Scuba Diving Practices in Greece: A Historical Ethnography of Technology, Self, Body, and Nature (1st ed. 2023) (Leisure Studies in a Global Era)

By: Manolis Tzanakis

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Synopsis: This book provides a historical-sociological analysis of recreational scuba diving practices. Starting from a national case study, Greece, the book analyzes the gradually evolving global institutional arrangements of this version of underwater recreational activities. Based on the author’s experience as a former diving instructor and on an historical and sociological research of scuba diving in Greece, the book examines the stages of institutionalization of scuba diving as a leisure practice on a global scale, from 1945 to the present day. It combines two traditions: the phenomenological approach of underwater multisensory embodied experience and tourism studies. The two main research questions that the project answers are (a) how scuba diving has historically been shaped as a leisure activity, (b) how has underwater experience been conceptually shaped as a leisure activity. This case is an excellent example for exploring the relationship between society, technology, body and modern practices of self in the late modernity world, under a phenomenological and historical perspective.