The meaning and purpose of leisure: Habermas and leisure at the end of the modernity
this participation can also form a site of resistance. More such examples could have made the argument more persuasive and more engaging. Overall, then, Embodied Sporting Practices might be considered a useful introductory survey of the literature on sport and embodiment, and provides a wealth of references to theorists of the body (or those whose theories can productively be applied to questions of the body), but its lack of thread may frustrate, and possibly confuse, less patient readers. Its application as an introduction may also be slightly hampered by the lack of a comprehensive and user-friendly index, for example, Donna Haraway is listed under ‘c’ for cyborgs and de Beauvoir under ‘f’ for feminist. Despite these concerns, however, Woodward’s overall conclusions, when they are reached, are robust and persuasive. It seems sensible to argue that the mind/body tension is better resolved by understanding there to be a ‘correspondence’ between rather than an ‘elision’. This allows for a nuanced awareness that while bodies are material and ‘earthbound’, understandings of them that are discursive are also important. Finally, it seems perfectly appropriate to suggest, as Woodward does, that a modified form of phenomenology that takes into account structures such as class, ethnicity and gender is the most suitable way to research embodiment in sport.