Leisure and the Luxury of Experience

This article examines the concept experiencethe elusive master conceptwhich, in spite of its widespread use in leisure research and status as a modern ideal, has become the subject of much critical attention. The article begins by reviewing this critical material and presents a selective overview of the uses experience has for leisure research. Specifically, I caution against the notion that experience can provide epistemologically sufficient grounding for the study of leisure meanings and that we can govern interpretations of leisure by appealing to a general experientialist paradigm. It is argued that, as an epistemological bridge, appeals to the evidence of experience are too flimsy to bear heavy traffic. An account of experience that is etymologically sensitive is emphasized to urge leisure scholars to overcome epistemological orthodox and work towards a restatement of the relationship between leisure and experience.