‘Weather work’: embodiment and weather learning in a national outdoor exercise programme

Over the past 25 years, UK government policy exhortations to promote and increase exercise and physical activity levels in the population have increased in volume. In recent years, too, there has been growing sociological interest in exercise and physical activity embodiment issues, including within phenomenologically-inspired research into lived-body experiences. This article contributes original insights to a developing body of phenomenological-sociological empirical work in this domain, in addressing the lived experience of organised exercise in outdoor environments, and specifically in theorising the role of ‘lived weather’ in contouring these experiences. It thus addresses the call by Vannini et al. (2012) to remedy the notable ‘absent-presence’ of weather in much social science research. Drawing upon data from a two-year multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional ethnographic study of a nationwide exercise programme in Wales, UK, this article examines participants’ (n = 146) lived experience of weather, and theorises their ‘weather learning’, and ‘weather work’, both of which emerged as highly salient in the findings

Sensing the outdoors: a visual and haptic phenomenology of outdoor exercise embodiment

In recent years, there has been a burgeoning of academic interest in exercise embodiment issues, including a developing field of phenomenologically inspired analyses of the lived body experience of physical activity and exercise. Calls have been made for researchers to explore the sensory dimension of such embodiment, and a corpus of sensory ethnographic studies is now beginning to grow, focusing on the ways in which people engage in ‘making sense of the senses’ within a sociocultural framework. This article contributes to a developing body of phenomenological-sociological empirical work on the sensory dimension, by addressing the lived experience of organised physical activities in ‘natural’ outdoor leisure environments. We draw upon the findings from a two-year ethnographic study of a Welsh national physical activity programme, ‘Mentro Allan/Venture Out’, which aimed to increase physical activity levels amongst specific ‘target groups’. Based on fieldwork and on interviews (n = 68) with Programme participants, here our analytic focus is upon the visual and the haptic dimensions of sensory engagement with organised outdoor leisure activities, including experiences of ‘intense embodiment’

Children’s use of public spaces and the role of the adult – a comparison of play ranging in the UK, and the leikkipuisto (Play Parks) in Finland

This paper compares the use of public space in the UK and Finland (Leikkipuisto). This is considered with regards to Playranging in the UK and the Ohjaaja in Finlan

Fog of Sex

Synopsis: Student sex workers talk. Based on exhaustive research interviews, FOG OF SEX brings to the screen the real life testimonies of students currently working within the UK sex industry. Three years in the making, this documentary drama recreates the stories and experiences of nine female sex workers who balance a life in Higher Education, with life as a sex worker. To preserve anonymity the student sex workers are played by actors, all the dialogue however is verbatim, drawn directly from the interview transcripts. This frank and constantly surprising film does not judge and does not take sides – it presents the stories ‘as they were told’ and leaves room for the audience to decide. FOG OF SEX is directed by BAFTA award winning filmmaker Christopher Morris. The film is entirely researched, produced and filmed by staff, graduates and students of Newport Film School. The film is made as part of The Student Sex Work Project, a lottery funded research study run by Swansea University