Abstract
This paper aims to encourage critical reflection on what are key and pressing social and political issues surrounding the Paralympics Games. The focus of the paper is personnel narratives of six current elite Paralympic athletes who have participated in at least one Paralympic Games. In response to critical stimuli presented in the form of five “unfinished stories”, the self-reflexive, personal, compelling narrative reflections of these individuals were (re)presented for each of the stories as a composite narrative. The stories expose questions over fear, despair, freedom, hope, love, oppression, hatred, hurt, terror, (in)equality, peace, performance and impairment. To really learn from London and reflect for Rio, we need academic work that can understand sport, sporting bodies and physical activity as important ‘sites’ through which social forces, discourses, institutions and processes congregate, congeal and are contested in a manner that contributes to the shaping of human relations, subjectivities, and experiences in particular, contextually contingent ways.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 632-647 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Reflective Practice |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 7 Oct 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2013 |
Keywords
- reflective practice
- Paralympics
- unfinished story
- physical cultural studies
- cultural politics