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A Moment in Time: Leisure and the Manifestation of Purpose Justin Harmon 1 & Lauren N. Duffy 2 Received: 27 August 2020 / Accepted: 13 October 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Abstract There has been little consideration given to understanding the concept of time within leisure. Just what is time when considered as an ordering mechanism of our leisure behaviors? Most leisure research has approached the concept of time through a largely Western, monochronic understanding which emphasizes time for its linear ordering and quantifiable qualities. The dominance of this implicit understanding of time is also notably influenced by pressing ideologies that define Western society, such as neoliberalism, which can distort our personal discourse with our own time: we see it as a commodity – something to be used efficiently and to be invested. What this thoughtpiece aims to do is consider the existential properties of time, particularly the “moment,” as an opportunity to “achieve [the] total realization of a possibility” as illustrated by Lefebvre. Keywords Time . Leisure . Purpose . Moments

1 Introduction

“There is a wide discrepancy between time as it is lived and time as it is considered.” – Edward T. Hall (1983)

* Justin Harmon [email protected]

1

Department of Community and Therapeutic Recreation, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA

2

Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

J. Harmon et al.

“Time” has always been a central component to understanding leisure. The narrative of modern, industrialized nations with 40-h work weeks led to the emergence of our dualistic view of work and leisure that comprise our lives, and thus, early concepts of leisure were defined by time outside work, instilling the centrality of time in how we understand leisure (Godbey 2016). As a result, most research on time in the field of leisure studies has focused on the use of time, typically through time diaries (Robinson and Godbey 1997) and other self-report time-use studies (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020; Godbey 2016). Building from this, then, has been the utility function of time where the purposeful use of it is considered an essential ingredient to a life well-lived in the pursuit of the “American Dream” (Hunnicutt 2013). Time has been implicitly explored through the frameworks of serious leisure (e.g., Stebbins 1992), recreation specialization (e.g., Scott and Shafer 2001), and enduring involvement (e.g., McIntyre and Pigram 1992). In each of these frameworks, time manifests as forms of commitment, or the behavioral components that tie individuals to routines of leisure behavior (habitual use of time) and a level of involvement indicative of devotion to an activity (intentional use of time). Other scholars have looked at the segmented phases of leisure experiences and their effect on future participation (Harmon and Dunlap 2018), as well as the continuation of leisure experiences after participation (Scott and Harmon 2016), both key asp