Research on the Body, Society, and Movement Cultures

We conduct research on dominant movement cultures in society: sports, outdoor life, dance, fitness, physical education, and more. Our aim is to understand the emergence, content, and effects of these body cultures.

We ask how the body is discovered, developed, pedagogized, politicized, constructed, bent, stretched, manipulated, transformed, trained, aestheticized, technologized, commercialized, problematized, disciplined, valued, and thematized in and through various practices. We explore how the body is involved in learning, and what consequences this has for how we think about the development of competence and skills. We also ask what kind of interaction exists between the body and its physical surroundings (the classroom, the sports field, the landscape).

We are concerned with the body as both a bearer and creator of culture. And we are interested in how human activity can transcend the limits of the body, while also recognizing that the body has boundaries that cannot be surpassed.

Our Research Themes

The group’s research themes can be specified through the following subtopics:

  • Embodied learning in various movement cultures
  • Sustainable talent development
  • The body’s significance in identity work: lifestyle, class, and the body
  • The body’s role in learning and performance
  • The complex role of the coach
  • Knowledge, power, and the body
  • The individual’s interpretation of bodily processes
  • Body, interaction, and communication

How We Conduct Research

The research group studies the relationship between the body, society, and movement cultures through both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. Most of the group’s researchers are affiliated with the Department of Outdoor Studies, Sports, and Physical Education. However, as reflected in the group’s research themes, we also welcome members from health and cultural studies, as well as from other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences such as history, sociology, social anthropology, philosophy, pedagogy, and semiotics.

Ongoing Research Projects

  • Research and Development Collaboration: Strømsgodset TF and USN. The main objective is to strengthen the interaction between Strømsgodset’s development work and USN’s research efforts within this field of practice, enabling both parties to develop knowledge, competence, and understanding of why and how a more holistic approach to talent development in the region can lead to higher athletic and human quality. We will follow the “career trajectory” of selected players through the academy, aiming to better understand how individuals, in relation to their surroundings (micro-environments such as school, parents, friends, etc.), handle ups and downs. 
  • To facilitate for self-organised sport and physical activity – an arena to include young people. This project targets young people who are not involved in organized leisure activities, particularly sports, and explores what kinds of meeting places exist for this group, with a focus on marginalized youth. The aim is to investigate political and economic challenges related to establishing facilities for self-organized activities, the motivations behind youth participation, and how such initiatives can promote social inclusion. The project addresses challenges outlined in the Research Council of Norway’s strategy “Children and Youth 21” by examining the interaction between individual needs and structural facilitation.
  • Ph.d. project about professionalization of sport: How does the professionalisation of Norwegian youth elite football influence Norwegian football in general and specifically the youth players and coaches in a smaller elite club? Anders Bellings thesis will deal with the professionalization of talent development (TD) in Norwegian football, more specifically it will deal with the consequences for the coaches and players in a smaller Norwegian club. From the idealized amateur days until today football and sport in general have been increasingly commercialized, globalized and professionalized internationally as well as in the Norwegian context.
  • Routledge Handbook of Sport and Soft Power. Dr Paul Brannagan, Dr Danyel Reiche and J. Grix have been commissioned to edit the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Sport and Soft Power. The book addresses the many ways soft power emerges through sport in varied economic, political and socio-cultural contexts.  One of the sections we have is entitled ‘Soft Power and Sport in Europe’, and Nils Asle Bergsgard and Pål Augestad will contribute with a chapter about ‘Soft Power and Sport in Norway’?
  • Learning Pathways and Competence Development in an Integrated Master's Program – Practical Relevance and Academic Input on the Journey Toward Becoming a Reflective Practitioner. We ask what students experience during their studies as most impactful for their own development, and how learning and growth are fostered in such an educational program. To discover how the professional master's program influences students' perspectives, choices, and ways of being, we aim to interview students in their final year of study in 2025. We also wish to interview club leaders (coach developers or development managers) in the clubs where the selected students have held coaching positions.

Research Collaborations and Networks

  • Thomas Alkemeyer (Oldenburg University, Germany)
  • Lisa Blackman (Goldsmiths, University of London)
  • Kristoffer Henriksen (Syd-Danske Universitet)
  • Espen Dahl (Det arktiske universitet, Tromsø)
  • Christian Thue Bjørndal (Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Oslo)
  • Arve Hjelseth (NTNU, Trondheim)
  • Gunn Engelsrud (Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Oslo)
  • Merete Lund Fasting (University of Agder)
  • Erling Krogh (Norwegian University of Life Sciences)
  • Maarit Mäkelä (Aalto University, Finland)
  • Jenny Slatman (Tilburg University, The Netherlands)
  • Tone Pernille Østern (Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU)

Group leader

Members