In:Moving Bodies in Interaction – Interacting Bodies in Motion: Intercorporeality, interkinesthesia, and enaction in sports
Edited by Christian Meyer and Ulrich v. Wedelstaedt
[Advances in Interaction Studies 8] 2017
► pp. 173–191
Chapter 7Intercorporeal enaction and synchrony
The case of distance running together
Published online: 14 August 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/ais.8.07all
https://doi.org/10.1075/ais.8.07all
Abstract
Whilst there exists a substantial literature providing abstract theorizations of sport, there is relatively sparse ethnographic research addressing the mundane practices of actually “doing sport” and specifically, “doing sport together”. To address such lacunae, this chapter offers an in-depth, phenomenologically inspired analysis of training together for distance running as requiring finely attuned interaction and intercorporeality. Here, we focus specifically upon the sensory and interactional work we undertake, which constitutes an essential component in our experience of running-together. Employing sociological phenomenology as the theoretical framework, we draw on data from a collaborative autoethnographic project to explore and analyze in detail our various intercorporeal practices and processes, fundamental to the enaction of training-together for distance running.
Keywords: autoethnography, intercorporeality, phenomenology, running, sociology
Article outline
- Introduction
- Sociological phenomenology
- The collaborative autoethnographic running project
- The findings
- Rhythm and timing
- Typifying the other
- Auditory attunement
- The interrogatory glance
- Concluding comments – intuition or attunement?
Note References
References (60)
Allen-Collinson, J. (2008). Running the routes together: Co-running and knowledge in action. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 37 (1): 38–61.
(2009). Sporting embodiment: Sports studies and the (continuing) promise of phenomenology. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise 1 (3): 279–296.
(2011a). Intention and epochē in tension: Autophenomenography, bracketing and a novel approach to researching sporting embodiment, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health 3 (1): 48–62.
(2011b). Feminist phenomenology and the woman in the running body. Sport, Ethics & Philosophy 5 (3): 287–302.
Allen-Collinson, J. & J. Hockey (2005). Autoethnography: Self-indulgence or rigorous methodology? In Michael J. McNamee, ed. Philosophy and the Sciences of Exercise, Health, and Sport: Critical Perspectives on Research Methods, London: Routledge, 187–202.
Allen-Collinson, J. & A. Leledaki (2015). Sensing the outdoors: A visual and haptic phenomenology of outdoor exercise embodiment. Leisure Studies 34 (4): 457–470.
Allen-Collinson, J. & H. Owton (2015). Intense embodiment: Senses of heat in women’s running and boxing. Body & Society 21 (2): 245–268.
(2014). Take a deep breath: Asthma, sporting embodiment, the senses, and ‘auditory work’. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 49 (5): 592–608.
Atkinson, P. & S. Delamont (2006). Rescuing narrative from qualitative research. Narrative Inquiry 16 (1): 164–172.
Bäckström, Å. (2014). Knowing and teaching kinaesthetic experience in skateboarding: An example of sensory emplacement. Sport, Education and Society 19 (6) 752–772.
Bochner, Arthur P. & C. Ellis (1995). Telling living: Narrative co-construction practices of interpersonal relationships. In W. Leeds-Hurwitz, ed., Social Approaches to Communication. New York: Guilford Press, 201–213.
Brekhus, W. (1998). A sociology of the unmarked: Redirecting our focus. Sociological Theory 16 (1): 34–51.
Crust, L., C. Swann, J. Allen-Collinson, J. Breckon & R. Weinberg (2014). A phenomenological exploration of exercise mental toughness: Perceptions of exercise leaders and regular exercisers. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health 6 (4): 441–461.
Csordas, T. (1994). The Sacred self: A cultural phenomenology of charismatic healing. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Delamont, S. (2009). The only honest thing: Autoethnography, reflexivity and small crises in fieldwork. Ethnography & Education 4 (1) 51–63.
Di Paolo, Ezekiel A., M. Rohde & H. De Jaegher (2010). Horizons for the enactive mind: Values, social interaction, and play. In J. Stewart, O. Gapenne & Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, eds. Enaction. Toward a New Paradigm for Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 33–87.
Ellis, C., T. Adams & A. Bochner (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Forum: Qualitative Research / Sozialforschung, 12 (1).
Feld, S. (2000). Sound worlds. In P. Kruth and H. Stobart, eds., Sound: The Darwin Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 173–198.
