On norms and their transgression in serious leisure: two case studies from rock climbing

Abstract

As interest grows in the subject of sport, play and games as social practice, it becomes more important to elaborate on the contribution serious leisure makes in the formation of hegemonic power and the margins of everyday life. There are alternative models of what constitutes serious leisure and in particular the experience of leisure transgression. Case study based qualitative data are presented which illuminate several important influences within two settings featuring the adventure activity of rock climbing. I suggest that organisation and organising is one of a range of factors impinging on the theme of serious leisure. An implication is that climbers in the present may have more difficulty than did their predecessors in resisting both the encroachment of rationalised society and capture by market driven forces.

Keywords:

• Case studies
• organisation studies
• rock climbing
• serious leisure
• transgression

Acknowledgements

I thank the two anonymous Culture and Organization reviewers for their insightful comments and critical engagement with earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The first national park, fittingly the Peak District, opened in 1951.

2. The Duke of Devonshire, an influential peerage of England since the sixteenth century, owns the Chatsworth Estate.

3. Pegs or Pitons are steel pegs with a circular hole or eye at one end that will accommodate a karabiner (a steel or alloy chain link with a spring-loaded gate). They come in different thicknesses and lengths and climbers hammered them into cracks and holes in the rock. They were commonly used pre and post WWII before the development of modern protection devices.

4. All climbs present challenges of varying difficulty and complexity. These can be physical, psychological and technical, or a combination of all three. In climbing terminology, the grade of a particular climb or route provides an appreciation of these challenges and the more difficult and complex the challenges the higher the grade. Grading systems vary from one country to another.

5. A ‘sandbag’ is a climbing route that receives a much lower grade than deserved. ‘Sandbagging’ refers to the act of hiding the difficulty of a route to someone early in an engagement.

6. From 1 January 1949, healthy British males 17 to 21 years old served in the armed forces for 18 months. Call-ups formally ended on 31 December 1960.

7. Irish word for fun/enjoyment brought into the English language, usually when mixed with alcohol and/or music.