to deviating from the social

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norms. They will consequently develop strategies to neutralize these oppositions.

Profiles of players Gambling used to be associated with either a deviant working-class activity (Hoggart 1962; Downes et al. 1976) or an upper-class culture of conspicuous consumption. The novelty nowadays is that middle classes are being “encouraged to overcome their resistance. Gambling is now democratically marketed to everyone, primarily as a form of entertainment or leisure” (Cosgrave 2001, 5). A typology of gamblers may be done regarding their way of apprehending this activity. There is little in common between a professional poker player and an occasional lottery ticket purchaser. Not only does their frequency of play differ but also they display very dissimilar attitudes vis-à-vis hazard and decision making. When the former is trying to maximize their profits by gaining mastery on predicting future events the latter adopts a more passive and often superstitious way of trying his luck. Various games attract various players: their structures suppose certain types of dispositions. Games vary in regard to skill involved, gains structure (size and number of prizes, odds, size of bets), play frequency and game setting. This explains the preferences for some games rather than others. Games like poker and sport betting for instance imply risking high sums of money to win interesting amounts. They attract consequently individuals with risk oriented professional occupations and who are attracted by strategic financial operations. “You need to have a total disregard for money. It is just an instrument, and the only time you notice it is when you run out” (Doyle Brunson, a famous professional poker player quoted in Alvarez 1983, 43). On the opposite side, lotteries and scratch cards attract a larger population because of the limited amounts of money required to hope to win large prizes. Consequently, they are appealing to women and social categories that have a more cautious relation with money.

Neutralization techniques Sociology identified neutralization techniques allowing actors to minimize the effects of social stigmatization. In the interviews I observed a range of strategies to avoid the negative stigma.

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Minimizing one’s implication Gamblers sometimes explain that they gamble because they have fun doing it whereas when they explain other gamblers’ behaviours they provide pecuniary reasons. That suggests that they tend to yield acceptable motives (Smith and Preston 1984). Because gambling is more acceptable as a way to have fun rather than a way to gain money, people will tend to pretend that they play for recreational reasons. I noticed this discrepancy by interrogating them on the reasons they believe other players have to act (in that case “for money” and “for prestige” come more often). However, the majority adopt another strategy consisting of demonstrating that gambling does not occupy an important part of one’s life, as illustrated by this player: I don’t go out purposely to go gambling. Even if I have nothing to do at my place I go out to go the theatre, in a park, see a friend or for a walk. I do not go out intentionally to play5.

Exaggerating one’s winnings There is an overrepresentation of winners in the interviews: when interrogated on the total of their gains and losses more people explain being even or ahead than losing. This fact would not be by itself conclusive of a strategic exaggeration for it might exist due to a selection bias (only winners are willing to answer the sociologist’s questions6) but I found no gambler that keeps track systematically of his winnings and losses on a long term basis. Psychologists have shown that we tend to remember more easily our winnings than our losses. This mechanism is reinforced by the impact of important financial gains that, even if they are less frequent than small losses, seem to compensate the latter. Gamblers’ evaluations are consequently biased in an optimistic way.

5

Miguel—all interviewees’ names have been modified—interviewed in Paris in 2009, instant lottery player, recent immigrant from Cape Verde, electricity worker. 6 This hypothesis implies most certainly that gamblers losing money would feel too ashamed to answer a social scientist’s questions because they fear a moral judgement of the type Rationality Principle.

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Displaying disillusionment Players try to prove to themselves and others (the sociologist here) that they are reasonable and economically rational. To do it they very often insist on their knowledge of the odds (they know approximately that they are very low) and their absence of excessive optimism about their chances of success: It is when I’m poor that I play. But I’m not lucky, I’m not a gambler. I play because I need to. So it is really a necessity. As they say: gambling is the poor’s drug. The first winner is the state.7

Furthermore, by budgeting and establishing personal rules they show that they believe that gambling is risky and unessential. The money devoted to gambling is strategically chosen in order not to exceed reasonable limits. A sort of Ulysses’ strategy (Elster 1979) is elaborated. People may play the tips or the money remaining after buying food (Zelizer 1997). They may also voluntarily carry only a defined amount of money with them and leave their credit card at home. “I have limits. I don’t touch the money that is devoted to eat” (Miguel). This prudency is a condition for pleasurable leisure. Arthur, a young wealthy player8, explains for example that he only has pleasure of playing if he sits on €0.25-0.50 a hand poker tables. Should he play on a smaller table he finds it boring, should he go to a higher one, the fear of losing makes him lose. He also insists on the risk for him of forgetting the price of money while playing, the main problem being the temptation to chase his losses. Therefore, he only allows himself to play when he does not need money, and defines an amount that he is ready to lose without regret. Moreover, a process of earmarking is taking place. Winnings are very often spent either on playing again or on futilities (in that case gambling money is somehow earmarked) or making gifts (and in that case trying to give legitimacy to these winnings). This strategy is used as well by governments that earmark profits for legitimate causes such as in France the general budget or the National Centre for Sport Development. Game providers may insist on the fact that money is redistributed to charity; in history, lotteries first appeared with the objective of raising funds for charity (Brenner 1990). 7

Bertrand, interviewed in Paris in 2010, regular lottery player with important financial difficulties and with no close family. 8 Arthur, interviewed in Paris in 2010, omnivorous player with preferences for instantly rewarding games and especially online poker, banking executive.

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Finally, the most active players will use the medical discourse to compensate for the shame they feel about their losses. The discourse about addiction is in fact frequent among the gamblers interviewed; they quite often describe their sometimes excessive practice by inherent mechanisms of games of chance that lead to compulsion and chasing.

Conclusion In this paper I have attempted to describe the main arguments against gambling. They are related to the specific use of money that are implied by games of chance and, more specifically, the fact that randomness contravenes justice principles in the allocation of property. Money is a social object, the seriousness of which delegitimizes a playful use of it. I identified five major principles that contributed to the historically strong moral condemnation of these activities. Their relative weakening in the last decades favours a tendency to legalize and liberalize the gambling sector. Even though less pervasively present, these principles nonetheless exert an influence on gamblers’ habits and representations. To deal with the moral issues that gambling still produces, gamblers develop cognitive and actional strategies. They display very often ambivalences that reveal the specificity of gambling in our societies in spite of its increasing legitimacy. Further inquiries need to be done to give more credit to the thesis that axiological beliefs related to the use of money are predictive of gambling preferences. More specifically, a quantitative analysis of purchases by individuals’ profiles would allow me to gain a more precise insight into the cognitive and normative mechanisms causing gambling.

Reference List Abt, V., M.C. McGurrin and J.F. Smith 1984, “Gambling. The misunderstood sport. A problem in social definition”, Leisure Sciences, 6(2), 205-220. Alvarez, A. 1983, The Biggest Game in Town, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Bahmueller, C.F. 1976, “State policy and the ethics of gambling” in Gambling In America, United States Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling, Washington D. C.: United States Government Printing Office, 750-769.

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Beckert, J. and M. Lutter 2009, “The inequality of fair play. Lottery play and social stratification in Germany”, European Sociological Review, 25(4), 475-488. Bloch, H.A. 1951, “The sociology of gambling”, The American Journal of Sociology, 57(3), 215-221. Boudon, R. 1997, “The moral sense”, International Sociology, 12(1), 5-24. Brenner, R. and G.A. Brenner 1990, Gambling and Speculation. A theory, a History, and a Future of some Human Decisions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bruce, A.C. and J.E.V. Johnson 1992, “Toward an explanation of betting as a leisure pursuit”, Leisure Studies, 11(3), 201-218. Caillois, R. 1958, Les jeux et les homes, Paris: Gallimard. Campbell, C. 1987, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism, Oxford: Blackwell. Castellani, B. 2000, Pathological Gambling. The Making of a Medical Problem, New York: State University of New-York Press. Clotfelter, C.T. and P.J Cook 1989, Selling Hope. State Lotteries in America, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Cosgrave, J. 2010, “Embedded addiction. The social production of gambling knowledge and the development of gambling markets”, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 35(1), 113-134. Cosgrave, J. and T.R. Klassen 2001, “Gambling against the state. The state and the legitimation of gambling”, Current sociology, 49(5), 1-15. Demeulenaere, P. 1997, “La légitimation de la recherche de l’argent dans la modernité”, Archives de Philosophie du Droit, 42, 137-151. —. 2002, “La complexité de la notion d’utilitarisme dans les sciences sociales”, Cités, 10(2), 37-48. Devereux, E. 1980, Gambling and the Social Structure. A Sociological Study of Lotteries and Horse Racing in Contemporary America. New York: Arno Press. Diaz, J.D. 2000, “Religion and gambling in sin-city. A statistical analysis of the relationship between religion and gambling patterns in Las Vegas residents”, The Social Science Journal, 37(3), 453-458. Downes, D.M., B.P. Davies, M.E. David et al. 1976, Gambling, Work and Leisure. A study Across Three Areas, London: Routledge. Elster, J. 1979, Ulysses and the Sirens. Studies in Rationality and Irrationality. Cambridge (UK) and New York: Cambridge University Press. Frey, J.H. 1984, “Gambling. A sociological review”, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social, 474(1), 107-121.

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Goffman, E. 1967, “Where the action is”, in Interaction Ritual. Essays on Face-to-face Behavior. New York: Pantheon Books. Goodman, R. 1996, The Luck Business. The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America’s Gambling Explosion, New York: Free Press Paperbacks. Herman, R.D. 1976, Gamblers and Gambling. Motives, Institutions and Control. New York: Lexington Books. Hoggart, R. 2009, The Uses of Literacy. Aspects of Working Class Life. London: Penguin Classics. Kingma, S. 2004, “Gambling and the risk society. The liberalization and legitimation crisis of gambling in the Netherlands”, International Gambling Studies 4(1), 47-67. Lam, D. 2006, “The influence of religiosity on gambling participation”, Journal of Gambling Studies 22(3), 305-320. Lavigne, J.C. 2010, “Les jeux d’argent”, Revue d’éthique et de théologie morale, 262(4), 7-35. Lyng, S. 2005, Edgework. The Sociology of Risk-taking, New-York: Routledge. McMillen, J. 1996, Gambling Cultures. Studies in History and Interpretations. London and New York: Routledge. Mishra, S., M. Daly, M.L. Lalumière, and R.J. Williams 2011, “The determinants of risky decision-making and gambling. The role of need and relative deprivation”, Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre Report. Nyman, J.A., J.W. Welte, B.E. Dowd 2008, “Something for nothing. A model of gambling behavior”, The Journal of Socio-Economics 37(6): 2492-2504. Reith, G. 2002, The Age of Chance. Gambling in Western Culture. London: Routledge. —. 2007, “Gambling and the contradictions of consumption. A genealogy of the ‘pathological subject’”, American Behavioral Scientist 51(1), 33-55. Rosecrance, J. 1985, “Compulsive gambling and the medicalization of deviance”, Social Problems 32(3), 275-284. Simmel, G. 2004, The Philosophy of Money, London: Routledge. Smith, A. 1776, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, book 1, chapter 10, part 1, London: Methuen and Co., Ltd. Smith, R.W. and F.W. Preston 1984, “Vocabularies of motives for gambling behavior”, Sociological Perspectives 27(3), 325-348. Stebbins, R. A. 1997, “Casual leisure. A conceptual statement”, Leisure Studies 16(1), 17-25.

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Tan, A.K.G., S.T. Yen and R.M. Nayga Jr. 2010, “Socio-demographic determinants of gambling participation and expenditures. Evidence from Malaysia”, International Journal of Consumer Studies 34(3), 316-325. Tec, N. 1967, Gambling in Sweden. Totowa: Bedminster Press. Turner, N.E., B. Fritz and M. Zangeneh 2007, “Images of gambling in film”, Journal of Gambling Issues, 20, 117-144. Veblen, T. 2007, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Weber, M. 2009, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Norton & Company. Worthington, A., K. Brown, M. Crawford et al. 2003, “Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of household gambling in Australia”, School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 156, Queensland University of Technology. Young, M. 2010, “Gambling, capitalism and the state. Towards a new dialectic of the risk society?”, Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(2), 1469-5405. Zelizer, V. 1997, The Social Meaning of Money. Pin Money, Paychecks, Poor Reliefs, and Other Currencies, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Zola, I.K. 1963, “Gambling in a lower-class setting”, Social Problems 10(4) 353-361.

CHAPTER NINETEEN LEISURE TIME AND “ALCOHOLIC INTERACTIONS”: RITES, NORMS AND ACTION STRATEGIES AMONG YOUNG DRINKERS CHARLIE BARNAO Introduction The object of this paper is to study the cultural patterns related to alcohol consumption by young people, through the reconstruction and sociological analysis of their drinking rituals. The main hypothesis of this work is that ritual drinking represents a privileged form of “togetherness” for young people during their spare time, playing important social integration and differentiation functions, according to specific normative and value references. The main practices of “drinking together” carried out by young people are described and analysed with the help of the theoretical-conceptual instruments of the rites of passage (Van Gennep 1908) and the rites of institution (Bourdieu 1982). An interpretative model is proposed which breaks down ritual drinking, analysing the main reference rules and strategic actions undertaken by the actors, in compliance with these rules. Alcohol consumption in groups appears as a rite of passage in the transitions that accompany from one phase to another (study/fun; work/leisure time; day/night; etc.) and from one social status to another (single/married; student/worker; adolescent/adult; etc.) the life of the social actors, fulfilling, lastly, a function of social integration. On the other hand, the ways of drinking together and the rituals connected with it perform a function of differentiation as they represent rites of institution, meaning that they create a permanent differentiation among the actors involved in the rituals and those who are excluded. Drinking rituals thus become a symbolic frontier which separates the

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chosen few from those who are not, creating social stratification and differentiation processes (status, gender, etc.), that find specific normative and value references in the practices of “staying together drinking”. The data were collected through qualitative research (January 2005February 2009) conducted in Italy (Barnao 2011). The methodological instruments used were those typical of ethnographic research: participant observation and in-depth interviews. Participant observation (almost 450 hours) was carried out in the main places of interaction connected with group drinking in young people (bars, restaurants, clubs, country fêtes, etc.). 58 in-depth interviews were conducted with young people (16-30 years old) and with privileged witnesses (social professionals, educators, bartenders, etc.).1 We will start by describing and analysing the main drinking cultures, considering the different ways in which young people interact by drinking and creating behavioural models that result from the interaction between different—and sometimes opposing—cultural horizons. In the following part of the paper we will present a typology of young drinkers. Through this typology, linked as far as possible to the field of observation, we will try to abstract and identify those fundamental cultural elements that unequivocally distinguish the different categories of young drinkers. In the last part, we will go into the details of interactional drinking networks. In other words, we will first try to set drinking rituals within the theoretical-conceptual scheme of the rites of passage and the rites of institution. Thereafter, we will break down the different rituals, identifying and analysing their fundamental elements: reference rules and strategic actions of the actors, in compliance with the same rules.

New drinking cultures? According to Ullman (1958) it is possible to distinguish between two types of culture connected with drinking: 1

Most of the data were collected through participant observation. Nevertheless, I decided to integrate it with data collected through in-depth interviews. In particular, 50 interviews (average length around 40 minutes) were conducted with young drinkers (45 women and 5 men) and 8 interviews were carried out with privileged witnesses (social professionals, doctors, bartenders, etc.). The choice of interviewing especially young female drinkers is related to the aim of obtaining specific information on particular aspects of a topic—female drinking—which is currently expanding significantly, both from a quantitative and from a qualitative point of view.

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1) Cultures where alcohol is related to a wider system of cultural and food practices and where individuals drink within a specific framework and predetermined models. They are the so-called “wet cultures”, present within the Mediterranean cultural area (Italians, Jews, Greeks, etc.). 2) Cultures where alcohol is isolated from the cultural context connected with food practices, parties, etc. They are the so-called “dry cultures”, present within the Northern European and North American cultural area (the Irish, Germans, etc.). Italy is traditionally considered a nation with a “wet” drinking model. However, several studies (Istat, 2006; Trevisani and Caputo 2005; Buzzi 2003; Pierlorenzi and Senni 2001; Rolli and Cottino 1992) pointed out that over the past few years the cultural drinking model in Italy has been rapidly turning into a “dry” model. Places and ways of drinking are highly influenced by the cultural context in which the drinking practice develops. The traditional wet ways of drinking (lunches, dinners, aperitifs, etc.) are now associated with new ways of drinking (for example happy hour, binge drinking, shot, botellón) imported from dry cultures. They are then adapted to the new context, giving rise to hybrid forms (i.e., aperitif/happy hour) in new places (such as teenagers drinking in the street) and with new modes and rituals that represeQWWKHUHVXOWRIDQHJRWLDWLRQíDUHDOPHOWLQJSRW íDPRQJGLIIHUHQW cultural models. Let us give an example. Let us consider the rituals of aperitif (wet culture) and happy hour (dry culture) and their transformation into the hybrid form of aperitif/happy hour. Aperitifs in Italy date back to the late 19th century, when they were connected with the trend of cafes in Turin, Milan, Venice, Rome and Naples. Some people even trace them back to late 18th century Turin, when Antonio Benedetto Carpano invented Vermouth, a drink used as an aperitif and produced from the maceration of wine with thirteen ingredients. While aperitifs developed in connection with the production of a beverage, their success and current diffusion are related to a way of staying together and of drinking during the hours that should precede dinner. We use the conditional, since in its most popular form it consists of drinking before dinner, accompanying the drinks with products (crisps, olives, open sandwiches, slices of pizza, etc.) which are offered to the customers of the bar (often in the form of a buffet) and which very often make up the real dinner for the regular customer. The aperitif usually takes on the aspect of a real rite of passage (Van Gennep 1908) that marks the end of work time, ferrying the actors towards the beginning of leisure time,

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thus becoming a sort of preparatory rite for evening fun, where people drink, meet and decide “what to do together”. In its most popular form, the aperitif is entwined, and often coincides, with the so-called happy hour, which refers, in its original meaning, to the period of time in which some bars offer discounts, usually on alcoholic drinks. It is a kind of promotion of alcoholic drinks sales which started in Anglo-Saxon countries in order to attract customers at specific times of the day, usually after work between 4 and 6 p.m. During happy hours some alcoholic drinks are sold at reduced price for one or two hours. In Italy, happy hours usually start later than in many other countries and sometimes last until 8 or 9 p.m. However, a happy hour is sometimes offered at other times of the day. As we said before, in Italy happy hour has, in common practice, become a synonym for aperitif and in many bars it is offered at certain times of the day when, rather than (or sometimes as well as) offering discount on alcoholic drinks, appetizers (or sometimes even real buffet dinners) are given for free to customers who drink alcoholic drinks. The most popular alcoholic drinks with young people for aperitifs/happy hours are wine, beer, spritz,2 cocktails and alcopops.3 The common element which is found across the various “staying together” cultures identified is connected with a frequent presence, sometimes even constant, of so-called binge drinking 4 during young people’s nights of revelry. Binge drinking is the habit of drinking excessive quantities of alcohol solely for the purpose of getting drunk which, in its common form, may be considered as the conclusion to the evening, after preparing it with practices such as aperitif or botellón.5 2 Spritz is certainly the most popular drink used as an aperitif. It is an alcoholic aperitif for which there is no single recipe. There are different variants, depending on the town, which are then freely interpreted by bartenders. Anyway, the constant basic ingredients are usually white wine and sparkling water (or seltzer). 3 Alcopops are sparkling drinks to which alcohol between 5% and 7% by volume is added. They are drinks aimed at young people, who are attracted by the shape of the bottles, the colour and the fruit flavouring of the drink. 4 This behaviour is particularly popular in northern European countries and is rapidly spreading to Mediterranean European countries (Trevisani and Caputo 2005; Istat 2006). For a recent closer examination on the topic, see Hayward and Hobbs (2007). 5 Botellón is a practice which has its origins in Spain. It consists of the consumption of alcoholic drinks by young people who gather in the town squares, parks or streets or any other public place before going to pubs, clubs and bars. The word botellón comes from botella, which in Spanish means ‘bottle’. The literal translation of botellón is therefore ‘big bottle’. The ‘classic’ botellón is indeed the two-litre coke bottle filled up with any alcoholic drink bought in the afternoon.

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You do not engage in binge drinking every time you go out together. It is a practice which is more frequent at weekends, for obvious reasons connected with the chance to deal with the hangover more easily at home, away from the place of work or study. However, the idea or possibility of doing it, if necessary, even when you go out at night during the week, is constantly present. When there are appropriate social conditions (the right company, a particularly fun party, etc.) and personal conditions (money availability, psychological and physical situation, etc.), then the actions of drinking together are more likely to be aimed at “getting high”. In this sense, we consider binge drinking as an instrumental acWLRQ í in the :HEHULDQ PHDQLQJ RI WKH WHUP í LQ ZKLFK UDWLRQDOLW\ OLHV LQ WKH \RXQJ drinker’s choice of the most appropriate instrument, according to a rational assessment of the situation, for achieving the aim of getting high and drunk.6

A typology of young drinkers There are some reference subcultures that strongly influence social actors’ drinking. According to the group one belongs to, there are different drinks, taken in different places and with different modalities. Let us see what can be considered the main types of young drinkers.7

Botellón parties are held more and more frequently by very young people (between 13 and 16 years old). For this category of young people, botellón corresponds to the preparatory phase of the evening, thus representing for teenagers that which the ritual of the aperitif/happy hour represents for grownups. 6 One of the fastest ways of increasing the quantity of alcohol in one’s body is by drinking shots. Shots are particular short drinks. They are served in small quantities and in small glasses (with dimensions varying from 3.5 to 6 cl.) and they are to be drunk in a single gulp. 7 The typology presented here is a ‘mixed’ type, since it is located within a continuum whose extremes are the ‘abstract’ typologies, on the one hand, and the so-called folk-elicited typologies on the other (Snow and Anderson 1993: 38). It is a folk elicited typology, in the sense that it comes from the bars, from the places where people drink and it refers to the way in which young people ‘talk about themselves’; it is an ‘abstract’ typology, since the data are interpreted in order to define the ‘types’ of young people who drink and who are slotted into categories as defined and abstract as possible. The categories thus derive from the interpretation of the data collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews with young people and privileged witnesses (bar managers, waitresses, social professionals, etc.).

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Fighetti. This is a category of young people, mostly Italians, between 18 and 35 years old. The common characteristics of these subjects are relatively few, but extremely clear. Among these is the preference for clubs and house or dance music. They are actors who love dressing in the latest fashion, following a model which is usually very expensive (for example Prada and Armani at the start of the 21st century). Male fighetti drink wine (red or white) during the preparatory phase, although with some rare exceptions. Females only drink wine (usually white “because red wine stains your teeth”) or Spritz during the preparatory phase. Beer is excluded (especially among women), since it “bloats your stomach”, “makes you burp” “gives you bad breath” and “makes you go to the toilet more often”. During this phase, younger fighette (females of fighetti) may drink alcopops. During the binge phase, cocktails (fruity for her, stronger and vodka or rum based for him) and shots (for him and for her) are a must. Also for shots there are gender differentiations, since there are typically manly shots (i.e. grappa, rum) and girly shots (i.e. rum and pear, blow job, aqua fresh). The easy-going. The category of the easy-going is made up of young adults, between 18 and 40 years old, who, as described by an interviewee, “dress as they want, without following fashion, aiming for comfort rather than an aesthetic look”. According to different interviews, men who are older than 35 and go out to bars can be considered easy-going, including those who were fighetti before. After a certain age, indeed, “they don’t follow fashion” and, even if they spend a lot of money on clothes, they often stick to old fashion, thus losing one of the fundamental characteristics which would enable them to belong to the fighetti category. During the preparatory phase, the drinks of the easy-going are usually beer for him and Prosecco, beer or Spritz for her. During the real binge phase, they switch to strong drinks, without any specific category preference, neither for him nor for her. Among the easy-going there is a subcategory that, in some way, can be considered as being made up of those who, sometimes in a radical way, take the main cultural reference elements of the more general category to extremes. Some features of counter-cultural elements (in particular the refusal of the cult of appearance) which are present in the easy-going culture, find a clear elucidation which sometimes expresses itself among those called easy-going easy-going in their belonging to real countercultural groups. The easy-going easy-going are social actors who seem to have deeply internalised the cultural element of the “refusal of fashion and appearance”, translating this, sometimes, with their belonging to groups

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who imitate the culture of rastas, punks, metalheads, etc. It should be pointed out that the most radical easy-going easy-going groups (such as some groups of metalheads or punks) tend to follow specific norms which drive people to exclude and despise those (especially the fighetti, of course) who are considered lovers of appearance and, in general, of culturally dominant behavioural models. When drinking, for example, this translates into the refusal of—for some groups it is a categorical refusal— and disdain for cocktails (considered a drink for fighetti) as a beverage to drink together. On the other hand, beer is exalted as the drink par excellence to enjoy when you are in a group. The value of rebellion that in some ways characterizes the exaltation of a drink (beer), together with a disdain for alcoholic drinks (cocktails) that identify the dominant culture, is comparable to the more general value of rebellion which the “subcultural style” of these young people and of the most marginalised sectors of society adopts.8 Posers. Poser (from the verb to pose, which means “to act as”, “to pass oneself off as”) is a term generally used in a derogatory way to refer to a person who tries to enter into one of the categories described before (the easy-going and the fighetti) in search of relationships or just for trivial reasons, without knowing, or just superficially knowing, the deepest and most fundamental cultural elements that define that culture or subculture.9 The cultural element of drinking and the rituals connected with it are so important for the definition of belonging to a group that, often (for people belonging to a group) one way of figuring out if a person is a poser trying to enter into their group, is actually by checking what kind of alcoholic drink he/she is having. Posers, by definition, adopt (or try to adopt) the behavioural models of the category or of the group they are trying to get into. The same goes for the choice of alcoholic drinks and, more in general, for everything that concerns the cultural models connected with drinking. Career women. For this study, this category is made up of those who are considered to be “career women”, not so much because they have important jobs within an ideal system of social stratification, but due to the fact that they are women who refer to a specific normative horizon related to their age, to the fact that they have a certain economic independence and that they are often de facto single (single out of choice, separated women, divorced women, but even married or engaged women who are 8

For a closer examination, see: Bourgois (2003); Becker (1963); Hebdige (1979). Posers can be considered, in many respects, as a category of actors trying (unsuccessfully) to pass (Garfinkel 1967) to the category of the fighetti or of the easy-going. 9

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“single for one night”). They are women between 25 and 40 years old (usually former fighette) I interviewed and observed in their behaviours connected with drinking, throughout the period of study. We treat them as a category apart, since they have specific characteristics and they do not have a male counterpart. Men over 35 and with corresponding characteristics (former fighetti) usually fall, as we said before, into the category of the easy-going. They are similar to the fighette in the way they behave in public, stay with other people and, especially, in the way they drink. This also concerns the choice of alcoholic drinks, both in the preparatory phase and in the possible binge drinking phase. The only relevant difference, with respect to the fighette, is that career women tend to live in private the possible final phase of binge drinking and of drunkenness. They rarely reach the binge drinking phase and when this happens, they do it in situations which are “safe” from the point of view of visibility (for example drinking at home). Adolescents. They do not belong to a specific subculture, at least not in a clear way, except for the generic one connected to their age.10 It is rather a kind of mixture, not well defined, of norms and value horizons. The practice of drinking together usually takes place in the evening or at night time, even though, as we saw before, a new culture of drinking alcohol during school time and even on the school premises is spreading. Binge drinking appears to be a widespread practice, more frequent during weekends. During the preparatory phase, adolescents drink a little bit of everything, without a real distinction between the types of drinks according to gender. The only exception, in this sense, is a higher consumption of alcopops by girls. One of the practices which is becoming more and more popular is botellón. This is carried out above all in some places (like town squares and small green areas) which have turned into regular meeting-places for those who belong to this category.

Drinking as a rite: norms and action strategies Several authors pointed out how the rites (especially the public ones) have apparently lost their importance in contemporary society. Somebody talked about a sort of “lack of rituals” connected with the negative effects of the shift from “mechanical solidarity” to “organic solidarity” (Durkheim) that deprives the individual of a collective support. All this

10

Adolescents considered in this research are between 13 and 17 years old.

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seems to be proved by a real symbolic poverty of the contemporary rites connected with birth, death and birthdays (Segalen 2002, 50). However, the thesis according to which societies become complex and less ritualized (Gluckman 1967) has been strongly challenged by several authors (Pitt-Rivers 1986). Contemporary society, indeed, far from being less ritualized than those traditionally considered by classic studies on rites, has simply changed the places of ritual interaction. The traditional places of the rites (in religious, academic, professional, civilian fields, etc.) which appeared to be “linked” one to the other in the rituality of the societies traditionally considered as a reference point for the elaboration of theories on rituals, today appear to be separate, with specific ritual forms. Nowadays, rites move to private or public spheres which are different from those traditionally considered, although their importance is not diminished. They have moved from the centre to the margins of the social scenery. Nowadays, they are to be found in the field of sport, leisure time, etc. The “craving for rituals” still seems strong and it appears more and more in new spaces and forms. Drinking rites are to be set in the more general “craving for rituals” which finds a clear and more and more definite expression in the social interactions connected with leisure and with “staying together”. The general craving for rituals is indeed related to the relational function of the drinking ritual. Drinking thus becomes a very important relational resource for the social life of young people. But what are the rituals of “drinking together”? What real social functions do they play? In order to answer these questions, we refer to the theoretical-conceptual instruments proposed by Arnold Van Gennep on the rites of passage and by Pierre Bourdieu on the rites of institution. In its original version, the rite of passage is defined as a rite which accompanies the transition from one stage to another of the life course. The concept was introduced by the anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep to refer to the ceremonies that “accompany each change of place, state, social position and age” (Van Gennep 1908). Nowadays, the rites of passage are very common.11 Their main social function is to report and recognise the development of new social relations. On an individual level, the rite would have the function of meeting the individual’s need for protection during the passage phases (adolescence/adulthood; bachelorhood/marriage, etc.) from one stage to another of their life. The ritual and codified repetition would in practice reduce anxiety connected with these passages (Galimberti 2006, 822) and it would guarantee social integration forms. 11

Several works have studied the different contemporary rites of passage from different point of views. Among the most recent studies we would like to mention: Kimmel 2007; Jeffrey 2007; Crawford and Novak 2006; Montemurro 2003.

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On these bases, we can consider drinking as a rite of passage. 12 Drinking rites thus accompany young people in the most varied “passages” that characterise the daily life of the actors of contemporary society. Ritual drinking accompanies passages of age: for example, adolescents towards adulthood; career women from one stage of their life during which they depended on a man or on the family of origin towards another one, in which they are economically independent; ritual drinking accompanies the social actors from one year to another of their life (birthday) etc. Ritual drinking accompanies passages of status: for example the unmarried towards the status of married; the university student towards the status of worker (or unemployed!) etc. Finally, ritual drinking accompanies all those cyclical passages, sometimes daily, which mark the changeover from work time to leisure time. In all these passages, the rites of staying together adopt the social consumption of alcoholic drinks as the central symbol of the passage. However, the function of drinking rites is not only that of integration. Drinking rites are sometimes also rites of separation or—as Bourdieu said—of institution. According to Bourdieu, “all rites tend to consecrate or legitimise, that is to say to make known as arbitrary and natural, an arbitrary boundary”. Therefore, the social function of the rite is to create “a permanent difference between those who are involved in the rite and those who are excluded” (Bourdieu 1982, 58). For each cultural world described previously (fighetti, the easy-going, posers, career women, adolescents) there are specific drinking rites which are performed with different modalities according to the cultural reference. In fact “the social regulation of consumption (…) is based now, as in the past, on the moral classification of different goods, different spaces of consumption and different types of consumer” (Sassatelli 2001, 93). These rites create separations and differentiations between those who belong to one category and those who do not belong to it. They create role differentiations, gender differentiations and status differentiations. Think, for example, of the great differentiation that the different ways of drinking create between the two sexes: type of drink, seduction ritual, etc. Even though rites (of passage and of institution) are many and different from one another, are there common rules for drinking rituals among young people? What are—if they exist—the rules followed by young people for the interpretation of the rites of drinking together? What are the action strategies that they implement during these rituals? 12 For a deeper investigation on alcohol abuse as a rite of passage for youths, see: Crawford and Novak (2006).

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Let us divide the norms into three groups: norms concerning staying together in general, norms concerning social stratification and status and gender stratification, norms concerning drinking as a form of selfmedication. All the behavioural norms considered are interlinked, setting the scheme for a single normative and value horizon which can be considered common to the different cultures identified among young drinkers. For each norm there is a whole series of corresponding action strategies that the actors implement in order “to drink in compliance with that specific norm”. Let us give some examples now. Let us consider the main norms that concern staying together, social stratification and self-medication.

