Sensory sociological phenomenology, somatic learning and ‘lived’ temperature in competitive pool swimming

Abstract

In this article, we address an existing lacuna in the sociology of the senses, by employing sociological phenomenology to illuminate the under-researched sense of temperature, as lived by a social group for whom water temperature is particularly salient: competitive pool swimmers. The research contributes to a developing ‘sensory sociology’ that highlights the importance of the socio-cultural framing of the senses and ‘sensory work’, but where there remains a dearth of sociological exploration into senses extending beyond the ‘classic five’ sensorium. Drawing on data from a three-year ethnographic study of competitive swimmers in the UK, our analysis explores the rich sensuousities of swimming, and highlights the role of temperature as fundamentally affecting the affordances offered by the aquatic environment. The article contributes original theoretical perspectives to the sociology of the senses and of sport in addressing the ways in which social actors in the aquatic environment interact, both intersubjectively and intercorporeally, as thermal beings.

Coaching for skill development in sport: a kinesio-cultural approach

“…By inhabiting, or "dwelling" (Polanyi, 1958(Polanyi, /2002) in kinescapes, individuals can become a dept at experiencing aspects that are "critical" (Nyberg & Carlgren, 2015, p. 612) for moving in certain ways. Skilled swimmers often develop a familiarity with their bodies in water for example, such that they know what will happen if they cup their hands slightly, they know how to get more propulsion from their kick, they may even know how to adjust their style to different water temperatures (McNarry, Allen-Collinson & Evans, 2021). This kind of awareness does not develop automatically, and connoisseurship is the result of reflective, or intelligent practising (Ryle, 1949(Ryle, /2009.…”

Sensoriality, Social Interaction, and “Doing sensing” in Physical–Cultural Ethnographies

“…From our perspective, the role of the synaesthetic (in terms of the senses working in concert) or the "intersensorial", as Hammer (2015) describes it, is also important. As portrayed below, the visual and aural were strongly interwoven in the sensory data from running and swimming practices, and often combined with other less sociologically-researched senses such as proprioception and thermoception (e.g., Allen-Collinson et al 2018;McNarry et al 2021).…”

“…The rapid development of social-scientific interest in the senses has been well-documented; a "sensorial revolution" as Howes (2006) aptly describes this burgeoning. This revolutionary force brings together scholars from anthropology, sociology, geography, and other social sciences, to examine the specificities of sensory bodies and sensoriality across cultures (e.g., Classen 1993;Howes 1991Howes , 2006Low 2012;Paterson 2007;Pink and Howes 2010;Vannini et al 2011) and physical cultures (e.g., Hockey and Allen-Collinson 2009;Allen-Collinson and Hockey 2015;McNarry et al 2021;Hammer 2015). Via various theoretical lenses, these authors posit the salience of the senses and society nexus, with the senses working as bearers, transmitters, and also shapers of culture.…”

“…This corpus, we should emphasize, is in addition to ethnographies where the sensory is not signaled as a key focus, but where it nonetheless features strongly and evocatively, for example, in Wacquant's (2004) and Woodward's (2006) ethnographies of boxing. Research strongly focused on the sensory aspects spans water-based physical cultures such as windsurfing, ocean sailing, and kayaking (Humberstone, Fox, and Brown 2017), competitive swimming (McNarry et al 2020, 2021, marathon swimming (Throsby 2013), and scuba-diving (Allen-Collinson and Hockey 2011;Merchant 2011). It also examines landbased sports such as cycling (Hammer 2015;Spinney 2006), cricket (Powis 2018), skateboarding (Bäckström 2014), distance-running (Hockey and Allen-Collinson 2006;Allen-Collinson and Hockey 2015), and triathlon (Allen-Collinson et al 2018).…”

Body pedagogics, transactionalism and vélo identities: Becoming a cyclist in motorised societies

“…This facilitated a large growth of varied research into cultural forms (e.g. Allen-Collinson & Hockey, 2020;Allen-Collinson et al, 2017;Andersson et al, 2015Andersson et al, , 2016Andersson & Risberg, 2018;Bell & King, 2010;Evans et al, 2008;Kelly et al, 2019;Kennedy & Johnston, 2019;McNarry et al, 2021;Mellor & Shilling, 2011;Nettleton, 2013;Rich et al, 2020;Saunders, 2007;Schaaf, 2019;Shilling, 2007Shilling, , 2010Shilling, , 2017Shilling, , 2018Shilling, , 2021Shilling & Mellor, 2007;Stahl, 2020;Wacquant, 2004;Wignall, 2016). Underpinning this diversity, however, was a shared concern with the relationship between those social, technological and material means through which culturally inflected practices are transmitted, the contrasting experiences of those implicated in this learning, and their embodied outcomes in terms of emergent habits and techniques (Shilling, 2007(Shilling, , 2018.…”