Resources

The integration of sustainability, embodiment, and well-being provides a comprehensive theoretical framework that supports both individual and community flourishing in its practical application. Sustainability emphasizes the critical need for environmental stewardship and responsible resource management, laying the foundation for long-term ecological balance. Embodiment focuses on the physical experience, promoting practices that enhance body awareness, movement, and overall health. Well-being, encompassing mental, emotional, and social dimensions, fosters resilience, personal growth, and community connection. When examined together, these areas are complementary: sustainability nurtures the conditions for individual and collective health, embodiment enhances one's ability to engage meaningfully with the environment, and well-being provides the psychological and social resilience necessary for sustainable practices. This interconnected approach underscores the importance of holistic strategies for promoting a thriving and balanced society, which is central to our work.

Embodiment

Embodiment refers to the way in which the body and its experiences—both internal and external—shape our thoughts, emotions, and interactions with the world. It highlights how physical sensations, movement, and presence are integral to our understanding of self and others. In scholarship, the field of embodiment examines the connection between mind and body, exploring how cultural, social, and personal factors influence how we inhabit our bodies. The importance of embodiment lies in its ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice, offering insights into health, identity, disability, and senses of community, being, and belonging.

Azzarito, L. (2019). Bodies out of sight. London: Routledge.

Shaped by our neoliberal times, today’s ideas of fitness and health are presented through a very small set of “valued bodies”—typically white, thin, cisgender, able-bodied individuals. This narrow understanding of “fit bodies” inherently ignores a large proportion of the population, who are labeled as having “bodies-at-risk” due to their deviation from perceived norms of size, shape, race, social class, and gender. Social Justice in Globalized Fitness and Health: Bodies Out of Sight shines a light on the impact neoliberal ideologies have on ideas of bodily health and fitness, and particularly how these ideologies overlook the intersectional identities that inform how marginalized individuals embody and resist normative discourses of fitness and health.

Drawing on Critical Rate Theory (CRT), post-feminisim, and postcolonial theories, Azzarito brings attention to how young, marginalized individuals struggle to find and sustain a culturally-relevant sense of self. With a critical necessity for solutions, Azzarito proposes an increase in educational spaces where young, marginalized people can come to recognize themselves, resist negative stereotypes, and self-represent to the public in affirmative ways that provide new narratives of health, fitness, and being in a body.

Sustainability

Sustainability refers to the ability to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. It encompasses a balance between environmental protection, economic growth, and social well-being. In scholarship, sustainability examines the interconnectedness of ecosystems, human societies, and economies, and how we can create systems that thrive over the long term. Sustainability can also refer to personal, or individual, sustainability, focusing on how individuals maintain their wellbeing while being mindful of their role in the larger local and global ecosystem. The importance of sustainability lies in its potential to address global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality. Research in this field encourages innovative solutions that promote responsible consumption and equitable social systems, while also emphasizing the need for individuals to care for themselves in ways that support both personal flourishing and collective environmental health, driving efforts to ensure a healthier planet and a fairer world for future generations.

Azzarito, L. & Kirk, D. (2013). Pedagogies, physical culture, and visual methods. London: Routeledge.

Visual methods have become increasingly popular in the social sciences and education as a means of creatively understanding and capturing the surrounding world. Despite the clear links between visual understanding and human movement, the fields of physical culture and physical education pedagogy have been slow to adopt this groundbreaking work. Marking a turn toward visual methods in physical culture education and pedagogies, Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods offers critical insights on the benefits of these methods on understanding key issues in sport, health, and physical education studies.

Introducing readers to a variety of visual methods, the book guides readers through new ways of seeing and critically engaging with physical culture. Further exploring the idea of visual pedagogies in the physical culture field, Azzarito and Kirk illustrate how visual technologies are central to contemporary human engagement with physical culture. From researcher-produced analysis to participatory visual approaches, the book shares critical pedagogical tools for understanding embodiment as a playful form and assists in widening the scholarship of physical culture studies.

