The leisure experiences and the value: exemplary status of leisure in consumer society

Abstract

The research presented in this paper deals with the social function of leisure in consumer society. Current sociological theories tend to blur the significance of leisure experiences by including them in the general realm of consumption, where all hierarchies of value allegedly disappear. In this paper, it is claimed that leisure experiences get value from their own rules, which cannot be reduced to the logic of the consumer market. As a consequence, they also play their own specific role in the construction of individual identity. The research proceeds by the following steps: To expose the main contributions of cutting-edge theories on consumption by synthesizing the central ideas of the work of Zygmunt Bauman; to analyze the distinction between ordinary and experiential consumption, as studied by H. W. Opaschowski (2000), with support of empirical data; to indicate the consequences of this split within consumption for the narrow comprehension of leisure maintained by the theories mentioned above; to propose an approach to valuable leisure experiences that do not subordinate them to the logic of consumption, based on the theory of Boris Groys about the profane and the cultural value. The results of the research show that leisure experiences cannot be approached as any commodity provided by the consumer market. They become valuable under their own conditions and play, therefore, their own social function. Ultimately, it is claimed that Leisure Studies contribute with a specific and necessary perspective to the debate about current conditions of life.