Exploring the society–body–school nexus: theoretical and methodology issues in the study of body pedagogics

Abstract

In this article I identify how developments in consumer culture, waged-work and health policy have informed our current interest in the body, before suggesting that Durkheim's and Mauss's methodological approach towards the external and internal dimensions of ‘social facts’ provides us with a valuable basis on which we can analyse the impact of these factors on those subject to them. Building on their interest in the corporeal internalization of societal trends, and the centrality of body techniques to the habitus, I then outline a new corporeal realist framework that can assist us in analysing the education of bodies. This focuses on the relationship that exists between the general forms of body pedagogics dominant within a society as a whole and the specific types of body pedagogies evident in curricula and schools. Recognizing these different terms as referring to distinctive phenomena helps us avoid the assumption that schools simply mirror society, highlights the importance of exploring the interactions between society and school, and sensitizes us to the need to investigate how social norms and policy initiatives are variously filtered, mediated and re-contextualised within the educational field.

Keywords:

• Durkheim
• Mauss
• Body pedagogics
• Body pedagogies
• Corporeal realism