In this paper, we explore how physically disabled youth who participate in mainstream education discursively construct and position themselves in relation to dominant discourses about sport and physicality that mark their bodies as "abnormal" and "deviant". We employ a feminist poststructuralist perspective to analyze the…

Globally, paediatric obesity causes widespread concern, and the role of ethnicity is an important focus. Investigating how culture can mediate health-related behaviour through ideas about bodies, food and physical activity, while addressing a notion that the Pakistani community in Norway is particularly conservative and slow to change, this…

Based on quantitative data from the Norwegian Statistisk Sentralbyrå (Statistics Norway) study of "Mosjon, Friluftsliv og Kulturaktiviteter," this paper explores trends in Norwegians' participation in sports, with a focus on young people. Norway boasts particularly high levels of sports participation as well as sports club…

Recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention to minority pupils and their experience of physical education (PE). UK research identifies specific challenges related to Muslim pupils' participation in PE. In Norway, little research has been undertaken on Muslim pupils' experiences in PE, something this paper hopes to redress…

This paper seeks to animate discussion around how social class operates with adolescent girls from low socio-economic status backgrounds to shape and inform their decisions about participation in physical activity (PA) inside and outside of school. Examining the instance of girls in a single secondary school in an Australian regional town, the…

In this paper, I discuss [transgender] young men's social, physical and embodied experiences of sport. These discussions draw from interview research with two young people who prefer to self-identify as "male" and not as "trans men", although they do make use of this term. Finn and Ed volunteered to take part in the…

Research suggests that girls are disengaged in physical education due to the "traditional" way that it is taught, i.e. teacher-centred approaches with a primary focus on motor performance. In contrast, Cooperative Learning, a student-centred pedagogy focusing on learning in multiple domains, has had success in engaging girls in physical…

Obesity discourse provides a commonly recycled rationale for multiple, ostensibly well-intended, interventions. Formal educational settings sometimes operate as sites for these biopedagogies which putatively promote "good health" among young people as they transition to "responsible" adulthood. Yet, regulation and control, or…

This paper explores the role of reflexivity in habituation by contrasting the learning of aerobics and basketball with the acquisition of gendered bodily skills. The discussion is inspired by the paper "So, how did Bourdieu learn to play tennis? Habitus, consciousness and habituation," by Noble and Watkins (2003), which represents a…

Looked-after children are arguably one of the most disadvantaged groups in society and constitute a "hidden group" in relation to sport and physical activity research, policy and practice. Research on looked-after children has explored the views of caregivers, practitioners and policy-makers who have often been asked to speak for…

Coach-athlete romantic relationships and consensual sexual relations are commonly accepted among coaches and athletes, although a growing number of sport organisations discourage or prohibit such relationships. In research, coach-athlete sexual relationships are lumped together with sexual abuse, suggested to harm athletes' well-being,…

The sport-for-development movement has grown exponentially in the last decade generating increasing academic attention. However, existing research has rarely sought the views of young people despite them being both the main target audience of initiatives and frequently the deliverers. This paper seeks to address young people's absence within…

This article emerges from a background of UK policy concerns about young people's participation in physical activity. It rehearses the arguments for lifestyle sports as a rich ground for enhancing students' engagement with physical education (PE). A review of the still limited literature suggests that lifestyle sports may have an…

This paper contributes to sport, sociology and the body literature by exploring the "exposure and effect" of culture, in particular bodily practices placed on three adolescent swimmers immersed in the Australian swimming culture using an ethnographic framework. The research reported is particularly notable as it addresses two distinct time points…

Our research examines the relationship among identity, age, gender and athleticism through a study of the association between sports clothing and the identity work of pre-adolescent female soccer players. Based on participant-observation and interviews conducted at three co-ed youth soccer camps, we find that age is an important element of…