Pierre Bourdieu and Physical Culture

The work of French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu has been hugely influential across the set of cognate disciplines that can be classified as physical culture studies. Concepts such as field, capital, habitus and symbolic violence have been used as theoretical tools by scholars and students looking to understand the nature and purpose of sport, leisure, physical education and human movement within wider society.

Pierre Bourdieu and Physical Culture is the first book to focus on the significance of Bourdieu’s work for, and in, physical culture. Bringing together the work of leading and emerging international researchers, it introduces the core concepts in Bourdieu’s thought and work, and presents a series of fascinating case studies of the application of his theory to physical culture studies. A concluding section discusses the inherent difficulties of choosing and using theory to understand the world around us. By providing an in-depth and multi-layered example of how theory can be used across the many and varied components of sport, leisure, physical education and human movement, this book should help all serious students and researchers in physical culture to better understand the importance of social theory in their work.

lisahunter researches and teaches in movement, subjectivities, epistemology, research methods (participatory activist research, visual, narrative, sensory, (auto)ethnography), pedagogy, sex/gender/sexualities, and fields of sport/leisure, health, and education

Wayne Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Wayne drew on Bourdieu’s framework for his doctoral thesis and subsequent published articles

elke emerald is a Senior Lecturer in The School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Australia. elke's current research investigates the impacts of research on the researcher