Staying together a) Drinking is a privileged way of having fun and of staying together. b) Binge drinking represents the final (possible) phase, preceded by a preparatory phase. We have already seen, from different angles and point of views, how drinking together represents one of the fundamental stages—we could say one of the “inevitable steps”—of young people’s fun. It is in this kind of context that binge drinking appeared as a widespread and frequent practice in all youth categories. As we have already said, for the fun related to drinking there is a preparatory phase during which everybody drinks a light or mild alcoholic drink. If necessary, that is to say in particular situations from the point of view of the surroundings or from a personal point of view, you switch to the real phase of binge drinking. However, leisure and fun related to binge drinking do not only occur during its preparation and/or achievement. Describing, and periodically repeating within the group, particular episodes that take place when the actors find themselves in a state of altered consciousness due to binge drinking, often reproduces the effect of leisure/fun through the memory of it. An important function, in this sense, is fulfilled by what we can define as “the historical memory of the group”. Indeed, not everyone in the group drinks the same quantity of alcohol, holds his/her drink in the same manner or reaches the same level of unconsciousness when drunk. In each group, this function of “historical memory” is fulfilled by a member who is able to remind and re-elaborate over time the actions that have been carried out and that will remain in the “history” of the group. The person who fulfils the function of historical memory (not necessarily always the same actor), often performs, at the same time, a function of security and

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social control over the actions, sometimes little or not at all conscious, of the drunk members of the group. c) You have to be invisible when you drink in order to bypass the social control that stigmatizes those (especially women) who drink alcohol. The norms connected with visibility are particularly important for social drinking. The rule according to which you have to be as invisible as possible when you drink, so that you can bypass the social control of those who stigmatize drinking, concerns all the actors, but especially women. In fact the latter still appear to be negatively judged in some circles if they drink in public. The respect for this rule is reflected in a whole series of strategies which are adopted in order to make drinking invisible or the least visible possible. These strategies range from the search for isolated places and the choice of particular drinks to the practice of specific ways of drinking. Drinking at home, away from prying eyes, or drinking away from places where you can be recognized are the most traditional ways of making yourself invisible. There is also a whole series of strategies that, rather than making the drinker invisible, aim at making the practice of drinking invisible, or less visible. This happens, for example, when you associate drinking with another activity which formally takes on the role of the main activity. One example is drinking during the so-called “alcoholic games”. These are group games, like playing cards, where usually “the one who loses…drinks”. The game (cards, draughts, etc.) becomes a way of drinking which, by shifting the attention onto a practice (the game), makes drinking less visible or anyway not an end in itself. Broadly speaking, we can consider another activity within this category of strategies which aim for a minor visibility of drinking: the ritual of the aperitif. As we saw before, the aperitif developed as a practice related to wet drinking, since it is connected, by definition, with preparing (stimulating the appetite) for a meal (usually dinner). It has changed over time and become a practice of “drinking for drinking’s sake”, completely unconnected with the possible (but less and less frequent) meal. The aperitif is a strategy which is also able to combine the need for invisibility described so far with the need to be visible and “trendy” by going to places that are based on these assumptions (culture of appearance and of being trendy).

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d) When you drink you have to be as visible as possible—by following specific behavioural rules—to those who consider drinking as a sign of emancipation. At the opposite end of this continuum, which ideally connects the different norms concerning visibility/invisibility, there are norms providing for the ostentation of drinking in contexts where drinking alcohol is conceived as a social value where emancipation, status shift, etc. are expressed. This is the case, for example, of adolescents who show off their drinking alcohol when they are in a group. As we have already said, for adolescents drinking alcohol represents the passage towards adulthood. This is particularly evident if we consider for example the ritual of botellón or the way in which especially female adolescents show off drinking alcopops. Let us hear what a 15-year-old girl has to say on this topic, Drinking Bacardi Breezers (alcopops) makes them (adolescents) feel older... For some of them, it is so important to appear with that bottle in their hands, that they choose the colour of the bottle according to the clothes they are wearing… There is also a particular way of holding the bottle in your hands, of standing while you drink…

The rule which prescribes visibility in contexts where drinking alcohol is considered as a social value where emancipation, status shift, etc. are expressed, introduces us to the next group of norms regulating social stratification and gender and status differentiation among young drinkers.

Social stratification, status and gender e) Holding one’s drink is a social value. Those who hold their drink better gain social approval. Holding one’s drink is a social value. The better you hold your alcohol, the more social approval and respect you gain. In the traditional culture, holding alcohol was an important value for men but today it also concerns women. Excluding rare exceptions,13 women who can hold their drink gain social approval and respect from the group. Drinking, indeed, is increasingly considered as a sign of emancipation for women and their 13

In some social environments, where female drinking is still socially stigmatized, women who drink do not have to show that they can hold their drink. Otherwise, they would appear as if they were used to drinking and therefore, as an interviewee said, ‘they would prove not to be sane’.

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ability to hold their drink has therefore clearly become a more explicit sign in this sense. f) The way of drinking, the type of drink you have, the place where you drink and the people you drink with define the social status of an actor. In each culture and in each category of young drinkers considered so far, drinking (modes, types of drink, types of pub, etc.) reflects social differences which are represented by different drinking rituals. Drinking rituals become, as we have already said, real rites (rites of institution) which create social and cultural differences among the actors. They can be defined as “status” rites since they help, through a permanent social theatre (Goffman, 1967), to define a system of social stratification where the cultural dimension related to belonging to one category (fighetti, the easy-going, etc.) is central. It should be pointed out that—as stated by many authors (for example La Valle, 2004)—in the consumption (of alcohol in this case) and in the rituals connected to it, there are nowadays, though less than in the past, economically determined statuses. Alcohol consumption thus implies status differentiations which are mainly influenced by the social dimension rather than by the economic one. g) Drinking facilitates the sexual approach. We are talking about the disinhibiting effect of alcoholic drinks, to which we will soon return in the section about the norms of selfmedication. This characteristic of drinking has important consequences on the way men and women stay together, since it often facilitates the approach and contact between the sexes, and sometimes also sex. 14 Sometimes binge drinking nights end up with sexual intercourse with the drinking partner. Sometimes the correlation between drinking and sexual intercourse becomes so closely connected that adolescents plan their first time (sex) with the first intoxication. This is what Martina, 19 years old, told me: The first time I got drunk was also the first time that I did it. I was 15 years old… Usually the first time you go on a bender is with the girls. For me it was different. I had already been with Mario for more than one year and he was a virgin as well… We got drunk and then we did it.

14

For gender interactional dynamics and sexual approaches among young drinkers inside bars, see Fox and Sobol (2000).

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h) The way of drinking and the type of drink chosen help to define gender identity (segregation of roles, identity definition). In all the categories considered, drinking modes show some ritual processes, more or less definite, of gender differentiation: different drinks and different ways of drinking for men and women. These processes seem to take gender differentiations to extremes more in some groups (i.e. fighetti and adolescents) than in others (i.e. the easy-going). i) Women’s ability to get offered a drink is directly proportional to their social value. This is a general rule, but it has a clear and evident application in some categories, in particular fighetti, career women and adolescents. According to this rule, alcoholic drinks become the currency which can define the social value of a person. The ability to get offered a drink may indeed be directly proportional to one’s social value. The drink’s social value is higher than its economic value.15 Let us hear what Katia, a 24-year-old university student, has to say about this: Sometimes I make some sorts of bets with my friends. At the end of the evening we see who got more cocktails offered. (…) I once managed to get drunk by drinking all night and spending just 3 euros…

The ability to get offered drinks—and the consequent social approval—is expressed in a whole series of strategic actions which find their field of application in the places of social drinking. Let us hear what Giulia, a 22-year-old shop-assistant who defines herself as a fighetta, has to say on this topic: You have to know how to handle it…you have to pay attention to detail. Being a fighetta is a real job…You have to take care of your body…You have to know the latest fashion trends…You have to care for your wardrobe…but it’s not enough…you even have to know where to sit when you go to a pub…You don’t understand, do you? I’ll explain better… Usually I go out with a friend of mine. When we arrive at Cianè (name of the pub for fighetti where Giulia usually goes) we immediately try to sit on the stools…those which are readily visible to the people who come in…so when somebody who knows us comes in, we are the first people he sees. Almost automatically, after the initial greetings, the boy who has just arrived offers us something to drink (…).

15 For a closer examination on the topic of the social value of money, see Zelizer (1997).

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The fighetta “job”, as Giulia describes it, reminds us of many aspects of what Hochschild (2006) calls emotional work. It implies a series of actions carried out to manage emotions. It is “work” in the sense that it is necessary to provoke, control or repress feelings in order to keep your poise so that you can induce an appropriate state of mind in other people. There are many professions that carry out this emotional work. Think, for example, of the steward’s or bar waitresses’ job. An essential part of their profession is to make customers feel as if they are being taken care of in a safe and cosy place. The emotional work seems to be central in many different jobs: from all caring professions to other jobs like dancers in nightclubs (Bruckert 2002, 82) or prostitutes. The fighette “work with emotions” by carrying out, during the seduction rite, a whole series of actions in order to induce the most appropriate state of mind in the men they are interacting with while drinking, so that they persuade them to offer again.16 Here is what Giulia told me about the strategies adopted in order to get offered drinks Sometimes you have to make him (the man who offers) believe that you are a little bit in your cups…otherwise he won’t offer you anything else. (…) I am not good at it, but I have some friends who are real professionals…You have to be able to control him…if he immediately tries it on with you and you won’t have it, the evening is over, he won’t offer you anything else. (…) You have to keep him hanging on a little bit: you have to make him understand that you may go along with it …but you mustn’t overdo it, because if you do…it’s all over.

The money with which the emotional work of the fighette is paid is represented by alcoholic drinks. These drinks, as we have already said, have a social value which is higher than the economic one. Drinks are symbols of intangible goods, defined by somebody as identity goods which define, in this case, the female identity within the category. “The more fighetta you are, the more you are offered”, an interviewee imperiously claims. Alcoholic drinks thus become goods which “convey” identity goods that are essential for the definition of the social value of the actor within the group.

16

This is an interaction ritual between men and women which resembles the one typically found in nightclubs between customer and dancer/stripper (see Bruckert 2002; Barnao 2004).

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Self-medication j) Drinking lowers inhibitions. Drinking cheers you up (drinking is good if you are sad; drinking makes you forget about your problems and loneliness; drinking makes you meet new people; drinking allows you to acquire “identity goods”). The alcohol disinhibiting function seems essential for the interactions between social actors. Drinking during the evening preparatory phase is defined as “getting going”, “charging up” for the various phases of the evening and night fun. On the other hand, the relational resource of “drinking together” in sad and lonely moments is considered as a particularly important instrument for “getting through the crisis”. We have seen how in social exchanges related to drinking and in the rituals connected to it, actors exchange intangible goods which are extremely important for the definition of roles, identity, status, gender, etc. The social actor can draw on these goods both in moments of euphoria and in moments of sadness. These goods represent important relational resources for the individuals and their emotional support. k) Drinking makes you fatter (negative aspect) but with some suitable expedients it can be good for your body. Although there is a widespread and long-standing belief that “drinking too much” is bad for your health and the wellbeing of your body, there is also a belief, especially among women, that drinking (and getting drunk occasionally) is good not only for your soul (emotional support) but also for your body. For many women, drinking fulfils the function of self-medication, for example because “after a drinking spree… you sleep better” or because “when you drink you can unburden and free yourself… also by throwing up”. In the latter statement by an interviewee there seems to be a sort of cathartic aspect of drinking which, in particular situations, would find its real and final expression in vomiting after the intoxication. In order to try to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol on their body (both on a purely aesthetic level and, more generally, connected with health), young female drinkers implement a whole series of strategies which some of them have defined as alcohol/calories strategies. The main alcohol/calories strategies that emerged from the interviews are: “eating little or not eating at all when you drink”; breaking up binge drinking with what young female drinkers call “weeks of purification” (that is to say, more or less long periods of abstinence from drinking); “drinking

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excessively to throw up” (vomiting as a way to decrease the calories taken in; vomiting as catharsis/relief/purification); “dancing all night long”.

Conclusion I started by describing the main drinking cultures, pointing out how new models, which are more and more influenced by the so-called dry drinking culture, develop from the interaction between the main cultural models related to drinking. Afterwards I proposed a classification of young drinkers. The typology which emerged from the data collected develops along two main categories: the fighetti and the easy-going. Between these two “extreme” types of young people (fighetti and easy-going) and of ways of staying together drinking, there are other categories of young drinkers which have characteristics and cultural elements coming both from the culture of the fighetti and from that of the easy-going. We are talking about the categories of posers, career women and adolescents. For all the members of the different categories, drinking can be considered as a relational resource, expressing the “desire for community” (Bauman 2001) that all young people express in their “staying together drinking”. In the interactional drinking networks, young people create and perform a whole series of rites that fulfil functions of integration and social differentiation. These are rites of passage and rites of institution. Young people’s drinking appears as a rite of passage from one stage to another, from one social status to another, fulfilling, lastly, a function of social integration. The rites of drinking together also perform a differentiation function as rites of institution or rather they establish a clear difference between the actors involved in the rite and the excluded ones. Essential elements of the different rites are the reference norms and the strategic actions of the actors, which are performed in the interaction of drinking in a group. In fact, a whole series of norms related to staying together, to social stratification and self-medication emerged from the study. These are norms that regulate the young drinkers’ actions according to clear and well-defined interaction strategies. If While on the one hand the main goal of this work is to provide information that may be useful in order to understand an emerging and rapidly changing phenomenon, on the other we hope that this information may also be useful for creating effective intervention and prevention programs.

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Reference List Barnao, C. 2004, “Osservare il sommerso: la prostituzione sommersa in night club, bar saune e luoghi pubblici” in A.A.V.V. Quaderni di strada. Il Sommerso. Una ricerca sperimentale su prostituzione al chiuso, sfruttamento, trafficking, 2, 112-130. —. 2011, Le relazioni alcoliche. Giovani e culture del bere, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Bauman, Z. 2001, Voglia di comunità, Bari: Laterza,. Becker, H.S. 1963, Outsiders. Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, New York: Free Press. Bourdieu, P. 1982, “Le rites comme actes d’institution”, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 43, 58-63. Bourgois, P. 2003, In Search of Respect. Selling Crack in El Barrio, New York: Cambridge University Press. Bruckert, C. 2002, Taking it Off, Putting it On. Women in the Strip Trade, Toronto: Women’s Press. Buzzi, C. 2003, Tra modernità e tradizione: la condizione giovanile in Trentino, Bologna: il Mulino. Crawford, L. A. and K.B Novak, 2006, “Alcohol Abuse as a Rite of Passage: The Effect of Beliefs About Alcohol and the College Experience on Undergraduates’ Drinking Behaviors”, Journal of Drug Education, 36(3), 193-212. Fox, J. G. and J.J. Sobol, 2000, “Drinking patterns, social interaction, and barroom behavior: a routine activities approach”, Deviant Behavior, 21(5), 429-450. Galimberti, U. 2006, Dizionario di psicologia, Torino: UTET. Garfinkel, H. 1967, “Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex status in an ‘Intersexed’ Person” in H. Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall. Gluckman, M. 1967, Essays in the Ritual of Social Relations, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Goffman, E. 1967, Interaction Ritual, N.Y.: Garden City, Doubleday. Hayward, K. and D. Hobbs, 2007, “Beyond the binge in ‘booze Britain’: market-led liminalization and the spectacle of binge drinking”, The British Journal of Sociology, 58(3), 437-456. Hebdige, D. 1979, Subculture. The Meaning of Style, London: Meuthen. Hochschild, A.R . 2006, Per amore o per denaro. La commercializzazione della vita intima, Bologna: il Mulino. Istat 2006, L’uso e l’abuso di alcol in Italia, Roma: Istat.

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Jeffrey, D. 2007, “The Presence of the Deceased in Funeral Ritual”. International Review of Sociology/Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 17(1), 149-155. Kimmel, M. 2007, “Racism as Adolescent Male Rite of Passage: Ex-Nazis in Scandinavia”, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 36(2), 202218. La Valle, D. 2004, Economia di mercato senza società di mercato. Un mutamento in corso, Bologna: Il Mulino. Montemurro, B. 2003, “Sex Symbols: The Bachelorette Party as a Window to Change in Women’s Sexual Expression”, Sexuality and Culture, 7(2), 3-29. Pierlorenzi C. and Senni A. 2001, L’alcolismo. Prospettive di ricerca e di intervento, Roma: Carocci. Pitt-Rivers, J. 1986, “La revanche du rituel dans l’Europe contemporaine”, Annuaire de l’Ecole pratique des hautes etudes, XCIII, 41-60. Rolli A. and Cottino A. 1992, Le culture dell’alcool. Sociologia del bere quotidiano tra teoria e intervento, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Segalen, M. 2002, Riti e rituali contemporanei, Bologna: Il Mulino. Snow, D. A. and Anderson L. 1993, Down on Their Luck. A study of Homeless Street People, Berkeley: University of California Press. Trevisani F. and Caputo F. 2005, Alcolismo, Bologna: CLUEB. Ullman, A. D. 1958, “Sociocultural back-grounds of alcoholism”, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 315(1), 48-54. Van Gennep, A. 1908, Le rites de passage, Paris: Emile Nourry. Weber, M. 1999 (1922), Economia e società, Torino: Edizioni di Comunità. Zelizer, V. A. 1997, The Social Meaning of Money, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

CHAPTER TWENTY A COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF DEVIANT LEISURE VALENTINA PUNZO, BARBARA SONZOGNI AND FEDERICO CECCONI Introduction The relation between crime, delinquency and leisure has been recently investigated by those sociological theories which pointed out that most deviant (or criminal) acts usually take place during free time (Agnew, Petersen 1989; Osgood et al. 1996; Mahoney, Stattin 2000; Vazsonyi et al. 2002; Wong 2005). These approaches focused on certain factors: the type of environment in which people spend their leisure time, the degree of social control that is present in the leisure context, the personal involvement in different leisure activities (also measured in terms of “amount of time”), the persons with whom the leisure activities are performed (for a review see Caldwell, Smith 2006; Punzo 2011). A certain “use” of leisure time has then been associated with the emergence of a motivation to deviance. A review of the criminological literature, however, suggests that there is so far a lack of systematic attention that directly seeks to understand leisure as a context relevant to the analysis of deviance (Vazsonyi et al. 2002; Punzo 2011)1. In the same direction, from the leisure studies perspective, there is a recent and growing interest in investigating leisure as a context for 1 The present study resulted from a very strong collaboration between the authors. As regards the preparation of this paper: Valentina Punzo wrote the paragraphs: “Introduction”; “Deviant leisure. An analysis from the leisure studies perspective”; “Social influence and deviant behaviour. The role of imitation”; “Agent-based approach to crime and deviance”. Barbara Sonzogni wrote the paragraph: “The simulation model”. Valentina Punzo and Federico Cecconi together wrote the paragraphs: “Simulation results” and “Conclusions”.

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deviance (Rojek 1999a; Stebbins 1996, Stebbins 1997b). Some deviant risky activities, such as drug use, heavy drinking, gambling, burglary, shoplifting, but also some sexual activities and social nudism, are seen as forms of deviant or illegal leisure. In particular, Stebbins (1997b) observed that most deviant leisure fits the description of casual leisure, referring to activities undertaken in the pursuit of immediately, intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasures. In this framework, some deviant activities have been recently analysed as casual leisure activities that some juveniles perform as a part of their hedonic leisure lifestyle (Drodza 2006). The common assumption underlying these studies can be traced in the idea that it’s possible to identify models of deviant lifestyles (Hawdon 1996; Hawdon 1999; Drodza 2006) associated with specific sub-cultures that influence the emergence of the motivation for deviance. Building on these studies, the present paper provides an agent-based computational approach to the study of deviant leisure. Agent-based simulation has increasingly proven to be successful for the study of complex phenomena, such as deviant behaviour (Fici, Punzo 2011; Punzo 2012). There is strong evidence that computer simulation allows one to implement Coleman’s macro-micro-macro links. Our simulation model aims to explore the effects of some social influence mechanisms, the imitation ones, on the spread of some forms of deviant behaviours and on individual deviant leisure choices. Before presenting the agent-based model, the theoretical framework on which our simulation relies is introduced.

Deviant leisure: An analysis from the leisure studies perspective Historically considered in positive terms, leisure has been strongly related to pro-sociality. The concept of “deviant” leisure, as a consequence, has been largely ignored in leisure research (Rojek 1999). It is only in more recent times that there is a growing attention to the relationship between leisure, deviant leisure and crime (Williams, Walker 2006). Deviant leisure has been conceptualized as behaviour that violates criminal and non-criminal moral norms (Stebbins 1996). Indeed the term deviance implies a certain amount of distancing from a social norm. Starting from this first definition of deviant leisure, it appears evident as the distinction between “normal” leisure and “deviant” leisure is subject to a cultural and moral relativism (Williams, Walker 2006). The social construction of deviant leisure, according to Reible (2005), rests in the central, underlying assumptions of its origin, linked to the sanctions

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enforced by “those in power”. Hagan (1993) uses three measures to distinguish leisure from deviant leisure: the level of social agreement about its illegality, the degree of social reaction it arouses, the intensity of penalty. From the casual leisure perspective (Stebbins 1997b), deviant leisure has been conceptualized as risky activities undertaken in the pursuit of immediately, intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasures (ibid.). Deviant casual leisure activities require little or no special training to enjoy their pleasures. Moreover, all types of deviant casual leisure produce, according to Stebbins, a significant level of pleasure (or selfgratification) for those who participate in them. Various types of risky behaviours are considered forms of deviant casual leisure: from drug use, gambling, heavy drinking and use of cannabis to some risky sexual behaviours, or other illegal behaviours such as shoplifting, burglary, and so on. Deviant leisure activities differ on the basis of the level of social reaction that they arouse. In particular, a distinction is generally made between tolerable deviance on the one hand and intolerable deviance on the other hand (Stebbins 1996; 1997b). Unlike tolerable deviance, which fails to generate any significant or effective communal attempts to control it, intolerable deviance is often accompanied by considerable agreement about its wrongfulness (Stebbins 1996; Stebbins 1997b; Williams, Walker 2006). Following Stebbins’ works, Williams and Walker (2006) provided a deviant leisure typology in which they distinguished various examples of deviant casual leisure on the basis of three dimensions: tolerability (tolerable/intolerable); criminality (legitimate/criminal legally prohibited/non-criminal) and intensity (casual/serious). Whilst heavy drinking, drug use and gambling are considered within the category of tolerable deviant casual leisure; some deviant or illegal behaviours, such as vandalism, certain incidents of theft, burglary and shoplifting, are examples of intolerable criminal casual leisure (Williams, Walker 2006). The distribution of these different forms of deviant leisure is not equal and, as stated by Stebbins, the majority of people in society tolerate most of these pleasures (although they are in contravention of certain moral norms of a society) even if they would never think to spend their free time in these ways and they scorn only a smaller number of intolerable forms of deviant casual leisure (Stebbins 1997b). It follows that most of deviant leisure fits the description of tolerable deviance.

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Social influence and deviant behaviour: The role of imitation Starting from Sutherland’s differential association theory (1947), several sociological studies highlighted the role of learning and social influence processes in the explanation of deviant behaviour. The role of social influence processes has also been highlighted by leisure studies. Using a leisure approach, some deviant activities, such as auto-theft, have been recently analysed as casual leisure activities that individuals (youths) perform as a part of their hedonic leisure lifestyle (Drodza 2006). Other studies focused on the recreational drug use among adolescents (Parker et al. 1998). Accordingly, the consumption of ecstasy in free time has been interpreted as a manifestation of a broad social involvement in a subculture of drug use (Gourley 2004). Following this approach it’s possible to identify models of deviant lifestyles associated with specific sub-cultures that influence the emergence of the motivation for deviance. Learning processes that take place within social groups are the framework within which people decide whether to start a certain deviant activity (e.g. gambling-drug use) and how it will be experienced. Building on these approaches, the present study explores the imitative learning mechanisms involved in social interactions, in order to study their effects on individual deviant leisure choices. Imitation is central to the diffusion of knowledge and practices in most areas of social life (Hurley, Charter 2005; Hedström 1998). According to Hedström, an actor A can be said to imitate the behavior of actor, B, when the observation of the behavior of B affects A in such way that A’s subsequent behavior becomes more similar to the observed behavior of B (Flanders 1968, quoted in Hedström 1998, 307).

Despite their importance, little systematic work has been done to distinguish between different mechanisms that are likely to give rise to imitative behaviour. Following a mechanism-based approach (Hedström, Swedberg 1998; Hedström 2004; Elster 1998; Barbera 2004) we hypothesized different deviant leisure outcomes, at a macro level, generated by different mechanisms of imitation involved at the micro level of social interaction. We investigated two different mechanisms of imitation: rational imitation (Hedström 1998; Schwier et al. 2004) and social imitation. In order to investigate our hypothesis we used an agent-based computational approach.

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In our view, rational imitation refers to a situation “where an actor acts rationally on the basis of beliefs that have been influenced by observing the past choices of others”. To the extent that “other actors act reasonably and avoid alternatives that have proven to be inferior, the actor can arrive at better decisions than he or she would make otherwise by imitating the behavior of others” (Hedström 1998, 307). Conversely, social imitation refers to a situation in which an actor imitates the behaviour of actors highly integrated into the network. Starting from Barabási’s and Albert’s work on complex network growth (1999), several studies have shown that most real social networks present a common structure: few nodes (network elements) are highly connected into the network and many nodes are poorly connected. The preferential attachment mechanism (Barabási, Albert 1999), as the basis of growing social networks, means the higher the degree of a node, the more new edges the node will attract. This model is consistent with the subcultural approach to deviance (Becker 1963; 1967). Employing a computational model, we directly observed the different social outcomes, in terms of deviant behaviour, generated by both mechanisms of rational imitation and social imitation.

Agent-based approach to crime and deviance Agent-based simulation has increasingly proven to be successful for the study of complex phenomena, such as deviant behaviour (Fici, Punzo 2011). In the field of crime research, social simulation is recognized as an important analytical tool that could overcome some of the limitations of the current empirical research on deviant behaviour (Groff 2008). With regards to the study of deviant behaviour, there’s also a need to maintain a strong interaction between the macro level, inherent to social constraints and incentives to the actions, and the micro level of the individual actions and social interaction (see Fici, Punzo 2011). The investigation of micromacro links is recognized as one of the major limits of the traditional research methods (Liebrand et al. 1998). There is strong evidence that computer simulation allows one to implement Coleman’s casual macro-micro-macro “transitions” and then it highlights how macro outputs arise from the interactions of agents in specific local environments, which are also source of incentives and constraints to the action (Squazzoni 2008; Gilbert 2008; Punzo 2012; Sonzogni 2011). Simulation is also used to study aspects of cultural change in spatial environment (Parisi, Cecconi, Natale 2003).

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Several simulation models on crime and deviance have been recently implemented by modelling deviant decision makers, starting from assumptions drawn from different theories on crime (Bosse, Gerritsen, Klein 2009; Punzo 2012; Sonzogni, Cecconi, Conte 2011). Our simulation model aims to explore the effects of mechanisms of imitation on the spread of some forms of deviant behaviours. In our model different types of agents are faced in different deviant casual leisure opportunities (i.e. gambling, heavy drinking, drug use, shoplifting). Individuals interact within social networks influencing each other by direct communication and imitative learning. The aim of the study is to analyse the role of different types of imitative behaviour on individual deviant leisure choices observing the consequent dynamics of the spreading of some forms of deviant casual leisure.

The simulation model Our simulation provides an agent-based model in which autonomous and heterogeneous agents face different opportunities of deviant casual leisure, which are characterized by different combination in terms of pleasurability, attractiveness, risk and tolerability. Some opportunities offer high benefits (and therefore are more attractive) and/or high risks, different levels of tolerability (therefore, some opportunities are associated with very severe penalties; are less certain) and attractiveness (therefore, some opportunities are associated with higher expected benefits). Every agent can decide whether or not to undertake a deviant action performing an evaluation according to certain factors: the individual perception of the costs of the deviant leisure opportunities that they encounter; their benefits perception; the level of social tolerability of that type of deviance. Moreover individuals interact within social networks influencing each other through social learning mechanisms, which involve mechanisms of imitation and social observation. In particular, we assume that the learning mechanism takes place through two different types of imitation, which are compared. Depending on the type of deviant leisure behaviour undertaken by the agent, the outcome of the game will have different consequences for its payoff, which could increase or decrease.

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Agent properties Agents are characterized by different properties: x Risk propensity: individual attitude to perceive the costs that are associated with the opportunity of deviant leisure (someone overestimates the cost; indeed someone underestimates the cost of deviant leisure opportunity); x Benefit perception: individual attitude to perceive the benefits that are associated with the opportunity of deviant leisure (someone overestimates the benefit; indeed someone underestimates the benefit of deviant leisure opportunity); x Influenceability: the level to which each individual is influenced by the others; x Payoff: score amount of each agent.

Deviant leisure opportunities properties The properties of the deviant leisure opportunities are: x Costs: the amount of payoff that is decreased when an agent loses; x Benefits: the attractiveness associated with each opportunity of deviant leisure in terms of expected benefits for an agent; x Tolerability: the level of social sanction associated with the deviant leisure activities; x Probability of success: the probability to win that is associated with each deviant leisure opportunity.

Outcome of individual choice and dynamics of imitation What happens in the simulation settlement? At each tournament those agents that face a deviant opportunity make an individual assessment between costs and benefits, in which some individual factors play a relevant role. These factors are: the actors’ perceptions of the values associated with deviant opportunities, their inclination to be influenced by other agents, and their risk propensity. As a result, actors can decide to play or not to play, that is: whether to take a deviant opportunity or not. At this point the comparison between the two imitation modalities already mentioned comes into play. Imitation means that the values of the agents’ properties (risk perception, benefit perception and influenceability) become more similar

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to those associated with the person being imitated. The different types of imitative behaviour differ for the motivations that are behind the imitation. The two different types of imitative leaning that we performed in our model are: 1) Rational imitation: this kind of imitative behaviour is based on the payoff of the other actors in the network. More specifically, rational imitation is based on the performance observed. 2) Social imitation: this kind of imitative behaviour is based on the social prestige of the other actors in the network. More specifically, social imitation is based on the degree of connectivity observed. When an actor undertakes a deviant leisure opportunity he can win or lose: if he wins, his payoff increases, if he loses, his payoff decreases.

Simulation results The model has been implemented using the NetLogo simulation environment. We explore the interplay among three independent variables, each of them observed in different modalities. Our independent variables are: network density (it measures the social networks average degree: lowmedium-high); probability of success (it measures the average probability of winning associated with deviant leisure opportunities: lowmedium-high); mechanisms of imitation (rational and social). If network density is low, we can say that there are lots of small social networks in the environment (they assume the form of cliques). Increasing the average network degree the social network increases. If the average probability of success is low, we can say that the opportunities in the environment are unfavourable and risky, on average. If the average probability of success is fair, there is on average the same probability of winning or losing the game. At an aggregate level we observed the trend of some dependent variables: x the average payoff of the agents, generated by each mechanism of imitation; x the average number of deviants: average number of agents that, in each tick of simulation, decide to undertake a deviant action; x the trend of influenceability; x the trend of risk perception and benefit perception.

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After a set of experimental runs we have drawn some of our simulation results. Our first experiments showed that, maintaining a constant low degree of network density (which was fixed at 0.2), the number of deviants reached through the two imitation modalities was very different. First, we compared the number of deviants generated through rational imitation, manipulating the average probability of success associated with deviant opportunities: from low (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.2) to fair (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.5) (see Figure 20-1). Figure 20-1 Number of deviants through rational imitation with low (0.2) and fair (0.5) average probability of success

Second, we compared the number of deviants generated through social imitation with the same probabilities of success associated, on average, with deviant opportunities: low (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.2) and fair (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.5) (see Fig. 20-2). By comparing the two graphs, we can see that the number of deviants reached through the rational imitation mechanism is higher than that obtained through the social imitation one. If imitative behaviour is based on a mechanism of rational imitation the number of deviants is just over ten, with either low or fair average probabilities of success. On the

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contrary, if imitation is based on a mechanism of social imitation there are different outcomes (in terms of number of deviants) when varying the probability of winning the game. Using a social imitation mechanism, the numbers of deviants varies on the basis of the probability of success (probability of winning the game) and the number of deviants is higher when the average probability of success increases. Figure 20-2 Number of deviants through social imitation with low (0.2) and fair (0.5) average probability of success

In a second experiment, we compared the average payoff reached through rational imitation (the curve ‘rational’ in the graphs) and social imitation (the curve ‘image’ in the graphs), varying the probabilities of success: from fair (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.5) (see Fig. 20-3) to low (the value of the average probability of success was fixed at 0.2) (see Fig. 20-4). When the probability of success is fair, both of the payoffs rise, as is normal (Fig. 20-3). When we decrease the probability of success (the probability of success is then unfair, or low) the average payoff reached through social and rational imitation is very different. It is interesting to underline that while the payoff with rational imitation decreases when the probabilities of winning are lower, as is expected, on the other hand, the social modality of imitation with low

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probability of winning leads to a higher level of payoff despite the fact that with a social imitation mechanism, persons don’t consider the payoff reached by the others in the network. Figure 20-3 Average payoff reached through rational imitation and social imitation with fair (0.5) average probability of success

Figure 20-4 Average payoff reached through rational imitation and social imitation with low (0.2) average probability of success

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Conclusion Our early simulation results led us to some conclusive remarks. First, it seemed clear that if imitation is based on optimization aspects, as rational imitation is, the probability of success of the deviant opportunity seems not to affect the individual decision of whether or not to undertake a certain deviant opportunity, observing the past choice of others. This may suggest that it is useless to act on the probability of winning associated with some deviant leisure opportunity in order to reduce deviance. On the contrary, if imitation is of a social type, that is an actor imitates the behaviour of those with a high social prestige, it seems convenient to try to make the probability of winning unlikely, in the case of “recreational” drug use it is convenient to increase the police controls outside the disco. Another conclusion can be derived from the simulative outcomes obtained by comparing the payoff reached through rational imitation and social imitation, and varying the average probability of success of the deviant opportunities. If imitation is of a rational type, the payoff decreases when the probabilities of winning are lower. On the other hand, social imitation with low probability of winning leads to a higher level of payoff despite the fact that with social imitation persons don’t consider the payoff reached by others. It seems that the behaviour evolves despite the fact that it is not stressed by optimization aspects. In this view, it could be important to control the mechanism of social imitation through interventions targeted at hubs, highly integrated into the network.

