Sports – Shaping Urban Social Spaces

Social Inclusion – Social Exclusion: Physical Exercise as Means between Strengthening Individuals and Integration into Collectivities – Shaping Urban Social Spaces

had been the title of the presentation I gave during the

2015 Annual Conference of the International Journal of the History of Sports — Sport, Urbanization and Social Stratification in Asian Society which took place on November 27th – 28th in Nanchang, China.

Abstract:

Physical exercise, beyond the mere physical aspect, is very much a social construct. But moreover it is also a means of constructing the social and as such it can be used in different ways. The presentation, taking a broad comparative perspective, will reflect on two major possibilities: we may call the one social inclusion as subordination and we can look at the other as matter of social inclusion by strengthening individuals. – This also allows us developing an understanding of new dangers of exclusion in the era of liquid modernity.

The audio of the presentation can be found here, and here are the related slides of the presentation.