Introduction: [Re]positioning second homes within leisure studies

Nearly 40 years ago, Coppock (1977) produced his ground-breaking Second Homes: Curse or Blessing? which, at the time, brought together in one volume the collective knowledge of second home scholars around the world. In the early years of scholarship, research was predominantly focused on describing the spatial distribution of second homes and the demographics and motivations of owners. Almost 30 years later, Hall and Müller (2004) brought together the controversial notions of elitism and egalitarianism in second homes in their edited volume Tourism, Mobility and Second Homes: Between Elite Landscape and Common Ground. New research directions in this volume included the investigation of deeper, more nuanced understandings surrounding the meanings associated with second home ownership (Quinn 2004), and the addressing of issues associated with mobility and social justice (Halseth 2004). Second home research has now also begun to emerge from countries and regions hitherto invisible to the academic gaze such as South Africa, Russia and Ireland (Visser 2003; Fitz Gerald 2005; Nefedova and Pallot 2013). Even in countries where second homes are presented as an integral part of society, a (somewhat) normative experience, such as Norway, Finland and New Zealand, researchers are now questioning such representations of national identity (Abram 2012; Pitkänen 2008). However, even though the underlying raison d’être of the majority of second homes may be recreation and leisure, this link seems to have largely been overlooked or forgotten; second home studies have been largely absent from the leisure studies literature. Our initial call for papers drew a gratifying response with nearly 30 abstracts received (thank you to all contributors) and it was with much discussion and careful thought that our shortlist was selected.