Reference List Agnew, R. and D.M. Petersen 1989, “Leisure and delinquency”, Social Problems 36(4), 332-350. Barabási, A.L. and R. Albert 1999, “Emergence of scaling in random networks”, Science 286(5439), 509-512. Barbera F. 2004, Meccanismi sociali. Elementi di sociologia analitica, Bologna: Il Mulino. Becker, H.S. 1963 Outsiders. Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, New York: Free Press. —. 1967, “History, culture and subjective experience. An exploration of the social bases of drug-induced experiences”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior 8(3), 163-77. Bosse, T., C. Gerritsen and M.C.A. Klein 2009, Agent-based simulation of social learning in criminology, Proceedings of the “International

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Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence” (ICAART), Porto, Portugal. Caldwell, L.L. and E.A. Smith 2006, “Leisure as a context for youth development and delinquency prevention” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 39(3), 398-418. Drozda, C. 2006, “Juveniles performing auto theft. An exploratory study into a deviant leisure lifestyle”, Leisure/Loisir 30(1), 111-132. Elster, J. 1998, A Plea for Mechanisms, in P. Hedström and R. Swedberg (ed.), Social Mechanisms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 45-73. Fici, A. and V. Punzo 2011, “Modelli ad agenti e sociologia del crimine e della devianza. Aspetti teorici e metodologici”, in S. Faro, N. Lettieri and A. Tartaglia Polcini (eds), Diritto e Tecnologie. Verso le scienze sociali computazionali, Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane. Gilbert, N. 2008, Agent-based Models, London: Sage Publications Inc. Gourley, M. 2004, “A subcultural study of recreational ecstasy use”, Journal of sociology, 40(1), 59-73. Groff, E. 2008, “Adding the temporal and spatial aspects of routine activities. A further test of routine activity theory”, Security Journal 21, 95-116. Hagan, F. 1993, Research methods in criminal justice and criminology, Toronto: Maxwell MacMillan Canada. Hawdon, J.E. 1996, “Deviant lifestyle. The social control of daily routines”, Youth and Society 28(2), 162-188. —. 1999, “Daily routines and crime. Using routine activities as measures of Hirsch’s involvement”, Youth and Society 30(4), 395-415. Hedström, P. 2006, Anatomia del sociale. Sui principi della sociologia analitica, Milano: Bruno Mondadori. Hedström P. and R. Swedberg 2004 (eds), Social Mechanisms. An Analytical Approach to Social Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hedström, P. 1998, “Rational imitation”, in P. Hedström and R. Swedberg (eds), Social Mechanisms. An Analytical Approach to Social Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 306-328. Hurley, S. and N. Charter 2005, Perspectives on imitation: from neuroscience to social science, Cambridge: MIT Press. Ladouceur, R., N. Boudreault, C. Jacques and F. Vitaro 1999, “Pathological gambling and related problems among adolescents”, Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse 8, 55-68. Liebrand, W.B.G., A. Nowak and R. Hegselmann 1998, Computer Modeling of Social Processes, London: Sage.

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Mahoney, J.L. and H. Stattin 2000, “Leisure activities and adolescent antisocial behavior. The role of structure and social context”, Journal of Adolescence 23, 113 -127. Osgood, W.D., J.K. Wilson, P.M. O Malley, J.G. Bachman and L.D. Johnston 1996, “Routine activities and individual deviant behavior”, Sociological Review 61, 635-656. Parker, H., J. Aldridge and F. Measham 1998, Illegal Leisure: The Normalization of Adolescent Recreational Drug Use, London: Routledge. Parisi, D., F. Cecconi and F. Natale 2003, “Cultural change in spatial environments: The role of cultural assimilation and of internal changes in cultures”, Journal of conflict resolution 47, 163-179. Punzo, V. 2011, “Tempo libero e devianza. Prospettive teoriche e ricerca empirica” in F. Lo Verde (ed.), Consumare-Investire il tempo libero. Forme e pratiche di leisure time nella postmodernità, Milano: Bruno Mondadori. —. 2012, Scelta razionale e sociologia del crimine. Un approccio critico e un modello di simulazione ad agenti, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Reible, H.L. 2005, Deviant leisure. Uncovering the “Goods” in Transgressive Behavior, Abstracts of Paper Presented at the Eleventh Canadian Congress on Leisure Research May 17-20. Rojek, C. 1999, “Deviant leisure. The dark side of the free-time activity”, in E.L. Jackson and T.L. Burton (eds), Leisure Studies. Prospect for the twenty-first century, State College, PA: Venture Inc. Schwier R.C. and R. Kenny 2004, “Instructional designers’ observations about identity, communities of practice and change agency”, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(1), 69-100. Sonzogni, B. 2011, “Modellizzazione e simulazione nelle scienze sociali. Questioni teoriche e operative nella costruzione di modelli ad agenti”, Sociologia e ricerca sociale 94, 32-79, Milano: FrancoAngeli. Sonzogni, B., F. Cecconi and R. Conte 2011, On the Interplay between Extortion and Punishment. An Agent Based Model of Camorra, in CSSSA 2011 Computational Social Science Society of America Annual Conference, Santa Fe. Squazzoni F. 2008, Simulazione sociale. Modelli ad agenti nell’analisi sociologica, Roam: Carocci. Stebbins, R.A. 1996, Tolerable Differences. Living with deviance, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. —. 1997a, “Lifestyle as a generic concept in ethnographic research”, Quality & Quantity 31, 347-360.

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—. 1997b, “Casual leisure. A conceptual statement”, Leisure Studies 16, 17-25. Sutherland E. 1947, Principles of Criminology, Philadelphia: Lippincott. Vazsonyi, A.T., L.E. Pickering, L.M. Belliston, D. Hessing and M. Junger 2002, “Routine activities and deviant behaviors: American, Dutch, Hungarian, and Swiss youth”, Journal of Quantitative Criminology 18, 397-422. Williams, D.J. and G.J. Walker 2006, “Leisure, deviant leisure, and crime: ‘Caution: Objects may be closer than they appear’”, Leisure/Loisir 30, 19 3-218. Wong, S.K. 2005, “The effects of adolescent activities and delinquency: A differential involvement approach”, Journal of Youth and Adolescence 24, 321-333.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE ITALIAN MAFIA: AN INDUSTRY OF LEISURE ATTILIO SCAGLIONE Introduction Illegal activities managed by organized crime are countless and varied. A growing trend is investment in the legitimate economy aimed at recycling the vast amounts of dirty money accumulated through extortion rackets or drug trafficking. This paper seeks to deepen the interests of the Italian Mafia in a specific, but booming, area such as that represented by leisure industry. Playing has always been a fundamental aspect of social life. It is a cultural universal, which helps us to remember that men, as suggested in the recent past by Huizinga, besides being faber and sapiens, are also ludens (Huizinga 2002). Today, however, the space of leisure time expands its borders. In the post-modern society, men are increasingly leaning towards the satisfaction of their desires. Nothing justifies the postponement of pleasure. Narcissism and hedonism become models of life to be pursued without hesitation (Bauman 2007). As a part of these changes, the economics of leisure time has reached dimensions previously unknown. In 2003, in Italy the surplus value of this sector, according to Censis-Confcommercio, is found to be around 114 billion euros, an amount of money equal to more than three times the value achieved in the same period by food, beverages and the tobacco industry (Censis-Confcommercio 2005). Mafia clans of Calabria, Campania and Sicily have long been thrown into the old/new business of leisure time. In doing so, they have quickly extended their interests from illegal to legal leisure. In addition to more traditional activities, such as those linked to illegal gambling, sports betting, horse racing and lotteries, Mafia groups have now tainted the legal leisure, through the acquisition of gambling houses, betting shops, mini casinos, bookie’s corners and bingo halls.

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It would be much too simplistic to narrow mafia interests in the leisure market only to the phenomenon of the gambling leisure market. Organized crime has greatly increased the supply of goods and services available for leisure time. Judicial inquiries indicate, for example, the presence of the Camorra in the counterfeiting industry of luxury goods and cd/dvd products (videogames, music and movies). Over the past ten years, moreover, law enforcement activities have led to the sequestration of dozens of hotels, pubs, discos, beauty farms, resorts, amusement arcades etc. (DIA 2009; 2010). Even from this brief review, the economic importance of the management of legal and illegal leisure for criminal groups is widely clear. For reasons of brevity we cannot discuss each perspective in detail. Instead, the discussion in this paper is focused mainly on those sets of activities that fall within the sphere of gambling. The work is therefore structured as follows. In the next section we take a look at the past and briefly describe the most significant elements of the controversial relationship between mafia and gambling. In the third section we reconstruct the present scenario and the different ways of penetration pursued by Mafia groups in the illegal and legal gaming industry. In the fifth, we conclude.

Between power and enterprise syndicate The whole set of criminal activities usually covered by the phrase “gambling”, until the late eighties of last century, were considered extraneous to the initiative of Cosa Nostra. The mafia stigma was so strong that, any involvement in gambling, like the exploitation of prostitution, was considered dishonourable and undignified, as well as contrary to the values and principles of a man of honour. Giovanni Falcone himself was fully aware of it. He considered gambling as a pure example of the typical mafia’s double morality (Falcone and Padovani 1991, 78-80). The Sicilian judge killed by the Mafia in 1992, in his famous interview book written with the French journalist Marcelle Padovani, told how Cosa Nostra, on the one hand, didn’t include gambling between amusements “allowed” to its affiliates, and, secondly, didn’t tolerate involvement in this business by its families: “I do not think there is only one example of mafioso in Palermo, who keeps a gambling house” (ibid., 125). In those years, the first “pentiti” gave further confirmation. In their lengthy and detailed confessions, talking about the transformation of the Sicilian organization, they didn’t fail to emphasize the alleged moral

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superiority of the ancient mafia, which respected women and children, and refused to invest in illegal activities considered socially dangerous, such as drug trafficking, gambling and prostitution. The pentito Antonino Calderone, for example, brother of the representative of the Catania Mafia family, the boss Giuseppe (Pippo), one of the greatest exponents of the whole Sicilian organization, emphasized the contempt that struck those who got into the habit of betting: One day, I was together with Pippo, on the veranda of the villa, when Ciro Mazzarella told us that, at the Hotel Regina in Lacco Ameno, there were Michele Zaza and Mario Merola committed to playing cards a large amount of money. My brother continued the conversation, but I was intrigued by the news and I rushed to watch the game. At the end, Zaza came back with me to the villa to greet Pippo, who welcome him with a severe scolding, deploring the vice of gambling, blaming him for having wasted money on betting, and warning him from following the example of “that addict” of his buddy Alfredo Bono, the great smuggler who lived in Milan (quoted in Arlacchi 1992, 250-251).

While not wishing to believe in the mythic version of a virtuous and honourable mafia, we must recognize that, at least until the beginning of the nineties, Cosa Nostra was not engaged in gambling activities. As Falcone himself remembers: It is however a kind of activity which doesn’t bring any prestige to a man of honour. It is tolerated at a personal level, but it causes a call to order if it becomes too blatant (Falcone and Padovani 1991, 126).

Although it was considered unseemly and morally reprehensible wasting money on “gambling addiction”, the management of such illegal activities could still fall within the competence of a single member of the Sicilian organization. He could control this activity, either directly, through his full involvement, which happened rarely for the reasons just mentioned; or indirectly, by entrusting the business to third parties or taking a bribe from the thousand gamblers who operated in the suburbs of big cities. To clarify the ambivalence of the relationship between Mafia rules and the business of gambling in Cosa Nostra, it may be worthwhile to include the analytical distinction made by Block (1980) between “power syndicate” and “enterprise syndicate”. The first model, as is known, refers to the control of territory and requires the creation of a formal and centralized association similar to that adopted by Cosa Nostra in Sicily. The second model, which refers instead to the management of trafficking,

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tends to cross over territorial borders and is generally linked to the creation of fluid and flexible organizational structures. So, it isn’t a surprise that in Sicily, the definition of gambling activities, as opposed to the extortion racket, which requires a territorial militarization, has been left to the initiative of individual men of honour, and a lot more often has been conducted outside the territory of the original mafia settlement. We refer, for example, to the figure of Angelo Epaminonda, said to be the Theban, consumer and dealer of cocaine, the undisputed king of the gambling dens in the violent and ferocious city of Milan in the seventies and eighties of the last century. In that bloody context, Epaminondas had displaced the notorious Francis Turatello, becoming the leader of a clan that had come to compete with Sicilian’s bosses for the Campione and San Remo casinos (Armati 2006). It is certain however that Epaminonda, despite his Sicilian origin, was not a man of honour. With him many other southern people migrated to the north, especially in Piedmont and Lombardy, who had invested in gambling and illegal betting. A lesser known figure than The Theban, but equally significant of this expansion trend towards northern Italy is that described by Sciarrone (2009) of Gianfranco Gonella, “financial brain” of a Calabrian group established in Turin, between 1977 and 1983, promoter of a variety of illegal activities including fraud, loan-sharking, receiving stolen goods, sport betting and gambling. It’s pretty interesting to point out that precisely in relation to this latest activity, Gonella “had suffered some kind of aggression and an attack by the ‘Sicilian’ who sought to control illegal gambling” (ibid., 257). The same set of illegal activities that in Sicily were considered contrary to the behaviour of an honourable man, in the North were the subject of disputes, controversies and clashes. Therefore there wouldn’t be any moral or ideological prejudice towards the management of gambling business by Cosa Nostra. More realistically, the reasons for this ban could be due to practical aspects, related to the need to limit the proliferation of illegal activities which could have a high risk of increasing instability and chaos in an organization apparently founded on the principles of order and stability. It is no coincidence that Camorra’s clans, which operate in a “horizontal” and “fragmented” context, characterized by the lack of a unified authority and organizational structure, have not experienced such aversion to gambling. As opposed to Cosa Nostra, in Campania illegal betting has always been a significant source of income. Since the nineteenth century, in fact, during the Italian Risorgimento, number lottery managed by Camorra was considered one of the most flourishing industries of the city of Naples (Monnier 1863). This activity, which was closely connected

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with the practice of loan sharking, allowed them to realize substantial profits. It is worth quoting almost integrally an excerpt from what may be considered the first scientific study on the Camorra, Now here is the lottery of the Camorrists. The people have the whole week to gamble but they can risk only a minimum amount of money (about ten and a half cents). However, on Saturday morning, at the last moment, the smallest bet must be of four carlini (pound 1.68). Now, it is rare for a commoner in Naples to have this amount of money in his pocket, especially at the end of the week, having staked, penny after penny, all that he had, during the first six days. Then, he heads towards the Camorrist, there on the street, holding a clandestine lottery office. This trafficker receives the lowest figure, under the same conditions, same benefits and almost same guarantees provided by the legal office. Lotto’s drawing is not separate, and the numbers drawn by general Vicar are recognized by Camorrists. If “by chance” it gets a ticket, they pay the winner just the amount due, even showing some honesty in their business of smuggling. But it is a miracle that the numbers chosen were drawn... So the camorrists got rich with such a trade (ibid., 56).

Moreover, in his work, Marc Monnier pointed out “the Camorra earned considerably more especially with poor people” (ibid., 20). It controlled the gambling and claimed a tax, which was equal to one tenth for each stake. Further confirmation of the insights contained in the work of Monnier come from another great scholar of the Neapolitan customs and traditions, Abele De Blasio. According to the detailed account of the Neapolitan anthropologist, those who were occupied in gambling activities were called the “chiorme d’o jouco” (crowds of gambling), bunches of criminals “who were busy with plucking some provincial” (De Blasio 1897, 26). Gambling dens were generally organized into “Camorrists’ houses” or in side streets and alleyways sparsely attended by the police. The “chiorme”, that were gathered outdoors, were controlled by “some person in charge of the Camorra, which could be either a man of honour, or a young picciotto” (ibid., 27-28). Gambling activities run by the Camorra, which often turned into actual fraud, were numerous: “lo juoco piccolo” (the small game, the illegal lottery described by Monnier), “a tommola” (the bingo game), “o juoco d’a palla” (the ball game), “e tre carte” (three cards game) (ibid., 111-133). So, the relationship between mafia and gambling has taken a different dimension in the Sicilian context and in the Campanian one. In a political organization, considered in its Weberian sense, specialized in power syndicate and hierarchically organized such as Cosa Nostra, gambling has

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been formally forbidden; in a less structured, fluid and uncertain scenery, the development of gambling activities was flourishing and varied. It is now interesting to observe the current involvement in gambling of mafia organizations.

The business of gambling in the United States The subject of gambling has remained a great absence in the sociological reflection on the Italian mafia. These studies are enormously popular in overseas scientific debate (see for example, King 1969; Albanese 1989; Johnston 1992; Zendzian 1993; Pileggi 1995; Dunstan 1997; Liddick 1999, Steffensmeier and Ulmer 2006). In the USA the business of gambling has always been central to the interests of ItalianAmerican Mafia families. It was considered an illegal activity far less risky than drug trafficking (Lupo 2008). Criminal organizations were well aware that public opinion was not alarmed by those who ran sports betting, loan sharking, prostitution or gambling. These activities were included in the category of victimless crimes and labelled just as harmless crimes (De Champlain 2004). Also the authorities were brought to close one eye, particularly if their tolerance was rewarded with some bribe money. In contrast to what is observed for the traditional mafia organizations, gambling can therefore be identified as a significant illegal activity of the great American mobsters (Anderson 1979; Moodie 2002; de Champlain 2004; Banting 2006). Consider, for example, the mythical figure of Al Capone. In the early twenties, the young Scarface, who moved to Chicago, managed on behalf of the boss John Torrio, nephew of Big Jim Colosimo, the lucrative business of illegal gambling. Within a few years, Al Capone would become a reference point of the flourishing “industry of vice” of the American metropolis, coming to earn something like 100 million dollars annually through the management of illegal activities such as smuggling of alcoholic beverages, illegal betting, horse racing, brothels and gambling houses (Nelli 1969). Even the career of Salvatore Lucania, better known as Lucky Luciano, legendary New York gangster of Sicilian origin, has more than one link with illegal leisure. During the years of Prohibition, Luciano became a bootlegger, but he was also attracted by the huge profits that could be achieved in a short time in the field of gambling. His friends nicknamed him Lucky in 1929, because he managed to escape death after an ambush, but also for its reputation as a skilful and successful gambler. Luciano controlled the gambling dens of New York, along with other illegal activities managed by his clan (Barker and Britz 2000).

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Arthur “Dutch Schultz” Flegenheimer, boss of Jewish origin, friend of Luciano, and also known to have escaped death dozens of times, was considered the king of the illegal lottery racket in Harlem. Since 1925, Dutch Schultz had taken control of many businesses including the game of “numbers”, prostitution, night clubs, and horse betting. Flegenheimer’s mentor was the well-known businessman and gambler Arnold Rothstein, said to be “The Brain”, the kingpin of the Jewish mafia, responsible, among other things, for the historic “Scandal of the Black Sox” in 1919, when he succeeded in bribing eight players of the baseball team of the Chicago White Sox, convincing them to lose the final of the prestigious World Series against the Cincinnati Reds (Anderson 2004). Another counsellor of Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, pseudonym of Francesco Castiglia, managed the racket of slot machines and illegal betting on behalf of the New York family (Dickie 2004, 230). In the twenties, the gangster, who would be nicknamed “the prime minister of the underworld”, put about 25,000 slot machines all through the restaurants, cafes and gas stations of the city of New York. In the midthirties, Costello, forced to leave the American metropolis because of the repressive policy of the new Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, moved his slot machines to New Orleans, putting himself in business with the local boss Carlos Marcello and the governor of Louisiana Huey Long (Kurtz 1983). The American mobsters have been involved in the biggest sporting events of the United States since the early decades of the twentieth century. From this point of view, the sport that has most attracted the interest of organized crime was boxing. Even Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Dutch Schultz were engaged in organizing meetings and managing bets. The most important figure in this business is, however, Frankie Carbo, ruthless criminal, member of the Lucchese family in New York. Since the forties, under the assumed name of Mr Grey, the Italian-American gangsters ran the business of boxing for over twenty years, becoming both manager of relevant boxers (even champions like Jake La Motta and Sonny Liston) and event organizer on behalf of La Cosa Nostra. Carbo corrupted the world of boxing and was responsible for handling hundreds of meetings, as well as being the catalyst of legal and illegal gambling (Remnick 1998). Another sport competition on to which organized crime had stretched its tentacles, was horse racing. In addition to fixing races, corrupting trainers, referees and jockeys, and drugging animals, the mobsters had developed a sophisticated mechanism for controlling the transmission of news. In the early years of the twentieth century, in fact, the results of the

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races were still transmitted through the telegraph lines that connected the east coast to the west of the country (Benson 2008). Along with sporting events, the American gangsters had put their hands on the racket of illegal lotteries. The policy or numbers game (also known as Italian lottery), in particular, was one of the major forms of gambling in which the crime families were involved. As Anderson says, in American cities after the war and until the sixties, the gangsters were ready to quote up to 600 a wager of one dollar (Anderson 1979). Bosses such as Joseph Bonanno, Vito Genovese and the previously mentioned Dutch Schutz were widely interested in the business of numbers. The lottery was a very lucrative deal. As Whyte says in his major work, “Street Corner Society”, now considered a classic of ethnographic research, All bet: men and women too. When a mother sends her child to the corner store to buy a bottle of milk, she tells her to bet on a number with the rest of the money (...). As soon as races are ended, that determine the winning number of the day, all lean out of the windows to see if there is the town crier announcing the winning number. Even the corner boys get together in small groups, asking each other: “What number has won?” (1968, 162163).

The lotteries, however, were not monopolized by organized crime. Contrary to what is claimed in the Kefauver report (U.S. Senate Special Committee 1951), gambling was not the most lucrative business of criminal organizations, nor an exclusive of them. Several members of the underworld were involved in betting and lotteries. In some cases they were required to pay a bribe to the syndicate (another way to define the organized crime) to pursue the illegal activity; in many other cases they freely made their own business (Reuter and Rubinstein 1982). In some cases, the intervention of organized crime has become a clear imprint. Where gambling thrived, in fact, it was possible to develop numerous other illegal activities such as prostitution, drug trafficking and usury (loan sharking). The spread of casinos in the United States is closely tied to the initiative of organized crime (Balboni 1996). The main stages of this history are widely known. It was the famous Jewish gangster Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, in the forties, who was first to arrive in the town of Las Vegas. Here, he built a luxury casino, the famous Flamingo Hotel (Skolnick 1978). The partners of Siegel, the New York families who had financed the operation, however, did not have the patience to wait for the fruits of their investment. In 1947, barely a year after his arrival, Siegel was

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murdered, without being able to watch the great transformation he had just started (ibid.). His death brought about a great deal of advertising for the Hotel Flamingo. In the following years, many other casinos (the Sands, the Dunes, the Stardust and the Thunderbird), funded by businessmen linked to organized crime, were added to the Flamingo. It was the birth of the myth of Las Vegas. On the stages celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. made their appearance (de Champlain 2004). The investments of the criminal organizations were not confined only to Las Vegas. Atlantic City and Miami were considered free zones, “open cities”, where members of the families could initiate new criminal enterprises, and set up big casinos on the Nevada city model (De Vico 2007). For a brief period in the fifties, the Italian-American Mafia was involved in the management of the Cuban casinos. Under the dictatorship of Batista, the largest island in the Caribbean had become a major tourist destination for U.S. citizens. Cuban law did not pursue gambling and American tourists were quite happy to try their luck. The money of the criminal organizations was invested in the Hotel Nacional, which was the property of Pan American Airlines, but the deal lasted only a couple of years. After the revolution, Fidel Castro closed all the casinos on the island, and forbade any gambling-related activity (Diaz and Perez-Lopez 2006, 78-80). Today, Mafia families have lost much of their power. Currently, the bosses of all five families of New York are spending their time in prison. However, the interest of organized crime for gambling is still strong. Smith et al. (2003, 9) pointed out the great importance that has taken the phenomenon of online gambling. Today, the weak regulation of the Internet represents a tremendous opportunity for criminal organizations to achieve significant income through gambling (Pontell et al. 2007; Banting 2006; Behnam 2007). The opening of web sites to play online is for example a valid alternative for money laundering (National Gambling Impact Study Commission 1999).

The illegal management of legal leisure Over the last decade, in our country, gambling activities have experienced a huge development. The total volume of bets went up from an average of 18 billion euros in 1999 to over 61 billion euros in 2010, as it results from the Research Centre Censis (2009) and the National Agency in charge of State Monopolies (AAMS 2010), such as gambling. Over half of all revenue comes from entertainment devices (slot machines, the socalled “New slot”) with a share of 51% of the total. Considerable income

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comes also from lotteries, among which instantaneous ones stand out, like “scratch and win tickets”, followed by lotto, sports betting and so-called skill games introduced in 2006 which are rapidly growing and spreading, and again number games (for example, “Superenalotto” or “Win for life”), Bingo, horse racing games, contests with sports betting (such as “Totocalcio” and “Totogol”). The industry of legal gambling generates every year revenues amounting to almost 4% of Italian GDP, a figure that is already exceptional, but expected to increase further in the next years, if we consider that in the first quarter of 2011 the collection has exceeded the amount of 18 billion euros, with an increase of 17% over the same period last year. Over two thirds of this huge amount of money is redistributed in winnings, but the rest is divided between the state and the operators (Zavattiero 2010; AAMS 2011). Among the factors that have contributed to the exponential growth of the phenomenon, there are the legislative reforms and the technological innovations introduced over the past fifteen years. The first step dates back to 1997 and is represented both by the inclusion of the double play in the Lotto and Superenalotto games, and by the institution of gambling halls. Two years later came the turn of the bingo halls, which spread rapidly across the country. The real turning point occurred in 2003. To stem the spread of the slot machines for illegal gambling, the Italian Government revolutionized the whole sector by liberalizing public slots. In 2006, following the enacting of the so-called “Bersani” decree (from the name of the Minister signatory of the law), the number of game corners increased exponentially, passing within a few years from several hundred to several thousand stores. The government introduced new types of entertainment (games that “reach you”) and legalized online gambling (with some restrictions definitively removed two years later). In 2009, finally, the socalled Decree “Abruzzo” (officially issued to finance the reconstruction of the Italian region, from which symbolically it takes its name, hit by a devastating earthquake in the same year), the State Lottery Administration enormously expanded the legal forms of gambling, introducing new devices like video lotteries and video lottery terminals (VLTs). The government introduced new instant lotteries (scratch cards) and numbers games with daily drawings, and removed restrictions on online games and skill games (roulette, dice games, cards, poker, etc.). Under this scenario, mafia organizations have readily adapted their own specific mode of action to the new economic opportunities. The extension of the space of legal gambling has had a marginal effect on the black and illegal part of the phenomenon. The liberalization has

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instead produced the perverse effect of encouraging the penetration of mafia groups into the rising legal market of gambling (Commissione antimafia 2010; DNA 2010). Without renouncing the significant income of illegal gambling (illegal lottery, betting, totonero, casinos, etc.), repository of a typical fund-raising function, legal gambling has become one of the main channels of money laundering from organized crime. On the one hand, clans have taken advantage of the weak controls in the betting system for laundering a considerable part of their dirty money; on the other hand, they have invested the funds illegally accumulated along the whole chain of the gambling industry1. Figure 21-1 Mafia games2

Regarding the first aspect, it may be useful to be reminded of the story of the Casino de la Vallée de Saint Vincent. Between 2001 and 2005, the gambling house was used by members of the clan of Villabate (Palermo) to launder large sums of money derived from extortion racket and trafficking. The mechanism used by men of honour was simple but effective. The Sicilian players, with the complicity of two employees of the gambling house, bought chips in exchange for checks belonging to 1

The chain of legal gambling in Italy is spread over four levels. At the highest level, the Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies (AAMS) regulates the gaming industry through a constant assessment of the performance of the concessionaries. These, following a competitive tender, received a license to run the online network of different games. The concessionaires enter into separate contracts with the administrators, who manage the distribution, installation and maintenance of the devices. The administrators give the devices to the operators and owners of public places, which, in exchange for money, provide spaces for players/consumers. 2 The map reproduces the distinction made by Caillois (1967) between games of chance (alea) and games of skill (agon).

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other people, often figureheads, but also victims of usury. Secondly, in order to bypass anti-money laundering laws, they gave chips to other customers in exchange for cash. The turnover amounted to tens of millions of euros (Palazzolo 2006). Apart from the specific case of casinos, however, the whole sector shows critical normative vulnerabilities. Betting shops, for example, allow anyone to clean up tens of thousands of dollars every day without breaking any rules. The cost of money laundering, which is estimated to average around 30% of the total amount to be washed, can be almost completely demolished (Gatti 2008a). Recently, in order to limit these forms of recycling, the law has restricted the anonymity of the players to winnings of less than one thousand euros. The law, however, can be easily circumvented by criminal organizations through the use of figureheads. Judicial documents suggest that criminal organizations may also take possession of the betting shops. In this case, the operation of money laundering involves less difficulty. Over the past ten years, mafia clans have attempted and have succeeded in infiltrating legitimate business such as betting shops, gambling corners, bingo halls, amusement arcades etc. Only in Palermo, judges have seized the Cosa Nostra families’ several betting shops and two large bingo halls: the first managed by the boss of Villabate (a small town near the Sicilian capital) Nino Mandalà, one of the loyalist followers of Bernardo Provenzano; the second, one of the largest in Europe, possessed by Nino Rotolo, padrino (godfather) in charge of the “cosca” (gang) of Pagliarelli from Palermo. The seizure of property has affected the whole Italian territory, involving also Camorra, ‘ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita clans in addition to those of Cosa Nostra (Loi 2008). Going up a step of the economy network of the gambling industry, police inquiries have allowed the discovery of successful attempts of mafia groups, through people closely linked to organized crime without previous convictions, to get ahold of the control of some societies involved in the distribution of slot machines and other gambling devices, which represent, as we have said, more than half the entire volume of the game’s business. In particular, the mafiosi’s strategy is aimed at cracking and altering the normal functioning of new slots and video poker machines, disconnecting these devices from the monitoring network. This makes it possible to achieve at least two important results: to avoid detection by authorized dealers, reducing almost all the state treasury single payment of the levy (Preu) for the state, and to set the probability of customers winning, multiplying, on the contrary, exponentially to the collection of operators.

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An emblematic story of this system is that concerning the Neapolitan entrepreneur Renato Grasso, who was arrested in 2008 along with a hundred people, as part of an anti-mafia operation called “Hermes”. The case, which involves the entire metropolitan area of Naples, but also extends to Northern Italy and other southern regions, has revealed the existence of a larger criminal organization with interests in bingo games, sports and horse bettings, and new slots (2009). Renato Grasso, convicted twice for Mafia association, and receiver of an order of detention due to being a member of the Casalesi clan, was a silent partner of Mario Iovine, linked to the better known Antonio Iovine, called o’Ninno, arrested in 2010 after 14 years on the run. Grasso managed to obtain, in large areas of the country, a position of substantial monopoly in the gaming industry, entering into agreements with various local criminal groups. The entrepreneur, who had built an empire consisting of 39 commercial companies, 23 individual companies, including several bingo halls, boasted solid ties, as well as with members of the Neapolitan Camorra and the Casalesi, with subjects related to Cosa Nostra, ‘ndrangheta and the Sacra Corona Unita (Commissione AntiMafia 2010; DNA 2010). The first sector of the group, however, was that of new slots and video poker. Through the management company “Wozzup” and “The King Slot”, Grasso had placed in a network of over 2,000 stores around the country, hundreds of electronic devices, with the control board modified to cheat the State and customers. Police investigations revealed that only five slots in four months could collect up to 300,000 euros, against payment to AAMS of only 25,000 euros (Tribunale di Napoli 2009). That of the new slot is the business that connects mafia groups across the whole peninsula, from Liguria to Calabria. In Reggio Calabria, for example, the so-called “king of poker”, Gioacchino Campolo, was arrested, from whom goods of an estimated value of 330 million euros were seized. In Genoa, instead, the business was directly managed by the Calabrian boss Onofrio Garcea. Even the Sicilian bosses Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo were interested in casino games. They often refer to them in the “pizzini”, who sent for their followers, with the code “323”. In 2009, two years after the arrest of the two bosses, the AntiMafia Investigation Department has been able to identify the many shops in which the mafia clan had placed the machines that “eat money”. In this circumstance, however, the police seized some betting points related to Lo Piccolo and dismantled the network of totonero put up by the boss of San Lorenzo.

