Leisure activities in an environmental perspective

Leisure activities in an environmental perspective In spite of the growing literature on consumption and environment, few studies have focused on leisure activities in an environmental perspective – the main exception being the relatively numerous studies on tourism. The neglect of leisure activities in environmental studies is surprising, as leisure-related consumption is increasing rapidly, and some of the environmental impacts are obvious.

Of course, some of these impacts are indirectly analysed in research on consumption areas such as mobility, food and household electricity use, but new insights might emerge if the focus is turned directly towards the leisure activities. Our intention with this paper is to explore this idea. To identify some of the trends in the development of leisure activities, which are particularly interesting from an environmental point of view, the paper investigates some of the broad introductions to the academic field of leisure studies – a field which spans contributions from sociology, psychology, economics, media and cultural studies etc. – as well as a number of research papers.

The research interests of these studies are usually unrelated to environmental research interests, but the results can provide relevant inputs to environmental studies when they are “read” through environmental “glasses”. As leisure is usually conceived in terms of a specific segment of time or in terms of a certain selection of activities, the focus on leisure calls for a focus on time use and activities rather than various categories of consumer spending.

In this paper we consider, in particular, how a time use perspective can inform the discussion on the environmental impacts of leisure.