Playing with the city

Abstract

This chapter explores the use of leisure in navigating everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses how leisure-in-public—those activities that take place outside of the home in the view of others for eudaimonic (i.e., personal enrichment) and/or hedonic (i.e., pleasure) purposes—offer (1) expressions of resilience, hope, and creativity in response to a public health crisis, and (2) potential post-pandemic placemaking strategies to bolster social connectedness, combat social isolation, and improve community capacity. Public health restrictions during the pandemic, not surprisingly, constrained leisure-in-public by imposing physical distancing measures, stay-at-home orders, and amenity/event closures. Even so, people responded by going outdoors and exploring the public realm for leisure and local placemaking initiatives. These efforts, though sometimes undertaken in defiance of public health guidelines, resulted in physical activity that thickened the thin ties of community life and boosted the social fabric of neighborhoods in response to the imposing threats of social isolation, loneliness, and pandemic fatigue. This chapter explores these and other related developments during the pandemic to underscore the social relevance of leisure as a public health and placemaking strategy. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Irene Gammel and Jason Wang;individual chapters, the contributors.