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The presence of mafia groups has even been established at the level of the concessionaries of the licenses granted by the State (DNA 2010). Investigations have found some opacity in the identification of the concessionaries and in the “inert attitude held by the Administration of Monopoly towards some companies which are indebted in an abnormal way for nonpayment of Preu” (DNA 2010, 330). Among the ten licensees of the State, one of the best rated is the Atlantis World Group based in St. Martine in the Netherlands Antilles, recently replaced by Società Atlantis Gioco Legale based in Italy. The administrators of the company are the brothers Francesco and Carmelo Corallo owners of several casinos and hotels in the Caribbean archipelago. The two are sons of Gaetano Corallo, a Sicilian businessman previously convicted for various offenses, including criminal conspiracy, old friend of the Sicilian boss Nitto Santapaola. The island had been chosen by the godfather of the Cosa Nostra as a holiday destination and as the place of his absconding. Although the circumstantial evidence gathered by prosecutors were not considered sufficient to establish a process, the investigation has revealed that—in an area of high economic value and objectively serious risk of mafia infiltration—the licenses were assigned with very superficial, without any detailed examination of the subjects who had applied, and that the overall management of AAMS was, in the period examined, nothing short of “careless” enough to cause the elevation of a dispute by the Court of Auditors (DNA 2010, 331).

Another opaque case is that of Primal Srl, a Sicilian company that, with an investment of nearly eight and a half million euros, obtained a hundred dealerships “although it had participated to the public contest in 2006 with false requirements”. Following the complaint of the Italian economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, the Monopoly suspended but did not revoke the licenses granted, thereby allowing the sale of shares to other companies. Primal’s owners were Michele Spina and his wife Donata Genoveffa Ferrara. Until December 1999, the partner of Spina was his uncle Sebastiano Scuto, a Sicilian businessman at the head of an economic empire in the supermarket industry, recently convicted in first instance for criminal association and considered near to Laudani clan. To participate in the competition of Monopolies in 2006, however, the Primal was leading a consortium of investors which included Saverio De Lorenzis (whose brother Salvatore was convicted of affiliation to the Sacra Corona Unita); Antonio and Andrea D’Emanuele, sons of Natale D’Emanuele, Santapaola’s cousin; Daniele Botta, sister of Giovanni, lieutenant of the Lo Piccolo, responsible for managing the legal and the illegal gambling

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business; and Giuseppe Abbagnato, from Palermo, convicted for fraud and abusive exercise of gambling games (Gatti 2008b). In addition to the above mentioned types of penetration of the Mafia in the gambling industry, criminal organizations have continued to exert tremendous pressure on what can be considered the weakest link of the economic chain, the customer/consumer of the game. There are numerous cases of players heavily indebted to the clans. Next to loansharking activities, mafia organizations, for example, have planned new forms of extortion to hit lucky players. The ‘Ndrangheta, for example, would attempt to launder money from drug trafficking through to Superenalotto. In 2003, in Locri, in the province of Reggio Calabria, some members of the local clan contacted the owner of a big win of as much as 8 million, to persuade him to deliver them the winning ticket in exchange for payment of winnings in cash. The main victims of extortion, however, are the owners of the stores: betting shops, bingo halls, bars, tabacchi, restaurants, pizzerias, etc. which are regularly subjected to the payment of bribes. Extortion can also be realized through the imposition of electronic equipment (new slots and video poker), not necessarily modified, however demanding the profits, or alternatively a percentage of the total amount earned. In 2008, for example, in relation to the attempt of some Cosa Nostra families to strengthen their presence in Piedmont, some extortion activities had emerged against the holders of a bingo hall in Moncalieri (Sciarrone 2009). Recently, the interests of the mafia organizations seem to have identified a new window of opportunity in online gambling. Besides being a fast growing segment, the phenomenon of the game via the web still suffers major criticality by regulations, which make it extremely appealing to organized crime. In this regard, it is useful to recall an inquiry that involved an Apulian criminal association. This is an impressive organization, based in Innsbruck, where the headquarters of the Foreign bookmaker Goldbet Sportwetten were situated, which had a network of over 500 agencies dedicated to the telematics collection of illegal bets. Of these, over 50 were owned by Saulle Politi, a member of the clan Tornese di Monteroni in the province of Lecce. Two other agencies operating in Palermo, however, would be managed by a figurehead on behalf of the boss Giuseppe Biondino from Palermo (2010 DNA).

The Italian Mafia: An Industry of Leisure Figure 21-2 Mafia penetration in the legal sector of gambling

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Conclusions The issue of the mafia infiltration in the field of entertainment, in the activities that fall within the broader sphere of the so-called divertissement, although having reached a size of some importance only in the last decade, urges a deeper reflection and greater attention, not only by the police, which indeed have achieved successes of extraordinary importance, but also from the world of politics, which seems, however, to have underestimated the multiple possibilities of penetration and diffusion of the mafia in a sector that is extremely permeable. Beyond the historic link between gaming and crime that we have tried to reconstruct in its essential features in this short contribution, the business of leisure, in a broad sense, can be considered one of the main investment channels of mafia-type criminal organizations. The liberalization of gambling rather than undermining the illegal gambling, has encouraged the consolidation and the conjunction of the dynamics of legal and illegal leisure. On the one hand, illegal gambling has taken advantage of the new spaces and of the new opportunities opened up by legal gambling to expand its offering and its business. On the other hand, legal gambling has been heavily contaminated by the capital of organized crime. The investigations showed, finally, the presence of a large grey area composed of entrepreneurs, managers and professionals, not necessarily organic to criminal organizations, who have managed to use their social capital, not disdaining to do business with Mafiosi, in order to infiltrate the pores and the opacity of the increasingly lucrative leisure industry.

Reference List Albanese, J. 1989, Organized crime in America, Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing. AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato) 2010, I dati sulla raccolta dei giochi, December 2010, Rome: http://www. aams.gov.it, accessed September 2012. —. 2011, I dati sulla raccolta dei giochi, March 2011, Roma: http://www.aams.gov.it, accessed September 2012. Anderson, W. 2004, The Chicago Black Sox trial. A Primary Source Account, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Anderson, A. 1979, The Business of Organized Crime. A Cosa Nostra Family, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.

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Arlacchi, P. 1992, Gli uomini del disonore. La mafia siciliana nella vita del grande pentito Antonino Calderone, Milano: Mondadori. Armati, C. 2006, Italia criminale. Quella sporca dozzina. Personaggi, fatti e avvenimenti di un’Italia violenta, Roma: Newton. Balboni, A. 1996, Beyond the Mafia. Italians American and the Development of Las Vegas, Reno: University of Nevada Press. Banting, J. 2006, The World’s most Evil Gangsters. The Lives and Times of Infamous Mobsters, London: Magpie. Barker, T., M. Britz, 2000, Jokers Wild. Legalized Gambling in the Twenty-first Century, Westport: Praeger. Bauman, Z. 2007, Homo consumens. Lo sciame inquieto dei consumatori e la miseria degli esclusi, Gardolo: Erickson. Behnam, D. 2007, “Internet gambling under siege”, Gaming Law Review, 11, 536-550. Benson, M. 2008, Criminal Investigations. Organized Crime, New York: Infobase Publishing. Block, A. 1980, East Side West Side. Organizing Crime in New York 1930-1950, Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press. Caillois, R. 2010, I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine, Milano: Bompiani. Censis, 2009, Gioco ergo sum, Rapporto di ricerca, Associazione “Giochi e Società, 2 July 2009, Roma. Censis-Confcommercio, 2005, Economia del tempo libero: una filiera ad elevato valore aggiunto, Indagine Censis-Fipe, sintesi per la stampa, Saint Vincent, 4 July 2005. Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia e sulle altre associazioni criminali, 2010, Relazione sui profili del riciclaggio connessi al gioco lecito e illecito, approved on 17 November 2010. De Blasio, A. 1897, Usi e costume dei camorristi, Napoli: Luigi Pierro editore. de Champlain, P. 2004, Mobsters, Gangsters and Men of Honour. Cracking the Mafia Code, Toronto: Harper Perennial. De Vico, P.J. 2007, The Mafia Made Easy. The Anatomy and Culture of La Cosa Nostra, Oklahoma: Tate Publishing. DIA (Direzione Investigativa Antimafia) 2009, Relazione semestrale, II semester, Ministero dell’Interno, Roma. —. 2010, Relazione semestrale, I semester, Ministero dell’Interno, Roma. Diaz Briquets, S., J. Perez-Lopez, 2006, Corruption in Cuba. Castro and Beyond, Austin: University of Texas Press. Dickie, J. 2004, Cosa Nostra. Storia della mafia siciliana, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

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DNA (Direzione Nazionale Antimafia) 2010, Relazione annuale sulle attività svolte dal Procuratore nazionale antimafia e dalla Direzione nazionale antimafia nonché sulle dinamiche e strategie della criminalità organizzata di tipo mafioso nel periodo 1° luglio 2009-30 giugno 2010, 31 dicembre 2010, Roma. Dunstan, R. 1997, Gambling in California. Report. Sacramento: California Research Bureau, http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/97/03/crb97003.html, accessed March 2009. Falcone, G., M. Padovani, 1991, Cose di Cosa Nostra, Milano: Rizzoli. Gatti, C. 2008a, “Scommesse, il riciclaggio corre in sala”, Il Sole 24 Ore, 15 gennaio 2008, 11. —. 2008b, “Scommesse, la partita delle cosche”, Il sole 24 ore, 1 aprile 2008, 15. Huizinga, J. 2002, Homo ludens, Torino: Einaudi, 1938. Johnston, D. 1992, Temples of Chance. How America Inc. Bought out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business, New York: Doubleday. King, R. 1969, Gambling and Organized Crime, Washington: Public Affairs Press. Kurtz, M.I. 1983, “Organized Crime in Louisiana”, Louisiana History, n. 4, 355-376. Liddick, D. 1999, The Mob’s Daily Number. Organized Crime and the Numbers Gambling Industry, Lanham: University Press of America. Loi, M. 2008, “Cosa nostra nel business delle sale bingo”, http://www.antimafiaduemila.com http://www.aams.gov.it, accessed September 2012. Lupo, S. 2008, Quando la mafia trovò l’America. Storia di un intreccio intercontinentale, 1988-2008, Torino: Einaudi. Marceca, R. 2010, “L’ombra dei clan mafiosi sulle scommesse sportive”, La Repubblica, edizione Palermo, 5 September 2010, 6. Monnier, M. 1863, La camorra. Notizie storiche raccolte e documentate, Terza edizione, Firenze: Barbera. Moodie, L. 2002, “Illegal Gambling Unit. Its Evolution and Accomplishments”, Ontario’s organized crime section, Paper presented at the Gambling, Law Enforcement and Justice System Issues Conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. National Gambling Impact Study Commission, 1999, Final Report, http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/reports/finrpt.html, accessed March 2009. Nelli, H.S. 1969, “Italians and crime in Chicago. The formative years, 1890-1920”, The American Journal of Sociology, 74(4), 373-391.

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Palazzolo, S. 2006, “Riciclaggio al casinò, tredici arresti”, La Repubblica, edizione Palermo, 27 settembre 2006, 4. Pileggi, N. 1995, Casino. Love and Honor in Las Vegas, New York: Simon & Schuster. Pontell, H.N., G. Geis, G.C. Brown, 2007, “Offshore Internet gambling and the World Trade Organization. Is it criminal behavior or a commodity?”, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 1, 19-136. Remnick, D. 1999, Il re del mondo. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1998. Reuter, P., J. Rubinstein, 1982, Illegal Gambling in New York, Washington: National Institute of Justice. Sciarrone, R. 2009, Mafie vecchie mafie nuove. Radicamento ed espansione, Roma: Donzelli. Skolnick, J.H. 1978, House of Cards. The Legalization and Control of Casino Gambling, Boston: Little Brown. Smith, G., H. Wynne, T. Hartnagel, 2003, Examining Police Records to Assess Gambling Impacts. A Study of Gambling-related Crime in the City of Edmonton, Study prepared for The Alberta Gaming Research Institute. Edmonton, http://www.ncalg.org/Library/Studies%20and%20 White%20Papers/Crime%20and%20Corruption/albertagamblingcrime. pdf, accessed September 2008. Steffensmeier, D., J.T., Ulmer, 2006, “Black and White Control of Numbers Gambling. A Cultural Asset. Social Capital”, American Sociological Review, 71 1, 123-156. Tribunale di Napoli, 2009, Ordinanza di custodia cautelare n. 29166/04 r.gip, 16 April 2009. US Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 1951, The Kefauver Committee Report on Organized Crime, New York: Didier. Zavattiero, C. 2010, Lo Stato bisca, Milano: Ponte delle Grazie. Zendzian, C.A. 1993, Who Pays? Casino Gambling, Hidden Interests and Organized Crime, New York: Harrow and Heston. Whyte, W.F. 1968, Little Italy, Bari: Laterza.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO ALTERNATIVE AND DEVIANT LEISURE: ANALYSIS OF THE RISKS LINKED TO WEB USAGE SERGIO SEVERINO AND ROBERTA MESSINA Introduction Leisure or free time is a topic that takes an ever greater importance in contemporary scientific research. It concerns the way in which people spend time out of work and family contexts. The interest in leisure time grew around the 1970s when researchers begun to analyse social problems linked to the way in which some categories of people (such as unemployed, retirees, young people who live in contexts without resources) spent their own free time (Lo Verde, 2009). Although sociology has given the main contribution to the study of leisure, the major exponents of leisure studies (Jackson, Burton, 1999; Page, Cornell, 2006, Kennedy, Pussard, 2006) retain that the interdisciplinary approach is the most appropriate to the analysis of leisure’s activities and behaviours. Patricia Stokowski (1995), representative of the structuralist approach, argues that an actual sociology of leisure should focus on daily leisure experience, exploring processes that favour its spread. In addition, the author retains that researchers should focus on the quality of human interaction aimed leisure: network analysis (Stokowski, 1995), for instance, is based on the study of human relations in “social space” contexts, such as communities, where micro and macro social dimensions interact. The study of these social contexts highlights processes on the basis of individual leisure choices (Lo Verde, 2009). This explorative survey draws from sociology and social psychology to study Internet leisure practices. Today Internet usage is one of the most widespread leisure activities. Surfing the Web is useful to obtain and exchange information, but it could be considered a leisure experience too,

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when, for example, people look for socialization through chat and social networks. A post-hoc analysis conducted upon Greenfield’s (1999) study—Virtual Addiction Survey—involved an online sample of 17,251 respondents and investigated the variables that make the Internet attractive for online users. Results are in line with the widespread tendency to establish relationships characterized by disinhibition and self-disclosure. Research on social psychology and the Internet has amply demonstrated that Computer-mediated communication (CMC) and general Internetbased behaviour can be characterized as containing high levels of selfdisclosure (Parks and Floyd, 1996; Rosson 1999; McKenna and Bargh, 1998; Chesney, 2005; Joinson, 2001). Indeed many authors argue that online relational environments (for example chat and social networks are characterized by anonymity and asynchronicity) allow one to be authentic or to try different identities and personalities in ways that are not possible in face-to-face reality, with both positive and negative effects. The lack of visual cues allows individuals to relate without the judgement of their physical presence and contribute to disinhibition, in the form of greater disclosure, sexual content, and aggression (Gackenbach, 2007). Rheingold (1993) argues that “the medium will, by its nature (...) be a place where people often end up revealing themselves far more intimately then they would be inclined to do without the intermediation of screens and pseudonyms”. So, people often behave differently when online than in a roughly equivalent offline situation. Joinson (1998) and Suler (2004) term this general difference respectively as “disinhibition” or “online disinhibition effect”. “If inhibition is when behaviour is constrained or restrained through self-consciousness, anxiety about social situation worries about public evaluation and so on (Zimbardo, 1977), then disinhibition can be characterized by an absence or reversal of the same factors (...) disinhibition on the Internet (...) is seen as any behaviour that is characterized by an apparent reduction in concerns for self-presentation and the judgment of others” (Joinson, 1998). Nevertheless, although the Internet represents an opportunity to widen social contacts, literature has amply demonstrated that people who excessively use the Internet come to replace real relationships with virtual ones (Kraut et al., 1998). Furthermore, the abuse of the Internet could become in the same breath a waste of time (Wallace, 1999) and a fount of psychopathological phenomenon, such as “Internet Addiction” (Young, 1996). Nowadays the term addiction has extended into the psychiatric lexicon and identifies problematic Internet use associated with significant social, psychological and occupational impairment (Brenner, 1996; Egger, 1996; Griffiths, 1997; Morahan-Martin, 1997, Thompson, 1996; Schrerer,

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1997; Young, 1996a; Young, 1996b; Young, Rogers, 1997). Studies conducted by Young (1996), led the author to conclude that the more interactive the Internet function, the more addictive it is. Internet Addiction, which is generally referred to an excessively Internet use, is classified as New Addiction and is characterized by various compulsive behaviours in human-computer interaction. While normal users reported few negative effects of Internet use, dependents reported significant impairment in many areas of their lives, including health, occupational, social and financial. Griffiths (2000) sustains that many excessive users are not “Internet addicts” but just use the Internet as a medium to fuel other addictions. In substance, in author’s opinion, the Internet will not represent the cause but the medium through which the disorder could reveal its symptoms. Many studies highlighted the relation between Internet Addiction and some personality factors, such as self-reliance (i.e., they did not feel the sense of alienation others feel when sitting alone, possibly because of the interactive functions of the Internet), emotional sensitivity and reactivity, vigilance, low self-disclosure and non-conformist characteristics, depression and low self-efficacy (Young and Rogers 1997, Xuanhui and Gonggu 2001, Armstrong et al. 2000, Lavin et al. 1999). Severino and Craparo (2010) showed that an insecure attachment style and a negative social self-efficacy perception represent risks factors in Internet Addiction Disorder. Furthermore, Moore (1995) observed that, among the Internet users, the student population is deemed to be vulnerable and at risk given the accessibility of the Internet and the flexibility of their schedules. Indeed, Brenner (1997) found that older users tended to experience fewer problems compared to younger users, despite spending the same amount of time online. In the light of these considerations, nowadays it becomes very important how leisure motivations, satisfactions, anticipated and realized benefits, and personal and social costs are associated with the Internet as leisure experience (Driver and Bruns 1999; Iso-Ahola 1999; Mannell 1999), especially in younger people.

Purpose The first aim of this survey is the exploration of a possible relation between some university students’ variables (in particular gender, age and motivation to Web usage) and the excessive use of the Internet (Young, 1996). The hypothesis here is that students who see the Internet as a fount of leisure, linked to socialization through chat and social networks, tend,

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more than those who use it to study, to be subjected to the effects that the excessive use of Internet wields on daily routine, social life, productivity, sleeping pattern and feelings (Young, 1996). The second aim of this survey is to study of relations between some psychological variables and the overuse of the Internet in the same target of subjects. Psychological variables are: x experience of shame (Andrews, Qian, Valentine, 2002); x social self-efficacy perception (Caprara, 2001); x self-efficacy perception in negative emotion handling (Caprara, 2001). The hypothesis here is that, the higher the experience of shame is, the more negative the social self-efficacy perception is, and the more difficult the regulation of negative emotions is (for instance, anger, anxiety, depression, etc.), the stronger the tendency to excessively use the Internet will be.

Data Description This survey included 240 students of the University Kore of Enna, aged between 18 and 35 and attending different faculties (Sociology, Psychology, Law and Economy). The data refer to a group of students who were involved in previous research conducted by Severino and Craparo (2011). Table 22-1 (next page) shows the means and standard deviations of variables, differentiated by motivation to Web usage.

Tools In this survey the following instruments were administrated to the subjects involved: x a brief form where subjects indicates their personal information such as gender, age and motivation to Web usage. Concerning the reasons why subjects use the Internet, more specifically, it was asked if they mainly use it to study, to socialize (through chat or social networks) or both. x the Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1996), a self-reporting instrument composed of 20 items rated on a five-point Likert scale, which covers the degree of influence that Internet usage has on daily routine, social life, productivity, sleeping pattern and feelings.

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The minimum score is 20, and the maximum is 100. An average Internet user, who has complete control over his/her usage, scores 20-39 points; individuals scoring 40-69 points have frequent problems due to Internet usage; and a score of 70-100 means that use of the Internet is causing significant dysfunctions. x the Perceived Social Self-Efficacy Scale (Caprara, 2001), a selfreport instrument composed of 15 items rated on a five-point Likert scale, which covers the degree of ability in establishing good social relationships. The scale has a Cronbach’s alpha of .90, and a corrected item-total correlation equal to .58. x the Perceived Negative Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (Caprara, 2001), a self-report instrument composed by 8 items rated on a five-point Likert scale, which covers the degree of ability in negative emotional handling. The Cronbach’s alpha is .83. The corrected item-total correlation is equal to .55. x the Experience of Shame (Andrews et al., 2002), a self-report instrument composed by 25 items rated on a four Likert scale, covers the degree of shame experienced by subjects. Table 22.1 Distribution of subjects by some principal characteristics and motivation to Web usage Motivation to the Web usage Studying and Studying Socialization Socialization Gender (%) Age (%) IAT ESS ASP/A APEN/A

Tot.

Male

9.5

12.1

9.2

30.8

Female

28.8

18.3

22.1

69.2

Group 1 (18-20)

11.3

10.8

11.2

33.3

Group 2 (20-35)

27.1

19.6

20.0

66.7

mean

33.9

45.5

42.7

40.2

std. dev.

9.9

11.6

12.9

12.5

mean

41.8

46.9

47.4

45.4

std. dev.

13.1

13.5

15.5

14.2

mean

51.2

50.5

50.1

50.6

std. dev.

11.0

10.7

9.4

10.4

mean

24.9

23.9

24.1

24.3

std. dev.

6.0

6.4

6.5

6.3

Tot.

38.3

30,4

31.3

100.0

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Method A first step of the analysis, based on both graphical investigation and nonparametric tests, aimed to find whether instrumental variables (IAT, APEN/A, ASP/A, E.S.S.) vary according to gender, age, and motivation to Web usage (Table 22-1). At this stage, box plots, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test were carried out. Then, we decomposed the variability of the IAT score, conditioning on the features selected by the previous analysis. A second phase of the analysis aimed to study the structure of the relationships among the instrumental variables, to see if and how they change simultaneously. The analysis was conducted applying the Kendall Tau coefficient of co-graduation. Based on the results of the latter analysis, we once again used the box plot and the U test to see if and how APEN/A and E.S.S. scores varied according to IAT levels. To carry out the analysis, the subjects’ scores on the IAT scale were categorized on the base of levels indicated by Young (1996).

Findings and results Firstly, the analysis aims to find whether the instrumental variables are related to the subject variables (gender, age and motivation to Web usage). Figure 22-1a/b/c/d illustrates four box plots. The first two boxes (a/b) show how IAT score varies according both to gender and motivation on Web usage, whereas the third and fourth ones (c/d) show how social selfefficacy perception and experience of shame depend on age and motivation to Web usage, respectively. Results indicate that ASP/A scores significantly change according to age, while E.S.S. score is related to Motivation to Web usage. IAT score is significantly related both to gender and motivation to Web usage. With respect to gender, it can be easily seen that IAT score is higher in males than in females; furthermore, students who use the Web to socialize (through chat and social networks) as well as both socialize and study, gained higher score than those who use it solely to study.

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Figure 22-1a/b/c/d Box plots of IAT score conditioning subject’s variables Median

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Alternative and Deviant Leisure: Analysis of the Risks

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353

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These findings are supported by the results of nonparametric tests on the medians (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA tests). Table 22-2 reports values and significance levels of the analysis. Table 22.2 Results of nonparametric test (values and significance) on variables for independent groups Gender U

Age

p-value

U

IAT 5109.5 6003.0 0.03 E.S.S. 6120.5 0.96 6272.5 ASP/A 5647.5 0.31 5508.5 APEN/A 5487.0 0.18 5863.0 Bold results are significant at p < 0.05.

p-value 0.43 0.80 0.07 0.28

Motivation to Web usage K-W p-value Anova 44.03 0.00 10.98 0.00 1.36 0.50 1.29 0.52

On the basis of these findings, a factorial experiment was applied to assess the main interaction effects of the two factors (gender and motivation to the Web usage) on the IAT score. The model was a 2×3 twofactor experiment. The assessment of the main interaction effects on the IAT score was conducted in an ANOVA two-way context. Table 22-3 reports the results. Table 22.3 ANOVA decomposition of the IAT score: test over all effects Degree of freedom

S.S. (Sum of Square) 342841.1 284.1

Intercept 1 Gender 1 Motivation to 2 4103.9 Web usage Gender Motivation to 2 794.8 Web usage Error 234 29802.8 Bold values are significant at p < 0.05.

M.S. (Mean Square) 342841.1 284.1

F-test

p-value

2691.858 2.230

0.000 0.136

2052.0

16.111

0.000

397.4

3.120

0.046

127.4

-

-

The analysis confirms that gender and motivation to Web usage (p=0.046) wield a conjoint effect on IAT score. In fact, gender acts on IAT score with different magnitude and direction, depending on the type of motivation to Web usage with which it is associated. In other words, the IAT means vary in a different way based on the different combination of

Alternative and Deviant Leisure: Analysis of the Risks

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gender with the type of motivation to Web usage. As follows, graphical analysis (Figure 22-2) of the interaction effect is reported and the related resumptive table of means. Graphical analysis shows that the IAT score gained by male students is higher when the Web is used to socialize rather than to study. In the same group the highest mean score is gained when the Internet is used for both activities. In relation to female students, IAT score is (similarly to male) higher when the Internet is used to socialize rather than to study; however, the score decreases when the Internet is used for both activities. Figure 22-2 Graphical analysis of the interaction effects (gender u motivation to Web usage on IAT score and related resumptive table of means) 55

50

IAT score

45

40

35

30

25

Gender Male Female Tot.

Study

Socialization

Motivation to Web usage Studying Socialization 37.52 43.59 32.64 46.77 33.86 45.50

Both

Both 46.5 41.06 42.65

Male Female

Tot. 42.57 39.07 40.15

To support the graphical suggestions, contrast analyses were carried out. Table 22-4 shows results of contrast analysis for between-group factors (gender×motivation to Web usage) on the means of the IAT score.

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No significant difference emerged between gender groups in correspondence to the three conditions of motivation to Web usage. With respect to the male group, despite the graphical hint, the solely significant contrast is related to the group of students who use the Internet to study and the group which uses it for both the activities (third row of Table 224). In fact, no significant difference emerged between the first and the second and between the second and the third level of motivation to Web usage (first and second row of Table 22-4). With respect to the female group, every contrast analysed is significant (last three rows of Table 224). In sum, those who use the Internet solely to socialize gained the highest score and those who use the Web for both activities gained an IAT mean score significantly higher than those who used the Internet solely to study (last row of Table 22-4). Table 22.4 Analysis of the contrast for between-group factors on the means (gender x motivation to Web usage) of IAT score Contrast

Estimate

Std. Err.

μ11-μ12 -6.064 3.151 μ12-μ13 -2.913 3.190 μ11-μ13 -8.978 3.365 μ21- μ22 -14.135 2.177 μ22- μ23 5.716 2.301 μ21- μ23 -8.418 2.061 Bold values are significant at p < 0.05.

t

p-value

-1.924 -0.913 -2.667 -6.492 2.483 -4.084

0.055 0.362 0.008 0.000 0.013 0.000

CI(95%) Lower -12.272 -9.200 -15.608 -18.424 1.181 -12.480

CI(95%) Upper 0.143 3.372 -2.347 -9.845 10.250 -4.357

The second phase of the analysis aimed to analyse the possible relationships among instrumental variables (IAT score, experience of shame, social self-efficacy perception and self-efficacy perception in negative emotion handling) to see if and how they change simultaneously. At this level, rank correlations among the rough scores of instrumental variables were carried out. Results are shown in Table 22-5. Table 22.5 .HQGDOOIJUDQNFRUUHODWLRQV ASP/A APEN/A ASP/A 1.000 0.327 APEN/A 1.000 IAT E.S.S. Bold correlations are significant at p < 0.05.

IAT -0.059 -0.133 1.000 -

E.S.S. -0.178 -0.364 0.275 1.000

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First of all, it is interesting to notice that, except the relation between IAT and ASP/A, the remaining variables are significantly related. In fact, ESS and APEN/A scores are negatively associated with the highest FRHIILFLHQW RI FRUUHODWLRQ IJ= -0.364): this means that increasing the experience of shame decreases the self-efficacy perception in negative emotion handling. On the contrary, the APEN/A score increases with the JURZLQJ RI $63$ VFRUHIJ= 0.327). Secondly, we can observe that IAT score is related to both ESS and APEN/A scores. The two associations have different directions and magnitudes: while IAT score increases with the growing of the experience of shame, on the contrary, it decreases with the growing of self-efficacy perception in negative emotion handling. In addition, as previously mentioned, the first association is stronger than the second one. In sum, students who gained high IAT score tend to feel ashamed and to have difficulty handling negative emotions. To support these findings, Mann Whitney U Test was carried out to verify if ESS and APEN/A scores vary according to the two levels (Young, 1996) of IAT score (levels of IAT scale are reported in “Instrument” section). 54.2% of subjects fall within the first level of normal users, whereas 45.8% of students belong to the second level of users (excessive Internet users). Since no students gained scores over 69, the whole group does not include pathological Internet users. Table 22-6 shows the results of U Mann Whitney Test on ESS and APEN/A scores for the two levels of Internet usage. Results show that ESS and APEN/A scores are significantly different according to the two levels of IAT score. Table 22.6 Results of U Mann Whitney Test for IAT score Grouping variable by IAT level ESS APEN/A Bold results are significant at p < 0.1.

U-Test 5902,5 4537,0

p-value 0,019 0,000

This means, as the following Box Plots (Figure 22-3a/b) clearly show, that students who belong to the second level of IAT score (excessive Internet users) feel ashamed more than those who belong to the first group (normal Internet users) and, in addition, in this latter group, APEN/A score is significantly lower than for the normal Internet users.

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Figure 22-3a/b Box plots of ESS and APEN/A score conditioning on IAT level Median

25%-75%

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ESS score

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Conclusions and recommendations This exploratory analysis represents a fount of some reflections upon the issue of “leisure and the Internet”. Results of the analysis essentially confirm hypothesises advanced in the “Purpose of study” section. The first one supposed that students who see the Web as a fount of leisure (linked to socialization through chat and social networks) tend, more than those who use it solely to study, to be subjected to the effects wielded by the Internet on daily routine, social life, productivity, sleeping pattern and feelings (Young, 1996). It seems that this survey suggests that university students who use the Internet mainly to study do not run into the risk of its excessive use. A plausible explanation of these results is that individuals who use the Web to study are strictly oriented to specific goals (such as information research, updating, throughout examinations etc.) and do not invest emotional or affective resources in this activity, different from what occurs in online socialization. Indeed, students who socialize on the Web not only run into a greater risk of Internet Addiction than students who use it solely to study, but they also show a higher sense of shame and greater difficulties handling negative emotions (for instance, anger, anxiety, depression, etc.). These results agree with studies that analysed relations between personality factors, depression, self-efficacy, self-esteem and Internet Addiction cited in the introduction section. In sum, it seems that one of the major risks linked to leisure-seeking (linked to socialization through chat and social network) through the Internet could be excessive Internet use. The theoretical contribution of this survey, which is placed between sociology and social psychology, can be linked to the concept of social spaces (Stokowski, 1995) where leisure activities are practiced. Internet development enlarged boundaries of social networks and created virtual communities, that, different from the real ones, are characterized by the lack of physical coordinates (McLuhan, 1974). Nowadays leisure activities are widely spread in non-spatial communities, where the individual has the opportunity to socialize, cooperate, and sympathize with people selected through different standards from that of spatial proximity (Martini, Sequi, 1995). Virtual identities, anonymity, absence of physical interaction and verbal communication channels (replaced by avatar, images and emoticons) represent the main elements of virtual communicative dynamics, influencing the nature of interactive processes (Severino, Messina, 2011). This study represents, in conclusion, an effort to better understand the psycho-social aspects of leisure-seeking on the Web.

