Abstract
This chapter examines four approaches for pondering everyday activities (PEA) at work, namely, discretionary time, the Protestant ethic/work ethic, interstitial leisure, and space. Each constitutes part of Homo faber’s routine outlook on his work. The discretionary allocation of time in leisure is hugely complicated, so we must be sure to specify the form and, within the form, the type of leisure in question. What remains of the West’s distinctive orientation toward work has been known all along simply as the “work ethic.” This diffuse ethic shares two of the three components of the Protestant version: Homo faber should work, work hard, and avoid leisure as much as possible. Workaholism (adulterated conception) states that, for some people, working is compulsive. Occupational devotion includes the condition that work is intrinsically rewarding. Interstitial leisure bridges leisure and work. All three domains are anchored in one or more physical spaces, in buildings, rooms, outdoor geographic locations, and so on.
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Notes
- 1.
Paraphrased and elaborated from Stebbins (2017b, pp. 42–44).
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Stebbins, R.A. (2020). Work. In: Pondering Everyday Life. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35922-5_2
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