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Leisure as Source of Knowledge, Social Resilience and Public Commitment pp 101–122Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Contingent Activism, Mediated Through Play

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Part of the book series: Leisure Studies in a Global Era ((LSGE))

Abstract

It is well known that players’ engagements are often long-lived and important to their sense of self, but political agency is normally not a central theme in leisure studies. In this chapter, three case illustrations demonstrate how specialized players, if they feel called upon, are able to transform their activity into a political instrument. Their involvements are contingent but not negligible. It occurs as contentious politics, infra-politics, or micro-politics. The political voices coming from leisure worlds may not be very different from those coming from social movements. Both dispatch values, information, knowledge, and loyalties across territorial borders, and practical activity and ideology amplify each other within both worlds, although activity usually comes first and has the highest priority when people play.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Yet, differ in ways I shall elaborate later on.

  2. 2.

    According to McAdam et al. (1996), cumulative non-violent action can make a difference only to the extent that it (a) forges alliances of conscience or interest with existing members of the polity, (b) offers a credible threat of disrupting routine political processes, (c) poses another credible threat of direct influence in the electoral arena, and/or (d) elicits pressure on authorities from external power holders.

  3. 3.

    Stebbins’ (1982, 1992, 1997) large and impressive oeuvre, with reference to amateurs, hobbyists, and volunteers, is carefully attuned to the social value of ‘serious leisure’, though to my knowledge he has not found a political dimension worth emphasizing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Lise Kjølsrød

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  1. Lise Kjølsrød
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Kjølsrød, L. (2019). Contingent Activism, Mediated Through Play. In: Leisure as Source of Knowledge, Social Resilience and Public Commitment. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46287-9_5

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