Of straw men and melting pots: a response to Cara Aitchison's (2010) ‘Labouring the leisure society thesis…’

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1. In Aitchison's case, the key Rojek contribution was Capitalism and Leisure Theory (1985).

2. In the last class I took at the University of Utah, my professor (Edward Ruddell) assigned me to lead a class presentation on the French philosopher Michel Foucault and summarise his book Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965). (This assigned book linked to my career focus of using therapeutic recreation services to help people with mental illness.) As such, as I learned about Chris Rojek's thinking I also learned about Michel Foucault's thinking in relation to human services.

3. I want to make it perfectly clear that although I am suggesting there was an ethnocentric element of American literature at the University of Utah, I had an outstanding experience in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism programme and was mentored by dedicated and wonderful professors. Furthermore, and as explained later in this paper, the lack of European and Canadian concepts of leisure is a concern throughout American leisure services. Thus, my experience at the University of Utah mirrored a larger social phenomenon. However, and as I stated earlier, I was first introduced to Rojek's Decentring Leisure (1995) while attending that university, and as such, there was some literature available from outside the United States – but it was minimal, at best.

4. Although this article helped me understand the difference between American and British perspectives for studying leisure, I found Coalter's term “North American” problematic because Canada shares North America with the United States but there are differences between leisure studies in Canada and the United States, to which I have already alluded. Coalter would have done better to use the term “American” rather than “North American.”

5. Rojek (1995,2005,2010b) Rojek (2010b)provides an excellent discussion of the way leisure is positioned in location and context.

6. Although Rojek draws some of his academic labour from Foucault, historically he draws more on Norbert Elias and Stuart Hall. I draw more on Rojek's association with Foucault, rather than with Elias and Hall, because of the three, I understand Foucault's writings with greater depth, breadth and clarity.

7. During this time frame a few philosophers and human services workers (e.g., Kallen, 1924) rejected the Americanisation-as-assimilation movement and defended the rights of immigrants living in the United States. Perhaps the best-known leisure professional to reject this movement in the United States was Jane Addams (see Addams, 1908/2002, 1910/1981, 1919/2002).