an icon showing a delivery van Shulph delivers to United Kingdom.
Book cover for Running, Identity and Meaning, a book by Neil Baxter Book cover for Running, Identity and Meaning, a book by Neil Baxter

Running, Identity and Meaning

The Pursuit of Distinction Through Sport
2021 ᛫


Powered by RoundRead®
This book leverages Shulph’s RoundRead system - buy the book once and read it on both physical book and on up to 5 of your personal devices. With RoundRead, you’re 4 times more likely to read this book cover-to-cover and up to 3 times faster.
Buy Book + eBook £87.50
Add to Read List


Instant access to ebook. Print book delivers in 5 - 10 working days.

Summary


Over the last forty years, running has grown from a niche sport for a handful of committed club athletes into one of the Western world’s most popular pastimes. In Running, Identity and Meaning, Neil Baxter asks: What kinds of people have been drawn to running in such numbers? What do they seek from the sport? And what does running’s popularity tell us about ourselves and the society we live in today?


Delving into the great paradox of running: that despite its low cost of entry and inclusive ethos, the sport remains riven by inequalities, Baxter showcases how gender, class, age and ethnicity influence whether and how different groups participate in the sport, and explores its role in the reproduction of social structure and the search for distinction. By considering running simultaneously as a technique of self-cultivation, a social field in which forms of capital and status are at stake, and an important source of meaning and identity for millions of people across the world, this book equips readers to understand the many diverse links between the sport, society, and individual identities.