Running with a bag: encumbrance, materiality and rhythm

Cook, Simon (2022) Running with a bag: encumbrance, materiality and rhythm. Social & Cultural Geography. ISSN 1464-9365

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Abstract

Advancing social and cultural geography’s interest in sport, exercise and commuting, as well as the everyday experiences of movement, materiality, and rhythm, this paper provides the first account of run-commuting experiences through a focus on running with a bag. Run-commuting is an emerging active travel practice in which people run to and/or from work. It blurs the usual separation of mobilities related to work and those related to sport, exercise and leisure. In doing so, new body-objects assemblages are introduced into running and commuting practices that have marked impacts on the experiences of mobility. Drawing on interviews and run-alongs with 19 UK run-commuters, this paper explores one such defining experience – running with a bag. Drawing together the concepts of affective materialities and rhythm with work on mobilities and sport, this paper discusses how experiences of running with a bag are marked by disruptive rhythms, managing rhythms and acclimatising to such rhythms. As such, this paper demonstrates the centrality of objects in facilitating and constraining practices, as well shaping the experiences of mobility and exercise. The novel engagement with material and bodily rhythms in this paper also offers fruitful avenues for future mobile, sporting, material and rhythmic thinking in geography.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1080/14649365.2022.2052169
Dates:	Date Event 8 November 2021 Accepted 15 March 2022 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	run-commuting, running, experience, materiality, objects, rhythm
Subjects:	CAH00 - multidisciplinary > CAH00-00 - multidisciplinary > CAH00-00-00 - multidisciplinary CAH03 - biological and sport sciences > CAH03-02 - sport and exercise sciences > CAH03-02-01 - sport and exercise sciences CAH26 - geography, earth and environmental studies > CAH26-01 - geography, earth and environmental studies > CAH26-01-03 - human geography
Divisions:	Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences > Centre for Life and Sport Sciences (C-LASS)
Depositing User:	Simon Cook
Date Deposited:	15 Mar 2022 16:40
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2022 16:40
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12945

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