Leisure under lockdown: mutations and nostalgias in times of pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic altered hierarchies of values, socialand family norms of coexistence, lifestyles, and consumptionhabits among the global population, imposing previouslyunimagined deprivations in the state of the confinementwe shared with astonishment and almost perfect synchroni-zation around the world. Our leisure styles were no excep-tion. This study seeks to understand the role of leisure duringthe COVID-19 lockdowns. It has two objectives: i) to identifythe main mutations in leisure during this period, and ii) tointerpret people’s reactions to these transformations. Usingmulti-sited ethnographic self-observation and participant-self-observation records, a group of experts in the study ofleisure registered their leisure experiences. Their practicesmutated in terms of time, space, and content. In addition,they describe a profound nostalgia for the exercise of free-dom, which all leisure practices imply. The study reveals a riskthat predominately virtual leisure may facilitate superficialand unequal experiences, susceptible to colonization by obli-gations and work.