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Reference List Andrews, B., M. Qian and J.D. Valentine 2002, “Predicting depressive symptoms with a new measure of shame. The experience of shame scale”, The British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 29-42. Armstrong, L., J. Phillips and L. Saling 2000, “Potential determinants of heavier Internet usage”, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 53, 537-550. Brenner, V. 1996, An Initial Report on the Online Assessment of Internet Addiction. The First 30 Days of the Internet Usage Survey. http:// www.ccsnet.com/prep/pap/pap8b/638b012p.txt, accessed September 2012. —. 1997, “Psychology of computer use. Parameters of Internet use, abuse and addiction. The first 90 days of the Internet Usage Survey”, Psychological Report, 80, 879-882. Caprara, G.V. 2001, La valutazione dell’autoefficacia. Costrutti e strumento, Trento: Erickson. Chesney, T. 2005, Online Self-disclosure in Diaries and its Implication for Knowledge Managers. UKAIS Conference, Northumbria University, United Kingdom. Driver, B. L., and Bruns, D. (1999). Concepts and uses of the benefits approach to leisure. In E. L. Jackson and T.I,. Burton (eds) Leisure Studies at the Millennium, State College, PA: Venture, 349-369. Egger, O. 1996, Internet and Addiction, http://www.ifap.bepr.ethz.ch/~ egger/ibq/iddres.htm, accessed September 2012. Gackenbach, J. 2007, Psychology and the Internet. Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Transpersonal Implications, Boston: Elsevier/ Academic Press. Greenfield D.N. 1999, “Psychological characteristics of compulsive Internet use. A preliminary analysis”, Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, 2, 403-412. Griffiths, M.D. 1997, “Video games and clinical practice. Issues, uses and treatments”, British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36, 639-641. —. 2000, “Internet addiction-time to be taken seriously?” Addiction research, 8, 413-418. Iso-Ahola, S.E. 1999, “Motivational foundations of leisure”, in E.L. Jackson and T.L. Burton (eds) Leisure Studies at the Millennium, State College, PA: Venture Publishing Inc., 35-51. Jackson, E.L. and T.L. Burton (eds) 1999, Leisure Studies. Prospects for the Twenty-First Century, State College, PA: Venture Publishing Inc.

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Joinson, A. N. 1998, “Causes and effects of disinhibition on the Internet”, in J. Gackenbach (ed.), The Psychology of the Internet, New York: Academic Press, 43-60. Kennedy E. and H. Pussard 2006, Defining the Field. 30 Years of the Leisure Studies Association, LSA Publication, n.89, University of Bringhton, Eastbourne (U.K.). Kraut, R., J. Patterson, V. Lundmark, S. Kiesler, T. Mukopadhyay and W. Scherlis 1998, “Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological wellbeing?”, American Psychologist, 53(9), 1017-1031. Lo Verde, F.M. 2009, Sociologia del tempo libero, Roma-Bari: Laterza. Mannell, R.C. 1999, “Leisure experience and satisfaction”, in E.L. Jackson and T.L. Burton (eds) Leisure studies at the millennium, State College, PA: Venture, 235-251 Martini E. and R. Sequi 1995, La comunità locale. Approcci teorici e criteri di intervento, Roma:Carocci. McKenna, K.Y.A. and J. Bargh 1998, “Coming out in the age of the Internet. Internet demarginalization through virtual group participation”, Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 75, 681694. McLuhan, M. 1974, Gli strumenti del comunicare, Milano: Il Saggiatore. Moore, D. 1995, The Emperor’s Virtual Clothes. The Naked Truth about the Internet Culture, Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin. Morahan-Martin, J. 1997, Incidence and Correlates of Pathological Internet Use, Paper presented at the 105th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, 18 August 1997, Chicago, IL. Page S.J. and J. Connell J. 2006, Leisure Studies. Critical Concepts in the Social Studies, 4 vols, London: Routledge. Parks, M. R. and K. Floyd, 1996, “Making friends in cyberspace”, Journal of communication, 46, 80-97. Rheingold, H. 1993, The Virtual Community, London: MIT Press. Rosson, M.B. 1999, “I get by with a little help from my cyber-friends. Sharing stories of good and bad times on the web”, Journal of Computer mediated communication, 4 (4). Scherer, K. 1997, “College life online. Healthy and unhealthy Internet use”, The Journal of College Student Development, 38, 655-665. Severino S., and G. Craparo G. 2010. “The relationship between Internet Addiction and Social Self-efficacy”, in University Students. A Study in a Sicilian University, New York: Nova Publishers.

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Severino, S. and R. Messina 2011, “Group dynamics in online and face-toface interactions. An experimental study on learning methods”, Sociology Mind, 1, 65-73. Stokowski, P.A. 1995, Leisure in Society. A Network Structural Perspective, London: Mansel Publishing. Suler, J. 2004, The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychology and behaviour, 7, 321-326 Thompson, S. 1996, Internet Addiction Survey, http://cac.psu.edu/~sjt112/ mcnair/journal.html, accessed September 2012. Wallace, P. 1999, The Psychology of the Internet, Cambridge University Press. Young, K. S. 1996a, “Pathological internet use. A case that breaks the stereotype”, Psychological Reports, 79, 899-902. —. 1996b, Internet addiction. The emergence of a new clinical disorder, Paper presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, August 11 1996, Toronto, Canada. Young, K. S. and R. Rodgers 1997, “The relationship between depression and Internet addiction”, CyberPsychology and Behavior, 1(1), 25-28. Xuanhui, L. and Y. Gonggu, 2001, “Internet addiction disorder, online behaviour and personality”, Chinese Mental Health Journal, 15, 281283 Zimbardo, P. G. 1977, Shyness. What it is, What to Do about it, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

PART VI LEISURE ACROSS INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE SPHERES, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND PUBLIC POLICIES

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE EVIDENCE-BASED LEISURE STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: USING THE RESULTS OF A TRANSNATIONAL LIFESTYLE RESEARCH KLARA TARKÓ AND ZSUZSANNA B(1.ė Sociology increasingly focuses attention on lifestyle and way of life. Lifestyle offers a helpful way to typify social practice and provides a basis for understanding the individual’s identity. Its elements include housing conditions, nutrition, work and leisure, forms of behaviour and clothing, which are the most open to change and in which people adjust to new FRQGLWLRQV %HQNĘ  /HLVXUH WLPH DFWLYLWLHV DUH DQ LPSRUWDQWSDUWRI lifestyle. Leisure time is what is left at our disposal after fulfilling the different obligations. It consists of all activities that the individual undertakes voluntarily, either for the sake of having a rest, for amusement, to cherish social relationships, or to engage in further training. The range of leisure time activities can range from sport recreation to indoor and outdoor cultural activities, and many more. The Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health promotion at the University of Szeged, Hungary, has performed a large sample transnational lifestyle research %HQNĘ   called “Tradition and Modernity in the Lifestyle of the Families of the Visegrad Countries” (HU, PL, SK, CZ), the results of which are now integrated into the Recreation organization and health promotion Bachelor education of the Institute. This implementation was made possible by the International Visegrad Fund (Visegrad University Studies Grant No. 61000015). Our presentation will introduce the history and content of developing the above course.

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Background The aim of our paper is to show how a university course based on the results of a transnational empirical lifestyle research was worked out. First we briefly summarise the backgrounds of working out the course, then we introduce the course itself. Between 2004 and 2007 the Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health Promotion at the University of Szeged has led a transnational empirical research titled “Tradition and modernity in the lifestyle of the families of the Visegrad Countries” %HQNĘ   2XU UHVHDUFK methodology comprised of two parts: the first method was a theoretical one; the process analysis of the categories of family, tradition and modernity. Our second method was a structured, assisted questionnaire interview, the questions of which were grouped around five broader topics: nutrition, leisure time, family customs, cultural habits and family values. All of these were analysed also along sociological, demographic and economic variables. The aim of our research was to reveal the role of tradition and modernity concerning the studied lifestyle elements, with the help of objective and subjective variables. Our objective tradition and modernity variable is a created category, developed on the basis of the theoretical knowledge and professional empirical experiences of the transnational research group. The subjective category was built on the selfcategorization of those questioned. We have studied our results by lifestyle elements and comprehensively as well and we have proven our hypothesis according to which the role of tradition dominates in the lifestyle choices of the Central-East-European countries, as opposed to the prevailing sociological view highlighting the role of modernity in the 21st century. Parallel to our transnational empirical research, higher education underwent a considerable change as well: Following the Bologna process, the two-cycle Bachelor and Master levels of education were introduced. Our institute founded and launched the Recreation organization and health promotion Bachelor education and the related Minor within this process. The Bachelor degree has two professional profiles: Health promoter and Recreation organiser. Our graduates take an active part in creating the basis of healthy lifestyle, they implement recreational and health promoting basic activities by taking the needs of the given target groups into account, and by speaking the language of the given social subsystem setting. They are able to fulfil health promoting and recreational lifestyle programs in practice and to give lifestyle advice. We offer the Minor degree accompanying any other degree, as students obtain knowledge and

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skills they can apply in their own life conduct, partnerships and finding their way within the life of organizations. Our Institute processes the most modern scientific results, it is continuously present in the international scientific current and all these are reflected in the professional structure of our education programs. Our curricula and course descriptions are under continuous revision and we update them according to the needs. On behalf of raising the professional level, we have connected research and education with the help of the Slovakian International Visegrad Fund, which has already acknowledged our work earlier and financed the English language publication of our research report (No. 10049-2006-,9) %HQNĘ  Working out, launching and operating the course based on the research results were enabled by the Visegrad University Studies Grant application of the IVF (No. 61000015). The aim of this grant is to work out a university course on phenomena that are connected to the “Visegrad four” countries, and the name of the course should also include the word Visegrad.

Family and lifestyle in the Visegrad Countries (semesters 1 and 2) Following the efforts of the Applied Health Sciences and Health promotion the course is now an official part of the curriculum of the Recreation organization and health promotion minor, and the remaining places can be filled by all students of the university population. As a result, the established 2-term-long course can start in February 2012. The Hungarian lecturers of the course come from the University of Szeged, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, and are members of the research group of the Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health promotion: Dr=VX]VDQQD%HQNĘ'U.DWDOLQ(UGHL'U.OiUD7DUNy'U László Lajos Lippai, together with Dr. Lajos Olasz from the Department of Applied Social Sciences. The foreign guest lecturers are our partners who were participating in the transnational empirical research, and who this way are authentic representatives of their countries: Doc. PhD. Iva -HGOLþNRYi &6F 8QLYHUVLW\ RI +UDGHF .UDORYH )DFXOW\ RI (GXFDWLRQ CZ); Prof. PhD. Eva Sollarova, CSc. (Constantine the Philosopher University of Nitra, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care, Institute RI $SSOLHG 3V\FKRORJ\ 6.  3URI 'U +DE :RMFLHFK ĝZLDWNLHZLF] (University of Silesia, Institute of Sociology, Katowice, PL), Dr. Andrzej Górny (University of Silezia, Institute of Sociology, Katowice, PL), and

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'U 0DULD ĝZLDWNLHZLF]-0yĞQ\ -DJHOORQLDQ 8QLYHUVLW\ ,QVWLWXWH RI Sociology, Krakow, PL). The multidisciplinary course covers the issues of family and lifestyle sociology, based on examples from the Visegrad countries and taking students’ experiences into account as well. The first semester of the course aims at introducing students into the theory of family and lifestyle sociology, and the social historical backgrounds of families and lifestyle in the Visegrad Countries. In the second semester the course objective is to get acquainted with lifestyle elements and analyse their role in the lifestyle of the families of the Visegrad Countries, with the help of the transnational empirical research called “Tradition and modernity in the lifestyle of the families of the Visegrad Countries” supervised and directed by the Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health Promotion at the University of Szeged. In the final section of the present paper we briefly introduce the readers to the content of the course.

Semester 1 (Spring) 1. Official opening of the course 2. Sociological definition of families. Family socialization This class gives the theoretical underpinning of understanding the concept of family and its important role in the society. The family is a central social institution. It is a primary group, a community in which the individual encounters community existence for the first time. It is a community which accompanies the individual for a lifetime through values, customs, and traditions shaped during family socialization. The family can be analysed as: a) an organization of individuals seeking to achieve personal goals; b) a normative system responsible for the behaviour and socialization of its members; c) a grouping presenting itself in a particular way to the outside world, and d) a group of personalities engaged in constant communication with one another (Habermas, 1981, cited in Somlai, 1986). Socialization is the process through which the biological being becomes a social one.

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3. Historical development of families: The functions of the traditional, the civil and the modern families and the roles and role connections within them This class will introduce students to the historical backgrounds underlying the evolution of families and the functions, roles and role connections within the different historical stages of family life. The family has undergone many changes over time. Families can be grouped into 3 categories: traditional family, civil family, and modern family. Somlai’s (1997) socio-economic analysis guides us through the historical evolution of families. The traditional family is also known as large family, characterising the feudal society. The transformation of feudal societies, the proliferation of trade and market conditions, the great geographical discoveries, as well as industrialization, brought along the impersonalization of earlier relationships. The former craft guilds were replaced by a capitalist and bureaucratic social order, which affected families, and brought the civil family. There was another stage in the evolution of the civil family, which is usually called the modern family or nuclear family, triggered by the large-scale employment of women (after World War II).

4. Socio-historical backgrounds underlying the lifestyle of Central-Eastern European families, with special regard to the Visegrad Countries Operation and lifestyle of families are considerably affected by the position they take place in the given society or social structure. That is why it is important to provide the topics of the present course with a sociohistorical, lifestyle-historical foundation. The social developments of Hungary, The Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia show strong similarities, with unique features different from the development of the Western societies %HQNĘ .

5. Family models: Conflict and Harmony This class introduces students to the characteristics of two family types: the harmony model of family operation is the so-called consensus model, characterised by for example a hierarchical structure and overregulation, continuous adaptation, and scapegoatism. The conflict model among others reveals the inevitable conflicts the partners would have, and the communication and conflict management techniques the

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family members employ. During discussing the topic, students can learn about the basic socio-demographic features of the families operating according to the harmony and the conflict model and place their own families into the models.

6. The stages of family life This class introduces students to the stages of family life that bring new and old tasks to be sold by the families. When we get in touch with a family, it is worth knowing which stage a family is staying at and what the central tasks in the life of the family are. We discuss the life stage model by Hill and Rodgers (in Dallos and Procter 2001), which introduces us to the following stages: childless newly married couple; family with an infant; family with a small child (2.5-6 years old); family with a schoolage child (6-12 years old); family with an adolescent age child; family that releases the grown-up child; active parents living alone; inactive old couple.

7. Social sources of family conflicts This class introduces students to the different sources and areas of family conflicts. The presented typology is based on the work of Bánlaky (2001), who talks about the following main sources and areas: emotional conflicts; relationship conflicts; conflicts related to family economy; way of life of family members; lifestyle and health promotion; work- and profession-related conflicts; differences in the value system. The handling and possible outcomes of family conflicts will also be discussed.

8. National and ethnic minorities in the Visegrad Countries and their socialization patterns within the family This class will introduce students to the variety of minority social groups constituting the population of the Visegrad Countries. A special focus will be placed on the state of the Romany, as the largest ethnic minority in the Visegrad Countries. We will take a look at the socialization patterns in the Romany families, the differences from and similarities to the majority society, and what consequences the differences exercise on the school and or market chances of the Romany.

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9. Approaches to lifestyle: Way of life This class introduces students to the complex understanding of the concepts lifestyle and way of life. Sociology increasingly focuses attention on lifestyle and way of life. Lifestyle offers a helpful way to typify social practice and provides a basis for understanding the individual’s identity. Its elements include housing conditions, nutrition, work and leisure, forms of behaviour and clothing, which are the most open to change and in which people adjust to new conditions. Lifestyle is the activity of everyday life, a defining part of behaviour. It is a new culture concept, where culture is not restricted to the consumption of intellectual goods only, but it contains the characteristics of lifestyle as well. Way of life is a concept related to lifestyle; it comprises of the activities one performs in his/her time organised freely and the preferences and taste manifested in these activities.

10. Lifestyle Sociological Models (Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens) This class shows students how lifestyle is understood by leading sociologists. Most lifestyle studies refer back to Max Weber’s (1967) Economy and Society. The study of lifestyle is mainly focussed on what behavioural strategies people apply to overcome the discrepancy between their needs and capabilities on the one hand, and what forms of behaviour society and the environment make possible on the other. In order to understand today’s lifestyle we turn to the works of two contemporary sociologists, Pierre Bourdieu (1978) and Anthony Giddens (1991). Whereas Weber provides an early 20th century perspective and lays an emphasis on choice, Bourdieu explores the 1950s and focuses on structures, habits, and opportunities. Giddens takes us to the next century with the help of his views on new modernity, in which there can be an absence of clear structure and people are left on their own in their effort to PDNHVHQVHRIDQLQFUHDVLQJO\FRPSOH[ZRUOG%HQNĘ 

11. Lifestyle history in the Visegrad Countries: Lifestyle characteristics from World War I. till nowadays This lecture introduces students to the lifestyle history of the Visegrad Countries—with special focus on the Hungarian lifestyle history—with the help of a new branch of social history, that is, lifestyle history research. Social history and social structure of central-European countries resemble

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each other a lot; that is why the Hungarian example can be put in focus. Lifestyle research within social history is younger than lifestyle sociology within sociology. Historians try to define the new discipline and declare its place within social history. According to Péter Hanák (1980) for example, lifestyle is in connection with social stratification, and it has a stratifying role.

12. Healthy lifestyle This class introduces students to the model of healthy lifestyle. The discussion of Healthy lifestyle is arranged around the concepts of life possibilities and life choices. The model of healthy lifestyle is to be depicted along the following factors: economic, biological, cultural and psychological. The variables of the economy factor are education, employment status, and income. The biological factor contains age, sex, race and the physical health status valued by the individual. The cultural factor contains nationality, value orientation and religion. And finally the psychological factor contains the internal-external sense of control and the HIIHFWRIVWUHVVRQRXUOLIHVW\OH%HQNĘ 

13. Historical development of families in Poland in the context of the Visegrad Counties This class analyses the similarities and differences that can be traced in the historical development of the families in the Visegrad Countries %HQNĘ   ZLWK D VSHFLDO IRFXV RQ WKH Gevelopment of the Polish family. In the light of socio-historical processes we can see that families in Central and Eastern European countries were for a long time characterised by tradition-directedness, or were traditional families. The feudal social structure persisted in this part of Europe up until World War II and left its mark on the functioning of families. The model of the civil family was typical of a narrow segment of families, providing a social background for the character of the inner-directed individual (based on the categorization of Riesman, 1983). However, even that background was not separable from traditional values preferred by the Establishment. The dominance of the Church as a medium of traditional values remained unlimited until World War II. As a result of the social structure of socialism, a dual socialization process took place in Central and Eastern Europe. In the closed micro-communities of many families the effects of the pre-war duality of (traditional and civil) values survived, although dictatorships through their political power tried to impose the character of the other-

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directed individual. That created a match with Riesman’s categories only in form, and was different in substance from the other-directed character (based on the categorization of Riesman, 1983) describing the American middle class. However, among intellectuals in the 1970s and 1980s a match in substance was already appropriate. As a result of the regime change in Central and Eastern Europe, majority-based capitalist democracies were created, which provided an opportunity to revitalise, and adapt to the social conditions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, traditional, traditional-civil, and civil family values, which had been dormant or ceased to exist. Following the regime change, families based on the other-directed character began to spread from the upper middleclass to other segments of the middle class, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe’VODUJHXUEDQDUHDV%HQNĘ 

14. Tradition, modernity, culture, values and norms The task of this class is to conceptualise and define the concepts of tradition, modernity, culture, values and norms to be able to meaningfully apply these concepts to the description of lifestyle in the Visegrad Countries. The issue of tradition and modernity, be it from the macrosocial aspect, the family, or the social character, has been a subject of study for almost every social scientist. In the broadest term, traditional is everything that is transmitted from the past to the present: whether it be objects, monuments, beliefs, practices or institutes. Modern is something the legitimacy of which is legal and sensible (Max Weber). Tradition is the sum of all signs and sign systems of a culture; it comprises of the completeness of habits, beliefs and behaviours; it is inherited throughout the generations; it defines and regulates the everyday behaviour and relationship to the community of its members; and to master it is a long process. Values are abstract events, while norms are concrete principles or rules to be followed by every member of the community. Culture consists of the values preserved by a given group, the norms followed by the group members and the material goods created by them. Culture is more than the system of values: it is practice.

15. Consultation, feedback on the course, evaluation The closing session of the term allows the course leader and the students to evaluate the dynamism of the course, the topics discussed, the approaches applied and the methods used. Written feedback will be asked

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for in the form of an evaluating questionnaire. The results of the closing evaluation will be built into the course’s development.

Semester 2 (Autumn) 1. Way of life groups in the Visegrad Countries This class introduces students to the way of life stratification theory of Hungarian sociologist Ágnes Utasi and applies the concept to the Visegrad Countries. Ágnes Utasi’s (1984) empirical lifestyle study is linked to social stratification research and thus has a similar focus on education, settlement type of residence, traits of residential neighbourhood, the cultural and civilizational environment in childhood, the earnings status, the degree of occupational prestige, consumption, culture, human relationships, holidays etc. As a result of her study, Ágnes Utasi identified the following way of life groups: 1) The elite, 2) Intellectually driven consumers, 3) Higher-pattern followers, 4) The family-oriented, 5) The object-oriented, 6) The relationship-rich, 7) The relationship-poor, 8) Toilers, 9) The Deprived.

2. Lifestyle defining role of nutrition and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries A key component of lifestyle is nutrition. Just like all other lifestyle components, it is highly complex. It is a subject of study in many disciplines such as medicine, psychology, sociology, aesthetics, cultural anthropology, etc. After introducing the theoretical considerations of healthy nutrition, we will present the nutrition-related research results of our transnational research called: “Tradition and modernity in the lifestyle of the families of the Visegrad Countries” %HQNĘ 5HVXOWVZLOOEH discussed by countries and in comparison as well.

3. Lifestyle defining role of exercising and sports and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries A key component of living a healthy lifestyle is the focus on physical and sport recreation. Regular physical exercise affects our metabolism, the operation of the respiratory-, nervous-, hormonal-, and immune systems, and also has psychological effects. The present class identifies the key features of doing exercises and sports play in healthy lifestyle and show

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the related results from our transnational researcK%HQNĘ 5HVXOWV will be discussed by countries and in comparison as well.

4. Lifestyle defining role of leisure time activities and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries Leisure time activities are an important part of lifestyle. Leisure time is what is left at our disposal after fulfilling the different obligations. It consists of all activities that the individual undertakes voluntarily, either for the sake of having a rest, for amusement, to cherish social relationships, or to engage in further training. The present class identifies leisure time activities, the structure of leisure time and the factors influencing how we spend our leisure time. Data from our transnational UHVHDUFK%HQNĘ ZLOOEHXVHGIRUGHPRQVWUDWLRQSXUSRVHV

5. Lifestyle defining role of cultural activity and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries The present class discusses the forms and role of cultural activities in shaping our lifestyle, with concrete examples from our transnational UHVHDUFK %HQNĘ   An important element of the three-dimensional social stratification theory of Pierre Bourdieu (1997), is the cultural capital of the individual, that can manifest in three forms: incorporated cultural capital (e.g. literacy, personal skills, problem solving skills etc.), objectified cultural capital (like the number of books, season ticket to the opera or to the theatre etc.) and institutionalised cultural capital, that is the evidence of cultural competence (e.g. the diploma). When studying cultural activity, researchers tend to focus on two components: outgoing and home-based cultural activity. The outgoing cultural activity contains the occasions of going to the theatre, to the cinema, to concerts and to exhibitions, and other activities as well, requiring leaving one’s home. The indoor cultural activities are mapped for example along our habits concerning watching TV, reading, and using the Internet. The possession of cultural goods contains the number of books or musical records for example.

6. Lifestyle defining role of fashion and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries This class discusses the role of fashion in our lifestyle, underlined by concrete empirical research results. According to Georg Simmel (1973):

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“Any form of lifestyle can turn into fashion, anything can become fashion”. Simmel has stated that fashion is social stratum-bound, and fashion of the upper strata is different from that of the lower strata. The reformation of fashion is performed by the upper social stratum, while the lower groups strive at falling into line with them. They take the fashion of the upper stratum over, crossing the borderline defined by them this way. They break the unity of the upper stratum held together by fashion. As a consequence, the upper stratum turns away from the current tendency, searching for a new one, hereby recreating their separation from the masses (consumers). This process is considerably quickened by financial management, as they can access the object of fashion by the mere possession of money. According to Simmel, “The middle stratum represents the instability of fashion. The faster fashion changes, the cheaper it is to access it. Through the emergence of cheaper goods the producers as well as the consumers are pressed to change fashion quickly.” According to Simmel: “the uneasy tempo of modern life resulted in fast changes in all areas of everyday life. The border between the beginning and the end became stronger. Simmel compared the existence of fashion to the games. Greater and greater playground is gained by the transient and instable elements of life. Breaking away with the past turns the sense towards the present, while stressing the present means stressing change at the same time. Novelties appearing in fashion also carry the feeling of caducity.” Data from our transnational research %HQNĘ   will be used for underlying the above statements.

7. Lifestyle defining role of interior design and its characteristics in the Visegrad Countries This topic will survey the connection of lifestyle and interior decoration, with special focus on its characteristics in the Visegrad countries %HQNĘ . The three main criteria of interior decoration are function, structure and form. These are interrelated. A space or furniture can function well only if they are created according to the human needs and made of the right materials and in the right forms. The essence of interior decoration is to create a living space where people can feel well. The interior decoration of a home reflects the thinking, character, way of life and lifestyle of the owner.

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8-9-10. Tradition and modernity in the lifestyle of the families of the Visegrad Countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovak These three classes in question will give a broad overview and strong evidence of why comparative lifestyle research is so important in Central European dimensions. While discussing the report of research results obtained from our transnational empirical research %HQNĘ   we gained a better understanding of which are the common roots and denominators of lifestyle in the Visegrad countries and which are the specific features. This study report by countries contributes, as a frame of reference, to a better understanding of ourselves, and at the same time the results of the research offer a new perspective for social and health policy planning in Central and Eastern Europe. The report includes a number of new pieces of information and innovative ideas. The multidisciplinary approach of the researchers and the multicultural aspects give a special flavour for the report. The country-specific research results will be presented by the representatives of the transnational research group (University of Szeged, Hungary; University of Hradec Králové, The Czech Republic; University of Silesia, Poland; and Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia).

11. Lifestyle characteristics of national and ethnic minorities living in the Visegrad Countries This class introduces students to the lifestyle characteristics of national and ethnic minorities living in the Visegrad countries, with special focus on the Romany minority. Issues concerning the living conditions, housing, nutrition and clothing will be discussed in more details.

12. Characteristics of the traditional and the modern person along important values in the Visegrad Countries This class introduces students to our analysis performed on data obtained in the transnational research %HQNĘ  . The transnational research group classified respondent objectively into the categories traditional and modern and analysed how they can be characterised along chosen important values (values that are in the foreground in a marriage, values missing from human relationships, important values in life, religion and faith). Respondents belonging to the traditional and modern categories

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were also categorised along socio-demographic variables (age, sex, family type and education).

13. Prejudice in the Visegrad Countries This class introduces students to the prejudice-related results of the transnational empirical research %HQNĘ  . Prejudice has two essential components; it consists of a judgment that has no empirical underlying evidence and a negative emotional colouring. Prejudicial thinking carries a lot of emotions, the majority of which remain hidden. The verbal objection manifested among the groups is always higher than the need for actual differentiation. Negative discrimination is practiced mainly in hidden, indirect forms, and not in face-to-face situations. The presented transnational research studied the direction and intensity of verbal prejudice in the case of the Visegrad Countries.

14. Lifestyle research methodology The present class discusses the methodology of the lifestyle researches, with the detailed analysis of the methodology our lifestyle research %HQNĘ  . The following empirical tools will be introduced: Time management survey, Household statistics, Observation, Life history, Target Group Index Typology, Interview and Questionnaire.

15. Consultation, feedback on the course, evaluation The closing session of the term allows the course leader and the students to evaluate the dynamism of the course, the topics discussed, the approaches applied and the methods used. A written feedback will be asked for in the form of an evaluating questionnaire. The results of the closing evaluation will be built into the course’s development.

Reference List Bánlaky, P. 2001, Családszociológia, Budapest: Wesley János LelNpV]NpS]Ę)ĘLVNROD. %HQNĘ =  “A családok életmódját meghatározó társadalmi WpQ\H]ĘN”, Szenvedélybetegségek. 2000. VIII. évf.1.sz 54-57. —. 2007 (ed.), Tradition and Modernity in the life-style of the families of the Visegrád countries. Szeged: JGYF Kiadó.

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Bourdieu, P. 1978, $ WiUVDGDOPL HJ\HQOĘWOHQVpJHN ~MUDWHUPHOĘGpVH. Tanulmányok. Gondolat. Budapest. —.  *D]GDViJL WĘNH NXOWXUiOLV WĘNH WiUVDGDOPL WĘNH ,Q $QJHOXV] Róbert (1997, szerk.): $ WiUVDGDOPL UpWHJ]ĘGpV NRPSRnensei. Válogatott tanulmányok, Budapest: Új Mandátum Könyvkiadó, 156177. Dallos, R. and Procter, H. (2001): A családi folyamatok interakcionális szemlélete, in.: Biró Sándor és Komlósi Piroska (2001., szerk.): Családterápiás olvasókönyv, Animula. Budapest. Giddens, A. (1991): Modernity and self-identity. Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge, Polity Press. Hanák Péter (1980): Életmód és gondolkodásmód- történelmi összefüggésben. Magyar tudomány 1980. 2. szám 64.-90. Riesman, D. (1983): A magányos tömeg. Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó, Budapest. Simmel, G. (1973): A divat. In: Simmel, G. (1973): Válogatott társadalomelméleti tanulmányok. Budapest, Gondolat Kiadó. 473-507. Somlai Péter (1986): Konfliktus és megértés. A családi kapcsolatrendszer elmélete. Gondolat, Budapest. —. (1997): Szocializáció. A kulturális átörökítés és a társadalmi beilleszkedés folyamata. Corvina, Budapest. Utasi, Ágnes (1984): Életstílus-csoportok, fogyasztási preferenciák, Társadalomtudományi Intézet, Budapest. Weber, M. (1967): Gazdaság és társadalom; Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó, Budapest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR GREEK EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN RECESSIONARY TIMES: DOES LIBERAL EDUCATIONAL POLICY TAKE ITS TOLL ON THE LEISURE ACTIVITIES OF THE LOWER SOCIAL STRATA? EVAGGELIA KALERANTE Introduction Economic changes, readjustments and reforms in various domains give food for thought over the economic crisis. At a time when economics is paramount, economic light is cast on the educational system, especially highlighting its expenditures, so that the generation and dissemination of knowledge by the professorial staff takes on an economic feature. Our study focuses on the unintelligible consequences of the economic crisis on individuals and above all the right1 to free time2, in particular its evanescence from the lower strata experience. The educational model under development is based on technical and technological know-how acquisition, lifelong educational pursuits in broadening knowledge and training, job qualification enhancement, all in the framework of an unstable labour market and shifting work environments, where work itself, and career development is in a perpetual flux. It is observed that students become accustomed to pursuing job oriented knowledge. So any 1 A general consideration on the issue of privileges as an issue tied to ethics and the function of Capitalism (Dworkin 1977). 2 Free time definitions mainly focus on five parameters: a) free time tied to the individual’s attitude to spare time for himself even in the labour environment, b) free time off the labour environment, c) free time off occupation in any environment, d) free time as that of personal satisfaction, and e) free time for noncompulsory occupations (Brumham, Critcher and Tomlinson 1995).

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involvement in personal interests may be seen as pointless and distracting. Likewise, concentrating on “practicable knowledge” for a head start in the labour market (Foray 2000, Steinmueller 2003) deprives people (especially the lower classes) of the humanistic content of knowledge to be found in literature, art, music and athletics. It has to do with a knowledge breakdown that stems from the principle of labour distribution and the increasing imperative of specialization. It is perceived as both consumable and productive material and is tied to effectiveness and efficiency (Lundwall and Nielsen 1999). Nonetheless, loss of contact with the natural environment and culture enfeebles character, widens social distance and deprives society of wellrounded citizens fit for social interaction. Free time remains a privilege of the upper classes, available for personal cultivation and further refinement. In economic gloom, citizens face restrictions on their rights on culture and experiences away from work. The system currently in force mainly associates education with the labour force, according to labour market stipulations and much less with cultivation, in contrast with an earlier “prosperity oriented society” that had benefited from financial contributions to culture by the educational system that had engaged in privilege redistribution policies in favour of the lower classes that could thus redefine their penchants, within cultural specifications that would enhance their social mobility and cast the foundation of “egalitarian welfare”, pushing policies in the pursuit of equal chances for success (equality of success).

