Ordinary Banana

really appreciating the perspective that takes hobbies, games, etc. as the load-bearing foundation of non-fascist civilization

Hmm this seems a bit at odds with the perspectives in for eg. Huizenga or Geertz Deep Play (the part about demands of politics/kinship/faith being excluded... IME they strongly define the context of play folkways)

yeah this is something different - what makes it modern in his view is the decoupling from the other spheres

So basically organized league style sports and games? The kind that peaked with Putnam's bowling-alone culture?

Putnam claimed it peaked in the 1950s iirc but I don't see why they can't exist in postmodernity (I'm on a sports league and I'm me lol)

I'm trying to figure out how modern domestic-cozy subculture around indie board game nights or small groups of video-gamers is different from the bowling league stuff. The latter had a much more... tocquevillean I suppose... org culture. The former seems more intimate somehow

tocquevillean exactly - the intimate kind is demanding in a different way

I think I make a distinction between group memberships which grant you things like membership cards and numbers (Gesellschaft orgs) and ones where your membership quality is a function of who networked you in, and how (Gemeinschaft orgs). Putnam was about the former in decline.