Running, suffering, enjoying. The body as a research instrument
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Abstract
Running constitutes a lifestyle of notorious massiveness in contemporary Argentina. It goes beyond the specific decision to go running frequently, alone or in training groups. In this case, the decision to carry out an ethnographic research of the running phenomenon forces the scientist to share the usual routines and demands of the actors who face different challenges to complete long-distance races in the best possible time. Thus, the ethnographer, as a marginal native, needs to maintain a reasonably good physical state in order to be able to satisfy some of the demands that also constitute fundamental instances of the fieldwork. Therefore, in this article, the body of the ethnographer is analyzed as a key research in terms of various theoretical resources, mainly phenomenological techniques. Although the article does not state that this degree of bodily involvement is a necessary condition, it does propose that it is a fundamental resource for understanding a particular lifestyle that is characterized by the development of firm moral and aesthetic precepts. This phenomenology of the ethnographer-runner then enables us to describe, by means of embodied consciousness, a broad set of emotions and "body techniques" that define the passion for running as a lifestyle. It is aimed at developing methodological principles that lead to the production of social knowledge and that transcend sports practices like running.
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