Economic development and educational orientation: A course toward the sensitization of education The economic crisis caused social turmoil and upheaval, upsetting a momentum of increasing prosperity and growth that manifested itself in a wide spread consumerism ignited by ever regenerated needs that propelled desires and interests that operated as challenges in the creation of goods and services. Developed countries’ lower social strata took part in the economic ploys of artificial prosperity in their own terms. Without being erased, social inequality had at least been limited by educational and employment opportunities. Liberalism bet on the artificial bliss exhumed from the dubious sharing of goods and services. Education’s dual function was to provide labour market oriented know-how, as well as the end of middle and lower class upper mobility. Fundamental opportunities proffered to broad population masses by

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prolonged open educational system attendance imparted the notion of social inequality obliteration with a degree of certainty, via an educational approach with the one leg in labour market qualifications and the other in the honing of one’s refined taste for music, painting and literature. Between 1980-2007, the lower classes almost actively witnessed the overthrow of the privileges of the upper set, especially by means of A. Papandreou’s first socialist government’s people’s rights manifesto in 1981, which underscored the lower class upper mobility potential through a redistribution of the educational privileges of the socially endowed that made them accessible to the underprivileged. Job qualifications, useful for advancement in the professional field, were amplified by complementary bodies of knowledge taught by specialists, both converging to a higher social standing. Consequently, adolescence is protracted and the parent-child relationship and sense of obligation of the former to the latter are misinterpreted. In Greece, the lower and middle classes entertaining socioeconomic aspirations gradually shifted toward protracted studies choices beyond the educational policy imposed obligatory nine year school attendance, with 60% of the population having attended for twelve years. In a climate of prosperity and culture, Greek families invest in protracted education, as, in addition to being a prerequisite for better labour market chances, education offered access to the upper class value system. So, protracted education meant protracted adolescence and dependence on the lower and middle class family, with 20% of 30-yearolds living at home while following a higher course of study without sharing in family expenses. It is noteworthy that an educational culture gradually evolved that reached beyond economics to tend to the formation of well-rounded personalities. To that end, an array of athletics, art, dance and music courses are supplemental to school curricula and related coaching schools, and pertain to the fruitful use of free time (Mannell and Kleiber 1997). A look at education at that period would concentrate on a policy of rights that would internationally and locally recognize education as the lawful right of a citizen who can be liberally viewed as a discreet individual participant in the generation and administration of knowledge. The right to education spills over to a constant rise of the minimal required years in school with a concomitant protection of childhood and adolescence that at least theoretically precludes work in favour of school attendance.

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Free Time and refined Taste In good times, knowledge became an economic good. According to C. Mouffe (2008), globalization and world-wide spread liberalism in democracy gave rise to a vision of peace, prosperity and human rights on an international scale and beyond politics. Information technology gave rise to a new reality that changed the economic model of organization and knowledge dissemination. Information multiplied and was transmitted to the school environment in structured form and at the same time, information was provided in the way of unofficial education by outside carriers, notably the Internet in an altered environment of learning of novel means and spaces that gave skilfulness and learning ability a new potentiality of expression. Thus, the generation and acquisition of knowledge took on special interest. In theory, we progress to a broader field of knowledge acquisition, replete with information on areas of knowledge that tie to formal schooling, as far as behavioural and attitudinal modes along with educational predilections directly related to the training and skills of an individual are concerned (Bull, Hoose and Weed 2002). Greek prosperity eased the simultaneous acquisition of material goods and services along with educational means. The lower and middle classes seemed to gradually copy the proclivities of the upper classes advancing to higher levels of skilfulness and awareness in music, the arts that also influenced their free time choices. Free time quality allocations to music art, athletics and literature, though, are not our main concern; it is the encroachment to until then aristocratically occupied territory. Either consciously opted for or taken on as a mere decorative veneer, cultural awareness played a role in the humanistic moulding of personality and the self (Deci 1980), which entailed different stands and attitudes on life on the part of the lower classes partaking of cultural benefits, a state of being that would eventually lead to the reform of social parameters and removal of boundaries, had the upward economic trend not been disrupted; an irrational expectation to be sure. Let us analytically look into the introduction of culture in the educational environment and its adoption within the framework of youngsters’ free time engagements, so as to discern a sort of “vengeance” perpetrated on the upper by the lower classes via their advancement on hereto aristocratically held cultural soil.

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Greek educational System readjustment in economic terms Following Greece’s debt crisis and the IMF and European authorities’ intervention in economic planning, a host of undertaken administrative steps swept over all subsystems, including education, imposing realignments with a new cost cutting reality, debt payment and economic growth needs. Economic trimming made changes in educational policy imperative. Necessary school consolidations, class size increases, teaching staff (especially of electives) reductions were followed by curriculum alterations. Elementary and secondary curricula were paid special attention, since, internet accessibility notwithstanding, students’ choices and free time orientation to either learning or recreating is an educational option. The educational environment is particularly instrumental in choice making and habit forming in free time use. On the contrary, the upper strata have a lesser need of the educational system, since they inhale in a cultural ambiance that imbues them with inspirations for free time choices, forms personality traits and ritualistically paves their way to their incorporation in the social and political arena (Bauman 2007). Thus, music, aesthetics, literature and gym were found to have been curtailed, while a labour market oriented corpus of courses dominates the curriculum. Flexible work and skills forms pertain to contemporary student/worker resulting in great numbers of people continually distanced from the upper class prototype, leaving a gaping knowledge and cultural benefit deficit. School is part of the privilege redistribution mechanism3 of the social liberalism ideals in a bifurcated democratic, social distinction phase-out function / economically dictated cost cutting, quality education restrictions that translate into a lesser subsidization of the lower classes. As already mentioned, the allocation of the lower class’s free time is regulated by the educational system, free time being associated with emotionally rewarding activities, as distinguished from imperative work. In other words, free time is when an individual operates autonomously, away from social commands and disengaged from vocational conventions. In this reference, the focus is on the individual’s personality, which is psychologically tantamount with the notion of social coexistence, i.e. micro and macro socialization. From this standpoint, an analysis of free time contains: a) the meaning of free 3

Utilitarianism and political equality are re-examined by a non-analytical presentation of the privilege redistribution in the framework of justice (Rawls 1971).

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time availability and b) free time allocation (Parry and Johnson 2007). Both issues have to do with social inequality, as far as free time availability as a given right, and its content are concerned (Badie 1993). Social inequality is not solely manifested in the access to consumer goods, the exercise of consumer options and the availability of state-provided services, but also the power to determine one’s free time allocations. The allocation of one’s free time, given a whole range of options, takes place according to social criteria. The choices of any type of citizen are concluded on the basis of what is considered to be proper and allowable, as well as the level of sophistication required in making distinctions; both exponents of social class. Socioeconomic prototypes are reflected in educational standards and curricula. Students-apprentices are expected to take courses that serve crucial economic specifications. Their engagement in the humanistic aspect of education is limited and superficial. This differentiation is made obvious by a look into the prior curriculum of a) extended literature, music, gymnastics, aestheticism hours, b) training in civics, environmentalism, health, c) educational outings, and d) educators’ specialization in “cultural courses”. Reduced culture-oriented education means lesser exposure to the humanities, in particular when the lower classes are concerned, since family involvement is minimal in such fields (Weissinger and Bandalos, 1995), as is their wherewithal for additional expenditures on their children’s supplementary education in fields that would acquaint them with and prepare them for future cultural free time choices. In prior years, the educational system’s investment in quality education gave emphasis on a cultural content with curricula offering a theoretical level of familiarity on environment, health and civilization through terminology, educational games, research project familiarization, museum and research centre visits. The latest educational reform has discontinued such programs with the resultant losses in student acquaintance with fields that could be incorporated in free time activities. Expenditure cuts affected educational visits to archaeological areas, museums, musical and theatrical performance attendances and cultural demonstrations in general. It is obvious that it has to do with upper strata territory connected with culture and equipped with the economics that allows such choices. A focus on cuts overlooks the peculiarity of cultural courses relegating them to secondary status so that they can be taught by teachers from other fields lacking in intimate familiarity with the subject and personal

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involvement, requisites for student familiarity, habit and choice formation that would have a say in free time allocation. It may be pointed out that physical culture is to be included in cultural training, i.e. athletics and special body exercises. It is noteworthy that educational expense curtailments are accompanied by similar welfare cuts and wide-spread insecurity and uncertainty through a perilous social situation. The vital connection between the educational system and free time allocation is centred on the very definition of knowledge (Dattilo 1999) which is dichotomized in “useful” and “complementary” in economically pressing times, the former identifiable with classes that have to do with technology and the real world that is process of fact accumulation to be utilized in the reproduction of knowledge, skills development and application. On the other hand, “complementary” knowledge is seen as unnecessary. It thus becomes a marginalized and unwanted source of information in the school environment.

Powerful social retrospections into free time structure and content A pre-crisis analysis of educational policy brings to light a school and family empowered system that affords children the possibility to delve into complementary knowledge with a lower class students’ increasing free time allocation to theatrical groups, musical orchestras, quality spectacles, creative artistic expression, physical culture, athletics, etc. A student involvement comparative study is currently done in a) extra-curricular participation in athletics, b) cultural activities (theatre, dance, practical applications etc.), shows, c) performance attendance, d) special arts lessons, e) cultural visits, and f) children’s creations exhibits. The research covers West Attiki 10-18 year old students’ involvement in public and private cultural and athletic clubs, or environments selected by them for free time activities. West Attiki was chosen because of the predominance of lower classes with low economic and educational capital. Synoptically, the number of students attending a private carrier’s program has dropped; in any case, private carriers active in theatrical action, musical ensembles and athletics have either closed or cut down following subsidy reductions. Nonetheless, focusing on economics and family income reduction could lead to a one-dimensional view, i.e. it would allow the simplistic conclusion that economically pressed families have no money for their children’s quality free time allocations, or do not avail their children of the possibility to take complementary lessons for economic reasons, which is

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valid only to an extent, because an overview of public carriers who continue to provide free of charge free time activities in creativity, construction and athletics, shows no response of the part of families who seem likely to invest in more labour market-oriented educational options. In other words, there is no correlation between expenditure and interest in complementary knowledge, but families reconsider education and personality make-up in terms of skills and productivity. Maybe practical education is seen as being tantamount to compensation; that is, securing a place in the labour market in any way that may remove the prospect of marginalization. Since the lower strata cannot “buy” free time in times of insecurity and bad economics but feel forced to operate in strictly work oriented environments, this leads to the concept of free time as wasted time when expended on elective education or creative activities by their children. So the necessity for practical knowledge gradually becomes an “economic factor”, so that individuals may be able to hold on to work engagements in a constantly changing environment. Technological advancement, modernization, the welfare state, open communications enabled natives and aliens in Greece alike to enjoy income increases and believe in the promise of unexpected betterment due to mobility and narrowed social inequities. Students were then granted the possibility, a sort of “passport” or “ritual” to commune with culture and elect to have “contact” with culture in their free time through a school provided acquaintance with culture and family encouraged imitation of the ways of the higher ups (Harper 1986). It is no longer prestigious for a school. So, it is estimated that the evaluation of schools in strictly economic terms will cause it to stagnate, will phase out its political and social function and will relegate it to the category of another administrative carrier.

Free time education: A debatable issue The economic crisis has created a socio-politically handicapped economic environment, which has either cancelled or cast doubt on citizens’ rights and egalitarian welfare, undermining the route toward equality of success prospects. Free time, as content and duration of individual autonomy, qualifies equality in prosperity. As already said, curriculum changes according to “useful knowledge” definitions to the exclusion of humanities, arts, and athletics influenced the preferences of students themselves. Free time shrinks in favour of an educational systemeconomic model that dwells on the practical utility of knowledge and

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skills. It could be said that the experience of enjoyment, pleasure and sensation drawn from a theatrical production or an aesthetic reaction recedes and students live in boredom, anxiety and mediocrity. Mediocrity is of particular concern, since the minimal free time left is spent in front of the TV or a computer with little or no ability to control preferences or choices, let alone a call upon a cultural option; the individual passively views without being able to interpret message or react, so that gradually, the resultant personality deficit translates into groups of drop-outs from political and social life (Crawford, Jackson and Godbey 1991). As education contributes to social inequality by depriving the underprivileged of a cultural experience leaving an empty free time gap, it leaves life without meaning and politically aware and active individuals, which can be described as a class based availability of culture. In recapitulation, focusing on economics has cancelled educational and social innovations toward an equal distribution of privileges and prosperity modelled by a system of anti-utilitarian educational policies that rechanneled individual and political preferences and wishes. The challenge for education and educators, especially, is to interpret and set the limits for losses caused by a utility-pursuing relation policy defined under economic criteria. Free time should be re-allocated as a benefit so that students are able to function off obligatory school work towards a future focusing beyond their future occupation. Emphasis is placed on the free time related to satisfaction and pleasure for an individual with self-control, personal satisfaction, enrichment of independence. There is a necessity for education on free time focusing on the individual’s needs with principles such as satisfaction, personal perfection, pleasure of life within nature, art and co-existence to be promoted and legalized. The privilege of childhood and adolescence, the right to have different needs and desires based on age criteria must obviously be restored, with children and adolescents to be educated about free time on the basis of a theoretical approach taking under consideration the individual and his needs, the right to express himself and formulate requests aiming at his satisfaction. Within an educational model on free time, the individual as a personality, a social being and a citizen is taken under consideration. Knowledge as content and value is simultaneously redefined. The awareness that desires, preferences, their interpretation and vindication, on the basis of the model, are tied to the corresponding self-formulation cognitive domains. Free time definition and legalization is estimated as an acceptable procedure, a right towards the enrichment of the free time definition and

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utilization procedure, by emphasizing a behavioural, attitudinal and perceptional model of free time perceived as the non-obligatory, nonimposed and non-coercive time towards self-determination. Thus, any complementary education tied to career should be separated when referring to lifelong education. The time for the individual to regenerate dreams, choose occupations, make personal achievements within their environments is the focal point. This educational model is consistent with the cosmopolitan perception of democracy (Apple 1982) in which the respect towards human rights is emphasized on the basis of an argument that free time is a human matter to employ national and international carriers since it is tied to political collectivity and self-development (Held 1999, Chandler 2003) advancing towards a reflective life; a demand within a broader crisis of values and not only of economics.

Reference List Apple, M.W. 1982, Education and Power, London: Routledge and Kegan Badie, B. 1993, Culture et Politique, Paris: Editions Economica. Bauman, Z. 2007, Liquid Times Leaving in Uncertainty, Cambridge: Polity Press. Brumham, P., C. Critcher and A. Tomlinson 1995, Sociology of Leisure. A Reader Paperback, London: Taylor and Francis. Bull, Cr., J. Hoose and M. Weed 2002, An Introduction to Leisure Studies, London: Prentice Hall. Chandler, D. 2003, “New rights for old? Cosmopolitan citizenship and the critique of State sovereignty”, Political Studies 51, 332-349 Crawford, D.W., E.L. Jackson and G. Godbey 1991, “A hierarchical model of leisure constraints”, Leisure Sciences, 13, 309-320 Dattilo, J. 1999, Leisure Education Program Planning. A Systematic Approach, State College. PA: Venture. Deci, E.L. 1980, The Psychology of Self-determination, Boston: Lexington Dworkin, R. 1977, Taking Rights Seriously, Cambridge: University Press Foray, D. 2000, L’Economie de la Connaissance, Paris: La decouvert and Syros. Harper, W. 1986, “Freedom in the experience of leisure”, Leisure Sciences 8, 115-130. Held, D. 1999, The Transformation of Political Community. Rethinking Democracy in the Context of Globalization, Cambridge: University Press.

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Lundwall, B.A and P. Nielsen 1999, “Competition and transformation in the learning economy”, Revue d’Economie Industrielle, 88, 67-88. Mannell, R.C. and D.A. Kleiber 1997, A Social Psychology of Leisure, State College, PA: Venture. Mouffe, C. 2008, On the Political, London: Verso. Parry, D.C. and C.W. Johnson 2007, “Contextualizing leisure research to encompass complexity in lived leisure experience. The need for creative analytic practice”, Leisure Sciences 29, 119-130. Rawls, J. 1993, Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press. Steinmueller, W.E. 2003, “The economics of knowledge reproduction by inscription”, Industrial and Corporate Change 12(2), 299-319. Weissinger, E. and D.L. Bandalos 1995, “Development, reliability, and validity of a scale to measure intrinsic motivation in leisure”, Journal of Leisure Research 27, 379-400.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE A STRATIFICATIONAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LEISURE IN POSTMODERN SOCIETY MAYA KELIYAN Objective and methodological approach The goal of the article is to study the notion of “leisure” in order to arrive at conclusions on its role as a methodological instrument for explanation and conceptualization of socio-structural changes in our-day societies. The methodological approach applied to leisure lies within the research field of social stratification theories. The author bases her discussion on the neoWeberian tradition in the field of theories of classes and of social stratification, elaborated by British sociologists (Goldthorpe 1982; Savage et al. 1992, 2001; Butler and Savage 1995). Leisure is part of the reward structure of a social system with differential access to resources based largely on socioeconomic position. The resources of time, money, access, and autonomy are evidently unevenly distributed in any society (Kelly 2000). The recent trends in stratification theory show that leisure has a key place in the analysis of social structuring processes, while the introduction and use of the concept of leisure patterns permits making a more comprehensive characterization of social-group status in today’s postmodern societies. Leisure patterns are an important aspect of lifestyle, which, in turn, is an important generalized indicator of the individual’s stratification position. This is the reason for choosing a stratification approach to the topic. We assume that in postmodern societies leisure patterns are among important indicators of the social status one occupies, both objectively and subjectively. These patterns not only determine the stratification position

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of the various social groups and strata, but their subjective selfidentification as well. Leisure, as well as the introduced notion of leisure patterns, is taken as the point of departure for stratification analysis. Leisure patterns are regarded here as a concept that characterizes leisure in the stratification aspect. The author shares the view that the processes of social structuring in our postmodern societies cannot be explained and analysed adequately without reference to leisure patterns.

Leisure patterns: one of new postmodern “keys” for understanding contemporary societies After World War II, global changes took place, as a result of which status differences between people and groups became increasingly defined according to their lifestyle, leisure and consumption patterns. Changes in labour and production during the 1960s in the USA and other developed Western societies led to the “age of high mass consumption” (Rostow 1960). As indicated by Featherstone (1990), in “modern capitalist consumer societies” lifestyle, leisure, and consumption have become a significant source of status differentiation for all social groups. The selfassessment and self-identification of the representatives of separate social strata depends to a great degree on the quantity and quality of consumption, on their leisure and lifestyle. In postmodern societies, job position, market situation and opportunities for acquiring commodities, on the one hand, and consumption patterns, leisure and different lifestyles, on the other hand, are considered to lie at the basis of the distinction between class division and stratification division. Class differences might grow stronger owing to variations in the lifestyle and in “tastes” in the sense in which Bourdieu (1984) used the term. After societies have achieved a certain level of material-economic development, a new historical epoch begins with the transition from modern to postmodern society. Predominant in the latter are different kinds of correlations, and consumption, leisure, and lifestyle attain an important new role for “economic freedom”, for development, and for the way of thinking of society. That is why the established practice of using these elements as important indicators of social-group status is connected with the birth of postmodern society. Given that consumption, leisure, and lifestyle did not play this structure-defining role in the historical epochs previous to the emergence of postmodern society, it is important to stress that they have acquired a new social significance that they never had or could have earlier.

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The general tendency that has emerged after the 1990s is toward overcoming (to some degree) national and regional differences as well as the traditional consumption patterns, leisure patters and lifestyle in various contemporary societies, including the differences existing between developed and developing societies. At the same time we notice the growing importance of local and regional traditions that determine the specifics of consumption, leisure and lifestyle in various societies and regions. But together with the obvious differences, the globalization of production, consumption and leisure is leading to the appearance of similarities in status characteristics and lifestyle of the corresponding social strata in different societies.

Leisure patterns: general characteristics The tradition of joining the concept of leisure into a pair with the concept of labour dates back to Ancient Greece. According to Aristotle, leisure is in direct connection with work, a conception that the great philosopher generalized in the sentence: “We conduct business in order to have leisure”. According to this view, leisure is the ideal state of existence that a citizen could strive for (Barrett 1989, 14). Etymologically, the word leisure stems from the Latin verb licere, meaning to permit oneself, to allow oneself. The word has a common root with license and includes in its meaning both the concept of freedom and that of control; both individual activeness and restriction; i.e. it carries the meanings that modern sociological theories associate with leisure (Tomlinson 1994). Some authors consider that in the English language, since the 14th century, this concept has tended to mean “opportunity for free time” (Williams 1976). The correlations between labour and leisure have changed parallel to the development of the process of modernization and industrialization in various societies. In a narrow sense, the correlation between them is directly dependent on the organization of labour. Some authors refer to a “marginalization of traditional forms of recreation”, which is among the prerequisites for establishing a “new industrial order” (Thompson, 1967). The “new organization of labour” involves a “new lifestyle”, and “new”, different from the previous, activities in leisure. In the framework of the correlation labour-leisure, labour is defined in the narrow sense as “paid time”, as “measured” and “hired labour”, while leisure is understood as being the activities carried out apart from work duties. At the end of the 19th century, T. Veblen introduced the concept of leisure society, leisure class and the related notion of conspicuous consumption (1994). A “leisure society” is one in which labour has lost its

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traditional central place and importance. The “Leisured” are those who consume certain commodities and services not for their utility and not out of need, but for the ostentation of consumption itself, whereby these consumers demonstrate their privileged status. The work-leisure relationship is pivotal for a number of contemporary studies (Parker 1976; Roberts 1981), which focus on necessity to achieve the “desired balance between work, family and leisure” (Pronovost 1989: 57). In postmodern societies, leisure is increasingly becoming the decisive criterion of social structuring (Keliyan 2008: 49-51). The leisure patterns of different social groups and social strata are an important criterion for their stratification position in the overall social structure as well as for undergoing social transformations. The social order here is no longer created, violated, threatened, ordered or negotiated only at the workplace, but also in leisure (Elias and Dunning 1986), where new identities can be sought, local cultural autonomy might be expressed and social-stratum characteristics and preferences become evident. In leisure, in the sphere of recreation and consumption, various interests and groups clash, compete and co-ordinate. In patterns of recreation and leisure, inequalities are reproduced and various forms of authority are affirmed. In the beginning of modern times, the consumption, leisure patterns and lifestyles turned into a sphere of marked social and cultural inequality, often leading to political confrontation. Debates about postmodernism and globalization also focus on leisure (Rojek 1989; 1990; Urry 1990; Tomlinson 1990; 1991; Warde 1990; Warde and Tomlinson 1995; Warde and Martens 2000). In post-communist societies, social inequalities assume their most visible form at the level of everyday life precisely as the consumption patterns, leisure and lifestyles of separate social strata. The self-assessment and self-identification of the representatives of separate social strata depend to a great degree on the quantity and quality of leisure, on their lifestyle. Social inequalities between separate social strata in our time depend much more on the differences in consumption, leisure patterns and lifestyles. Since the late 1980s the social importance of leisure time, which has come to be valued as much as work, has been established and generally recognized by modern sociology, so that the two categories are perceived as being of equal standing. Previously, society was considered to be more or less subordinated to work, whereas in postmodern society, due to the changes that have taken place in the organization of production and labour, in the social structure, in the role of education, science, and technology, there is a corresponding change in the importance of leisure. Since the 1990s there has been an evident trend at global level that leisure becomes

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more important, significant, and valued than labour by certain social groups (Inglehart 1997). Leisure can be defined as the time and activities outside paid labour; leisure activities are performed by choice, they are other than duties and necessities. Examples of activities outside leisure are housework, the time spent in sleep, eating, etc. Of course, the question arises: to what extent is the time allotted to sleeping, eating and other physiological needs, or to housekeeping, a matter of choice? We must have in mind the cases when these activities are “chosen” as a leisure pastime (for instance, sleeping and eating beyond physiological needs; doing excessive housework, etc.). Cooking can be a necessity, but it can also be a hobby, and eating can be a form of socializing with friends and colleagues. The dividing line is the act of choosing, i.e. whether the activity is chosen as a way of leisure pastime or is meant to satisfy physiological needs or fulfil obligations. According to our view, the new significance of leisure as a methodological tool in the study of social-group position in contemporary societies requires introducing the concept of “leisure patterns”. Leisure patterns are the characteristic, typical and distinctive activities chosen as leisure pastimes by a given social category, group or stratum. This concept characterizes leisure in the stratification aspect, i.e. not what leisure is in general, but how it differs for different social subjects. Leisure patterns are the characteristic, typical, distinctive activities, fixed by the social-groups in certain social categories, groups, and strata, which the latter choose to perform outside paid labour and outside the activities they do by necessity or by obligation (for instance housekeeping, care for the family and household, care for their outward appearance, hygiene, nutrition, sleep, and so on). This is a term that characterizes leisure in the stratification aspect, i.e. not as what it represents in itself but by its structure-defining particularities for different social groups. Leisure patterns are of crucial importance for delineating the status position of the followers of those patterns in contemporary society. This new function and role they have as a leading indicator of social-group status emerges with the appearance and development of postmodern society, where the choice of the individual who is “free of materialeconomic coercion” plays an increasingly central role. opportunities for leisure and for the choice of ways and forms of spending it, grow greater: the social subjects have greater possibilities to choose what they will do in their leisure, to choose their consumer behaviour, to shape their consumer status and consumer culture, to be active and enterprising in their spare time and as consumers. The more developed a society is, the greater the freedom of its members (all other

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things being equal) to form their consumption and leisure patterns. Ultimately, the possibility of choice of leisure activities, of the forms and means in which that choice is fulfilled, are also an important indicator of social-group status: the greater this ability to choose, the higher the status position the individual holds. But in the developed societies there are also evident trends of decreasing leisure time among certain socio-professional groups, as proven by a number of studies (Sullivan and Gershuny 2004; Sullivan 2008). The people affected by this trend are consequently postponing some of their consumer and leisure practices for a time when they hope to have more free time. It seems that in postmodern society people from the middle and upper strata, due to the choice they have made regarding their career and professional development, are forced to decrease their free time to a point where they practically have none, and to even restrict their consumption of certain items, goods, and services. But these are voluntary restrictions; a matter, once again, of choice. We also consider as relevant to the leisure patterns the specific attitudes, evaluations, expectations, and degree of satisfaction regarding the patterns one is following, as well as the desire eventually to change them. In analysing the concept, we see that leisure patterns include: the amount of leisure time that social groups have, the typical ways in which they use it, the typical activities they fill it with, and the attitudes, values, and satisfaction regarding the listed aspects. In some cases leisure may be devoted to consumption; in others, consumption might occur outside leisure activities. The inclusion of consumption within leisure depends on whether it is done as a freely chosen activity or is a necessary one, is part of domestic work and family obligations. The relations between consumption patterns and leisure patterns are similar. In some cases the two may coincide depending on the nature of the activity carried out. For instance, eating in a restaurant in order to satisfy one’s hunger may be related to the consumption models of the social groups for whom this is a typical activity. But if this is a characteristic form of social contact and recreation, then it falls in the framework of leisure. In the latter case the consumption pattern and leisure pattern coincides. Of course, as in many such cases, it is not possible to draw a strict dividing line between social phenomena so proximate. In connection with the reduction trend in leisure time among the high and middle strata since the beginning of the 21st century, we may distinguish a new, inconspicuous consumption (Sullivan and Gershuny 2004). In the latter, as in conspicuous consumption (Veblen 1994),

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expensive commodities are bought for pleasure, but for lack of time, they remain not shown to others and even not used. Their demonstration and even their use are postponed for an indefinite future, when more free time will be available. That is why the representatives of the high and middle strata have been described as “income-rich, time-poor” (Sullivan and Gershuny 2004; Sullivan 2008). In the case of the consumption and leisure patterns described above, the consumers derive satisfaction from the thought that they possess a certain item and from the hope it will be used in the imagined and indefinite future, when they will enjoy greater leisure. This is different from the “modest” forms of ordinary consumption (Shove and Warde 2002), aimed at “ordinary” products and services that are far from indicating affluence and high status. The social-group position occupied by people in postmodern society is a result not only of the place of individuals and groups in the system of social production: the specific features of their leisure and lifestyle also define it. What and how they organize their leisure activities and pastime, these contribute to determining their position within social structures and relations. The social function and role of postmodern leisure are different from what they were for modern society. The distinguishing features of postmodern society are its mechanisms of social structuring, in which, in addition to position within the system of social production, consumption patterns, leisure patterns and life style also play an important role (Keliyan 2010, 32). While in modern society leisure patterns usually are a consequence of the social stratification positions, in postmodern society they begin to determine them to a great degree. They become a significant and inseparable part of the process of reproduction, distribution and redistribution of economic, cultural, and power resources. On one hand leisure and lifestyle distinguish and differentiate people and social groups; they lie at the basis of social differentiation. But on the other hand, they are also connected with the mechanisms of social integration, both in society and in various communities. For the representatives of the middle classes it is becoming increasingly important to find how their leisure practices and lifestyle differ, but also how they resemble, those of the others. The two trends are not mutually exclusive, because certain leisure practices and lifestyles “lack symbolic significance” while “some others continue to act as recognized and recognizable social markers” (Warde et al. 1999, 125). At the end of the 20th century much of the debate relating to leisure has focused upon the question of whatever individual identities are shaped by leisure or employment-related practices.

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The concept that denotes the stratifying postmodern nature of leisure is “leisure patterns” (Keliyan, 2008: 49-51). That is the function of the term: since leisure is stratified in character, the notion denoting it must characterize this stratification. It is distinctive and characteristic for postmodern society that the stratified leisure patterns are now among the important indicators of the social-stratification characteristics of this society. This function and role of leisure expresses the nature of the new postmodern type of interconnection, i.e. “leisure patterns” / “social structurings” of society.

Post-communist changes in leisure patterns Post-communist transformations of Bulgarian society to democracy and market economy were accompanied by great social inequalities, which, against the backdrop of 45 years of propaganda on social equality and given the widespread egalitarian attitudes, were perceived by a large share of the population as drastic and unjust. After 1989, thanks to the development of the market and the spread of democracy, leisure opportunities overall became varied and diversified, which had a decisive impact on the leisure patterns of the various social categories and strata. The greater possibility for choosing between wide varieties of leisure pastimes introduced the values of the “commodified good life” as an antipode of the so-called “serious leisure” and “developmental leisure”. Media and commercials are imposing a public image of leisure as spectacular rather than engaging activity and pastime; leisure patterns are viewed as divisive rather than integrating forces, affecting relationships between different social groups and communities. In communist society leisure was the term used mostly to designate the time spent in self-development and recreation, and consumption was disapproved of as being fundamentally contrary to a meaningful lifestyle. According to the official doctrine, leisure was a value only when it contributed to the good of society, and when the activities done in leisure time were in accord with public objectives. One of significant features of that society was the contradiction between propaganda and reality, between the desired and the real, between ideological hypocrisy and ethics. In the period of post-communist transformations, colossal changes in the value system and in the meaning of leisure took place in a short time. The major issue of autonomy and privatization of lifestyle as an essential resource for leisure was resolved: the ideological and political control was abolished and at first glance leisure seems to have become part of the sphere of privacy and free personal choice. But other contradictions

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and problems have arisen. The social inequalities between various social groups and strata grew with regard to leisure opportunities. Among some people, for instance professionals working in the sector of professions supported by the state budget, there was an evident shortage of resources. Among other people, for instance entrepreneurs, the shortage was of leisure time, which proved to be almost wholly taken up by work. For some social groups with abundant resources, leisure is becoming an expression of their conspicuous life style, and this is having an erosive effect on moral values and social integration in communities and society as a whole. The unequal distribution of the resources of money, access, and autonomy in a market society has an impact on leisure patterns of the various social strata: this dependence is clearly indicated in the results from focus group discussion with entrepreneurs from Sofia, conducted as a part of Round 3 of the European Social Survey (ESS), Bulgarian part1. Quoted data are collected on the basis of qualitative research methods; of course they are not representative, but they are very instructive and indicative for on-going processes in their leisure patterns and society as a whole. The surveyed entrepreneurs indicate the importance of the issue of balance: between the labour input and the remuneration of labour; between the work life and family life, personal life; between work time and leisure. According to them: “Money earned through very hard work, with many deprivations, is simply not enjoyable money”. Due to the lack of such a balance, most of the participants in focus group discussions do not consider themselves successful: their business is “based on a lot of deprivation, on a lot of tension and work” and they practically have no time for leisure. The lack of leisure among certain socio-professional groups is a phenomenon that was typical for the 20th century, being caused by a variety of factors. Some authors account for it by the development of mass production and mass consumption. It is related to the consumer society, in which most people have consumer attitudes and lifestyles, and consume not because they need to but for the sake of consumption itself, which demonstrates their status (Schor 1998). People work increasingly and have 1

The quoted results are from a focus group discussion conducted in October 2006 in the framework of the Wellbeing and Identity module of the ESS. The team included: N. Tilkidjiev, head, and the members T. Nedelcheva, V. Zlatanova, M. Keliyan, and E. Markova. M. Keliyan was moderator of this focus group discussion. The Wellbeing and Identity module is part of the ESS Bulgaria, headed by L. Dimova.

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no leisure: free time proves to be practically “cannibalized” (Schor 1992). It is eaten up by the need to work more and more, which proves damaging for communication within the family, for the rearing of children and their socialization, for integration in the community, for social contacts and relations in society in general (ibid.). The decrease of leisure time among certain socio-professional groups is linked not to consumer attitudes but to the growing demands in the postmodern world regarding professional skills, achievements, and career. Such is the case of professionals, experts, specialists, and of other middle strata groups who, in order to meet these challenges, are restricting their leisure time. It is paradoxical that these are the socio-professional groups that value leisure the most. The interviewed entrepreneurs compare the stress and the competition they are undergoing in a market-based society with the opportunities for “serious leisure” and “developmental leisure” they had in “totalitarian times”. “I don’t have the time, in the past I used to read a lot. Now I can’t permit myself the luxury of an evening of reading, of lying down, of resting on Saturday and Sunday. I’m constantly thinking about my work, about whom I must meet, about what might happen”. According to the respondents, professionals employed in the budget sector still have these opportunities. But while their lives are calm, they receive very low salaries, which is why “… we can say they are not very successful, because their salaries are not very high”. “But they live calm lives”. Entrepreneurs are among the high-pressure occupations, and among them there is a shortage of time for leisure, typical for this social category; their leisure is almost entirely “engulfed by work time”, by the concerns of their business. “The small and middle business is something awful. They pressure you on all sides, you are constantly living in tension, you can’t go calmly, go out, for instance go abroad, or even go on vacation within the country without thinking about your work”. The balance between work and leisure, between work and the family, is perceived as an important and necessary condition for achieving success in one’s professional and personal life. The efforts I put into my work—I insist on pointing this out, because at times I have to work 16 hours a day—the work I do ought to bring me the amount of income that I would have with normal working hours, for instance in the range of 8 to 10 hours a day.

