Social isolation: a leisure perspective

The feeling of social isolation can be uncomfortable, painful even, and as modernity continues to shift from a period of ‘solidity’ into one of ‘fluidity’ individuals are certain to encounter it more frequently. However, a way of dealing with this circumstance is to view social isolation as something that can be directly embraced and exploited. That is to say, with enough creativity, imagination, and determination social isolation can be reimagined to open up new possibilities of enchantment. With this in mind, this paper focuses on a group of urban explorers who manage to invent themselves through a process of self-creation known as anthropotechnics. What this means is that pursuits such as urban exploration can be used to transform carceral archipelagos of isolation into carceral archipelagos of leisure. In short, these can be understood as occasions where individuals harness an ‘inner chaos’ that is normally contained and controlled in everyday life.