Leisure and health–critical commentary

Abstract

This critical commentary presents a selected overview of conceptual, theoretical and methodological trajectories in leisure and health. It includes critical scholarship about the meanings, politics and practices of health in the leisure sphere. The commentary illustrates the complex sociocultural and political character of leisure and human health relations. It argues that leisure studies scholarship as a critical and ethical form of inquiry, is strongly positioned to make a difference not only to leisure and health knowledge within the academy, but also to public health decision-making, and experiences of leisure-health practices around the world. The commentary concludes that future work in leisure and health needs to more explicitly and critically address the wider policy debates about the physical and mental health benefits of leisure beyond physical activity including critical examination of the potential negative health consequences of leisure.