Critical Criminology of Leisure aims to play the role of an introductory essay, of a concise guide for the theoretical study and research on a social field which emerges as the point of intersection of two established scientific subjects: leisure and crime. The concept of 'leisure' is used as a methodological tool, as privileged social time for the study of the social problems of modern societies and more specifically for the study of the issue of criminalization or the forms of action (or inactivity) of formal social control agents and the legitimization of this action by the public.

This book brings together the major Australian and New Zealand theorists in Critical Criminology. The chapters represent the contribution of these authors in both their established work and their recent scholarship. It includes new approaches to theory, methodology, case studies and contemporary issues.

This book examines the contradictions surrounding popular lifestyle sports such as parkour and freerunning and their exclusion from our hyper-regulated city centres. The author combines ethnographic data and complex theory to move beyond tropes of resistance and acknowledge and explain the paradox of parkour against a backdrop of late-capitalism.

This volume is the first to draw together theoretical reflection, empirical research, and critical reflection on practice occurring at the juncture of critical approaches in leisure studies and event studies within diverse explorations of deviance. It includes chapters on games and gaming; performing queerness; events around being kinkster; drugs and sex, LGBTQ+ events and activism, and goth subculture. These are combined with poetry, personal reflection and artwork, much of which has been created by contributors. The compendium draws on inquiry undertaken by contributors from a wide spectrum of academic disciplines, as well as deviant leisure practitioners/event organisers. It seeks to expand the cultural and academic articulation of deviance into other disciplines and to develop new perspectives on deviant leisure and deviant leisure practice. It speaks to students, researchers, and practitioners working or interested in critical leisure and event studies, queer theory, cultural theory, burlesque/circus studies, media studies, and discourse studies.

Feminisms in Leisure Studies acknowledges and advances the contribution of feminist theories to leisure knowledge and research. Building upon the strong history of feminist leisure scholarship, the book reviews key feminist theories and offers an overview of a fourth wave of feminism and its relevance to leisure. Written by a team of leading international feminist scholars, each chapter addresses a particular theoretical perspective, using examples from each author’s research to unpack methodological and substantive issues essential to leisure studies. Critically, this book moves beyond women, the emphasis of much gender scholarship to date, to focus on issues of feminism as connected to leisure scholarship more broadly. This book is an important and engaging read for students and scholars of diversity, women’s studies, multiculturalism, social justice, gender studies, leisure studies, LGBTQQ studies, and feminist research.

This book brings together a collection of critical essays that challenge the existing dogma of leisure as an unmitigated social good, in order to examine the commodification and marketisation of leisure across a number of key sites. Leisure and consumer culture have become symbolic of the individual freedoms of liberal society, ostensibly presenting individuals with the opportunity to display individual creativity, cultural competence and taste. This book problematizes these assertions, and considers the range of harms that emerge in a consumer society predicated upon intense individualism and symbolic competition. Approaching the field of commodified leisure through the lens of social harm, this collection of essays pushes far beyond criminology’s traditional interest in ‘deviant’ forms of leisure, to consider the normalized social, interpersonal and environmental harms that emerge at the intersection of leisure and consumer capitalism. Capturing the current vitality and interdisciplinary scope of recent work which is underpinned by the deviant leisure perspective, this collection uses case studies, original research and other forms of empirical enquiry to scrutinise activities that range from alcohol consumption and gambling, to charity tourism; CrossFit training; and cosmetic pharmaceuticals. Drawn from researchers across the UK, US, Europe and Australia, Deviant Leisure: Criminological Perspectives on Leisure and Harm represents the first systematic attempt at a criminological consideration of the global harms of the leisure industry; firmly establishing leisure as a subject of serious criminological importance.

Beginning with the history of criminology this updated and revised edition deals with topics as diverse as policing, substance abuse, juvenile crime, statistics, prisons, victims, and organised crime in Britain.

This book responds to the need to investigate the complex links between sex and leisure and their implications for research and practice. Understanding sex as leisure aligns with sex-positive culture that focuses on affirming pleasure in the contemporary sexual discourse and advocating for sexual diversity, freedom, empowerment, and fulfilling sex lives. The focus of this book is on analyzing the complexity of sex as leisure in various socio-cultural and geographical contexts, with particular reference to vulnerable populations and pressing sexual issues, including sexual pleasure and expression, biomedicalization of sexuality, and social justice and sexuality. Specific chapters offer diverse international coverage and address the links between a positive sexuality framework and leisure research. The chapters cover sexual play and sex toys based on consumer experience perspectives; using the leisure lens to analyze sex and pornography addiction; quadriplegic sexuality and leisure; rejection and resilience on a gay cruise; relational dynamics of aging, exploitation, and deceit in sex tourism; sexual harassment of solo female travelers; and the complexity of consent in the sexualized leisure space of a pornography expo. This book will be of great value to those interested in transdisciplinary scholarship as it critically broadens the bio-psycho-socio-cultural perspective of sex as leisure. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Leisure Sciences.

A comprehensive introduction to all the key topics, criminological theories, and important themes that students will cover when studying criminology and criminal justice.

This landmark publication brings together some of the most perceptive commentators of the present moment to explore core ideas and cutting edge developments in the field of Leisure Studies. It offers important new insights into the dynamics of the transformation of leisure in contemporary societies, tracing the emergent issues at stake in the discipline and examining Leisure Studies’ fundamental connections with cognate disciplines such as Sociology, Cultural Studies, History, Sport Studies and Tourism. This book contains original work from key scholars across the globe, including those working outside the Leisure Studies mainstream. It showcases the state of the art of contemporary Leisure Studies, covering key topics and key thinkers from the psychology of leisure to leisure policy, from Bourdieu to Baudrillard, and suggests that leisure in the 21st century should be understood as centring on a new ‘Big Seven’ (holidays, drink, drugs, sex, gambling, TV and shopping). No other book has gone as far in redefining the identity of the discipline of Leisure Studies, or in suggesting how the substantive ideas of Leisure Studies need to be rethought. The Routledge Handbook of Leisure Studies should therefore be the intellectual guide of first choice for all scholars, academics, researchers and students working in this subject area.