The Deviant Leisure Perspective: A Theoretical Introduction

This chapter provides a brief theoretical introduction to the emerging deviant leisure perspective within criminology. Deviant leisure critiques the relationship between liberalism, consumer capitalism and the dominant conceptions of leisure. One of the central goals of the deviant leisure project more broadly is a criminological and zemiological reclaiming of the term ‘deviant leisure’ from leisure studies and the sociology of deviance. The chapter explores the four key features of deviant leisure: problematisation of what have come to be some of the defining characteristics of leisure; per its roots in ultra-realist criminology theory, outlining the Lacanian psychoanalysis and conceptualisation of subjectivity; explanation of why the contemporary consumer citizen is willing to act in ways and engage in leisure practices which harm others, themselves and the environment; and imagining forms of ‘pro-social’ leisure.