{"title":"“I Don’t Want to Have the Time When I Do Nothing”: Aging and Reconfigured Leisure Practices During the Pandemic","authors":"Ashwin Tripathi, Tannistha Samanta","doi":"10.1007/s12126-023-09519-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in “serious leisure” as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular, we heuristically show that leisure activity patterns and constraint negotiation strategies among older Indians followed conceptual semblances with the dominant leisure-based typology of <i>Serious Leisure Perspective</i>. By thematically analysing household surveys (n = 71), time-use diaries and in-depth interviews (n = 15) of middle to upper middle-class individuals (55–80 years), we show how both men and women distinguished between serious leisure that is marked by motivation, agency and perseverance with that of unstructured, routinized free-time (or causal leisure). Time-use diaries suggested that despite the changed realities of heightened domestic time available to both genders due to the pandemic, women recorded higher proportion of their daily hours in household management and caregiving. Although women were governed by moral-cultural self-descriptions in their engagement with leisure, it was often associated with an enhanced sense of self-actualisation, self-management and identity. Overall, we show how the social codes of age and gender were inextricably linked with the practice of leisure during the pandemic.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51665,"journal":{"name":"Ageing International","volume":"48 4","pages":"1099 - 1120"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ageing International","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12126-023-09519-8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this paper, we contend that urban middle-class older Indians engaged in “serious leisure” as a way to reimagine and reconfigure the structure of everyday life during the pandemic-led epochal downtime. In particular, we heuristically show that leisure activity patterns and constraint negotiation strategies among older Indians followed conceptual semblances with the dominant leisure-based typology of Serious Leisure Perspective. By thematically analysing household surveys (n = 71), time-use diaries and in-depth interviews (n = 15) of middle to upper middle-class individuals (55–80 years), we show how both men and women distinguished between serious leisure that is marked by motivation, agency and perseverance with that of unstructured, routinized free-time (or causal leisure). Time-use diaries suggested that despite the changed realities of heightened domestic time available to both genders due to the pandemic, women recorded higher proportion of their daily hours in household management and caregiving. Although women were governed by moral-cultural self-descriptions in their engagement with leisure, it was often associated with an enhanced sense of self-actualisation, self-management and identity. Overall, we show how the social codes of age and gender were inextricably linked with the practice of leisure during the pandemic.
期刊介绍:
As a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that has existed for over three decades, Ageing International serves all professionals who deal with complex ageing issues. The journal is dedicated to improving the life of ageing populations worldwide through providing an intellectual forum for communicating common concerns, exchanging analyses and discoveries in scientific research, crystallizing significant issues, and offering recommendations in ageing-related service delivery and policy making. Besides encouraging the submission of high-quality research and review papers, Ageing International seeks to bring together researchers, policy analysts, and service program administrators who are committed to reducing the ''implementation gap'' between good science and effective service, between evidence-based protocol and culturally suitable programs, and between unique innovative solutions and generalizable policies. For significant issues that are common across countries, Ageing International will organize special forums for scholars and investigators from different disciplines to present their regional perspectives as well as to provide more comprehensive analysis. The editors strongly believe that such discourse has the potential to foster a wide range of coordinated efforts that will lead to improvements in the quality of life of older persons worldwide. Abstracted and Indexed in:
ABI/INFORM, Academic OneFile, Academic Search, CSA/Proquest, Current Abstracts, EBSCO, Ergonomics Abstracts, Expanded Academic, Gale, Google Scholar, Health Reference Center Academic, OCLC, PsychINFO, PsyARTICLES, SCOPUS, Social Science Abstracts, and Summon by Serial Solutions.