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Leisure, consumption, and the remaking of “community”

Abstract With free time and disposable income becoming more widespread in the affluent countries of the world, “lifestyle” choices are becoming increasingly important in the definition of personal and collective identities. The first part of this paper discusses the consumption of rural places, and the development (often by private developers) of a standard rural “infrastructure of play,” aimed at upscale consumers. This typically includes golf, either skiing or a marina, and recreational property development. The second section discusses the transformations that follow from rural gentrification, and considers some of the effects of such developments on what were formerly resource communities. The paper draws on Bauman,s work on “community” to argue that the “secession of the successful” into exclusive lifestyle enclaves has been good for the property industry, and has dramatically increased land values in communities with the right kinds of recreational resources; however, it has also led to displacement of the rural poor, to cultural frictions, and ultimately to the demographic transformation of rural places.