Listening for a Leisure Remix

Abstract

The traditional historical meta-narratives around leisure have focused on one Greek concept, ΣXOΛH, translated as schole and connected to the Latin (licentia) and English words. Direct lines were drawn from an interpretation of this Greek word in particular contexts to the current privileged leisure ideal first in Europe and the United Kingdom and then in North America. The complex history of the ancient Mediterranean world and the continuing histories of “leisures” in Europe and the United Kingdom not to mention other parts of the world were left invisible. As a performance of scholarship in leisure, we use a jazz, rap, and hip hop musical metaphorical strategy and draw upon scholarship from other disciplines to sound out the partiality of the historical meta-narrative of leisure and its resultant effects within current leisure scholarship and practices. Furthermore, we add historiographically to a redescription of the histories of leisure and imaginatively contribute to remixes of theories about leisures.