Fun and Games and Higher Education
The Lonely Crowd Revisited
Fun & Games & Higher Education ranges from Wayne’s World to hot-rodding, from automobility to the popular phenomenon know as the tailgate party, from German sociologist George Simmel to Canadian Media Guru Marshall McLuhan–all in the interests in exploring North American obsession with play-and particularly the intersection between education, work, and leisure.
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Praise
In the tailgate party sociologist Randle Nelson finds the perfect metaphor for the way we’re constantly adapting human life to the scale of the spectacle. Turns out we’re not bowling alone in the lonely crowd, but wandering the asphalt in search of a way to use leisure before it uses us.
– Hal Niedzviecki, author of Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity
Contents
| Acknowledgements | |
| Introduction | |
| Chapter 1 | "The Party's the Thing" |
| Chapter 2 | Cultural Studies: The Sociology of Reuel Denney |
| Chapter 3 | The Party Hits the Road: A Ticket to Ride |
| Chapter 4 | Big Games: "The Decline of Lyric Sport" |
| Chapter 5 | Tailgating: "A Feast of Strangers" |
| Chapter 6 | The Fourth Quarter: Higher Education Joins the Party |
| Chapter 7 | Overtime: Distance Education, Sociability, and the Song of the Sirens |
| Notes | |
| Bibliography | |
| Index |
