Assessing the sociology of sport: On sport and exercise

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, Pirkko Markula, a leading poststructuralist scholar, assesses the trajectory, challenges, and future for sociology of sport research on exercise, fitness and physical cultures. The trajectory of more openly politicized examinations of power in sport as cultural studies entered Anglo-American sociology of sport in the 1990s coincided with an expanded focus on the cultures of physical activity and exercise, notably with critique of the feminine body ideal in the fitness industry. Key challenges for the future include mending a disconnect' in the tensions between critical analysis and actual physical activity education and practices, furthering scholarly commitment to interdisciplinarity, and for poststructuralist theorizing to reach beyond sport studies to serve as a platform for thinking differently about exercise practices and scientific understandings of the moving body.