Body Pedagogics, Transactional Identities and Human–Animal Relations

The sociology of the body developed as a reaction against Cartesian conceptions of homo clausus that haunted disciplinary thought in the late 20th century but exhibited anthropocentric tendencies in neglecting non-human animals. Building upon recent attempts to address this situation, I develop a transactional approach towards body pedagogics that explores how the shifting borders governing human–animal relations influence people’s embodied identities. Transactions between humans and (other) animals have been an historic constant across contrasting societies, but the patterning of these exchanges is framed by specific cultural body pedagogics. Focusing on the institutional means, characteristic experiences and corporeal outcomes of ‘civilising’ and ‘companionate’ human–animal body pedagogics, I explore the identity-shaping impact of these different modalities of inter-species inter-corporeality and demonstrate the sociological utility of this transactional approach.

Embodiment, Relationality and Epistemics: Observations from Alexander Technique Training in Music Master Classes

Following Shilling’s arguments on body pedagogics in sociology, we show how the negotiation of epistemic concerns is central to our understanding of practices of embodied interaction. Using conversation analytic methods, we examine audio and visual data from recordings of tuition in the Alexander Technique to accomplished amateur musicians. Our analysis builds on previous research on the body in pedagogic contexts, and focuses on embodied and discourse practices through which imperceptible changes to the body are warranted, the management of recruitment and agreement to embodied change, and the use of embodied mimicry. We position our approach as a rapprochement between the concerns of the sociology of the body and interactional studies of embodied action.

Physical education and sports for the physically disabled in terms of body sociology

Body sociology is a branch of sociology that studies the human body's relationship with the factors that make up society. It also investigates the position of disabled individuals in society. Because according to the sociology of the body, the body is a phenomenon that has a meaning in society. Therefore, the dynamics, norms and values of the society directly affect people's body perception. This study aims to explain the importance of physical education and sports for disabled people according to the basic principles and theories of physical education sociology. For this study, data compiled from different sources in sports and sociology related to the subject of physical education and disabilities were collated. Therefore, the study's limitation conducted using the analytical method is that it is a compilation study conducted in a theoretical framework.

Formation of sociology of the body in France: M. Moss, A. Lerois-Guran, K. Levi-Stross, M. Fuko

Making the sociology of the body as an independent scientific discipline based on the work of the French social anthropology. Problematization of physicality in anthropology actually begins with the category of “techniques of the body”. This concept was first introduced in the scientific turnover by the French anthropologist and ethnographer Marcel moss. Described techniques are based on extensive ethnographic material on the basis of which he formulates two basic classifications. After Moss, the category of “techniques of the body” continues to develop his student Andre Leroy-Gourhan and exploring physicality through the lens of instrumentality. This article also presents a description of the work “Techniques of the body” by French ethnologist K. Levi-Stross and his overall assessment of the work of M. moss, with personal additions and comments.As previously indicated, the problematization of the “body”, founded by M. moss in anthropology, became the Foundation for building theories that work with physicality and in other disciplines. In the present work shows the transition on an interdisciplinary level. It is associated with the figure of the French philosopher, historian and sociologist Michel Foucault. The body in his concept considers as the object of power. Continuing the tradition established by its predecessors in the mainstream of anthropology, Foucault brings the issue of physicality to a new level, laying the foundations of the sociology of the body.Showing that the body is not just an appendage, but a full-fledged object of study, M. moss not only expanded the subject field of anthropology to include physicality, but also opened the opportunity to develop this category for sociology, linguistics, psychology, history, religion and other disciplines.

Toward a Sociology of the Body

This essay is designed to establish the theoretical framework and goals for The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, foremost of which is delineating what a sociology of the body must entail. Critically, a sociology of the body must recognize bodies as both cause and consequence of societal forces. It must also investigate how bodies change in response to their surroundings: not just through the centuries-long process of evolution but within a single individual’s lifetime. We also suggest not only a sociology of the body but also the body in sociology. This approach holds that consideration of bodies—including both the body of the researcher as well as that of the researched—can help to enrich sociological understandings of a wide range of social dynamics and institutions. In sociological subfields ranging from law to labor, and from medicine to migration, attending to the social body has the potential to newly illuminate the mechanisms that underlie our social institutions. This handbook’s early chapters focus primarily on method, debating and elaborating the method(s) that the authors find most useful for studying the body in society. Subsequent chapters shift focus toward the presentation of empirical findings and analysis, but with a continuing focus on detailing their methodological choices and innovations. A detailed outline exploring the twenty-seven chapters of the handbook is provided in this essay.

