Leisure research amid socio-political unrest: A reflection on struggle in turbulent times

ABSTRACT This essay offers a reflection on the relevance of leisure amidst current social unrest and the ways in which scholars thinking through leisure can attend to discussions part of social movements and radical resistances. This paper interrogates the ways leisure is bound up in socio-political tension through its direct link to capitalism, labour, and reproduction of the status quo while, simultaneously, being part of the action needed to resist such harms, necessary for our analyses as leisure scholars. As we continue to reflect on TALS’s ‘New Leisure Studies’ panel (2021) and Mowatt’s sensibility in considering, ‘what is “leisure” in the midst of [this socio-political] landscape?, we feel that in these challenging times, more critical analysis, openness, connectedness, and creativity is required to reflect the nuanced and interconnected social dynamics of leisure more fully.