The Time Machine: Leisure Science (Fiction) and Futurology

There is a long, underlying presence of futurology—attempts to predict the future based on current or past events—throughout much of the leisure literature. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Leisure Sciences, I build on the work of futures scholars (e.g., Adam, 2008; Harrison, 2015) to explore how past ideas about the future have shaped the present. I revisit H. G. Wells's (1895) classic science fiction novel The Time Machine in view of recent trends and recurring debates (e.g., cybernation, (un)employment, the “leisure society,” and Universal Basic Income) that are (or were) forecast to shape the future. Throughout, I argue that the ways that leisure scholars envision the future have significant impact on the actions of the field and its practitioners today

Are the major global banks now safer? Structural continuities and change in banking and finance since the 2008 crisis

Are the largest banks now safer since the Global Financial Crisis? Focusing on a ‘before’ (2005) and ‘after’ (2015) balance sheet analysis of twenty-one of the largest American, British and European banks, we assess post-crisis banking stability. Much of the literature focuses on post-crisis regulation, but we argue instead the main driver of change since the crisis has been structural conditions in banking and financial markets, particularly high levels of competition, bleak profit and share price conditions, and the largely unsolved too big to fail problem. Older as well as new forms of systemic risk thus prevail and many of the global banks still face major vulnerabilities