Commodification of Leisure: Trend or Tract?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A variety of Marxist critical arguments assert that leisure in modern capitalist societies is an extension of alienation and a denial of authenticity. Commodification of leisure is understood as a necessary element in the subordination of the entire social system to the reproduction of capitalism and its institutional structure. The consequence for the worker is an acquiescence to leisure that turns away from existential creative activity to the consumption of market-provided goods and services. Evidence for possible trends toward such consumptive leisure in the United States is examined. Participation trends in cost-intensive and cost-free activities are compared. «Veblen effects» and the «Engel Curve» are introduced as modifications of an analysis based on consistent average 6% of household income spent directly on leisure. Commodification is recast in terms of styles and indicators of persistent underlying meanings of leisure. A counter argument is summarized based on the kinds of leisure most valued by adults and on general patterns of activity. Privatization is proposed as a more accurate label for bourgeois leisure styles and trends. However, adequate evidence for any unidimensional explanation of contemporary leisure is held to be «not found».