Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T07:18:09.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Healthy cities and instrumental leisure: the paradox of fitness gyms as urban phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Roberta Sassatelli
Roberta Sassatelli*
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
*
∗Email: roberta.sassatelli@unimi.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As urbanisation has come to characterise contemporary societies, large cities have become quite ambivalent places for the human species: they are removing the human body from its perceived natural condition, while increasingly attempting to provide a cure for the ills of a sedentary life. Fitness gyms are presented as the ‘natural' solution to our ‘unnatural' lifestyle as urban dwellers and as a therapeutic fix to the ills of metropolitan living. This paper deploys a mix of qualitative methods (ethnographic observation, interviews and discourse analysis) to explore fitness culture as an urban phenomenon. Using data from Italy and the UK, it develops a micro-sociology of the spatiality of the gym that helps to approach this institution from within, deconstructing those claims which contribute to its cultural location as a key ingredient in contemporary urban lifestyles. The paper first looks at how fitness culture is negotiated through the marshalling of structured variety within the spatiality and temporality of gyms. It then explores the specificity of fitness as urban, instrumental leisure as compared with other forms of active recreation or sports available in urban contexts. It finally considers, on the one hand, the way in which fitness activities are continuously renovated, drawing on the fields of both sport and popular culture and, on the other, the kind of subjectivity and embodiment that fitness culture normatively sustains.

Da quando i processi di urbanizzazione hanno cominciato a caratterizzare sempre più intensamente le società contemporanee, le grandi città sono diventate dei luoghi ambivalenti per la specie umana: stanno allontanando il corpo umano da una sua supposta condizione di ‘naturalità’ e al contempo stanno cercando di fornire un rimedio ai mali della vita sedentaria. Le palestre di fitness sono presentate come la soluzione ‘naturale’ ai nostri “innaturali” stili di vita di abitanti delle città e come una soluzione terapeutica per curare i mali della vita metropolitana. Questo saggio, sviluppato attraverso un mix di metodi qualitativi (osservazione etnografica, interviste e analisi del discorso), intende analizzare la cultura fitness come un fenomeno urbano. Utilizzando dati provenienti da ricerche svolte in Italia e nel Regno Unito, sviluppa una microsociologia della spazialità della palestra che favorisce una comprensione di questa istituzione dall'interno, consentendo di decostruire quelle affermazioni che contribuiscono al suo posizionamento culturale come elemento centrale degli stili di vita urbani contemporanei. L'articolo esamina in primo luogo il modo in cui la cultura fitness è negoziata attraverso l'organizzazione di una varietà strutturata all'interno della spazialità e della temporalità delle palestre. Successivamente esplora la specificità del fitness come forma di intrattenimento urbano strumentale rispetto ad altre forme di attività ricreative o sportive disponibili nei contesti urbani. Infine considera, da un lato, il modo in cui le attività di fitness sono continuamente rinnovate, attingendo anche agli ambiti dello sport e della cultura popolare e, dall'altro, il tipo di soggettività e di incorporamento che la cultura fitness normativamente realizza.

