Running Cultures: Racing in Time and Space Contributor(s): Bale, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 0714684244 ISBN-13: 9780714684246 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $78.84 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2004 Annotation: Running is one of the world's most widely practised sports and recreations. This book 'reads between the lines' of both running and some of its textual and visual representations. It deals with the runner's body and also with the globalisation of running and its practitioners. Although it focuses mainly on serious running, it also examines alternative forms of the sport such as jogging. Drawing on a variety of sources including literature, poetry, art, sculpture, statistics and training manuals, Running Cultures breaks new ground in several ways. It introduces the work of the renowned humanistic geographer Yi-Fu Tuan to the field of sports studies, provides new 'ways of seeing' familiar sporting phenomena, and brings sport into the realm of the humanities. Despite its focus on running, Running Cultures will be of interest to teachers, students and researchers in all sports. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Sports & Recreation | Track & Field - Sports & Recreation | Running & Jogging |
Dewey: 796.42 |
LCCN: 2004046873 |
Series: Sport in the Global Society |
Physical Information: 0.57" H x 6.7" W x 9.14" (0.79 lbs) 228 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Running is one of the world's most widely practiced sports and recreations but until now it has intended to elude serious study outside of the natural sciences. John Bale brings the sport into the realm of the humanities by drawing on sources including literature, poetry, film, art and sculpture as well as statistics and training manuals to highlight the tensions, ambiguities and complexities that lie hidden beneath the commonplace notion of running. The text explores both local and personal, as well as communal and global aspects of running and its practitioners. It examines the streets, tracks and stadiums where athletes run, the races in which they compete, and the running relationships such as exist between the athlete and the coach, between runners and between the athlete and spectator. It discusses the importance of speed and records, how running has been used to symbolise resistance and transgression, and the extent to which it can be associated with a healthy lifestyle. Running Cultures provides new ways of seeing a familiar sporting phenomenon. it will appeal to both students and researchers with an interest in running in particular, and sport and leisure cultures more generally. |