The unequal distribution of resources, which is directly linked with the difference in leisure patterns, determines not only the degree of satisfaction of different social subjects with their lifestyle, but also their

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status self-identification. It impacts on the way in which they experience and assess social inequality. Since the 1990s there has been an observable reverse trend as regards leisure in postmodern market societies. Among some social groups leisure time is getting shorter (Schor 1992), while among others it is increasing (Sullivan and Gershuny 2004). The question is which social groups have more and for which ones is it decreasing? It is diminishing usually among the high income, highly educated, and highly qualified groups, i.e. the upper, upper middle and middle-middle strata. These are the “income-rich, time-poor” referred to above, as opposed to “time-rich”, but income-low social strata. Among the groups that have a shortage of leisure, contradictions are more likely to occur between personal/family life and professional life, and a misbalance between these two is more probable. We find that, according to entrepreneurs, the representatives of the new middle strata and specifically the young managers, administrators, experts, and professionals working for leading companies, firms, and administrations, are successful because they have achieved balance between their working time and their leisure time, between work and the family, between their income and the efforts invested for obtaining income, between their leisure patterns and the lives they are leading. Young specialists get very good salaries. We know such people with big resources, working in banks, in administrations, in firms as executive directors, as some kind of brokers, etc. There are banks where the incomes are the kind that we so-called businessmen do not have, cannot afford. Those people have an eight-hour work day, a regular lunch break, normal working hours, normal vacations, their business trips abroad are paid for… everything is as it should be.

According to the surveyed entrepreneurs, the young highly educated professionals and managers of prosperous companies achieve the right balance between the kind of “abundant” leisure time that some employees enjoyed in the times of the totalitarian past, but combined with high income and a “European work life and lifestyle”. This kind of person, he knows just how long his working hours are, he has a normal Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He works exactly like the state budget employees in the past… He works with European standards. This kind of person has long since become a European.

The unequal distribution of means of labour, access to work and autonomy on the post-communist pseudo labour market has an impact on the consumption patterns and leisure patterns of the various social strata:

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this dependence is clearly indicated in the opinions expressed by interviewed entrepreneurs. It is not accidental that they describe themselves as “businessmen in quotes” thus emphasizing the difference compared with their counterparts in the developed EU countries. But in all European countries, together with the differences, there is an evident general tendency: those with a higher level of education and those with higher income indicate more often that they are finding it harder to achieve a balance between work and leisure. This misbalance is a consequence of their more active social life and the higher goals and expectations they have respecting their work and professional realization, and also respecting their personal life (First European Quality of Life Survey: Quality of Life in Bulgaria and Romania 2006). This shows there are social-group similarities between identical social strata in societies at differing degrees of social-economic development. Although situated under different conditions of work and life, members of the middle strata in our country and in the developed European societies indicate they have similar consumption patterns, leisure, and lifestyle, which is an important sign of the “postmodernization” of lifestyle in Bulgaria. The results of the European Quality of Life Survey confirm the opinion of the quoted entrepreneurs regarding the length of working hours in Bulgaria. According to the data, Bulgarians have a comparatively longer workweek, nearly 41 hours, while the average for the 25 EU member states2 is 38 hours (First European Quality of Life Survey: Quality of Life in Bulgaria and Romania 2006: 43). We also have the biggest problem achieving a balance between work, family, and social contacts. The surveyed Bulgarians indicate the greatest degree of difficulties in finding the time and energy to fulfil domestic and family tasks and in concentrating sufficiently at work (ibid.: 45). Bulgarians are in second place after the Rumanians in the proportion of respondents who share that they do not have enough time for social contacts and a hobby. On the basis of the data received from Round 3 of ESS3 we could arrive at the conclusions concerning the degree of satisfaction regarding the proportion of time devoted to work and time for other activities, indicated by respondents from the former communist countries. As shown in the data represented in Graph 1, with respect to the category of respondents “very dissatisfied” with the balance they have, Bulgaria is in a middle position between countries with the highest percentages of very 2

This refers to EU members at the time the survey was conducted, in 2006. The quoted data are from representative empirical sociological survey in 25 European countries, conducted in the end of 2006. The number of Bulgarian respondents was 1400.

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dissatisfied (Russia 4.5% and Hungary 4.4%) and the lowest (Estonia 2.5% and Poland 2.4%). Of all interviewed Bulgarians, 3.6% indicated they were “very dissatisfied” with the balance between their working time and their leisure; this figure is close to the percentage among the Rumanians 3.9%. The share of those who were “dissatisfied” was highest in Rumania, where it was more than one third of the respondents (36.2%), followed by Poland, a little less than a third (30%). The lowest shares of respondents dissatisfied with the balance between working time and leisure were indicated in Estonia (22%) and Hungary (23.4%). As regards the percentage of people who stated they were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”, Bulgaria was once again in a middle position compared with other former communist countries, a little over one fifth of Bulgarian respondents (21.1%) indicated this answer, whereas Poland had below one third (29.2%); and Hungary, under one fifth (17.3%). The most satisfied by this indicator were respondents in Estonia, a little under one half (49.7%), followed by Hungary (41.7%) and Bulgaria (38.1%). Below us were Poland, Rumania, and Russia. The highest share of satisfied was registered in Hungary, 13.3%, followed by Russia, 8.6%; in our country the percentage was 7.6%, much higher than the figures in Poland (3.2%) and Rumania (0.9%). Figure 25-1 Level of satisfaction from proportion between time for work and time for other things in former communist countries (%) 100% Very satisfied

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By degree of satisfaction with the balance between work and leisure time Bulgarians hold middle positions among the former communist countries. But what about a comparison with old member states of the EU? Were the quoted entrepreneurs right in saying that those who have achieved a balance between work and leisure are leading “a European style of life”, and “have now become Europeans”? The Bulgarian respondents indicating they were “dissatisfied” (30%) were more than those in Sweden (26.6%), which was the old EU member with the highest share of dissatisfied. As shown in the data represented in Graph 2, the respondents from old member states and in the category “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” were much fewer than the respective ones from the former communist countries: the greatest shares of people in this group were in Spain (17.6%) and Great Britain (17.1%), and the smallest was in Finland, 10.7%. In our country the percentage was 21.1%, which was greater than that in Spain and Great Britain and twice as big as in Finland. More than half ɨI WKH UHVSRQGHQWV IURP GHYHORSHG (XURSHDQ countries were satisfied by the balance of their work and leisure time: in all these countries this was the answer given by more than half of the interviewed people; the percentage was comparatively the lowest in Great Britain: 50.2%. Figure 25-2 Level of satisfaction from proportion between time for work and time for other things in old EU member countries (%) 100% 90%

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The highest share of satisfaction with the work-leisure balance among old EU members was indicated by the Finns: 64.4%. The share of satisfied Bulgarians was 1.7 times smaller than the figure for Finland. These data show that, overall, the respondents from old member states and in the categories “very dissatisfied”, “dissatisfied” and “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” are definitely a smaller percentage than their counterparts from the former communist countries. The people from old EU member states were much more satisfied with this balance compared with those from new member states. But this trend is not valid for the respondents who indicated “very satisfied”: a higher percentage of Hungarians (13.3%), Russians (8.6%) and Bulgarians (7.6%) chose this answer compared with Spaniards (3.5%), Finns (3.6%), Belgians (4.3%) and Swedes (5.6%). The conclusion we can make is that, overall, in the developed part of Europe a considerably better balance has been achieved between work and leisure time. The entrepreneurs who took part in a focus group discussion in Sofia proved to be right: those Bulgarians who display a good balance between work time and leisure do indeed have a European style of life. The Bulgarian problems of work-leisure balance stem from the low productivity of labour in our country, from the particularities of the culture of social contact, where traditional elements predominate. Compared with the developed European countries, here there is a comparatively low degree of inclusion in social activities outside the family, of involvement in interest clubs and hobbies, participation in civic organizations, and of voluntary work. The self-assessment and self-identification of the representatives of the separate social strata in contemporary postmodern societies is based to a great degree on the specific character, quantity, and quality of their leisure, on their leisure patterns. The difference in leisure patterns of the various social groups is a factor of their assessment and satisfaction regarding the on-going social transformation and regarding the position they occupy in the stratification system. It is according to these assessments that they assign themselves to the groups of winners or losers.

Conclusion The postmodern stratification in leisure patterns is developing toward greater “specialization”, “fragmentation”, and “diversification” between separate social groups. Post-communist society has yet to enter its “consumer and leisure stage”, given its economic underdevelopment, its

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“pseudo-market”, and the economic deprivation in which the mass of the social strata live. Post-communist society is far from the abundance, variety, and quality in postmodern consumer, leisure and lifestyle standards, but certain processes and trends can be observed in it that are similar to those in the developed countries. In post-communist society, the differentiating function of leisure patterns is more visible than its integrating function. These patterns divide far more than they unite social groups and strata. In postmodern societies, due to the developed economy, much higher living standard and quality of life, due to the developed leisure culture, there is a level of leisure opportunities that is basic to society and is accessible to much wider social strata. The emergence and development of postmodern societies is accompanied by the growth and increasing proportion and importance of the middle strata, especially the new middle strata, which are among the vanguard of modern leisure and lifestyle. Their skills, educational, and cultural resources are the decisive factor for the prosperity of developed societies. In post-communist societies the middle strata are still not strong enough, have insufficient resources, and are in a much weaker social position. But just like their counterparts in postmodern societies, the living standard of this category in Bulgaria is higher than the mass level, and post-materialistic values are prevalent in its leisure and life style. In this respect there is a general similarity between the leisure patterns of these social strata in Bulgaria and in the developed countries (of course within the limited scope of post-communist dimensions). Within a postcommunist society these strata are also playing, in a sense, the role of leisure vanguard, because they are following the leading contemporary lifestyle trends. Leisure patterns are an important indicator of their resources and position within the system of structured social inequalities. Leisure is, to an important degree, stratifying separate groups, categories, and strata. In postmodern and post-communist societies alike, leisure patterns express social status: on the one hand they are indicators of the resources enjoyed by social groups, categories and strata. On the other hand they are in themselves important social, cultural and power resources for the people sharing them. Hence post-communist societies today display some of the marks (we say this with all due reservations and qualifications concerning the limits of these marks) of the postmodern, even though they are still at an underdeveloped stage and in the phase of “apprenticeship” with regard to the postmodern. Post-communist societies are undergoing the process of

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postmodernization (Keliyan 2010, 32) and they are also stratified by leisure; leisure in these societies is not simply a result of one’s social status, but is an important indicator of that status. In post-communist society, as in postmodern, leisure patterns stratify individuals, categories and groups, and position them within the overall social relations and structures.

Reference List Barrett, C. 1989, “The concept of leisure. Idea and ideal”, in C. Barrett and T. Winnfrith (eds), The Philosophy of Leisure, London: Macmillan. Bourdieu, P. 1984, Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Butler, T. and M. Savage (eds) 1995, Social Change and the Middle Classes, London: UCL Press. Elias, N. and E. Dunning 1986, The Quest for Excitement, Oxford: Blackwell. Featherstone, M. 1990, “Perspective on consumer culture”, Sociology 24, 5-22. —. 2006, First European Quality of Life Survey. Quality of Life in Bulgaria and Romania, Luxembourg: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Goldthorpe, J.H. 1982, “On the service class, its formation and future”, in A. Giddens and G. Mackenzie (eds) Social Class and the Division of Labour, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Inglehart, R. 1997, Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Keliyan, M. 2008, Yaponiya i Balgariya. Modeli na razsloenoto potreblenie (Japan and Bulgaria: Stratified Consumption Patterns), Sofia: Valentin Trajanov. —. 2010, Stil na jivot na lokalnata obshtnost. Savremenna Yaponiya (Local Community Life Style: Contemporary Japan), Varna: Alex Print. Kelly, J.R. 2000, “Leisure”, in E. Borgatta, and R.J.V. Montgomery (eds) Encyclopedia of Sociology III, New York: Macmillan Reference. Parker, S. 1976, The Sociology of Leisure, London: Allen and Unwin. Pronovost, G. 1989, “The sociology of time”, Current Sociology, 37. Roberts, K. 1981, Leisure, London: Longman. Rojek, C. (ed.). 1989, Leisure for Leisure. Critical Essays, London: Macmillan.

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—. 1990, “Baudrillard and leisure”, Leisure Studies, 9(1). Rostow, W. 1960, The Stages of Economic Growth. A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Savage, M., J. Barlow, P. Dickens and T. Fielding 1992, Property, Bureaucracy and Culture, London: Routledge. Savage, M., G. Bagnall and B. Longhurst 2001, “Ordinary, ambivalent and defensive. Class identities in the Northwest of England”, Sociology 35(4), 875-892. Schor, J. 1992, The Overworked American. The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, New York: Basic Books. —. 1998, The Overspent American. Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer, New York: Basic Books. Shove, E. and A. Warde 2002, “Inconspicuous consumption. The sociology of consumption, lifestyles, and the environment”, in R.E. Dunlap, F.H. Buttel, P. Dickens and A. Gijswijt (eds) Sociological Theory and the Environment, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 230-251. Sullivan, O. and J. Gershuny 2004, “Inconspicuous consumption. Workrich, time-poor in the liberal market economy”, Journal of Consumer Culture 4(1), 79-100. Sullivan, O. 2008, “Business, status distinction and consumption strategies of income rich, time poor”, Time and Society 17(1), 5-26. Thompson, E.P. 1967, “Time, work discipline and industrial capitalism”, Past and Present 38. Tomlinson, A. (ed.) 1990, Consumption, Identity and Style. Marketing, Meaning and the Packaging of Pleasure, London: Routledge. —. 1991, “Leisure as consumer culture”, in D. Boterill, and A. Tomlinson, (eds) Ideology, Leisure Policy and Practice, Eastbourne: Leisure Studies Association. —. 1994, “Leisure”, in W. Outhwaite, and T. Bottomore (eds) Twentiethcentury Social Thought, Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA, USA: Blackwell. Urry, J. 1990, The Tourist Gaze. Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, Cambridge: Polity Press. Veblen, T. 1994, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Warde, A. 1990, “Introduction to the sociology of consumption”, Sociology 24 (1). Warde, A. and M. Tomlinston 1995, “Taste among the middle classes”, in T. Butler and M. Savage, (eds) Social Change and the Middle Classes, London: UCL Press.

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Warde, A., L. Martens and W. Olsen 1999, “Consumption and the problem of variety. Cultural omnivorousness, social distinction and dining out”, Sociology 33(1), 105-127. Warde, A. and L. Martens 2000, Eating Out. Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Williams, R. 1976, Keywords. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, London: Fontana/Flamingo.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX LEISURE POLICY IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE MARILENA MACALUSO This paper originates from an international literature review on leisure and policy. Starting from a proposal of definition, we make a short excursus of leisure policies in western countries. Then we speak about the rights to leisure on which national and supranational policies should be based. In the last part of this work we will try to analyse leisure policies in the relationship with the different kinds of Welfare State in order to generate some hypotheses of analytical models for empirical investigations.

On the family resemblance of leisure policy When we talk about policy in this work we mean a set of interrelated decisions that a political actor or a group of actors takes—selecting the goals and the useful instruments in order to implement those decisions—in specific situations, in which these subjects formally hold the power (Jenkins 1978). We should consider also the non-decisions, because a public policy includes “Anything a government chooses to do or not to do” (Dye 1972, 2). Also the absence of specific policies becomes meaningful in a comparative perspective. Leisure policies have in common a family resemblance (Wittgenstein 1970): Leisure policy will imply slightly different emphases in different context, and (…) we should therefore specify the family of applications of the term we wish to adopt. Thus leisure policy may be associated with policies for free time, for passive or active recreations (in sports, the arts, popular culture, or informal recreation), with policies aimed at compensating for the alienation of work (or of unemployment), or at fostering personal fulfilment thought non-work activities (Henry 2003, 5).

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Leisure policies sometimes overlap with other political sectors, as for instance the educational policy. The object of study also changes in relation to the theoretical perspective and decision making phase (agenda setting, problem definition, research drawing, option analysis, legitimation, implementation, regulatory impact analysis, etc.). We can cross the different definitions/kinds of leisure (Lo Verde 2009) and the classifications that have been realized in order to study public policy. This operation could produce a multiple analytical model. So if we apply to this sector of policy the classification of the theoretical approaches created by Howlett and Ramesh (2003), we can imagine different objects of study: a) for instance, in the field of the research oriented by the theoretical filter of the deductive theories (as the Public choice theory by Buchanan that deems the individual as investigation unit), we can observe the application of the principles of neoclassical economics to the political action, analysing the forms used in order to reduce public intervention fostering the market; b) in the field of the Class theories, public policies are considered as a reflection of capitalist class interests and leisure policies are considered as a part of the superstructure; c) the neo-Marxist scholars, studying leisure policies, consider the State quite autonomous; d) the Neoinstitutionalism studies the institution as research unit and it analyses the inner transactions and the in/out flow of relationship. Further differences come from the research inspired by inductive theories, such as: 1) Welfare Economics (individual unit); 2) Pluralism and Neo-corporatism (group unit); 3) and finally Statism (institution unit) (Howlett, Ramesh, ibid.). Just to give some examples, we can remember how the studies that move from structuralism and Marxism explain the key features of leisure in relation to the connection between alienation from work and from unemployment, while the feministic investigations focus on the relationship between paid work and recreational activities; moreover conservative theorists base their investigations on the distinction between cultural life and material conditions of life, highlighting the non-utilitarian nature of leisure as a mental state (Henry 2003, 6). Therefore, a public policy has different aims and moves from (and it produces) various ideas of leisure. I will use Lowi and Wilson’s typologies as a key to analyse some of the first leisure policies. Lowi (1972) distinguished the public policies as: distributive policies (they extend goods and services to members of a group, as well as distributing the costs of the goods/services amongst the members of the group); re-distributive policies (they move resources from one class or group to another one); regulatory policies (they limit the discretionary power of individuals and agencies, or otherwise they compel certain types of behaviour); constituent

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policies (they create executive power entities, or deal with laws establishing “the rules of the game”). Wilson (1980) has based his classification on the concentration/ diffusion of the costs and benefits of the public intervention, in brief the analytical categories proposed by the Author are: x policies with concentrated costs and concentrated benefits (redistributive or regulative policy); x policies with concentrated costs and distributed benefits (redistributive, regulative policy); x policies with distributed costs and distributed benefits (regulative, constituent); x policies with distributed costs and concentrated benefits (distributive, sometimes regulative or constituent policy). We have to add to this typology the symbolic policies that are important, for instance, in order to analyse the relationships with the national identity building process. A symbolic policy is a declaration with no links to economic, organizational or authoritative resources that has just psychological or consensus effects (La Spina 2003, 73).

Modernity and leisure policies in a comparative perspective Pioneering leisure policies take root in the classic world; we can think about the relevance of the public celebrations or about the role of the theatrical performances for ancient Greeks and Romans. But since the middle of the XIX century the reorganization of the work linked to industrialization has changed the social representation of time and the use of it. Referring to this phenomenon, some authors have spoken of an invention of leisure time (Corbin 1996). In England the first demands by the workers have permitted us to understand how the perception of the value of time had become relevant, with effects both on the conquest of new spare time, and on the desire to create spaces for leisure and on the will for drawing a model of it (Walton, Walvin 1983). Lo Verde has traced the connections between leisure and the State building process, highlighting that the rise of parliamentary democracy in England was linked to the civilization process through leisure, and sport in particular, as a regulative practice to control inner conflict and violence (2009, 47-48). Also in the United States of America the recreational activities were

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deemed important elements of civilization and democratic principles (Corbin 1996, 7). The city has become the protagonist of the interventions for leisure and the point of aggregation of the social demand for places and times dedicated to it. In Britain and America private investors have activated industry and popular culture of leisure: in 1852 there was the opening of the first music hall in London. In the same city the previous year the Universal Exhibition gave a big contribution to the imaginary of collective entertainment spreading organized tourism in order to promote temperance (Porter 1996). In those years in the United States the sport-entertainment became a mass consumption object and Phineas Taylor Barnum has set up “the Greatest Show on Earth” a circus for twenty thousand spectators. In the same period the first leisure policies started as a part of other sectors of policy. Leisure was a fundamental point of the public rhetoric on urban government (Lo Verde, 2009). The cities were re-imagined, building public places projected for loisir, as the big urban parks in the metropolis: in Paris, for example, in 1852 the imperator gave away the Bois de Boulogne to the city; in New York, in the middle of XIX century, Central Park was founded for the willingness of the Common Council and of the mayor Ambrose Kingsland (Vannucchi 2003). We also have to remember the sector of health policy. Since the Chadwick report (1842) on the life and health conditions of workers and their families, cricket and football have been considered as remedies against “depravity”; then sport started to be considered an activity to promote health against other hobbies perceived as risky. In Great Britain other documents, such as the Public Health Act (1848), and the declarations of the newborn General Board of Health have contributed to create social awareness about the need for promotion of healthy initiatives (Afifi, Breslow 1994). In the XIX century, in every western country, the distinction between fruitful hobbies and less respectable useless entertainment spread in order to try to control and repress anarchic leisure and to promote rational entertainment through interventions that could remind of the social control policies (Henry 2003). Classifying leisure activities is not a neutral speculation, because each classification reflects a cultural perspective and the ideology of the actor of the specific public decision making processes. In this case: the rationalization and regulation of the spaces and of the time of leisure belong to a process of rooting the urban class, called “embourgeoisement” (Lo Verde 2009, 39-40). The idea of leisure as a resource not to be wasted but to be used in a productive way has shaped organized forms of time consumption at individual level and also it has

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FUHDWHG SXEOLF SROLFLHV WKDW ņ LQ WKH QDPH RI D democratization of loisir (ibid., 4  ņ KDYH H[WHQGHG WR WKH SRSXODU FODVV WKH ERXUJHRLV XUEDQ middle-class models of time use. Therefore, the middle-class lifestyle was connoted by positive values. Reading through the lens of Lowi’s typology (1972), it can be said that the first leisure policies were regulative policies with effects on the community members’ conduct. Some examples: The United Kingdom has been characterized by a premonitory awareness of the different social use of time and by an intense effort for the organization and control of popular entertainment. The regulation of squares, parks and public places, the prohibition of the animal fights, the surveillance on boxing matches and on the commerce of alcoholic beverages must be connected to the final goal to increase the measures aimed at moralizing youth gangs (Corbin 1996, 6, our translation).

In the time frame between 1840 and 1900, in Great Britain public social policy and leisure policy developed a first step through a regulatory precautionary action, and then through some incentives promoted by the middle-class to support charitable and paternalistic initiatives against the philosophy of laissez-faire, in order to control those underclass entertainments that they had not been able to remove (Henry 2003). In the Victorian public school, the introduction of physical education as a core subject has strengthened the health fanatic ideology that presumed a direct link between sport and health; individualizing the responsibility and setting up the illusion of a control over the illness, they had created new social stratifications between poor and deserving/undeserving sick people (Coakley, Dunning 2000, 408). The American middle-class social reformers at the end of the Nineteenth century had tried to intervene also in the spare time of the migrants proposing different options against city entertainments that they considered demeaning, such as saloons, vaudeville theaters, dance halls and cinemas (Lorini 2001, 82). The movement Playground had considered sport and youth departure from urban life useful devices in order to act on the use of time by the dangerous class; with this expression Charles L. Brace defined the working class and in particular the children of Irish and German migrants in New York (ibid.). They had suggested to the popular class and migrants a socially respectable use of time following bourgeois and national models on which a lot of leisure policies have been based. In France the public debate on leisure and interrelated policy has developed together with the reflection on working conditions and public policies that have connected social order and widespread education. Only

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in the second postwar years spare time became an autonomous object of study (Dumazedier 1987). In addition to the regulative policy, we have to quote the distributive policies (they favour a group, but they are paid by all citizens) as those for youth holidays and those for supporting working class holidays (Rauch 1996a). These have been policies with diffused costs and concentrated benefits (Wilson 1980). The holiday camps, as localized entertainment in a planning period inside controlled spaces in order to promote a change of the cultural habits, were considered a public health action of general interest, with social and educational aims: a “miraculous remedy” against alcoholism, tuberculosis, physical and moral decline (Rauch, 1996a). During the XIX century, holiday camps were initially organized under the patronage of religious organizations (which had collected money to move young people away from the unhealthy urban environment). Later they were organized by the trade unions and by craft unions; holiday camps were independent from the State until the First World War. In France after the victory of Popular Front in the 1936 election: Léon Blum, putting Léo Lagrange in charge of the Department of Sport and Leisure and developing, with Sellier, holiday camps started a national policy for the leisure: it had the aim to democratize these initiatives (through funding the associations, etc.). Mutual company of relatives, councils, departments, firm associations, charities were authorized to organize holiday camps and summer camps under the control of public power (Rauch 1996b, 110-111, our translation).

The socialist Govern of Blum intervened through a work reform that for the first time established two week paid holidays each year for the workers and that reduced the working week to 40 hours (ibid.). The public intervention can affect the diffusion of a kind of leisure in different ways, either financing it, regulating it, setting the costs to practice an activity or restricting it. In 1844, for instance, hunting rules restricted it to peasants because of the high cost of the license, impacting an entertainment that had become very popular after the Revolution (Farcy 1996). The burden of this regulative policy has caused the abandonment of this practice or the transformation to an illegal activity, when people hunted without any license. In Germany, after the First World War, the Weimar Republic started leisure policy in the sector of social and cultural policies, in particular the aim was the inclusion of women and young, the promotion of a healthy and educational amusement connected to the local cultural clubs. In this

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case there was both a distributive and regulative policy, with costs diffused and concentrated benefits (Lowi 1972; Wilson 1980). The central government and the regional authorities offered to these clubs incentives both through direct funding, and through tax relief (Nathaus 2010). In 1914 the Imperial State gave a prize to sport clubs for training young men. These interventions have become more methodical with the Weimar Republic: the policy for supporting choruses and musical clubs can be considered an example of State intervention in the field of leisure (ibid.). The Prussian Ministry for Science, Art and People’s Education in the first half of the 1920s started to fund singing clubs officially considered as gemeinnützig (of public utility), trying to foster art education, but also aimed at people’s social integration with specific recommendations to the local community (ibid.). The same has happened for other areas of leisure, such as sport. In this sector, for instance, every big Council was equipped with an Office for Physical Education. The aim was to align the local social and cultural policy to the national one. In these associations there was a strong corporate identity reinforced by common symbols and dresses (ibid.). More invasive leisure policies have been developed by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in Europe. Here we speak briefly of the Italian case. In Italy, following a State and totalitarian ideology, the fascist regime tried to transform each private entertainment into a public one without totally achieve it. The upper class and aristocracy contested this ideology because they were closed to interference in the private life and to the contamination with the mass (Turnaturi 1996). In this case the State used regulative, distributive policy and symbolic one. Even if the first etiquette code was published in 1922, in the soft attempt to spread fascism in everyday life, only at the beginning of the 1930s would fascism get ahold of private life trying to eliminate the gap between State and society through the worker leisure association. The National organization dopolavoro, literally after-work, was a club which organized recreational and cultural activities for workers, in order to increase control and consensus through the promise of cheap and educational amusements, outwardly inter-class, in which the workers would have the illusion of spending spare time in exclusive and bourgeois manners. The privileged sector was travel (ibid.). For this aim the regime used to organize popular trains with discounts to the members of the workers’ associations in order to let them know Italy and to enforce their national identity: after a fist boom of travelers (half a million discounts used in the month of August 1931), later, because of the high price of the ticket, the travelers decreased to 100,000 per year.

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The trains were also used for moving workers to Rome for the tenth anniversary of fascism, funding the workers. Similar discounts were there in order to spread cruises, but few people could afford the high costs. The same policy was adopted to spread the mass consumption of theatre performances: the discounts on Saturday morning for the members of workers’ associations extended to more people the use of an entertainment considered for elites until that time (ibid.). Beyond the almost-obligatory activities of dopolavoro, the fascist regime organized meetings in the Casa del Fascio and gym competitions. Despite the rhetoric of the fascist interclass style, the high class and the aristocracy maintained a special sociality made of living rooms, mountain huts, big hotels and cruises. Behind a mass homologation, each class has chosen the kind of leisure more adapt to every own resource (ibid., 211). We should give greater prominence to Sport and public policies dedicated to it, since they have been very relevant for the States in all times (Coakley, Dunning 2000; Lo Verde 2009; Henry 2003), but here we can just briefly touch on this theme. The totalitarian States have invested a lot in sport policy, as a powerful instrument of propaganda, engaging both in popular physical education, and in the organization of mega-events like the Olympic games (the famous Berlin ones in 1936, used as an instrument of Nazi propaganda) (Dayan, Katz 1992). In Italy, in 1926 the National Opera Balilla was founded, as a sporting institution for boys, which began a great work of penetration in educational institutions. Shortly after his birth, the Balilla acquired the skills of the National Physical Education Organization (Stevallato 2008). The attempt to monopolize the organization of leisure time from primary school was aimed at forming a subject/soldier disposed to obedience through paramilitary training since childhood. This orientation was present in the first youth organizations created by the national Fascist Party. The Pioneers, for example, organized fascist youth conferences, mobile libraries for indoctrination, but also “the widest dissemination to youth sports”. Saturday afternoon in the Casa del Fascio the boys were engaged in Balilla gymnastic exercises and they were trained in the use of weapons in view of the massive military sport performance during the annual competition at the Stadio dei Marmi in Rome, in Mussolini’s presence. The stated objective at first was to accustom the youths to military rules, discipline and order, then the youth organizations (subject to the PNF and then part of the fascist State) wrote a sport and cultural manifesto in order to get consensus and penetrate the families. This program promoted educational trips, tactical exercises, competitions, gymnastic competitions and music auditions (ibid.). Mass-mediated political

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communication showed a lifestyle through the rhetoric of Mussolini’s representation (as a pilot, fencer, etc.) and enhanced Physical education. The Olympic victories were an additional instrument of propaganda. In 1928, Juventus started to play football and the idea of warrior nation was supported by resorting to international sporting success of the first national team, founded in 1929 (Martin 2006). Football institutionalized by Mussolini’s regime as a “fascist game” was a useful tool for the construction of national identity and a diplomatic weapon to force Italy to the forefront of the international scene. The victories of the Italian teams in the 1930s managed to wrest the British supremacy in Europe. Moreover, the national Italian team managed to claim its leadership through the successes of the World Cup 1934 in Italy and in the competition of 1938. In Berlin in 1936 a team of Italian students won the gold medal at the Olympics (ibid.). Among the fascist leisure policies, we have to mention the cinema as a powerful propaganda tool (Aristarco 1996). We can find both regulative and distributive policies (Lowi 1972). We can include in the first group those policies that in 1931 penalized imports to stimulate domestic production, or that imposed the constraints of censorship checks. In the second group we include those policies that stimulated the foundation of Cinecittà studios in the hinterland of Rome (1937) through a massive public funding. In the same year the Ministry for Press and Propaganda became the Ministry of Popular Culture (Minculpop), extending its control over movies, radio and cultural events. A further distribution policy dated back to 1939 and allowed the regime to support domestic Italian film production, financed through the so-called Alfieri Law. At the end of the dictatorship, in Italy, the State suspended the intervention in the field of leisure policies, as a well as in other areas such as public communication. The Second World War represented a turning point for public policies of the European nations. During the expansion of the Welfare State—from 1945 to the mid-seventies—the social spending grew at a rapid pace. The western countries have adopted different models of public intervention (Ferrera 2006). Before proposing a classification, we will treat the theme of the right to leisure. The enhancement of leisure and its international recognition, in fact, forms the basis of future public policies in different geographical areas (at European, national and local/regional level).

Leisure as a right The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 stated that “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation

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of working hours and periodic holidays with pay” (Article 24); “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (Article 27 paragraph 1)1. Therefore, the right to leisure was recognized at international level by the UN, and even if the national policies change from one country to another, they have pertained to these common values. Moreover, this right is structured in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966). The access to these rights should be guaranteed to all citizens (Declaration on the Rights of Persons Disable, 1975), eliminating discrimination between individuals based on gender, age and ethnicity (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women—CEDAW—1979). The fundamental rights and freedoms of women contained in the CEDAW are related to women’s participation in recreational, cultural and sporting activities. The right to rest and play and to ensure equal access to artistic activities, sports and leisure is warranted also to children (Convention on the Right of the Child, 1989, Art. 31). Both the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1989) and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities (in 1999) refer to the need to guarantee the right to leisure and also to ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities against all forms of discrimination, introducing a significant and controversial issue: the connection between leisure and cultural and ethnic identity. In particular, the first document (1989) argues that governments have a responsibility to develop coordinated and systematic actions that provide for local participation in the implementation of measures that, among other factors, pay attention to the promotion of social, economic and cultural rights respecting each identity. The second agreement (1999) asserts the need to assure such rights to all the minorities, as well as the right of association. In 1952 the World Leisure Organization was founded in order to study and promote the conditions that make leisure an engine for human development and welfare. This NGO is part of the consultative bodies of the United Nations and acts as an influential lobbying and information organization at a global level. In 1970 it published the Charter for leisure following the article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in the first article it states:

1

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/, accessed September 2012.

