Living through history: A process model of identity construction in Napoleonic reenactments

This study investigates how participants construct their identities in Napoleonic battle reenactments, applying the Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) as a theoretical lens. It draws on an eight-year multi-site ethnography (2016–2024) encompassing field observation and 23 semi-structured interviews with reenactors. An ethnographic, SLP-informed thematic analysis indicates that durable benefits—enhancement of self-image, regeneration or recreation, and social interaction or belongingness—lay the foundation to construct serious leisure identities. entry motives orient exploratory effort; social validation operates throughout to shape how effort yields durable benefits and consolidates identity construction; and consolidated identities mobilize further effort that first renews durable benefits, which then stabilizes identity. This finding specifies the sequencing and feedback dynamics through which durable benefits contribute to identity construction.