Endurance Running : A Socio-Cultural Examination

Running is a fundamental human activity and holds an important place in popular culture. In recent decades it has exploded in popularity as a leisure pursuit, with marathons and endurance challenges exerting a strong fascination. This is the first book to examine running and endurance through a socio-cultural lens. Based on original qualitative research from sport sociology, anthropology and history, the book examines how we conceptualise endurance, why we run and with what outcomes, and whether the ability to endure is an innate human characteristic or a socially-constructed concept. It is fascinating reading for anybody working in the sociology of sport or the body, or cultural studies.

Running is a fundamental human activity and holds an important place in popular culture. In recent decades it has exploded in popularity as a leisure pursuit, with marathons and endurance challenges exerting a strong fascination. Endurance Running　is the first collection of original qualitative research to examine distance running through a socio-cultural lens, with a general objective of understanding the concept and meaning of endurance historically and in contemporary times.

Adopting diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to explore topics such as historical conceptualizations of endurance, lived experiences of endurance running, and the meaning of endurance in individual lives, the book　reveals how the biological, historical, psychological, and sociological converge to form contextually specific ideas about endurance running and runners.　

Endurance Running is an essential book for anybody researching across the entire spectrum of endurance sports and fascinating reading for anybody working in the sociology of sport or the body, cultural studies or behavioural science.