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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: [email protected]
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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 

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