The links between leisure and consumption are very easily perceptible in our society, at least some of them. Nevertheless, they have not always been theorized together in the Social Sciences. The purpose of this article is to examine how leisure and consumption got interwoven in Western History, by focusing some key moments of that process, in the context of formation of a consumer culture, and by taking into consideration some of their impacts on social life and consumer behavior. We also make some comments on the present configuration of the links between leisure and consumption and on some trends they present for the near future.
Leisure; consumer culture; consumer behavior; culture; tourism