Anarchism as a Hobby
Exploring political and social groups through the lens of deep personal interest.
Coined by Robert A. Stebbins in 1982, the term “serious leisure” consists of activities that captivate the participant “with… complexity and many challenges,” and which are voluntarily undertaken during periods of free time (Stebbins, 2001, p. 54).
For the purposes of Library and Information Science studies, where understanding the information-gathering habits of a populace is key, serious leisure is distinguished from casual leisure on several important grounds. Serious leisure “participants, by definition, willingly make significant effort acquiring knowledge” (Hartel, 2003, p. 230). Casual leisure is comprised of low-entry activities, like “conversing with friends, snoozing in the recliner, strolling in the park, and… watching television” (Stebbins, 2001, p. 53). Furthermore, while casual leisure “can cause a sort of psychological dyspepsia, a sense of ennui and listlessness rooted in the unsettling realization that one’s life is unfolding in a way largely, if not entirely, devoid of any significant excitement” (Stebbins, 2001, p. 53), serious leisure is usually undertaken with enough focus that it has the qualities of a career, and where “participants likely have more expertise than reference staff, a reversal of standard authority” (Hartel…
