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Power and the exercising body: a study of Foucalt and the gym experience

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Date
2004
Author
Laspia, Dimitra
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Abstract
 
 
This study is framed by the writings of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault on power and the body, particularly his Discipline and Punish (1979) and The History ofSexuality (1979-1990). It seeks to fill the void that these texts are said to have left as to the way we understand our bodies and their significance for our society. Our bodies are, according to Foucault, the ultimate and most important loci of the establishment and exercise of power. Power - identified in Foucault's work with changing social conditions, relations and rules - influences our attitudes towards, and the ways we treat, our bodies. Yet, Foucault is often accused of not always convincingly showing how our bodies - as affected by power - are felt by us and how they live the world. The same failing that characterises the work of Foucault seems to characterise also the field of sociology of the body; an area of knowledge that is about the body as caught up in the social order and which Foucault is credited with having founded in some way. This study seeks to redress this failing through an empirical investigation of the embodied experiences of regular gym users, using participant observation and interviews.
 
The main contribution of this study is twofold: First, by identifying the wide number of forces that bring people to the gym, it confirms the social character of power as presented by Foucault and further illuminates the idea of the social shaping of our bodies. But by exploring people's experiences of exercise, the study further reveals the materiality of the body, of how gym users live their bodies and how their bodies themselves live the world. Second, by looking at the variety of pains and pleasures associated with exercise and also at the knowledges that people gain through training, the study highlights the correctness of Foucault's argument that power should not only be seen as a repressive force but also as a productive one.
 
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http://hdl.handle.net/1842/29215
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