167
Leisure in the Multi-dimensional World of Existence. Presidential session
Language: English
Presidential Session.
Markus S. Schulz has rightly pointed out in his call for papers for the general theme of the Forum that protests around the globe have challenged inequality, oppression, and ecological destruction, and have insisted on the possibility of another, better world. Intensifying uncertainties demand innovations in methods and theories. Tomorrow no longer appears as pre-determined by inevitable trends but as a rather contingent outcome of complex, typically multi-scalar dynamics that vary in their intensity of contentiousness. Social actors aspire, desire, envision, expect, fear, imagine, plan, project, reject, sustain, and wage war over futures. What can sociology contribute to these broader debates particularly in the context of sociology of leisure? How do assumptions and aspirations about the future influence daily routines and long-term collective lives? How are risks identified, avoided, mitigated, transferred, or shared? What closes and opens the horizons of social imaginaries? How are different forces positioned to shape futures? How can the making of futures be democratized? What can be learned by comparing struggles in different countries and settings? How do emancipatory movements and everyday practices at the grassroots overcome discipline, exploitation, and misrecognition? What visions for alternative leisure futures are imaginable, desirable, and achievable? What are viable roadmaps for social transformation of leisure? (the words leisure has been used by me)
It is hoped that leisure scholars will dwell on all these issues in the spirit of the theme of the Forum and will be in a position to explore these changes in the context of leisure.