Well-being

Well-being refers to a holistic state of health that encompasses wellness and fulfillment in physical, mental, and emotional aspects of a person’s life. In scholarship, well-being is studied through multiple lenses, including psychology, philosophy, and social sciences, with an emphasis on how individuals and communities can enhance their overall quality of life. An essential component of well-being is personal sustainability, which recognizes that individual health and happiness are intertwined with the health of the environment and society. This means that nurturing one’s physical health, emotional resilience, and mental well-being also involves being mindful of how we impact and are impacted by the world around us.

Equally important is community well-being, which focuses on the collective health and vitality of groups of people. This entails creating environments where individuals can thrive together through social support, shared values, access to resources, and collective action toward common goals. Community well-being recognizes that strong, connected communities play a crucial role in individual well-being as they provide a sense of belonging, security, and shared purpose. Research in well-being emphasizes the importance of balance, self-care, and connection to others and nature, suggesting that true well-being is not just about individual happiness but about fostering a sense of harmony within oneself, with others, and within the larger ecosystem.

Azzarito, L. (2023). Visual methods and education for social justice. Palgrave Macmillan.

This book makes a case for the usefulness of visual research methods for advancing a social justice agenda in education. The author aims to provide education researchers with a wide range of qualitative visual research tools to invoke different stories, voices, embodiments, and experiences of individuals from marginalized communities; to advance emancipatory research projects; to embrace interdisciplinary knowledge-building; and to counter-narrate Western forms of knowledge, cultures, and values for the reimagining of education for social change. This text provides a key resource for novice and experienced researchers, activist/researchers, graduate students, educators, and artists across disciplines, encouraging interdisciplinary collaborations as well as collaborations between scholars, administrators, artists, families, teachers, community members, activists, and policy-makers. The book draws attention to the importance of visual methods in today’s neoliberal landscape of education to speak back to mainstream research and practices, especially when research participants lack words to describe, express, and represent what it means to be impacted by oppression, isolation, and marginalization.

Additional Publications

Azzarito, L. (2019). “Look to the bottom”: Re-writing the Body Curriculum through Storylines. Sport, Education and Society, 6, 638-650.
Azzarito, L. (2018). Re-focusing the Image of the “Superwoman” with “No Color”: “Writing Back to the Center” from a Globalized View. In K. Toffoletti, H. Thorpe, & J. Francombe-Webb (Eds.), “New Sporting Femininities” (pp. 135-157). Routledge: London.
Azzarito, L. (2019). The “Health Gap” from a Social Justice Perspective: Critical Race Theory, Post-colonialism and Post-feminism. In S. Dagkas, L. Azzarito & K. Hylton (Eds.), ‘Race’, Youth sport, physical activity and health: Global perspectives. Routledge: London.
Azzarito, L., Simon, M., & Marttinen, R. (2017). “Up Against Whiteness”: Rethinking Race and the Body in a Global Era. Sport, Education and Society, 22, 5, 635-657.
Azzarito, L. (2016). “Permission to Speak": A Postcolonial View on Racialized Bodies in the Current Context of Neoliberal Globalization. Social Justice Feature. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 87, 2, 141-150.
Azzarito, L. & Macdonald, D. (2016). Unpacking Gender/Sexuality/Race/Disability/Social Class to Understand the Embodied Experiences of Young People in Contemporary Physical Culture. In K. Green (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport (pp. 321-331). London: Routledge.
Azzarito, L. (2009). The Rise of Corporate Curriculum: Fatness, Fitness, and Whiteness. In J. Wright & V. Harwood (Eds.), Bio-pedagogies: Schooling, youth and the body in the ‘obesity epidemic’ (pp. 183-198). London: Routledge.
Azzarito, L., & Harrison, L., Jr. (2008). “White Men Can’t Jump”. Race, Gender, and Natural Athleticism. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 43, 347-364.
Azzarito, L. (2007). “Shape up America.” Understanding Fatness as a Curriculum Project. Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, 3, 1-27.
Azzarito, L., Munro P., & Solmon, M.A. (2004). Unsettling the Body. The Institutionalization of Physical Activity at the Turn of the 20th Century. Quest, 4, 377-396.
Harrison, L., Jr., Azzarito, L., & Burden, J. (2004). Perceptions of Athletic Superiority: A View from the Other Side. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 7, 149-166.