Poststructural feminist theories of representing Others: a response to the ‘crisis’ in leisure studies' discourse

Abstract

References made to a contemporary theoretical ‘crisis’ in leisure studies discourse have been made by a number of scholars in the field (Scraton, 1994; Coalter, 1997; Mommaas, 1997). This article examines the origins and nature of such a ‘crisis’ and attempts to map one possible route through the current academic impasse. It is argued that leisure studies’ reluctance to embrace recent theoretical advances in cognate disciplines and subject fields, together with a reticence to engage with poststructural discourse, has rendered culture marginal to leisure studies research. Increasing cultural analyses in sociology, geography and gender studies have been accompanied by widespread engagement with postmodernism and a concomitant disengagement with social and material analyses of power. This article discusses the role of the subaltern discourses of poststructural and postcolonial feminism as theoretical and political projects capable of addressing cultural and material power. The false dichotomy of social and cultural analyses in leisure, tourism and culture is then addressed in a dicussion of Othering. This discussion reveals the significance of the social-cultural nexus of leisure relations and the potential for research that engages with poststructuralism whilst continuing to further leisure studies' welldeveloped social policy discourse. In summary, poststructural feminist analyses are cited as one means of enhancing the theoretical sophistication of the subject field and of addresssing the current ‘crisis’.