Auf den Leib eingeschrieben, auf das Foto gebannt? – Fotografische Konturen des muslimischen Leibes in Russisch-Mittelasien vor 1917. Ein Versuch zur historischen Körpersoziologie

AbstraktInscribed on the body, locked within the photo? – Photographic contours of Muslim body in Russian Central Asia before 1917. An essay of historical sociology of the bodyDer folgende Beitrag besteht aus zwei Teilen. Im ersten Teil werden sowohl theoretische Überlegungen und Konzepte wie auch methodologische Annäherungen an das oben angekündigte Thema vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil werden ausgewählte historische Ansichtskartenfotografien aus Russisch-Mittelasien vor 1917 praxeologisch (praxistheoretisch) analysiert mit dem Ziel, relevante historische Inhalte zu generieren. Der Zeitraum der Analyse orientiert sich an dem Aufkommen der Ansichtskarte an der Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert. In dieser Zeit etabliert sie sich in Europa bzw. Russland als das erste globale Massenkommunikationsmedium.Holzheid 2011.

Gender and Bodies

Scholars from various disciplines (anthropology, gender studies, history, philosophy, and sociology, among others) have written about gender and bodies. The interdisciplinary nature of this topic has resulted in scholarship on many different aspects of the body across the life course. The works included here are foundational to knowledge about the gendered body and particularly the sociology of the body. Moreover, they exhibit intersectionality and begin with the assumption that social constructs such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, and dis/ability intersect with gender to shape life experiences, social outcomes, and self-concept. While there are many areas that fall under the topic of gender and bodies (such as medicalization, sport, disability, gendered violence, sexual practices, and eating disorders) this article focuses particularly on theory and research on the social construction of female and male bodies, as well as bodies that disrupt sex, gender, and sexuality binaries, i.e., intersex and LGBTQ Bodies. Specifically, there is an abundance of scholarship that examines how social and cultural structures patrol normative femininities and hegemonic masculinities thereby reinforcing binary understandings of sex and gender. Nonetheless, there is some work that emphasizes the undoing of gender, social activism, and embodied resistance. Writings on gendered constructs and the body also examine how some bodies are privileged over others, showing a body hierarchy based on, for example, beauty, skin tone, and body size that furnishes some people with physical capital while disadvantaging others. Finally, the article acknowledges research and theory that engages labor-related processes about the body; the body as a modification project (including body building, tattooing, and Cosmetic Surgery); and the role of medical and other technologies on gendered bodies and lives.

Men and their groomed body

Purpose This study aims to offer insights into the embodied concerns that underpin men’s personal grooming practices through which they experience their body as the “existential ground of culture and self” and manage their everyday bodily presentation. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses 16 interviews with male consumers of age between 20 and 76. The interpretative analysis is informed by both Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the body-subject and the sociology of the body as discursively constituted. Findings This study proposes four bodily identity positions that link individual personal grooming practices to specific embodied concerns. These bodily identity positions underline the different ways the male body is called upon to carve out a meaningful existence. Research limitations/implications The research findings are not intended to generalise or to be exhaustive. Rather, it is hoped that they may stimulate readers to think more deeply about the role of the body in aiding male consumers to seek maximum grip on their life-world. Practical implications The study findings provide marketers with rich narratives for brand positioning and image development beyond the traditional sexual and/or alpha male-themed marketing and advertising. They also offer preliminary insights for mental health practitioners into how the male body shapes men’s identity development and experiences of well-being. Originality/value The study identifies the different ways personal grooming can become assimilated into an individual’s system of beliefs and practices. It also offers empirical support for a definition of the body as active and acted upon, especially with respect to male grooming.

Race, Phenotype, and Nationality in Brazil and the United States

In recent decades, there have been substantial developments in the sociologies of the body and race. However, race has been understudied in sociology of the body at the same time that the sociology of race has not often explored the influence of phenotypical differences on individuals’ experiences and outcomes. Using ethnographic data from interviews with seventy-three Brazilians in Governador Valadares, this chapter illustrates how race and phenotype shape perceptions of Brazilian and American nationality and discrimination in Brazil and the United States. In so doing, the findings show that researchers cannot assess race in each context without incorporating the body. Thus, more theoretical leverage can be gained in each subfield by merging both literatures to better understand the crucial role that the body and race play in racialized societies.