Physical activity as leisure: legal/human rights, public health, and phenomenological perspectives

Epistemological fragmentation constrains a comprehensive understanding of physical activity as leisure as a human right. This theoretical essay distinguishes free time physical activity, understood as a temporal and social domain, from physical activity as leisure, understood as a subjective and meaning-laden experience. To examine this distinction, the article brings into dialogue three perspectives often treated separately: legal, public health and health promotion policy, and phenomenological. The analysis adopts a hermeneutic approach inspired by Gadamer and draws on Bourdieu and Fairclough as critical lenses attentive to struggles over legitimacy and to the stabilization of dominant categories. Brazil is used as an analytical case to critically engage international frameworks. The findings show that each perspective is necessary yet insufficient in isolation, making their articulation both epistemologically and politically necessary.