Leisure Communities: Rethinking Mutuality, Collective Identity and Belonging in the New Century

This book analyses the concept of community by critically exploring its many manifestations in leisure. It unpacks patterns of mutuality, collective expression, and belonging as they emerge through interaction, shared narrative, and practice.

Recognizing that our experiences of “being in common” and “being in leisure” require rethinking in a changed modernity, the book illustrates the myriad ways that leisure communities take form and shape in the current economic, political, and ideological moment. It highlights how changing societal expectations, economic conditions, technological innovations, and ideological shifts set the stage for a reformulation of social relations and emergence of new leisure-based social groupings. The authors question how to make sense of new social expressions, at times offering unexpected and completely new ways of theorizing community.

Global in richness and scope, the book offers a rich and composite view regarding how to take up and theorize leisure in relation to the multiple dimensions of community. It will inspire a new generation of readers in a broad range of areas across the social sciences, including sociology, community studies, leisure studies, and planning.

Troy D. Glover is Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies and Director of the Healthy Communities Research Network at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Erin K. Sharpe is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University, Canada.