Physical Culture, Power, and the Body

During the past decade, there has been an outpouring of books on 'the body' in society, but none has focused as specifically on physical culture - that is, cultural practices such as sport and dance within which the moving physical body is central.

Questions are raised about the character of the body, specifically the relation between the ‘natural’ body, the ‘constructed’ body and the ‘alien’ or ‘virtual’ body. The themes of the book are wide in scope, including:

physical culture and the fascist bodysport and the racialised bodysport medicine, health and the culture of riskthe female Muslim sporting body, power, and politicsexperiencing the disabled sporting bodyembodied exhibitions of striptease and sportthe social logic of sparringsport, girls and the neoliberal body.Physical Culture, Power, and the Body aims to break down disciplinary boundaries in its theoretical approaches and its readership. The author’s muli-disciplinary backgrounds, demonstrate the widespread topicality of physical culture and the body.