Presentation by Prof. Barbara Humberstone for ESRC Seminar Series on Ageing and Physical Activity - "Physical Activity as a 'Career': A Life Course Perspective" http://seminars.ecehh.org

1. "Learning to be in the body": (auto)-
ethnographic narratives, alternative physical
activities and healthy ageing.
Professor Barbara Humberstone
Bucks New University

2. Summary
• Learning to be in the body
• Active older bodies telling a different story from declining bodies. (re-
envisioning medicalization of older bodies.)
• Narratives of older people-older researchers researching
• Methodologies- (auto) -ethnographies
• Critiques- Response to critiques
• Embodiment-senses-place
• Narratives of active physical bodies
• Starting later in life
• Physical activity and those not habituated to being in the body actively
• Later life building physical career
• ‘Hard to reach ‘ groups
• Holistic approaches

3. Physical activity, careers & life course
• The study of biography , of
history, and of the problems of
their intersection C. Wright
Mills (1959: 149)
• Mellor & Shillings, (2010: 29)
Pedagogics moves beyond,
‘Mauss’s (1950) writings on
‘techniques of the body’ and
Foucault’s (1988) conception of
‘technologies of the self’ .
• One “learn(ing)s to be in the
body in nature” Humberstone,
(2015:34)

4. Habituated to the sea
Sallyport, Oh Sallyport
Oh how we do love thee
From your white walls and rounded stones
Down to the blue-green sea
The ‘Bunny Pier’ with fishermen
The pier which we jump from
The waves which lash upon the shore
In a place which we call home
(Portsmouth Evening News-written by
bunch of school girls)
Humberstone, B (2015) in Brown & Humberstone
Portsmouth Evening New

5. (Auto)-ethnography: researching the
active ‘ageing’ body

6. Preamble
• Older people are seen as ‘other’ in much
research on older people.
• Many ‘Baby boomers’ are academics still
undertaking research or semi-retired people
undertaking research for interest & PhDs

7. (Auto)-ethnography as methodology
• I am a committed
recreational windsurfer –
over 30 years
• I have also been an
ethnographer for most of
that time .
• I am also a yogini and
research older women’s
experience of yoga
(Humberstone & Cutler-
Riddick, 2014)

8. Critique
• Critiques from a number of
ethnographers :Delamont,
(2007), Atkinson, (2006)
• Comments in favour that -
not self indulgent : Sparkes
& Smith (2014)
• Connecting the personal to
the ‘political’ Anderson
(2006)

9. Response to critique
• In the context of researching the
ageing body and in relation to my
own recent research on active ageing
body narratives, stories may resonate
with other (auto) –ethnographic
narratives. Such resonations highlight
embodied connections between active
physical practices, contexts and wider
society. Biological narratives of the
body are re- storied providing
alternative readings of what
constitutes ageing bodies.

10. Physical activity and the older body:
embodiment
Some examples
• Sparkes, A. (2010): Narrative of visit to gym
• Humberstone, B. & Cutler- Riddick, C. (2014):
Older women and yoga
• Phoenix, C. & Orr, N. (2014): importance of
pleasurable experiences

11. Senses and place-holistic approach
• ‘Sense’ of self, embodiment, natural space
• People may construct a sense of themselves and
their environment
• single and collective understandings of self and
senses of place.
• Through embodied, sentient practices (such as
walking, standing, surfing and so forth),
• by way of the many senses, people encounter
spaces and places affording feelings and
emotions

12. Being in the Body-windsurfing
• “The water edges over my feet and up my
legs, a sensation of pulsing around my
rubber-encased feet and legs. No one else is
around and the wind howls. Stepping right
foot, left foot onto the board I take off. The
sail fills as I hitch into the harness. Faster
and faster outward across the undulating
surface, the sail, the board and me balanced
in harmony, picking up speed as we begin to
skim over the surface, light as a feather
blowing in the air. Then, front arm straight,
unhook sink down, and we begin to turn
away from the wind, body leaning away
from the rig as the board and sail turn in an
arc away from the wind, back to shore.”
(Humberstone, 2014, cited in Fox and
Humberstone, 2014, p. )

13. Being in the body-yoga
“Then slowly I warm up with stretching exercises, standing and then
seated. Anna is continuously watching us, adapting poses for
different individuals and/or when she introduces another pose,
demonstrating two or three versions of the pose, ‘If you have a
dodgy hip or foot, you might try this. . .’ she says. I’m delighted she
remembers I can’t bend my foot for this pose. She says, ‘You might
find doing this pose more appealing by doing. . .’ and ‘. . .a variation
of this pose is. . .’. I feel serenity flowing from her. I simply like
being around her. She has such calmness about her . . . soft voice,
happy face (smile and eyes), a warm glow. We finish with relaxation
and breathing exercises.”-Carol
Carol’s reflection in Humberstone &
Cutler Riddick( 2014)

