Leisure or Labour: An Identity Crisis for Modern Hunting?

Sammanfattning

Modern hunting appears to be undergoing an identity crisis as a result of transitioning from labour to leisure. This transition is by no means linear or absolute. Today, hunting is framed both as a hobby for the leisure participant, and as a societal duty that delivers wildlife management, pest control for agriculture, sustainably sourced meat and euthanasia of injured wildlife. Hunting is hence doubly serious as 'serious leisure': it involves skill and perseverance, but it is also seen as serious in constituting societal labour. In this article, we employ netnographic research to examine how and in what contexts labour-leisure tensions are manifested among Swedish hunters. We observe hunters struggle with the balance between leisure and labour on four levels: (1) internally, when it comes to reconciling their personal motivations for hunting; (2) between hunters, resulting in the normative differentiation between 'urban leisure hunters' and everyday hunters in the countryside doing 'real' work; (3) between different hunting practices; and (4) between wanting to enjoy the freedom afforded by the leisure label, while also inviting formalisation of hunting's role as a public service, including compensation. Our findings show the contradiction between labour and leisure is also differently managed across these levels.

Publicerad i

Sociologia Ruralis
2020, volym: 60, nummer: 1, sidor: 174-197
Utgivare: WILEY

SLU författare

• von Essen, Erica

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Tickle, Lara

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG8 Anständiga arbetsvillkor och ekonomisk tillväxt

UKÄ forskningsämne

Sociologi (exklusive socialt arbete, socialpsykologi och socialantropologi)

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12271

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102168