Summary

An In-Depth Analysis of Leisure

            In Henri Lefebevre’s essay Work and Leisure in Everyday Life, instead of focusing on complex philosophical concepts, he analyzes the ostensibly simple concept of “leisure” and its routine in man’s everyday life.  He goes thru its association with work, its evolution thru time, and its political ramifications. 

            Lefebevre begins the essay by criticizing philosophers for focusing on the “marvelous and the surprising” rather than the mundane lives that people actually live. Their lives can be separated into two segments: work and leisure. This relationship is a paradoxical; though they are completely different, they are reliant on each other. Without work, one cannot attain leisure. This is because leisure is liberation and relaxation from stressful things i.e. work. Lefebvre claims that leisure is an “undifferentiated global activity,” depending on one’s work, they choose a different kind of leisure . For instance, a person engaged in manual labor the entire day like a construction worker would enjoy passive leisure relaxing and watching television. A white-collar worker would rather use his active leisure, doing something more physical like exercising to combat his lethargic desk job.  Lefebevre hypothesizes that one’s leisure time develops individuality as this is the only time where a person is free to do what he pleases rather than being bossed around at work.

 After, he refers Feudal-age peasants as an example where leisure could not be enjoyed as “work [was] not separate from the everyday life of the family.” Only with the ascension of the bourgeois class could people finally enjoy free time and develop leisure habits. He states that leisure has developed into something used as a temporary alienation and distraction tool from exertion and modern annoyances.  The modern man uses new inventions such as radio and television for quick isolation and relaxation. Even marketing  is tied in with leisure, as  the increasingly erotic advertisements are another form of escapism which modern day leisure tries to reach.  The end of the paper turns into a political dissertation.

Lefebevre is clearly trying to advocate his Marxist political beliefs. The key sentence he uses is “The human problem is therefore a dual one: on the one hand how to organize labor rationally, and on the other how to organize leisure rationally-especially ‘compensatory leisure.’ Lefebrev does not believe that humans are capable of maintaining a healthy balance of work and leisure, so he insists a regimented Marxist economy would support workers in receiving adequate leisure time. He refers to fellow Marxist philosopher Georges Friedmann’s theory of “technical environment.”  This theory claims that with mechanization, the worker is contentiously becoming alienated, and the “only the domain of leisure escapes the technical environment.” At the end, Lefebevre uses examples such as a café or funfair to demonstrate to the average citizen how leisure is embedded in them.

            Work and Leisure in Everyday Life is a thorough essay as it not only defines work and leisure, but its implications and trends in the social and political environment.  He makes the reader recognize an essential part of one’s ordinary life that they once over-looked. Though many philosophers bore readers with intricate diction and complex theories, Lefebevre’s essay is just a simple examination of a simple task.