ABSTRACT
Understanding the ways that politics play out in leisure that unfolds in the community sphere involves exploring, unveiling, and considering the political processes that work on and are produced in such contexts. Oftentimes the politics is overt; community leisure spaces such as the street, the park, the mall, or the café have long been important sites for groups to engage in the politics of representation and participation. Furthermore, marginalized groups that have been denied participation in the public have used leisure-based events such as festivals or carnivals as a vehicle to voice concerns and be seen and heard ( Jackson, 1992). What such observations tell us is that power is regularly exerted on leisure practices in the community, as authorities attempt to regulate and enforce what leisure can be practised where and by whom. At other times the politics are embedded in the dominant values,
power structures, ideologies, and histories of the community, and it is through interrogations into leisure that takes place in the community sphere that the processes underlying collective identity, belonging, exclusion, or marginality become more apparent.
