Physical cultural studies (PCS) is a dynamic and rapidly developing field of study. This handbook offers the first definitive account of the state of the art in PCS, showcasing the latest research and methodological approaches. It examines the boundaries, preoccupations, theories and politics of PCS, drawing on transdisciplinary expertise from areas as diverse as sport studies, sociology, history, cultural studies, performance studies and anthropology.

Featuring chapters written by world-leading scholars, this handbook examines the most important themes and issues within PCS, exploring the active body through the lens of class, age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, medicine, religion, space and culture. Each chapter provides an overview of the state of knowledge in a particular subject area, while also considering possibilities for developing future research.

Representing a landmark contribution to physical cultural studies and allied fields, the Routledge Handbook of Physical Cultural Studies is an essential text for any undergraduate or postgraduate course on physical culture, sports studies, leisure studies, the sociology of sport, the body, or sport and social theory.

Michael L. Silk is a Professor of Sport and Social Sciences and Founder and Director of the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre (SPARC) at Bournemouth University, UK. His research is interdisciplinary and focuses on the relationships between sport, physical activity, the governance of bodies, mediated spectacles, identities and urban spaces. He has published over 100 research articles and has written numerous books including The Cultural Politics of Post-9/11 American Sport, Qualitative Research in Physical Culture, Sports Coaching Research, Sport and Neoliberalism, Sport and Corporate Nationalisms and Qualitative Research for Sports Studies.

David L. Andrews is a Professor of Physical Cultural Studies at the University of Maryland, USA. His research examines physical culture as a complex empirical assemblage (including, but not restricted to, sport, fitness, exercise, recreation, leisure, wellness, dance and health-related movement practices). His publications include Sport-Commerce-Culture, The Blackwell Companion to Sport and Sport and Neoliberalism. He serves as the associate editor of the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, and on the editorial boards of the Sociology of Sport Journal, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Communication and Sport and Leisure Studies.

Holly Thorpe is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Development and Movement Studies at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Her research interests include action sports, youth culture, women's health and critical sport for development studies. Running throughout these topics is a focus on the moving body, social theory and feminist theory. She has published over 60 journal articles and is the author of Transnational Mobilities in Action Sport Cultures and Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice. She has also co-edited the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports, the Greenwood Guides to Extreme Sport series and Women in Action Sport Cultures.

Introduction

Michael Silk, David L. Andrews and Holly Thorpe

Part I: Groundings

1. Historicizing Physical Cultural Studies

Patricia Vertinsky and Gavin Weedon

2. Power and Power Relations

Michael Atkinson and Kass Gibson

3. Theory and Reflexivity

Richard Pringle and Holly Thorpe

4. Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in PCS

Leslie Heywood

5. The Political Imperative of Feminism

Rebecca Olive

6. Praxis

Michael Silk and Joanne Mayoh

Part II: Practices

7. Therapeutic Movement / Leisure Practices

Stephanie Merchant

8. Exercise and Fitness Practices

Nick Crossley

9. Dance Practices

Pirkko Markula and Marianne Clarke

10. Lifestyle Sporting Cultures and Practices

Belinda Wheaton

11. (High-)Performance Sport

Jim Denison and J.P. Mills

Part III: Subjectified Bodies

12. Classed Bodies

Alan Bairner

13. Raced Bodies

Ben Carrington

14. Gendered Bodies

Clifton Evers and Jennifer Germon

15. Sexualized/Sexed Bodies

Megan Chawansky and Satoko Itani

16. [Dis]Abled Bodies

P. David Howe

17. Young Bodies

Louise McCuaig, Eimear Enright and Doune Macdonald

18. Ageing Bodies

Cassandra Phoenix

Part IV: Institutionalized Bodies

19. Medicalised and Scientized Bodies

Parissa Safai

20. Digital Bodies

Deborah Lupton

21. Spiritualized and Religious Bodies

Andrew Parker and Nick J. Watson

22. Aestheticized Bodies

Julia Coffey

23. Fat Bodies

Michael Gard

24. Mediated and Commodified Bodies

David Rowe

25. Spectacular and Eroticized Bodies

Toby Miller

26. Punished Corporal Bodies

Aaron L. Miller

Part V: Experiential Bodies

27. Injured, Pained and Disrupted Bodies

Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson

28. Risky/Risking Bodies

Mike Brown

29. Invisible (Women's) Bodies

Kim Toffoletti and Catherine Palmer

30. Affective and Pleasured Bodies

Adele Pavlidis

31. Mobile Bodies

Phil Jones

32. Pregnant Bodies

Shannon Jette

Part VI: Spaces

33. "Natural", Intimate and Sensory Landscapes

Gordon Waitt

34. Physical Cultural Studies, Sport and the Environment

Brian Wilson and Brad Millington

35. Urban and Securitised Spaces

Michael Silk and Andrew Manley

36. Healthified Spaces

Caroline Fusco

37. Affective Cities

Alan Latham and Derek P. McCormack

38. Exercise and Fitness Spaces

Roberta Sassatelli

39. Sport, Migration and Space

Thomas F. Carter

Part VII: Contexts and Sites of Embodied Practice

40. Mind/Body Relations

Simone Fullagar

41. Community and Physical Culture

Jacob J. Bustad and Bryan C. Clift

42. Physical Education, Policy and Embodied Pedagogies

Lisette Burrows and Laura De Pian

43. International Development and Policy

Simon C. Darnell

44. Global Mega-Events, Policy and Legacy

Barbara Schausteck de Almeida

45. Digital Mediation, Connectivity and Affective Materialities

Jessica Ringrose and Laura Harvey

Part VIII: Methodological Contingencies

46. Critical Discourse Analysis

Toni Bruce, Jenny Rankine and Raymond Nairn

47. Texts / Representation

Cheryl Cooky

48. Ethnographic Approaches

Ryan King-White

49. People in Contexts

Natalie Barker-Ruchti and Astrid Schubring

50. Narrative Inquiry and Autoethnography

Brett Smith

51. Poetry, Poiesis and Physical Culture

Katie Fitzpatrick

52. Sensory, Digital and Visual Methodologies

Sarah Pink, Vaike Fors and Martin Berg

53. Digital Media Methodologies

Steph MacKay

Part IX: Politics and Praxis

54. Physical Cultural Studies and Public Pedagogies

Emma Rich and Jennifer A. Sandlin

55. Critical Corporeal Curricula, Praxis and Change

Jessica Francombe-Webb, Michael Silk and Anthony Bush

56. Sport, Development, and Social Change

Shawn Forde, Devra Waldman, Lyndsay Hayhurst and Wendy Frisby

57. Corporate Social Responsibility

Roger Levermore

58. Embodiment and Reflexive Body Politics

Josh Newman and Michael Giardina

Afterword

Tara Brabazon