Lifestyle Sports in East Asia

Abstract

“Lifestyle sports” are not the preserve of occidental cultures, even though late capitalist Western nations dominate them commercially and ideologically. Examples of these sports are snowboarding, BASE jumping, freestyle BMX, mountain biking, bouldering, skateboarding, kiteboarding, rock climbing, parkour/free running, windsurfing, and surfing. Non-occidental cultures—such as those in Asia, Latin America, and Africa—also influence lifestyle sport institutions, commodities, values, and practices. Arguably, this influence is expanding and is accelerating as the populations of non-occidental cultures champion their interests and perspectives. This article makes a modest proposal for the starting of a targeted discourse among those interested in the cultural politics of lifestyle sports in the region of East Asia, an area with its own unique international and intra-regional interactions and concomitant needs, desires, and perspectives. In specific regard to this region, we argue it is worth asking: What are the stories being narrated and what forms do they take? How are complex social, political, cultural, and economic relations of this region being negotiated through lifestyle sports?

Understanding Blue Spaces: Sport, Bodies, Wellbeing, and the Sea

“…This is not a limitation of each paper, so much as a broader critique of our own editorial situatedness as predominantly White, English-speaking scholars. As Evers and Doering (2019) reflected in their introduction to another special issue in this journal, focused on East Asia,The experience of seeking out and collating submissions for this special issue has revealed to us that a coordinated and collaborative strategy needs to be developed through more inclusive research practices and better resourcing so that Indigenous scholars of East Asia get to lead and advance this discourse. (p. 345)…”

Lifestyle Sports and Physical Education Teachers’ Professional Development in the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Survey Analysis

“…This could be seen by PE teachers as a logical place to provide such sports given the contexts and environments where these activities traditionally occur (i.e., relatively 'safe' activities taught by PE teachers on school site, such as orienteering, or 'riskier' pursuits delivered by outdoor education centre staff on school residential trips where PE teachers may not have the necessary experience or qualifications, such as paddlesports) [22,34,35]. Ultimately, this lack of conceptual clarity, coupled with the limited opportunity to teach lifestyle sports on the PE curriculum, could have severe implications for the modernisation of the PE curriculum and any future reform, as well as the professional development of PE teachers, especially as the phenomenon is clearly growing within the current sport and physical activity landscape [6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Lifestyle choices, such as fashion, style, and aesthetics, are seen as equally important to lifestyle sport enthusiasts as physical ability and competence [5]. Over the last 30 years, lifestyle sport participation has moved beyond its initial developments in North America, Australia, and Western Europe at such an increased rate that it is now considered a truly global phenomenon and one of the most important 'mega trends' of the twenty-first century [6][7][8][9][10]. Examples of such sports and activities include the following: skateboarding, surfing, parkour, snowboarding, BASE jumping, and freestyle BMX (see Tomlinson et al [11] for a comprehensive overview of different 'types' of lifestyle sports).…”

Finding Coastal Megaclast Deposits: A Virtual Perspective

“…The second opportunity that can be recommended for the geographical inventory of coastal boulder deposits is also relevant to tourism-linked information available online. Among various sport and tourism activities, bouldering has gained importance [101][102][103][104][105]. A lot of information on individual 'boulders' (these may be either isolated rocks, but also true megaclasts) has been accumulated.…”