MA533 The Social Body, Physical Activity and Health (10 ECTS) 

Course facts

Course code
MA533
Course title
The Social Body, Physical Activity and Health
ECTS
10 ECTS
Semester
Fall
Course language
English
Academic responsible
Fiona Dowling
Prerequisite
The course is limited to students in the Masters Programme and international exchange students.

Introduction

This course aims to provide students with knowledge about recent social theories of the body, and in particular the medicalised body. It will critically explore the contention that sport and physical activity are becoming medicalised and an important part of public health promotion, which increasingly relies upon individualised notions of health. It will address how digital wearable technologies are becoming integral to public health messages about the significance of active lifestyles, and how such technologies can affect people’s social and embodied identities.

The course is relevant for students who plan to work in a range of sports and physical activity settings, such as in sports coaching, teaching (Physical Education, Sport, and Health), and physical activity and health promotion. It is also relevant for students interested in developing a general understanding of the social body and physical culture.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing the course, students should be able to

  • understand the range of social theories about the body
  • know the ideology of sport-health and how it affects physical activity and health promotion
  • know how digital wearable technologies can influence individuals’ embodied identities and physical activity
  • identify and critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of a range of social theories about the body, and physical activity and health promotion
  • critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of social theory about the use of digital wearable technology in physical activity and health promotion
  • present orally and write about matters of the social body, physical activity and health promotion 

Learning styles and activities

The course will be organised a series of lectures, seminars and group exercises/ presentations. 

Mandatory assignment

Students are expected to actively contribute to the seminar.

There will be compulsory coursework. The coursework will be assessed as approved/ not approved. Approving the coursework will not be a prerequisite for taking the exam, but must be approved in order to pass the entire course. 

Assessment

An individual, written examination (7 days long) with access to resources. Graded A-F. 

Core material

Core Literature:

1 BOOK:
Shilling, C. (2012). The body and social theory (3rd ed.). Sage.
* You may borrow the book from the library: ORIA
** The book is also available online: Click here to download.
*** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

PARTS FROM 5 BOOKS:
Lupton, D. (1995). The Imperative of health: Public health and the regulated body. Sage.
Please redad pages 16-105 and 131-181:
* The book is only available online: Click here to download.
** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Malcolm, D. (2017). Sport, medicine and health: The medicalization of sport? Routledge.
Please read pages 1-100:
* You may borrow the book from the library: ORIA
** The book is also available online: Click here to download.
*** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Markula, P., & Pringle, R. (2006). Foucault, sport and exercise. Power, knowledge and transforming the self. Routledge.
Please read pages 51-107:
* You may borrow the book from the library: ORIA
** The book is also available online: Click here to download.
*** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Tinning, R. (2010). Pedagogy and human movemen: Theory, practice, research. Routledge.
Please read pages 85-183:
* You may borrow the book from the library: ORIA
** The book is also available online: Click here to download.
*** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Williams, S., & Bendelow, G. (1998). The lived body: Sociological themes, embodied issues. Routledge.
Please read pages 9-93 and 113-130:
*The book is available online: Click here to download.
** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

1 DIGITAL COMPENDIUM - Available through Canvas:
Dowling, F. (Ed.). (2023). MA533: The social body, physical activity and health: Fall 2023 [Digital compendium].
* The PDF is available through Canvas.

The reference list for the digital compendium, alfabetical in APA-style 7th ed.:
Berthelot, J. (1991). Sociological discourse and the body. In M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth & B.Turner, B. (Eds). The body: Social process and cultural theory (pp. 390-404). Sage.

Featherstone, M. (1991). The body in consumer Cclture. In M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth & B.Turner, B. (Eds). The body: Social process and cultural theory (pp. 170-196). Sage.

Friis Thing, L. (2008). Exercise prescription and the clinical governance of social and ethnic bodies. In C. Hallinan & S. Jackson (Eds.), Social and cultural diversity in a sporting world (pp. 193-210). Emerald.

Lupton, D. (2017). Digital bodies. In M. Silk, D. Andrews & H. Thorpe (Eds.), Routledge handbook of physical cultural studies (pp. 200-208). Routledge.

Phoenix, C. (2017). Ageing bodies. In M. Silk, D. Andrews & H. Thorpe (Eds.), Routledge handbook of physical cultural studies (pp. 179-187). Routledge.

Rich, E., Lewis, S. & Miah, A. (2020). Digital health technologies, body pedagogies and material-discursive relations f young people’s learning about health. In D. Leahy, K. Fitpatrick & J. Wright (Eds). Social theory and health education: Forging new insights in research (pp. 182-195). Routledge. 

Safai, P. (2017). Medicalized and scientized bodies. In M. Silk, D. Andrews & H. Thorpe (Eds). Routledge handbook of physical cultural studies (pp. 191-199). Routledge.

Synnott, A. (1993). The body social: Symbolism, self and society. Routledge.
Pages 7-72.

5 ARTICLES IN ELECTRONIC JOURNALS:

* NB! To open the electronic articles off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Ajana, B. (2017). Digital health and the biopolitics of the quantified self. Digital Health, 3, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207616689509
* The article is available online: Click here to download.

Lupton, D. (2013). Quantifying the body: Monitoring and measuring health in the age of mHealth technologies. Critical Public Health, 23(4), 393-403. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2013.794931
* The PDF is in Canvas.
(OK based on §15 of the Copyright Law)

Monaghan, L. (2008). Men, physical activity and the obesity discourse: Critical understandings from a qualitative study. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25(1), 97-129. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.25.1.97
* The article is available online: Click here to download.

Owens, J. & Cribb, A. (2019). ‘My fitbit thinks I can do better!’ Do Hhealth promoting wearable technologies support personal autonomy? Philosophy and Technology, 32, 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-017-0266-2
* The article is available online: Click here to download.

Walseth, K. & Tidslevold, T. (2020). Young women’s constructions of valued bodies: Healthy, athletic, beautiful and dieting bodies. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(6), 703-725. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690218822997
* The article is available online: Click here to download.