Ways of Escape: Modern Transformations in Leisure and Travel

266 Pages·1993·18.07 MB·English

by  Chris Rojek

WAYS OF ESCAPE
Also by Chris Rojek
CAPITALISM AND LEISURE THEORY
FORGET BAUDRILLARD?
(co-editor with B. Turner)
THE HAUNT OF MISERY
(co-editor with G. Peacock and S. Collins)
LEISURE FOR LEISURE
(editor)
SOCIAL WORK AND RECEIVED IDEAS
(with G. Peacock and S. Collins)
SPORT AND LEISURE IN THE CIVILIZING PROCESS
(co-editor with E. Dunning)
Ways of Escape
Modern Transformations in
Leisure and Travel
Chris Rojek
Senior Editor in Sociology
Routledge
M
© Chris Rojek 1993
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1993 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 0-333-17577-1 hardcover
ISBN 0-333-17578-X paperback
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Printed in Hong Kong
For T.D.
(1954-79)
- Who Escaped -
???
Contents
Acknowledgement vi
Preface ix
Introduction: Welcome to Grenfield Vilage 1
1 The Management of Pleasure 10
2 Thoroughly Modern Woman 51
3 Disorganized Leisure? 97
4 Fatal Atractions 136
5 Wonderful World 173
6 Conclusion 204
Notes 217
Bibliography 23
Index 247
vu
List of Illustrations
1 Some Modernist categories 3
2 The Social Calendar' 43
3 Arlington National Cemetery, Washington DC 139
4 Westwod Memorial Park, Los Angeles 140
5 Thomas Hardy Country 159
6 The view of the world from Redondo Beach 193
7 Maerten van Heemskerck's sixteenth-century
representation of the Pyramids in Egypt 197
8 Maerten van Heemskerck's representation
of the Colosus 197
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author and publishers wish to acknowledge with thanks the
source of the illustration on page 193, and to state that they have
tried without success to contact the copyright-holder. They will be
pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
vm
Preface
The critic who complains that this book sometimes reads as if it
doesn't have both feet on the ground has a point. For much of it was
conceived, considered and executed in mid-air as I flew from city to
city in Europe and the USA pursuing my responsibilities as Senior
Editor in Sociology at Routledge. Although air travel is commonly
associated with anxiety, I have always found it to bring me peace of
mind. Up there one is, as it were, suspended from earthly cares.
Looking down from above the clouds one cannot avoid thinking.
And I often think about the circumstances that led me into a
career which I never intended to follow - but which, I should add,
has in many ways been a revelation to me. As an undergraduate and
postgraduate at Leicester University in the mid to late seventies I
had experienced enough of the expansion in higher education and I
was far enough away from the retrenchment of the 1980s to imagine
that an academic career was viable. But the Thatcher adventure put
paid to this as far as British sociology was concerned. Like many
others of my generation, it took me a long time to get an academic
job. In my case it was two years before I was appointed to a one-year
fixed contract at the College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth. After
that I was lucky to secure another fixed-term post at the Queen's
College in Glasgow. At that time I was the only sociologist in this
small college situated at the edge of Kelvingrove Park. Sociology
was taught as a service stream to a variety of courses. From memory,
I taught on eight different courses involving students at all levels
of higher education: I taught sociology to business studies students
working for Scottish diplomas, postgraduates in the catering in-
dustry on one-day release courses, undergraduates in Dietetics,
Resource Management and Catering and Accommodation, post-
graduate students training for a one-year qualification in social work,
and mature students with family commitments who were studying
for the certificate Qualification in Social Work. To make some extra
money I also started teaching the old D102 course run by the Open
University on one evening a week.
My job at the Queen's College was a fixed-term appointment. So
I thought it expeditious to build up my publications record in order
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