Slippage of Leisure: Walking as a Form of Socio-Political Way of Transforming Civic Experience

Abstract

The study sees walking as a critical subject, looking at how walking serves as a revolutionary way to reinverting networking and transform the experience of social life. With the blurred boundary between the discourse of leisure and political functionality, the study posits walking as a participatory radicalisation of a determined and ongoing interest, involved in urban sociological struggles. The chapter employs Bangkok and Hong Kong as two case studies, addressing the discourse of which walking becomes a legitimate cultural force and negotiates with the authorities. Walking is undeniably different in cities of the Global South with notable cases of Hong Kong and Bangkok demonstrating how the sociological landscape of walking participates in responding to the political injustice and eagerness to express oneself or the collective desire. The practice of walking in Bangkok and Hong Kong marks the discursive change, where revolution against the state power is no longer understood as overthrowing the governing body; but instead, being seen as the creation of bonding and reclaiming the public space - highlighting the sense of space, place, and community across different scales of the urban environment. A walk down the streets connect people and the environment, inhibits the sociopolitical tissues, and questions the temporal void in the civic setting. This paper aims to investigate the relation of walking cities and their collective identity in pursuit of leisure of the ideals