Keywords

fitness culturespatialityurban leisureembodimentnature
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 237 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreasson, J., and Johansson, T.. 2014. “The Fitness Revolution. Historical Transformations in the Global Gym and Fitness Culture.” Sport Science Review 23 (3–4): 91–111.Google Scholar
Andrieu, G. 1987. “La gymnastique commerciale.” In Les athlètes de la République, edited by Arnaud, P.. Toulouse: Bibliothèque Historique Private.Google Scholar
Ang, I. 1985. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Atkinson, M. F. 2009. “Parkour, Anarcho-Environmentalism, and Poiesis.” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 33 (2): 169–194. doi:10.1177/0193723509332582.Google Scholar
Beck, U., and Gernsheim, E.. 2001. Individualisation. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Boltanski, L., and Chiappello, E.. 1999. Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Bowman, P. 2010. “The Globalization of Martial Arts.” In Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation, edited by Green, T. A. and Svinth, J. R., 435–520. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC.Google Scholar
Caldwell, L. L. 2005. “Leisure and Health. Why is Leisure Therapeutic?” British Journal of Counselling and Psychology 1: 7–26.Google Scholar
Caplin, C. 1992. Il metodo holistix. Milan: Sperling & Kupfer.Google Scholar
Cella, G. 1989. Sentirsi in forma. Milan: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Chambat, P. 1987. “La gymnastique, sport de la République.” Esprit 125: 22–35.Google Scholar
Dant, T. 1998. “Playing with Things: Objects and Subjects in Windsurfing.” Journal of Material Culture 3 (1): 77–95. doi:10.1177/135918359800300104.Google Scholar
Defrance, J. 1976. “Esquisse d'une histoire sociale de la gymnastique (1760–1870).” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 2 (6): 22–46. doi:10.3406/arss.1976.3482.Google Scholar
Defrance, J. 1981. “Se fortifier pour se soumettre?” In Sport et société. Approche socio-culturelle de pratiques, edited by Pociello, C.. Paris: Vigot.Google Scholar
Dworkin, S. L. 2003. “A Woman's Place is in the Cardiovascular Room? Gender Relations, the Body and the Gym.” In Athletic Intruders: Ethnographic Research on Women, Culture and Exercise, edited by Bolin, A. and Granskog, J.. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Eichberg, H. 1998. Body Cultures. Essays on Sport, Space and Identity, edited by Bale, J. and Philo, C.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Elias, N., and Dunning, E.. 1986. The Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fine, G. A. 1998. Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1975. Discipline and Punish. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1984. L'usage des plaisirs. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. S. 1992. The Health Movement. Promoting Fitness in America. New York: Twayne Press.Google Scholar
Goodsell, A. 1995. Obiettivo forma. Milan: IdeaLibri.Google Scholar
Green, H. 1986. Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport and American Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Grover, K., ed. 1989. Fitness in American Culture. Images of the Health, Sport, and the Body 1830–1940. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Haley, B. 1979. The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, J. 1986. Sport, Power and Culture. A Social and Historical Analysis of Popular Sports in Britain. London: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, J. 1987. “The Body, Sport and Power Relations.” In Sport Leisure and Social Relations, edited by Horne, J., et al. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jackson Lears, T. 1981. No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture 1880–1920. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Landa, M. I. 2009. “Subjetividades y consumos corporales: un análisis de las prácticas del fitness in España y Argentina.” Razón y Palabra, 69.Google Scholar
Leeds Craig, M., and Liberti, R.. 2007. “‘Cause That's What Girls Do’: The Making of a Feminized Gym.” Gender & Society 21 (5): 676–699. doi:10.1177/0891243207306382.Google Scholar
Lupton, D. 1994. “Consumerism, Commodity Culture and Health Promotion.” Health Promotion International 9 (2): 111–118. doi:10.1093/heapro/9.2.111.Google Scholar
Maguire Smith, J. 2007. Fit for Consumption. Sociology and the Business of Fitness. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Markula, P. 2001. “Beyond the Perfect Body: Women's Body Image Distortion in Fitness Magazine Discourse.” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 25 (2): 158–179. doi:10.1177/0193723501252004.Google Scholar
Marshal, D. 2004. Bodydoctor. London: Harper-Collins.Google Scholar
Newcombe, S. 2009. “The Development of Modern Yoga: A Survey of the Field.” Religion Compass 3 (6): 986–1002. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00171.x.Google Scholar
Park, R. J. 1994. “A Decade of the Body: Researching and Writing about the History of Health, Fitness, Exercise and Sport, 1983–1993.” Journal of Sport History 21 (1): 59–82.Google Scholar
Pociello, C., ed. 1981. Sports et société. Approche socio-culturelle des pratiques. Paris: Vigot.Google Scholar
Punzo, M. 1992. La ginnastica energetica. Milan: De Vecchi.Google Scholar
Rabinbach, A. 1990. The Human Motor. Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rojek, C. 2000. Leisure and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2000. Anatomia della Palestra. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2001. “‘Tamed Hedonism: Choice, Desires and Deviant Pleasures’.” In Ordinary Consumption, edited by Warde, A. and Gronow, J., 93–106. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2002. “Corpi in pratica: habitus, interazione e disciplina.” Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia 3: 429–458.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2009. “Promotional Reflexivity, Irony, Defetishization and Moralization in The Body Shop Promotional Rhetoric.” In Cultural Studies, edited by Avellini, L. et al., 229–247. Bologna: I Libri di Emil.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2010. (2014 with new preface) Fitness Culture. Gyms and the Commercialization of Discipline and Fun. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2012. “Self and Body.” In Handbook of the History of Consumption, edited by Trentmann, F., 633–652. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sherman, J. 2009. “The Colour of Muscle: Multiculturalism at a Brooklyn Bodybuilding Gym.” In Everyday Multiculturalism, edited by Wise, A. and Velayutham, S., 161–176. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shove, E., and Pantzar, M.. 2005. “Consumers, Producers and Practices: Understanding the Invention and Reinvention of Nordic Walking.” Journal of Consumer Culture 5 (1): 43–64. doi:10.1177/1469540505049846.Google Scholar
Spielvogel, L. 2003. Working Out in Japan. Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Srivastava, S. 2011. “Urban Spaces, Disney-Divinity and the Moral Middle Classes in Delhi.” In Elite and Everyman: Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes, edited by Baviskar, A. and Ray, R., 364–390. New Delhi: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stebbins, R. A. 2009. “Serious Leisure and Work.” Sociology Compass, July.Google Scholar
Ulmann, J. 1971. De la gymnastique aux sports modernes. Histoire des doctrines de l'éducation physique. Paris: Librairie Philosophique.Google Scholar
Vigarello, G. 1978. Le corps redressé: histoire d'un pouvoir pédagogique. Paris: Delarge.Google Scholar
Vigarello, G. 1988. Une histoire culturelle du sport: techniques d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. Paris: Revue EPS.Google Scholar
Wacquant, L. 2004. Body and Soul: Ethnographic Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Willis, P. 1979. Profane Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar