Title: Embodiment, Identity and Disability Sport: An Ethnography of Elite Visually Impaired Athletes

Author: Ben Powis

ISBN: 9780367322700

Available in hardback and eBook now (https://www.routledge.com/Embodiment-Identity-and-Disability-Sport-An-Ethnography-of-Elite-Visually/Powis/p/book/9780367322700)

Due to mainstream organisational involvement and increased financial investment over the past two decades, elite disability sport has evolved beyond recognition. But how has this evolution affected disabled athletes? What are the consequences of this shift in competitive ethos? And what does this tell us about the relationship between embodiment, identity and disability sport? Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork with the England visually impaired cricket team, Ben Powis explores elite disabled athletes’ lived experiences of competing in a high-performance sporting culture. This interdisciplinary text, which engages with sociology, phenomenology and contemporary disability theory, establishes the significant aspects of this previously unexamined research ‘site’ ­– both on and off the field of play. Alongside issues of empowerment, classification and valorisation, the book also contemplates the sensuous dimension of being indisability sport and challenges the idealised notion of the sporting body.

Embodiment, Identity and Disability Sport is an essential read for students, scholars and practitioners who want to develop a critical understanding of disability sport and physical activity. This book is also a valuable resource for those who are interested in sociology, visual impairment, disability studies and sensory studies. If you want to know more about this book or his research in more depth, please do not hesitate to contact Ben via Twitter (@DrBenPowis) or email (ben.powis@solent.ac.uk).