Extant scholarly literature has been documented on heritage and tourism. The main stream heritage tourism literature has been link leisure to touristic activities, which characterizes tourists are “culturally inauthentic” and as passive sightseers. They come to heritage for leisure, recreation or entertainment, with little or no agency in the meanings they construct at heritage sites. Therefore, not only the complexity of leisure of heritage tourists has been simplified, but also the strong linkages between heritage and leisure, a broader concept than tourism, have long been neglected. The notion of heritage has pervaded a variety of fields of science of humanities, among them is leisure, which demonstrates the lived experience of locals, and provides indispensable meanings and identity for communities and individuals. And both heritage and leisure root themselves into cultural fabrics of social lives.
The engagement with heritage becomes a potential site for the exploration, creation and re-creation of identity, and is central to an understanding of cultural and leisure practices. As manifestations of culture, forms of heritage and leisure forge and articulate identities of individuals and communities, as well as regions. In the time of globalization and multiculturalism, leisure, a cultural manifestation, provides a way to a better understanding of societies and brings together communities. More studies lay the attention on the social and political reasons behind the conservation of a traditional leisure in certain communities and the learning or exchange of leisure in migrated communities. As observed some forms of leisure have become intangible heritage, which are conserved as a tradition, either in communities with a long history or migration communities with a divergence of cultures.
However, gaps still exist between heritage and leisure studies academia. In this special issue, we aim to bridge the gaps and generate dialogue opportunities between these two sections. Therefore, following issues will be open to discussion: How leisure can be viewed as heritage? How do heritage sites provide meaningful leisure? How history and culture shape leisure and heritage? How traditional leisure is kept and transformed in modern society? What are the meanings of leisure to locals and how they contribute to their well-being? What do tourists’ experice and feel heritage via leituer activities? How leisure becomes heritage and how they jointly build communities and shape cultural and ethnic identities? How does a local leisure tradition articulate local notion of heritage? What are the role of heritage in the leisure experience and benefits to the wider society? Also how immigrants maintain their leisure at home countries and acquire new leisure, thus build a more diverse heritage in the host countries?
The deadline for submissions of drafts is 30 July 2017
For further information, and / or to submit a paper, please contact Huimei Liu: huimeiliu@zju.edu.cn
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