Seeking the Senses in Physical Culture

This is the first book to explore a broad conception of the 'senses' and related issues on embodiment within physical cultures, providing vivid examples of sensory scholarship in action from sport, physical activity, leisure and recreation. This book brings together leading figures to explore important questions on how we go about seeking the senses, how we engage in somatic work, and how, via cross-modal experiences, we create meanings and come to understand ourselves and others in a variety of social settings. This ground breaking collection showcases the latest sensory research in physical culture as well as paving the way for future work in this area.

Andrew C. Sparkes is Professor of Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He has published extensively in international peer reviewed journals on the topic of embodiment and identity transformation over time and in differing sets of circumstance. He has also published widely on qualitative methodologies in general, and narrative, ethnographic and autoethnographic approaches in particular. Andrew has written and edited numerous books including Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health: From process to product; The Routledge Handbook of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise; and Advances in Biographical Methods: Creative applications, all published by Routledge

1. Researching the Senses in Physical Culture: Charting the territory and locating an emerging field [Andrew C. Sparkes] 2. Making Sense of the Primal Scream: Sensory peak performance and the affective drama of athletic competitions [Phillip Vannini] 3. Running a Temperature: Sociological-phenomenological perspectives on distance running, thermoception and 'temperature work' [John Hockey and Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson] 4. Ethnoaesthesia: Ashtanga Yoga and the sensuality of sweat [Michael Atkinson] 5. Sensing Our Way through Ocean Sailing, Windsurfing and Kayaking: Tales of emplaced sensual kinaesthesia [Barbara Humberstone, Karen Fox and Mike Brown] 6. Performing the Sensory Body in a Tandem Cycling Group: Social dialogues between blindness and sight [Gili Hammer] 7. Glow Sport: Re-configuring perception of space in sport and leisure practice [Stephanie Merchant] 8. 'It's only gay if you make eye contact': The regulation of touch in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu [Jan Dutkiewicz and Dale C. Spencer] 9. Mixed Martial Arts Coaches and Sensory Pedagogies [Anu M. Vaittinen] 10. Researching the Senses in Physical Culture and Producing Sensual Scholarship: Methodological challenges and possibilities [Andrew C. Sparkes]