14. Learning to be in the older body
Woman, CC, 61 years old, who had begun yoga through her
own initiative and continued practising throughout her life, is
now a leading
yoga teacher trainer in a traditional hatha school. She
describes how suffering from chronic asthmatic episodes for a
number of years had caused her, at 15 years of age, to have to
stay ‘in bed for six weeks during the summer’.
CC noted she:
found a book on pranayama [yoga breathing] and worked on that . .
I worked on my breathing and cleared my asthma.
She also explained that she took up yoga because of her
driving interest in the healing process and working with whole
being . . . I believe yoga can cure anything.
Humberstone & Cutler-Riddick (2014)

15. ‘Learning to be in the body’ at a later age
CB, 64 yrs, describes why she returned to yoga and the effect it had
upon her: I started getting arthritis in my hip and I kept thinking ‘I
must go do some yoga’. And that has helped me so ever so much . . .
It seems to [help] . . . well I don’t have trouble with my hip now.
RK, 71 yrs, having started yoga to ‘keep fit . . . and supple’ was
later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She continues,
I need to keep balance . . . try to keep it at bay. It [yoga] probably
keeps me more agile. . . you know going up and down stairs carrying
the vacuum cleaner . . . I mean if you don’t keep going . . . I think it is
helping in lots of ways . . . I sleep better because of the relaxation and
poses, it is being able to relax . . . it [asana practice] gets the blood
flowing . . . I always come home rosy cheeked , warm and sleep well.

16. Hard to reach groups
Movers and Shakers initiated in
2009 by Olga McBarnett (Joint
Mental Health Community
Development Lead Bucks County
Council, Aylesbury Vale and
Chiltern Clinical Commissioning
Group) and supported by
University & others
Started with Caribbean group
and now has more than 12
Movers and Shakers clubs
focussing on diverse
communities including Asian,
Chinese and sheltered
accommodation.
Men’s groups getting together
through ‘sheds’

17. An holistic approach
Enjoyable engagement with physical activity and consequently the potential for
the development of improved physical ,social, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being

18. An holistic approach
• Weekly meetings
organised by
participants which
includes lunch made by
the group members, a
craft or games activity
and a physical activity,
including seated yoga.

19. Participatory approach to engagement
Planning meeting of the Caribbean Movers and
Shakers members are all part of the local
Caribbean community
McBarnett, O. (2010) Movers & Shakers in
Buckinghamshire

20. Concluding remarks
• Older people’s voice significant
• (Auto)-ethnography important methodology which
may link personal to political
• Address research to exploring emotions and
consequently the senses ie embodiment
• Address place, the context of the feelings (pleasurable).
• Holistic/democratic approaches to engage none
habituated people/groups
• How do we evaluate the effectiveness of these types
of intervention in ways acceptable to policy-makers or
more particularly how to engage policy makers with
the credibility of interpretative qualitative research?

21. References
Anderson, L. (2006). Analytic autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,
35 (4), 373–395.
Atkinson, P. (2006). Rescuing autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,
35(4), 400–404.
Delamont, S. (2007). Arguments against Auto-Ethnography. Qualitative Researcher. 4,
3-4.
Foucault, M. (1988). The ethic of care for the self as a practice of freedom. In J.
Bernauer & D. Rasmussen (Eds.), The final Foucault. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Fox, K and Humberstone, B. (2014) Embodiment, Mindfulness and leisure. In L. Such
(Ed.) Education, culture and justice: leisure theory and insight . LSA Publication No.
125. Eastbourne: Leisure Studies Association.
Humberstone, B. and Cutler-Riddick, C. (2014) .Older women, embodiment and yoga
practice . Ageing and Society, doi:10.1017/S0144686X1400018X
Humberstone, B. (2015) Embodied narratives: being with the sea. In M. Brown, and B.
Humberstone(Eds.) Seascapes: Shaped by the sea , Embodied Narratives and Fluid
Geographies. Ashgate Publications.

22. References
McBarnett, O. (2010) Movers & Shakers in Buckinghamshire, In Humberstone,
B. (Ed.) Third Age and Leisure Research: Principles and Practice. LSA
Publication No. 108. Eastbourne: Leisure Studies Association.
Phoenix, C. & Orr, N. (2014) Pleasure: A forgotten dimension of physical
activity in older age. Social Science & Medicine, 115 94-102.
Sparkes, A. (2010). Performing the ageing body and the importance of place.
Some autoethnographic moments. In B. Humberstone (Ed.), Third age and
leisure research: Principles and practice. LSA Publication No. 108. Eastbourne:
Leisure Studies Association.
Sparkes, A. and Smith, B. (2014) Qualitative research methods in sport,
exercise and health. London: Routledge.
Wright Mills, C. (1959) Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Mellor, P.A., & Shillings, C. (2010). Body pedagogics and the religious habitus:
A new direction for the sociological study of religion. Religion, 40, 27–38.