Schooled Bodies? (PDF)

This book explores how adolescents in contemporary western culture are schooled on issues of embodiment. Despite an apparently growing lay consensus that adolescence is the time when concerns relating to the body are especially concentrated and complex, sociological literature rarely makes connections between the sociology of the body and the sociology of adolescence. With its in-depth conversations with adolescents themselves and its exploration of theoretical and empirical discourses, the book bridges this gap. Schooled Bodies? Is unique in offering a methodologically detailed account of the complexities encountered by the adolescents in their pursuit of a sense of embodied validation. The in-depth study allows readers to journey into the worlds of teenagers from varied backgrounds, as they reveal embodied narratives that shift frequently between happiness and heartache. Working with these adolescents and their everyday encounters with theoretical perceptions means that the bodies in this book are not mere canvases that have sociological understandings done to them. Instead the participants are agents who actively negotiate, investigate and instigate sociological understandings for themselves. This book is valuable reading for those studying the sociology of childhood or adolescence or the sociology of the body, as well as courses on consumer culture and on education and teacher training. The subject matter also has strong popular appeal.