Despite society's current preoccupation with interrelated issues such as obesity, increasingly sedentary lifestyles and children's health, there has until now been little published research that directly addresses the place and meaning of physical activity in young people's lives. In this important new collection, leading international scholars address that deficit by exploring the differences in young people's experiences and meanings of physical activity as these are related to their social, cultural and geographical locations, to their abilities and their social and personal biographies.
The book places young people's everyday lives at the centre of the study, arguing that it this 'everydayness' (school, work, friendships, ethnicity, family routines, interests, finances, location) that is key to shaping the engagement of young people in physical activity. By allowing the voices of young people to be heard through these pages, the book helps the reader to make sense of how young people see physical activity in their lives.
Drawing on a breadth of theoretical frameworks, and challenging the orthodox assumptions that underpin contemporary physical activity policy, interventions and curricula, this book powerfully refutes the argument that young people are 'the problem' and instead demonstrates the complex social constructions of physical activity in the lives of young people. Young People, Physical Activity and the Everyday is essential reading for both students and researchers with a particular interest physical activity, physical education, health, youth work and social policy.
"Young People, Physical Activity and the Everyday offers a relevant and interesting exploration of a variety of youth and physical activity in several developed nations. Undergraduates, post-graduates, practitioners and researchers in areas related to youth physical activity will likely find this resource to be informative and leave them pondering about the conceptualization of youth physical activity. Overall, this is an useful text that brings together a range of perspectives and would be useful as an additional reading in either undergraduate or graduate programmes on leisure, recreation, kinesiology and sociology." - Stephanie Wood, Recreation Therapist / Primary Health Care Coordinator, Capital Health, Halifax, Canada, Published in Annals of Leisure Research
