Fell running in post‐sport territories

Abstract

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. This paper explores the visual, embodied and interactive elements of the post‐sport physical culture(s) of fell running. Fell running is textually represented in the paper as a physical cultural practice with many surface level, or ‘residual’, articulations of mainstream sport, but is deployed by many enthusiasts as a novel praxis of athletic engagement that cultivates communion with the self, others and the environment. By unpacking ethnographic and photo‐elicitation data gleaned through a study of fell running in the English midlands, and drawing from several core concepts in French post‐structural theory, I infographically illustrate the allure of post‐sports like fell running to people who wish to immerse themselves in rather novel contexts of desire‐producing, personally rewarding and spiritual activity. The paper represents how increased recognition and promotion of a broad range of post‐sport cultures within the global athletic ethnosphere might promote mass, and sustained, involvement in physical activity across a range of groups.