PHYSICALLY ACTIVE AND INACTIVE LIFESTYLES, A SOCIAL RISK PERSPECTIVE

The study of the epidemic of sedentariness is dominated by a biomedical paradigm, pointing at health concerns for the individual person. In this presentation physical (in-) activity is observed from a sociological point of view. The rise of a sedentary lifestyle is analyzed as a social risk, based on the concept of the risk society as developed by Beck & Ritter (1992). Three hypotheses on the social construction of a sedentary lifestyle will be discussed and highlighted by empirical studies: - a sedentary lifestyle in youth is culturally learned, confirmed and rewarded - a sedentary lifestyle is the result of a socialization process towards inactivity developed in youth and continued into adulthood - a sedentary lifestyle in youth is reinforced by social inequality Interventions to prevent the growth of physically inactive lifestyles need to be based on an integrated social policy. Therefore intervention strategies need to be positioned in the interplay between three major players in the social field: the public policy of the state, goods and services provided by the market and the initiatives of the civil society. It is concluded that the academic field of social kinesiology can provide the knowledge and the social skills to understand the emergence of sedentariness as a social problem and to discover pathways to cope with it.