Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of capitalist production on a leisure activity. It demonstrates that as commodities produced for exchange become the predominant objects used in a leisure activity, the leisure activity itself is reshaped. A case study of the model airplane hobby and industry illuminates this process. The history of the hobby is one of gradual control loss by hobbyists and control gain by capital.
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I would like to thank Drs. Dale Dannefer and Michael Yarrow, and the editors and reviewers ofQualitative Sociology for their comments on earlier versions of this paper; and Dr. Ava Baron, who was most helpful in this research from beginning to end. I would also like to thank the following for their cooperation in this research: Maurice and Dave Gherman, Robert Reder, William Winter, Walter Caddel, Walter Armatys, Douglas Pratt, John Dewey, John Worth, Richard Kidd, Edward Packard, the numerous other people in the industry who responded to my inquiries and survey; The New York Public Library, The Free Library of Philadelphia, and Hobby Publications, Inc.
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Butsch, R. The commodification of leisure: The case of the model airplane hobby and industry. Qual Sociol 7, 217–235 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987312
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987312