Introduction to the special issue: Tuning in to popular leisure

Abstract This paper, as indeed the entire special issue, starts from the commonplace proposition that leisure and popular culture go hand in hand. On one hand, popular leisure practices are so much around us that it is easy to take them for granted. On the other hand, these very same practices provide key conduits to social and cultural power, individual agency, identity, and creativity. Yet, in sharp contrast to the “fantastic” leisure that figures in most leisure research, popular leisure currently receives little attention within leisure studies. This paper introduces the special issue by providing an overview of key terms, concepts, and questions related to studying popular leisure. Far from trivial, attending to the politics of popular leisure tunes in to the significance of such routine activities, mundane practices, mass entertainments, folk movements, and everyday goings‐on, which, for all their seeming triviality, overflow with meaning and significance that extends far beyond pleasure and enjoyment.