Leisure and Money: The Dynamics of the Exchange of Goods, Lifestyles and Institutions across Asia
June 15-16, 2012
June 15-16, 2012
The economic, social, and cultural dynamics of leisure goods and services and their transcultural exchanges are a neglected field of scholarship. In view of the overwhelming importance these have gained as transcultural features not just in urban and many national economies, but also in the virtual world economy, a conference is being organized to bring together scholars involved in opening up the interdisciplinary cultural studies research field of “Leisure and Money” in both its historical and contemporary dimensions. Three areas will be explored in detail together with explicit reflections on appropriate methodologies: leisure goods and services as the site where new concepts, practices, and institutions are introduced that are largely gaining their value through their transcultural cache; transcultural exchanges in the ritualized relationship between the money economy and the gift economy of leisure; and the transcultural exchange in practices informing the agency of the providers and the consumers of leisure. The main focus will be on Asia as the area where the transcultural exchanges are most visible and least studied.
