My 'joint' keynote for Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference and Inaugural Professorial Lecture on July 8th 2014

1. Accelerated Leisure in a Digital Age: Transformations &
Tribulations
Prof David McGillivray
Chair in Event & Digital Cultures, UWS

2. BEING THERE:
KNOWLEDGE
PRODUCTION
&
CIRCULATION
IN PRE-
DIGITAL AGE

3. CURATING THE DIGITAL
ACADEMIC

4. • transformations taking place in how we conceive of
and experience leisure lives in a digital age;
• the professed benefits available from digital leisure
participation;
• illustrations of the darker side of digital;
• research into digital participation in mega sport event
media narratives
• research agenda for Leisure Studies scholars
Join in: @dgmcgillivray #lsa2014
COVERAGE

5. CHANGING
SPACES
OF…WORK
(RE) CONCEPTUALISING LEISURE IN
DIGITAL AGE
AND OF… LEISURE

6. DANBURY, CT—Entertaining outlandish delusions of actually
getting in a solid eight hours of sleep, 29-year-old Josh Briner
is honestly under the impression that he will be going to bed
early, sources confirmed Thursday. “I made sure I had no
plans tonight so that I can just turn in at 10 and get some
serious rest,” said the poor, naive fool who despite having a
laptop next to his bed, four different shows he needs to catch
up on, and a proclivity for wasting hours at a time on social
media sites is genuinely convinced that he will be asleep at a
reasonable hour. “It’ll be nice to wake up feeling refreshed for
once.” At press time, Briner reportedly said “f@*k it,” resumed
watching Sherlock on Netflix, and vowed that tomorrow he’d
definitely be in bed by 9 (The Onion).
ACCELERATION, LEISURE TIME & SPACE

7. ‘Long-standing notions of shared experience atrophy, and
yet one never actually attains the gratifications or rewards
promised by the most recent technological options…the
lived realities of this relationship are disjunctions,
fractures, and continual disequilibrium’ (Crary, 2013: p31)
ATROPHY OF SHARED EXPERIENCE

8. ALWAYS ON (THEM)

9. SPREADABILITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

10. SURVEILLANCE?
CONTROL
THE DARK(ER) SIDE OF DIGITAL

11. RESISTANCE AND CREATIVE
REIMAGINING

12. DIGITAL IN/EXCLUSION
Source: Carnegie Trust (2013) Across the Divide
The Scottish
Government
must
recognise
that every
individual has
an
undeniable
right to digital
inclusion
(RSE, 2014)

13. MEGA EVENT & ACCELERATED NARRATIVES
www.citizenrelay.net
www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk

14. A RESEARCH AGENDA
• Methodologies and methods to explore meanings
found in big data produced in the digital age
• Experience of those disempowered and
disenfranchised by digital turn and barriers to
participation
• Moral and ethical implications of leisure lives mediated
in digital environments
• Stresses, anxieties and emotional responses
generated by digital engagement
• Oppositional force of the digital

15. THANKS
@dgmcgillivray
W: davidmcgillivray.net
W: westscotland.academia.edu/DavidMcGillivray
W: researchgate.net/DavidMcGillivray
W: creativefutur.eu/