Serious leisure is social: Things to learn from the social world perspective

Abstract

In this article, the social world perspective (SWP) is discussed to address the concern that current serious leisure (SL) studies focus predominantly on individual experiences while overlooking the broader sociocultural context. In addition to using SWP to identify how social organization and process shape a leisure world and its members’ experiences, the fluidity of SWP indicates the need to explore social changes in a leisure world, underlying situations, and the influences of individuals’ and groups’ actions on social changes. SL experiences and qualities in those situations may be performed differently or innovatively by enthusiasts to legitimize and sustain their or their group’s status in a leisure world. Those diverse and innovative actions, in turn, can enrich a leisure world. This study reveals that SWP is a useful tool for conceptualizing the social aspect of SL.

Keywords:

• Social world perspective
• serious leisure
• fluidity
• social change