To Have Fun for Sharing, to Share for Having Fun: Meanings and Practices of Leisure in Italy in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

In the period between 2008 and 2015, Italy has undergone a severe economic crisis derived from an on-going process of low economic growth, employment shortage, new social urgencies. These phenomena have been accompanied by a significant (and in some ways extremely innovating) change in people’s lifestyles and modes of consuming leisure time. As a matter of fact, a larger attention has been paid to the “quality” of leisure time, considered as a time to share, to create and re-discover authentic social relationships whose quality is precisely determined by the level of involvement in practices shared with one’s own social circle. The paper intends to offer some empirical evidence, taken from structural data concerning the use of leisure time in Italy, showing how the conceptualization of leisure time is changing in the light of these significant socio-economic changes.