Garfinkel, H. (2002). Ethnomethodology’s Program: Working out Durkheim’s Aphorism. New York, NJ: Rowan & Littlefield.
Hockey, J. (2013). Knowing the ‘going’: The sensory evaluation of distance running. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health 5(1): 127–141.
Hockey, J. & J. Allen-Collinson (2006). Seeing the way: Visual sociology and the distance runner’s perspective. Visual Studies. Journal of the International Visual Sociology Association 21 (1): 70–81.
(2007). Grasping the phenomenology of sporting bodies. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 42 (2): 115–131.
Husserl, E. (1999). Cartesian Meditations. An Introduction to Phenomenology, trans. D. Cairns. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Jenkings, K. N. (2013). Playing dangerously: An ethnomethodological view upon rock-climbing. In P. Tolmie & M. Rouncefield, eds., Ethnomethodology at Play. Farnham: Ashgate, 191–210.
Kaskisaari, M. (1994). The rhythmbody. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 29 (1): 15–23.
Kerry, Daniel S. and Kathleen M. Armour (2000). Sport sciences and the promise of phenomenology: Philosophy, method, and insight. Quest 52 (1): 1–17.
Lee, Jo D. & T. Ingold (2006). Fieldwork on foot: Perceiving, routing, socialising. In S. Coleman & P. Collins, eds., Locating the Field: Space, place and context in anthropology. Oxford: Berg, 67–85.
Lund, O., S. Ravn & M. K. Christensen (2012). Learning by joining the rhythm: Apprenticeship learning in elite double sculls rowing. Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum 3: 167–188.
Martínková, I. & J. Parry (2011). An introduction to the phenomenological study of sport. Sport, Ethics & Philosophy 5 (3): 185–201.
Masciotra, D., E. Ackerman & W.-M. Roth (2001). ‘Maai’: The art of distancing in karate-do mutual attunement in close encounters. Journal of Adult Development 8 (2): 119–132.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962) Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
(1968). The Visible and the Invisible, trans. A. Lingis. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press.
Murphy, Ann V. (2010). “All things considered”: Sensibility and ethics in the later Merleau-Ponty and Derrida. Continental Philosophy Review 42: 435–447.
Rail, G. (1992). Physical contact in women’s basketball: A phenomenological construction and contextualization. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 27(1): 1–24.
Ryave, A. L. & N. J. Schenkein (1975). Notes on the art of walking. In R. Turner, ed., Ethnomethodology. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 265–274.
Schütz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press.
Smith, B., J. Allen-Collinson, C. Phoenix, D. Brown & A. Sparkes (2009). Dialogue, monologue, and boundary crossing within research encounters: A performative narrative analysis. International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 7 (3): 342–359.
Sparkes, Andrew C. (2009). Ethnography and the senses: Challenges and possibilities. Qualitative Research in Sport & Exercise 1 (1): 21–35.
Sudnow, D. (1972). Temporal parameters of interpersonal observation. In D. Sudnow, ed., Studies in Social Interaction. New York: Free Press, 259–279.
Tsang, T. (2000). Let me tell you a story: A narrative exploration of identity in high-performance sport. Sociology of Sport Journal 17 (1): 44–59.
Turner, R. (1975). Words, utterances and activities. In R. Turner, ed., Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 197–215.
Vaittinen, Anu M. (2014). Intersections of ways of knowing mixed martial arts and visual culture. Amodern 3: Sport and Visual Culture. Cited 31 December, 2014; available from: [URL]
Vannini, P., D. Waskul, S. Gottschalk & C. Rambo (2010). Sound acts: Elocution, somatic work, and the performance of sonic alignment. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 39(3): 328–353.
Cited by (14)
Cited by 14 other publications
Gugutzer, Robert
James, Mark M., Chen Lam Loh, Georgii Karelin, Natalya Weber, Ivan Shpurov & Tom Froese
Hiemstra, Marit & Jasmijn Rana
McNarry, Gareth, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson & Adam B. Evans
Wedelstaedt, Ulrich v.
Hall, Dona L., Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson & Patricia C. Jackman
Bluhm, Kasper & Susanne Ravn
Liu, Lucen
Toner, John, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson & Luke Jones
Allen-Collinson, Jacquelyn, Gareth McNarry & Adam B. Evans
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
