This book brings together a collection of critical essays that challenge
the existing dogma of leisure as an unmitigated social good, in order to
examine the commodification and marketisation of leisure across a number
of key sites. Leisure and consumer culture have become symbolic of the
individual freedoms of liberal society, ostensibly presenting
individuals with the opportunity to display individual creativity,
cultural competence and taste. This book problematizes these assertions,
and considers the range of harms that emerge in a consumer society
predicated upon intense individualism and symbolic competition.
Approaching the field of commodified leisure through the lens of social
harm, this collection of essays pushes far beyond criminology's
traditional interest in 'deviant' forms of leisure, to consider the
normalized social, interpersonal and environmental harms that emerge at
the intersection of leisure and consumer capitalism. Capturing the
current vitality and interdisciplinary scope of recent work which is
underpinned by the deviant leisure perspective, this collection uses
case studies, original research and other forms of empirical enquiry to
scrutinise activities that range from alcohol consumption and gambling,
to charity tourism; CrossFit training; and cosmetic pharmaceuticals.
Drawn from researchers across the UK, US, Europe and Australia, Deviant
Leisure: Criminological Perspectives on Leisure and Harm represents the
first systematic attempt at a criminological consideration of the global
harms of the leisure industry; firmly establishing leisure as a subject
of serious criminological importance.
