Branded as 'the sport of fitness', CrossFit is a burgeoning exercise regime that has surpassed the growth of well-known fitness franchises. In addition to its comprehensive fitness regime, it claims to offer a supportive community, which aims to ensure that people do not exercise 'together alone'. The tight-knit -almost insular -nature of this community, as well as some of its more extreme practices, have led followers and detractors alike to characterise CrossFit as a cult. This article argues that the 'cult' label is too parochial and, instead, applies Susie Scott's notion of 'reinventive institutions' to explain why CrossFit is so polarising. With its emphasis on voluntarism, performative regulation and mutual surveillance, the concept of the 'reinventive institution' offers a more useful and expansive theoretical tool that allows us to understand how power, identity construction and self-transformation operate in CrossFit.
From the vantage point of South Africa, this article highlights a number of ethical challenges that could potentially arise in the relationship between social movement researchers and activists in the pursuit of social justice and transformation. In contrast to conventional approaches to social science more generally, we argue that a neat separation between theory and action is useful neither for producing knowledge within the academy nor for advancing the causes of social movements. The article reflects on two different research experiences in order to explain the limitations and quandaries that confront academics who seek to negotiate scholar -activist identities. In doing so, it extends the work of Croteau, who has explored the tensions between activism and scholarship. Drawing on participatory action research (PAR) approaches, including Touraine's method of sociological intervention, we suggest that a refined approach to PAR may assist in countering the inequalities that have been created in the academy between the researcher and researched, thereby alleviating some of the ethical and political concerns that inevitably confront scholar-activists.
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