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 IX