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All people have a basic human right to leisure activities that are in harmony with the norms and social values of their compatriots. All governments are obliged to recognize and protect this right of its citizens2.

This document connects formal rights and the need for government intervention aimed at their concrete realization. Furthermore, we have to quote among the rights to leisure, the right to sports, claimed in the statements of the International Committee of the Olympic Games, in the documents of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and by the European Council. The first of these documents dates back to 1975 when it drafted the European Sport for All Charter3: Every individual shall have the right to participate in sport (article 1). Sport shall be encouraged as an important factor in human development and appropriate support shall be made available out of public funds (article 2).

In addition, the European Council has suggested the need to coordinate the planning of public policies for sporting activities and other areas of policy-making useful to socio-cultural development (like education, health, social services, spatial planning and land conservation, arts and leisure services), in an integrated manner at local, regional and national level. Art. 4 states that Each government shall foster permanent and effective co-operation between public authorities and voluntary organizations and shall encourage the establishment of national machinery for the development and coordination of sport for all (ibid.).

The Olympic Charter has considered the practice of sport a human right. UNESCO has reiterated that national institutions play a key role in ensuring access for all to physical education and sport (International Charter of Physical Education and Sport, 1978). Even the European Union in 1976 (European Sport for All Charter) and then in 1992 (European Sports Charter) stated that every individual should have the opportunity to participate in sport, and that governments should promote sports as an important factor in human development. In 2000 the European Council acted on the social function of sport in Europe, in order to implement common policies following national and EU regulations (Nice 2

http://www.worldleisure.org/index.php, accessed September 2012. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/sport/resources/texts/spchart2_en.asp, accessed September 2012. 3

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Declaration). The Lisbon Treaty on the Functioning of the EU has given the mandate to encourage, support and complement the efforts of Member States relating to sports policies, in collaboration with states, sports organizations, civil society and citizens. The Lisbon Treaty gives the EU a supporting, coordinating and supplementing competence for sport which calls for action to develop the European dimension in sport (Article 165 TFEU). Among the most recent European Union acts on this topic, there is the White Paper on Sport. This paper is the result of a public consultation for citizens and stakeholders organized through the Internet. Moreover the EU has dedicated a corporate website to sport4. In order to achieve its two major objectives of prosperity and solidarity, the EU underlines the social dimension of sport, its reference values and its importance to strengthen the European identity 5 . Sport generates important values such as team spirit, solidarity, tolerance and fair play, contributing to development and personal fulfillment. It promotes the active contribution of EU citizens to society, thus helping to strengthen active citizenship. The Commission recognizes the important role of sport in European society, particularly at this stage in which it is closer to its citizens and to tackle issues that concern them6. How does a simple statement of principle become a leisure policy? In this issue we cannot focus on this topic, but we believe that for future study this process could be an interesting track for empirical research. In the case of the EU, for example, the White Paper is followed by the Communication: Commission strengthens the European dimension of sport, which has financed 11 projects, the assessment of impact and correlation between symbolic and identity aspects assigned by the EU to sport and regulative and distributive policies that have different aims.

Welfare State models and leisure policies In the Sixties and Seventies leisure began to gain space as a branch of the policies of the Welfare State to extend to all citizens the opportunity, as a right, to do sports, to learn the arts, to visit their own country and go on holiday away from home (Bramham, Henry 1985; Henry 2003). Today and in the near future it seems unlikely that any government is able to bear

4

http://ec.europa.eu/sport/index_en.htm COM (2007)391 Bruxelles, 2. 6 ibid. 5

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this cost (Roberts 2006). Europe could probably help in this sense through a stronger European social space (Giddens 2007; Beck, Grande 2006). We can study the different public policies for leisure distinguishing between a Fordist and a post-Fordist period. In the first period we can cross leisure policies and the different Welfare State models in which they were developed. This distinction, however, can only give an idea of the macroscopic differences that should be deepened through the analysis of the government ideologies over the years, or studying the differences between local authorities in the same country. We will use the classification in three welfare regimes—elaborated by Esping-Andersen—integrating it with the Mediterranean model by Ferrera (2006). The first welfare regime is called liberal. It has a Beveridge structure based on the core of assistance measures dedicated to reduction of poverty and inclusion of marginalized groups through limited forms of social insurance. It encourages the use of the market, both actively (with incentives), and in a passive mode (minimal state interference and control interventions). It is a low de-stratification system based on a double welfare for the poor and for the rich. The countries that follow this model are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The decommodification is low, with a high dependence on the market (ibid.). This is the framework in which British leisure policies should be read. The foundations of the Welfare State in Britain can be traced in the social reforms undertaken between 1900 and 1939 in education, pensions, health care and unemployment. In those years the government started relevant leisure policy, its role in this field began to be recognized, and the voluntary sector became an institution, with the establishment of national organizations and groups of interest such as the Central Council for Physical Recreation and Training. Moreover new forms of leisure and entertainment were imported from the USA and new technologies were developed (Henry 2003). Between 1944 and 1976 the Welfare State became bigger and the British Government added leisure policies to the set of other public services in response to the daily needs of the community. During the same period, the commercial sector expanded and the voluntary organizations working in this field increased. In the Seventies the growth of infrastructures for sport and physical education was impressive, even if the social inequalities in this field didn’t diminish. Henry, referring to the recreational disadvantages, affirms that: “Male, white, middle-class individuals with access to private transport, were invariably overrepresented among users of the new sports centres” (2003, 23).

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Between 1977 and 1984—during the years of the restructuring of the Welfare State and of the New Economic Realism—the Central Government pushed local authorities to direct the spending to the poorest districts, the State emphasized expenditure on types of leisure that increase the consumption more than those oriented to social. The leisure market was based on a few multinationals, specialized by sector, according to a model of vertical integration and the voluntary organizations acquired skills in areas previously managed by the State. Between 1985 and 1997, the State became more flexible and it reduced the investments, working towards a post-Fordist model of capitalism, and cut the budget allocated to local governments while pushing towards a professionalization of employees in the leisure industry, outsourcing the services. There has been a commercialization of services for leisure that have become an economic asset rather than means of social inclusion. The State has assumed a residual role, limited to the marginal areas of the city. The voluntary organizations have begun to seek alternative sources of funding and private sponsorship in order to cover the reduction of public resources. From 1997 onwards the Central government has tried a third way: the creation of a responsible market through the State regulatory policy and the cooperation between the public and private sectors. The European and international dimension have gained in importance (with the Treaty of Amsterdam the EU has added sport to its competences). At the same time the lobbying has moved to the transactional level and the State has promoted excellence in sport as a factor for strengthening national identity and encouraging the training of young people; the central government has spent public investment on leisure as a measure for social regeneration, in the spirit of devolution and of administrative simplification; the voluntary organizations dedicated to the leisure sector were funded through the lottery, and there was an increase of trust in the third sector (Henry 2003, 26-29). The second regime mentioned is the conservative-corporatist Welfare State of Bismarkian tradition, which has developed in Austria, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. In this model the public insurance schemes predominated. They are linked to the employment status (the scholars speak of workfare or of employment model) where the main beneficiaries are workers and breadwinners (male breadwinners). There is a medium-low de-stratification since this model tends to preserve the differences of status and class and the gender segregation. It is based on subsidiarity of the state policies when the social needs have no other response (at individual, family or associative level). There is a medium

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level of de-commodification with an attenuated dependence on the market (Ferrera 2006). An example in this field is that of Dutch leisure policy implemented by the coalition governments that governed from the Second World War to the Sixties. This leisure policy included mainly the fields of sports and arts, not through direct funding but supporting non-profit religious organizations and pluralistic secular organizations. In the Sixties and Seventies these public policies, managed by the Ministry of Culture and Social and Recreational Activities, also brought an increase of expenditure in support of cultural education as a central element of democracy. Afterwards in Holland, as well as in Britain and in many Western countries, there was a restructuring of welfare with a rationalization that involved also the leisure sector in the Eighties and Nineties causing the abolition of a specific Department and the allocation of its competence to other Departments, such as the Health or the Agriculture Ministries (van der Poel 1993). The third model is the social-democratic or Scandinavian Welfare State (relevant cases are Sweden, Denmark and Norway) with high standards of performance and high levels of social protection, where all citizens are the beneficiaries. There is a high social de-stratification with an equal treatment for all the residents. The de-commodification is high, the role of the market in response to social needs is marginal (Ferrera 2006). The Swedish case in the field of leisure policy is emblematic. Sweden has the highest levels of spending and aims to ensure coverage of the whole society. Leisure policy for young people is just one of the examples. These policies play a central role, more than in every other European country, and with the downturn (following the crisis of the early Nineties) new challenges, such as youth unemployment, arose (Muller 2000, 20). In this nation there has been a long tradition of organized activities carried out in cooperation between policy-makers and associations, 80% of citizens between 13 and 25 years old are members of an association, mostly sports associations (ibid.). From an educationalized leisure, designed by adults, however, they are switching to less directed, more flexible forms of leisure able to better adapt to the new trends and more open to participatory practices (Williamson 2002, 82). The last model is called the Mediterranean Welfare State (Ferrera 2006). It concerns Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. It is similar to the corporative model, but with lower levels of spending. It puts the family in charge with the role of main social safety entity under a system of reversed subsidiarity by delegating to the family the majority of the care and support activities (Sibilla 2008). The public protection privileges the

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financial contributions to the services that are delegated to the families, and there aren’t specific public policies (ibid.). In the Mediterranean countries, the dysfunctions of this welfare regime seem to be reflected also in leisure policies, or rather in their absence or poor planning. But this hypothesis should be supported by empirical research. Ferrera (2006) argues that the Italian Welfare State presents a double distortion: a) a functional distortion, relating to the composition of spending, since more than 60% goes to the pension system, while other areas are undersized as family policies, or policies against unemployment and social exclusion; b) a distributive distortion, because some occupational categories have privileges and higher security, while others receive poor or absent assistance. As in other Mediterranean countries, also in Italy in the First Republic (till the beginning of Nineties) the political parties played a big role and controlled the allocation of resources in order to capture consensus, often through patronage and particularistic manners (Ferrera 2006, 47). Some similar examples can also be found in Greece, in particular for the connection between public policy and political patronage for some sport activities between 1981 and 1993 (Henry, Nassis 1999). The consolidation of democracy in Italy in the postwar period has occurred through political parties and their dominion over civil society (Morlino 2008). Parties have played, indeed, a dominant role in the definition of policy-making and in the public resource allocation, both through the organization of leisure policies influenced by particularistic logic or by delegating to local authorities without providing for common national standards. The ideal-typical distinction between the white and red area of Italy was marked by the geography of Italian politics in which respectively the most voted for parties were the Christian Democrats Party (DC) and the Communist Italian Party (PCI). This political map is valid for the period up to the mid-seventies, the last period of stability before the progressive decline of the Christian Democrats; this map marks the boundaries of cultural and ideological traditions that generally inspired the electoral choices. It may be useful to give an idea of the different modes of leisure time management proposed by these two major segmentations. On the one hand, in the white area in which the Catholic subculture prevailed, the Church and religious associations helped to organize every aspect of daily life and they represented the main channel for provision of welfare and cultural services (Diamanti 2009). The interventions in the field of leisure and sociability exploited the role of parishes, and of Catholic recreational and cultural organizations. On the other hand, in the red zone where the territorial political subculture connected to the identity

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and organizations related to the labour movement and to the Left-wing parties, leisure policies were carried out inside the Case del Popolo (People communist houses), in the cultural centres, associations and cooperatives. The DC and PCI represent two ideal-types of mass party in Italy; they gave elements of recognition, representation, consolidation, and were “parties embedded in the society and encysted in the institutions. Society-Parties and institution-parties, at the same time” (ibid., 40-41). Both the parties were mediators in the relationship with central government providing the resources, in the case of the DC due to the role of local elites who have competed on a national basis, in the case of the PCI as a federation of municipalities and local authorities, who “contracted” with the central government the granting of resources and services necessary to the government of the territory (ibid., 46).

Among the international contributions on the local leisure policies of those years we can quote the research by Bianchini (1989) who compares the new cultural policies of the Italian new left-wing party and the British one in response to social movements. In the Italian Second Republic the traditional fractures have been reduced, worn or altered; today there is a less stable political geography, marked in the North by the birth of a new green area, in which the North League is rooted overlapping with the white area. In 1992 Forza Italia was founded generating a new blue area spread from the north to the south of Italy that represents the “political and individual integration area in which consensus lives without participation or association” through the enhancement of the role of the mass media as well as of the leader (Diamanti 2009, 227). At the national level a systematic leisure policy seems to be missing, alongside the regulative policies and supporting policies in areas such as sport and culture. Today there are sporadic interventions that can be classified among the mixed instruments and in particular between subsidies, such as the recent case of the “holiday voucher” for low-income families7. The implementation of European directives has brought some interesting innovations that could lead to a greater focus on leisure framing it as part of broader policies, such as those for equal opportunities. This has been the case for the time management policy that was distinguished in the different local levels with different outcomes. Among the successful 7 Decreto 09/07/2010, Dipartimento per lo Sviluppo e la Competitività del Turismo.

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case histories we can quote Modena, the first Italian town that had already started a time management policy in 1987 (mostly due to the interventions of a woman mayor, Alfonsina Rinaldi, a pioneer in this new field in Italy and Europe). Modena was a pioneer also in the sector of mobility and reorganization of the town’s schedule to allow a better intersection between social and individual times, paying particular attention to women. In this case, the policy-making is done through a participatory mode (Times and Hours Tables) involving citizens and stakeholders. This experience shows how, for the appropriate intervention in public policies for leisure, the government should act on closely related areas such as policies for the family or for work. The lack of effective policies in these areas primarily penalizes women. As a result we can identify some social consequences such as the reduction of birth rate in Italy. Italy is indeed one of the countries with the lowest fertility rate, with a strong persistence of the phenomenon over time (1984-2006) and an increase between 1993 and 2003 (Castiglioni, Della Zuanna 2009). The tentative steps taken and the huge public debt do not promise positive perspectives of change. In addition, studies on the use of time have highlighted the slowness of cultural change. The commitment of men in the care of the home and children has increased on average by just about one hour in a thirty-year period (from one generation to the next) and the widespread cultural acceptance of women’s exclusive dedication to domestic activities has eased the pressures from below to a different welfare system that facilitates the conciliation of work, care and spare time (ibid., 21).

A proposal for classifying leisure policies The study of leisure policy intersects with issues such as economic and social development (Coalter 2010), work (Beatty, Torberg 2003), inclusive public policies (Borchard 2010; Silverstein, Parker 2002; Amenta, Caren, Olasky 2005), social representations and the construction of a national or multicultural identity (Leheny 2003; Shaw, Bagwell, Karmowska 2004; Burdsey 2010), International Relations (Levermore, Budd 2004), local policies (Meijers 2008), the European dimension (Chaker 1999; Bramham et al. 1993; Viallon et al. 2003), social change (Bull, Hoose, Weed 2003), deviance (Yin, Katims, Zapata 1999; Measham, Brain 2005), etc. Mulgan and Wilkinson (1995, quoted in Roberts 2006) believe that the time issue will become the main political issue of the twenty-first century, referring to the collective request of parental leave, study expectations, flexible hours. In the twentieth century, the government support was directed to ensure increased production and a consequent improvement of

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the living standards, but this perspective has focused attention mainly on the economic point of view and not on an equitable distribution of the resources. An analysis of leisure policy should require an in-depth comparative research and, therefore, here we can just propose different dimensions of a leisure policy classification that links some theoretical proposals of the literature (see Veal 2002, Henry 2003). The public policies could be classified using the following factors: x the definition of leisure applied by policy makers in the official documents (e.g. according to the explanatory scheme private/ public or collective/individual leisure (see Lo Verde 2009, 105); x the sector of activity (sports, outdoor/environment/cultural heritage, arts/broadcasting, social activities, tourism, gambling, etc.) x the role of the State (on a continuum starting from a total control of leisure to the minimal State, with the third way of a capitalist system in the center of this line with a central regulatory role of the State); x the type of public intervention (e.g. promotion/funding, support, regulation/control); x the style of decision-making process (e.g. participatory model involving citizens and stakeholders in the decision making on the theme of leisure, in brief bottom-up vs. top-down policies) (Torkildsen 1999); x the political ideology of departure (e.g. UK traditional conservatism, liberalism/new right, laborism/utopian socialism, new urban left, structural Marxism, New Labor (Henry 2003); x the adoption of direct or indirect policies; x the building models of agenda setting (e.g. analyzing the promoters of the debate and the kind of public support (Cobb, Ross, Ross 1976); x the insertion of leisure policy outside or inside the Welfare State (and in this case the model of welfare adopted, as stated above); x the present policy decision subsystems (e.g. issue networks/iron triangles, advocacy coalitions, policy networks, policy communities (see Howlett, Ramesh 2003; Green, Houlihan 2004); x the target (generalist vs. specific social categories). By crossing these criteria leisure policy can be analysed empirically. These policies, as stated by Roberts (2006, 11) now are essential for the States, since currently no government can be indifferent to the economic

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significance of leisure. In addition, these public policies play an important role in the construction of national mechanisms and in the processes aimed at building a European identity and culture. If the international sporting successes have been used by governments as a means for strengthening the national identity, the emphasis on European values of sport by the EU and the funding of specific programs of action are an interesting indicator of a shift, up to now merely desired but not realized, towards a supranational social dimension. Leisure policies can be considered as a factor of social inclusion through actions carried out against discrimination of marginal groups in order to promote equal opportunities. Two important dimensions, from which new research projects in this field may arise, consist also of: 1) social control implemented through the promotion of “desirable” leisure activities, and 2) the links between these policies and the ideological use related to them. The investigations by Henry (2003) on Thatcherism as a hegemonic project, the post-Fordism and urban leisure policies represent an interesting example of that. Finally, as for other kind of policies, the State’s role in leisure policies seems to have traced a parabola: starting from a regulatory minimal role up to a big allocative function, and then again to a regulatory less direct role (La Spina, Majone, 2000). Nonetheless the empirical research on the subject should be increased in order to observe the changes in a single nation, like Italy, where there are still spare studies on this field, or at a global level where comparative studies should be promoted using what Beck and Grande call methodological cosmopolitanism (2006).

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Williamson H. 2002, Supporting Young People in Europe. Principles, Policy and Practice, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. Wilson J.Q. 1980, The Policy of Regulation, in Wilson J.Q. (ed.), The Politics of Regulation, New York: Basic Books. Yin Z., D.S. Katims and J.T. Zapata 1999, “Participation in leisure activities and involvement in delinquency by Mexican American adolescents, Hispanic”, Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21, 170 http://hjb.sagepub.com/content/21/2/170, accessed September 2012.

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Appendix

Figure 3-1 The Effects of Good Government (1337-1340)

Figure 3-2 Rejoicing on the Birth of Prince Salim at Fatchpur (1590)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-3 The Marriage Feast at Cana (1562-1563)

Figure 3-4 Les très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1413-1414)

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Figure 3-5 The Month of April (about 1790)

Figure 3-6 Thrills of the Rainy Season (late 18th century)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-7 The Hunt at Night/The Hunt in the Forest (1460-1468)

Figure 3-8 Babur Hunting Rhinoceros near Birgram (Peshawar)

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Figure 3-9 Deer Hunt (1760)

Figure 3-10 Children’s Games (1560)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-11 Krishna and Gopas Sporting in the Forest (1785-1800)

Figure 3-12 Hide and Seek (late 17th century)

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Figure 3-13 The Paesant Dance (1568)

Figure 3-14 Night Celebration at the Wedding of Price Dara Shikoh (1760)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-15 Primavera (Spring) (1478)

Figure 3-16 Vasanta Ragini (The Music of Spring) (late 18th century)

Figure 3-17 Sports of Krishna in Springtime (1730)

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Figure 3-18 The Swing (1766-1667)

Figure 3-19 Hindola-Raga: Lovers on a Swing (about 1570)

Figure 3-20 The Joy of Rains

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-21 The Upper Reach of the Grand Canal (about 1723)

Figure 3-22 The Boat of Love (about 1760)

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Figure 3-23 Bathing at Asnières (1883-1884)

Figure 3-24 Summer Scene (1869)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-25 Maidens surprised at their Bath (1770)

Figure 3-26 Krishna Sporting in Yamuna (1770)

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Figure 3-27 Luncheon on the Grass (1865-66)

Figure 3-28 Picnic at Night (1540)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-29 Card Players (1892)

Figure 3-30 Krishna watching Ladies Playing Chaupar (1700)

Figure 3-31 Radha and Krishna Playing Chess (1800)

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Figure 3-33 The Acrobat (1930)

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Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-34 Nat-Raga (1700-1720

Figure 3-35 Acrobat Performance (1760)

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Figure 3-36 The Footbal Players (1908)

Figure 3-37 Chandbibi and her Companions Playing Polo (early 18th century)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-38 The School of Athens (1510-1511)

Figure 3-39 The Forest of Fontainbleau

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Figure 3-40 Noonday Rest (1866)

Figure 3-41 The Siesta/The Nap (1889)

Figure 3-42 Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862)

Mapping Leisure across Borders Figure 3-43 Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876)

Figure 3-44 The Tavern Scene (1735)

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Figure 3-45 Bar at the Folies Bergères (1881)

Figure 3-46 The Dance at the Moulin Rouge (1890)

Figure 3-47 A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886)

CONTRIBUTORS Thomas Amadieu is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Sorbonne’s Sociological Research Group on Methodology (GEMASS). He is a Sociology Lecturer at Paris-Sorbonne University, France, where he teaches courses on social stratification, education and game studies. He is a member of the project “The Dynamics of Inequalities: Constructing Perceptions” funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). [email protected] Charlie Barnao is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Ethnography at the University of Catanzaro, Italy. His research interests centre on social marginalization, youth cultures, spirituality, deviance, education systems. [email protected] +DELO =VX]VDQQD %HQNĘ is the Head of the Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health Promotion at the University of Szeged, Hungary. Sociologist. Between 2004 and 2007 she coordinated the transnational empirical research project “Tradition and Modernity in the Lifestyle of the Families of the Visegrad Countries”. She founded the very first Department of Health Promotion in Hungary in 1995 and plays a leading role in developing, adapting and implementing health promotion curricula in undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate education. Her main research areas are health promotion, lifestyle and family sociology. [email protected] Gianna Cappello is Assistant Professor of Digital Media Sociology and Education Sociology at the University of Palermo, Italy. Co-founder and current president of MED (the Italian Association for Media Education). Co-director of the journal “Media Education. Studi, ricerche e buone pratiche”. Board Member of Research Committee 13 (Sociology of Leisure) of ISA (International Sociological Association). Also member of the Italian Sociological Association. Her research interests focus on the relationship between media and youth, with a special focus on its implications in the field of formal, informal and non formal education. [email protected] Federico Cecconi is Researcher at Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies and Associate Professor at LUMSA, Rome, Italy. His

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Contributors

research interests are in the field of dynamics of complex networks, computational social modelling, microeconomic modelling by agent based simulation. Member of IASTED (International Association of Science And Technology for Development) and content manager for Edulabss, an ICT spinoff (agent based modelling, data-mining, business intelligence). [email protected] Vincenzo Cesareo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Catholic University, Milan, Italy. Secretary General of the ISMU Foundation for the Study of Multi-ethnicity. Director of the journal “Studi di Sociologia”. Member of the Directive Board of the Research Centre on Cooperation as well as the Research and Studies Centre on Family (Catholic University, Milan). [email protected] Liana Maria Daher is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Catania, Italy. Her research interests include collective behaviour and social movements, focusing on theoretical, epistemological and methodological perspectives, and more lately immigration and multiculturalism, in particular second generations of migrants living in Italy. She is member of the editorial board of the journal “Annali di scienze della Formazione” and the journal “Formazione psichiatrica e scienze umane”. Also member of the Italian Sociological Association and European Sociological Association. [email protected] Anna Fici is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Palermo, Italy. Her research interests focus on the topic of risk, both real and perceived, with regards to new media. Member of the Italian Sociological Association. [email protected] Vicki Harman is a Lecturer in Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests centre on social identities and social divisions (particularly gender and ethnicity) and her current research analyses ballroom and Latin American dancing as a leisure activity. She teaches courses on social policy and social problems, sociology of family life, and race and ethnicity in contemporary society. She is a member of the British Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association. [email protected] Neha Kala is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Key areas of research include sociology of tourism, sociology of environment, women studies and Indian diaspora. [email protected]

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Evaggelia Kalerante is a Lecturer in educational policy at the University of Western Macedonia, Greece. Her latest publications focus on social inequality, class identity, teachers’ union involvement in educational policy and the Greek educational system. Her research interests include identity formation, migration, multiculturalism, gender, drop-out incidence and social stratification. She is founding member of the Society of Greek Sociologists. [email protected] Maya Keliyan is Professor at the “Communities and Identities” Department, Institute for The Study of Societies and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and part-time lecturer at The University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She works in the area of social stratification, sociology of leisure, consumption patterns and lifestyle, and local community. She has been supported four times from different Japanese academic foundations for doing research in Japan. [email protected] Antonio La Spina is Professor of Sociology, Research Methods and Development Sociology at the University of Palermo, Italy. He also teaches New Public Management in the School of Government and Public Policy at Luiss University “Guido Carli”, Rome. Member of several journals (“Rassegna Italiana di sociologia”, “Rivista italiana di politiche pubbliche”, “Studi di sociologia” etc.). Director of the series “Communication, Institutions and Social Change” for Franco Angeli Publishing. [email protected] Fabio Massimo Lo Verde is Associate Professor of Sociology and Sociology of Consumption at the University of Palermo, Italy. Former Dean of the Social Sciences Department and currently Coordinator of the Sociology section of the PhD Program in Psychological and Sociological Sciences. Member of the editorial board of the journal “Salute e Società”. Member of the Italian Sociological Association and the Research Committee 13 (Sociology of Leisure) of ISA (International Sociological Association). He has played a founding role in introducing Leisure Studies in Italy. His research work focuses on youth, consumption and leisure. fabio.loverde@ unipa.it Marilena Macaluso is Assistant Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Palermo, Italy. Member of the Italian Sociological Association and the Italian Society for Political Science. Her research interests focus on deliberative democracy, movements and public consultation through the use of new media, public administration and public policies. [email protected]

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Contributors

Roberta Messina, Psychologist, PhD Student at Kore University of Enna, Italy. Her Doctoral Thesis aims to analyze the relationship between identity statuses and international mobility. Her research fields are: intercultural psychology and education, social psychology and pedagogy. She recently established an academic collaboration with the University of Cordoba. [email protected] Ishwar Modi is the founding father of Leisure Studies in India. He is presently President of the Indian Sociological Society, and Director of the India International Institute of Social Sciences as well as member of the Executive Committee of ISA (International Sociological Association). He is also the President of ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Leisure. He is the founder President of the Indian Leisure Studies Association. He is a recipient of Honorary Life Membership of the World Leisure Organization and is presently a Senior Fellow and Founder Member of the World Leisure Academy. He has organized several national and international conferences and authored, co-authored and edited several books. He is on the editorial board of several journals. [email protected] Mahima Modi Gupta is a freelance artist based in Florida, USA. She holds a Master’s Degree (with Gold Medal) and a PhD (2006) in Fine Arts. She was awarded prestigious Junior & Senior Research Fellowship for Doctoral work by the University Grants Commission of India during 200005. She has won several awards for her paintings. Besides organizing solo exhibitions, her paintings are also in private collections in several countries. Her paintings have also been printed on the covers of several national and international books and magazines prominent among these are L’Archive des Origins (2008), France and New Books Catalogue, Transaction Publishers (1962-2003), Rutgers University, NJ, USA. She has also participated in several national and international conferences and congresses. [email protected] Sofia Pagliarin is completing her PhD program in urban sociology and urban studies at the Bicocca University of Milan, Italy. She has also been studying at the universities of Padua (Italy), Trieste (Italy), Lund (Sweden) and Barcelona (Spain) doing research on sociology of tourism and cultural studies. [email protected] Gabriella Polizzi is Assistant Professor of Culture and Communication Sociology at “Kore” University of Enna, Italy. She is member of the Italian Association of Sociology and MED (the Italian Association for Media Education). She is referee of international scientific journals, such as

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“International Journal of Hospitality Management” and “Tourism Management”. Her current research interests include virtual leisure and tourist communication, with a focus on cyber-tourism and electronic wordof-mouth. [email protected] Valentina Punzo is a Post-doctoral research Fellow at the University of Roma Tre and research assistant at ISFOL, Rome, Italy. She collaborates in the teaching of Public Policy and Sociology at the Faculty of Political Science, LUISS University “Guido Carli” of Rome. She is currently teaching International cooperation policies at the University of Palermo. Member of the editorial board of the series “Law Science Technology” (ESI publishers). Her research interests are in the field of agent-based social simulation, sociology of deviance and rational choice theory. [email protected] Francesca Rizzuto is Assistant Professor of Communication Sociology at the University of Palermo, Italy. She has done post-doctoral research at Sapienza Rome University and the New School for Social Research, New York. Her research interests include social history of mass media, political communication, journalism. [email protected] Ken Roberts is Professor of Sociology at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is a former Chair of the World Leisure Organization’s Research Commission, and also a former President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Leisure. He is a founder member and now honorary life member of the Leisure Studies Association. [email protected] Kanak Lata Samal is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at V. G. Vaze College, Mulund, Mumbai, India. She has been teaching Sociology for last 25 years. Her areas of interest include studies on migration, informal sector, industrial sociology and sociology of leisure. She is a member of ISA RC-13 (Sociology of Leisure) and Indian Sociological Society. [email protected] Roberta Sassatelli is Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture at the University of Milan, Italy. Responsible for the international research sector of the Department of Social and Political Studies. Member of the PhD Program in the Political Sciences Faculty. From 1995 to 2005 lecturer of Sociology at the Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Member of the editorial board of the journal “Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia”. Co-founder and member of the editorial board of the journal “Studi Culturali”. [email protected]

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Contributors

Sergio Severino is Associate Professor at “Kore” University of Enna, Italy, where he is President of the Undergraduate degree in Sociology and Social Policies and the Graduate degree in Sciences of Social Policies and Services. His research fields are: formal and informal socialization, social network analysis, online group dynamics, new media, multi-ethnicity, elearning. [email protected] Attilio Scaglione is a Post-doctoral research Fellow at the Department of Studies on Politics, Law and Society “Gaetano Mosca”, University of Palermo, Italy. His research interests include: organized crime, mafia, deviant studies and organization theory. He collaborates with research institutions such as: Rocco Chinnici Foundation, Center for studies Pio La Torre, Res Foundation, and Transcrime. [email protected] Marianna Siino is Post-doctoral research Fellow at the Department of Studies on Politics, Law and Society “Gaetano Mosca”, University of Palermo, Italy. Her research interests mainly focus on social research methods. In particular, she is currently working on the construction of composite indicators, on the measurement of attitudes and time-use, on scaling techniques, nonlinearity and the Rasch model as applied to the perception of deviant phenomena perception. [email protected] Barbara Sonzogni collaborates with the Department of Communication and Social Research (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy). Member of the Evaluation of Training and Education Team at the Faculty of Political Science, Sociology and Communication (Sapienza University of Rome). She is research fellow at the Laboratory of Agent-Based Social Simulation (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Italy). [email protected] Robert Stebbins is Faculty Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada. Receiving his PhD in 1964 from the University of Minnesota, his academic career is nearly 50 years old. Forty of those years have been devoted to studying leisure. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. [email protected] Brajakishor Swain is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, India. He has 26 years of teaching and research experience in Sociology. He has membership of ISA RC-13 (Sociology of Leisure), Indian Sociological Society and Society of Human Rights. [email protected] Klára Tarkó is Associate Professor and Vice-head of the Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health Promotion, University of Szeged,

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Hungary. Sociologist. She is the head of the health sociology professional group. She was a researcher and project coordinator in the transnational empirical research project “Tradition and Modernity in the Lifestyle of the Families of the Visegrad Countries”. She leads a practice-based education in health promotion and minority studies on different forms of university education. Her main research areas are minority studies and lifestyle. [email protected] Sanjay Tewari is a UGC-NET Fellow in Sociology, with corporate experience of more than 22 years, and a teaching experience of Sociology. His research interests centre on sociology of work, religion, industry, health, leisure, tourism and sports. He is member of the International Sociological Association and its various Research Committees, a Life Time Member of the Indian Sociological Society, the Indian Institute of Public Administration, International Sports Science Association, YMCA and some NGO’s. [email protected] Fiorella Vinci, PhD in Social Sciences at University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. Post-doctoral research Fellow and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Palermo from 2008 to 2012. Member of the European Association of sociology and the Italian Association of Sociology. [email protected]