Cassandra Phoenix

Seeing the world of physical culture: the potential of visual methods for qualitative research in sport and exercise

Readers should also refer to the journal’s website at http://www.informaworld.com/rqrs and check volume 2, issue 2 to view the visual material in colour. Adopting visual methods can enhance our understanding of the social world. By encompassing a multitude of forms including photographs, videos, maps, diagrams, symbols and so forth, images can provide specific information about our existence. They can also act as powerful indicators regarding the multiple meanings embedded within our culture. One domain where the use of visual methods has been less well documented is that of physical culture. Physical culture is taken here to mean human physical movement occurring within recognised cultural domains such as sport, dance and, more broadly, outdoor and indoor recreational activities involving expression through physicality. Opening this special edition of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise on ‘Visual Methods in Physical Culture’s’, I provide some broad responses to the following questions: What are visual methods? Why might they be useful? How can they be utilised? I then outline some ongoing debates within the field surrounding issues of interpretation, representation and ethics. I conclude by positioning this special edition as a resource to assist with the continued use of visual methods in physical culture.

Pleasure: A forgotten dimension of physical activity in older age

Pleasure is an under-researched and under theorized concept within health and health-related areas, particularly in relation to physical activity in older age. This gap is addressed here. The paper forms part of a larger qualitative project conducted between March 2011 and July 2013 within which fifty-one physically active older adults (age sixty to ninety-two years) were interviewed about their experiences of physical activity. Twenty-seven of these participants were also involved in a photo elicitation exercise whereby they responded to photographic images of themselves doing their activity. The paper reports in-depth on one of the themes - pleasure - that was initially identified through a rigorous categorical-content analysis of this data. An original typology of pleasure for physical activity in older age is developed, which details four significant ideal types of pleasure: sensual pleasure; documented pleasure; the pleasure of habitual action; and the pleasure of immersion. The implications of this typology for debates around embodiment, affect, and narratives of ageing are discussed in relation to health promotion and future research in this underserved area.

The problem with truth in qualitative interviews: reflections from a narrative perspective

This paper considers the narrative complexity of the telling–listening process that unfolds in qualitative interviews in sport and exercise sciences. Acknowledging the narrative complexity of memory itself, it critiques the perhaps implicit assumption in many researchers’ minds that interviewees’ responses to interviewers’ questions are to be taken as ‘the truth’ in some simple, straightforward manner. By the same token, it concludes by arguing that truth is ultimately no less problematic an issue in quantitative research than it is in qualitative research, merely problematic in a different way.

Green space, health and wellbeing:making space for individual agency

This essay examines the assumptions of green space use underpinning much existing green space and health research. It considers opportunities to move the field forward through exploring two often overlooked aspects of individual agency: the influence of shifting life circumstances on personal wellbeing priorities and place practices, and the role of personal orientations to nature in shaping how green space wellbeing opportunities are perceived and experienced. It suggests such efforts could provide more nuanced insights into the complex, personal factors that define and drive individual choices regarding the use of green spaces for wellbeing over time, thereby strengthening our understanding of the salutogenic potential (and limits) of green spaces.

Dialogue, monologue, and boundary crossing within research encounters: A performative narrative analysis

Abstract Drawing on qualitative sports research, we present two stories in this article to explore how researchers may orient to boundaries within research encounters and perform boundary crossing and re‐crossings. The performative narrative analysis of the stories highlights the fluidly shifting dynamics of sustaining and crossing boundaries and how this ongoing process is shaped by dialogical and monological relations. Through our analysis, we suggest that questions concerning “how close is too close” to research participants and “how far is too far” from them are neither simple nor straightforward. These questions are complex and shift in time and space, ebbing and flowing, as people move between merging and unmerging, self‐sufficiency and non‐self‐sufficiency, and finalizing and unfinalizing practices that colonize and de‐colonize. Some reflections on what might be learned from theories of dialogue and boundary crossings within the domain of sport and exercise psychology in relation to colonizing practices, empathy, and claiming the final work are provided

Sporting bodies, ageing, narrative mapping and young team athletes:an analysis of possible selves

Drawing on life history data generated from interviews with young athletes at an English university, this paper explores the narrative maps provided to them by older team members and the ways in which these influence perceptions of self-ageing. Three possible selves associated with mid-life emerged from the analysis for detailed focus. These are the preferred self (Almost past it), the feared self (Hanging on) and the reluctant self (Stepping aside). The implications of each of these selves for the ageing experience are considered. Finally, some suggestions are made as to how the narrative resources of young athletes might be expanded.

Experiences and Expectations of Biographical Time among Young Athletes A life course perspective

In this article, we explore how biographical time is storied by a particular group of young athletes in relation to their experiences and expectations of embodied ageing. The data suggests that at present, as able and sporting bodies, their everyday experiences are framed by the cyclical, maximizing, and disciplined notions of time associated with the social organization of sport. In their middle years, however, it was perceived that time would be pressured. In contrast, when talking about old age, empty time and static time were expected. The ways in which three different narratives of self operate to shape the projected experiences of time for these individuals are highlighted, and the implications of this process for their ability to access diverse narrative resources of ageing is discussed.

Photographing physical activity: using visual methods to ‘grasp at’ the sensual experiences of the ageing body

Within the sociology of sport there is a small but rich strand of literature concerned with understanding the sensual experiences of sport and physical activity. Whilst this work has advanced our understanding of the sensual sporting body, less is known about the mature sporting body and the sensual experiences of older adults. Gaining an insight into the sensual experiences of others is no easy task and this article critically reflects on the methods used to ‘grasp at’ (Hockey and Allen-Collinson, 2007) older adults’ embodied experiences of physical activity. An account of the process and outcomes of the method employed is presented along with visual and textual data to illustrate the problems and possibilities of exploring the sensual experiences of the ageing body within the context of physical activity.

The Effects of Surfing and the Natural Environment on the Well-Being of Combat Veterans

Although researchers have identified the benefits of physical activity on well-being, there is little evidence concerning the effects of nature-based physical activity. We investigated the effect of one nature-based activity—surfing—on the well-being of combat veterans experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted interviews and participant observations with a group of combat veterans belonging to a United Kingdom-based veterans’ surfing charity. Our primary analytical approach was dialogical narrative analysis. Based on our rigorous analysis and findings, we suggest that surfing facilitated a sense of respite from PTSD. Respite was a fully embodied feeling of release from suffering that was cultivated through surfing and shaped by the stories veterans told of their experiences. We significantly extend previous knowledge on physical activity, combat veterans, and PTSD by highlighting how nature-based physical activity, encapsulated in the conceptual notion of the “blue gym,” can promote well-being among combat veterans.

Narratives at work: What can stories of older athletes do?

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that young adults tend to identify and reinforce negative stereotypes of growing older. They can express both fear and trepidation regarding the bodily changes that occur with advancing age. With this in mind, in this paper we draw upon Franks (2010) theoretical framework of socio-narratology to examine the work that stories can do. We take as a working example the impact that stories of ageing told by masters athletes might have upon young adults, and specifically their perceptions of (self-)ageing. Three focus groups were carried out with the young adults to examine their perceptions of (self-)ageing prior to and following their viewing of a digital story portraying images and narratives of mature, natural (‘drug-free’) bodybuilders. Our analysis pointed to a number specific capacities that stories of masters athletes might have, namely the potential to re-open young adults sense of narrative foreclosure, the stretching and expanding of existing imagined storylines, and increasing the availability of narrative options. We propose that understanding what stories can do, what they can do best, and the narrative environments that help and hinder this process is essential if our programmes and policies are to produce the results that are wanted.