Work-leisure borders in post-industrial society: The study of leisure experience of homeworkers in China

There has been a growing popularity of the tele-based homeworking worldwide in recent years. Working at home brings work and non-work domains together and evokes some new debates on the border issue of work-leisure relationship since home has been considered as a center for leisure. Focusing on leisure in the non-work domain, this study aims to address two debates concerning work-leisure borders in the case of homeworking: 1) the blurring of borders─whether the borders are weakened or not by inviting work into the leisure center; 2) the border-setting behaviors on work and leisure domains in the wider social context of an overworking trend in the post-industrial era. Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews with 13 home-based teleworkers in shanghai, China, this study investigates how homeworkers in contemporary China perceive and make sense of their changing work-leisure borders and the paradoxical impacts of the change on their leisure experiences. One notable finding is that the respondents’ border-setting behaviors has little effect on shaping their leisure domain. Implications of findings for leisure studies are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Hong Kong Sociological Association 20th Annual Conference.