TY - JOUR
T1 - The meaning of movement in the everyday lives of Danish high school students: A phenomenological study exploring existential well-being as “dwelling mobility”
AU - Wehner, Stine Kjær
AU - Svendler Nielsen, Charlotte
AU - Fredenslund Krølner, Rikke
AU - Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine
N1 - CURIS 2021 NEXS 152
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Health-promoting initiatives focusing on physical activity include advice on integrating active behaviour into everyday activities pointing to a tendency to combine a health agenda with other agendas. From a public-health perspective, this might be a valuable strategy, but it calls for a conceptual awareness and exploration of the target groups’ perceptions of this broader concept of physical activity. Nested in a Danish intervention study aimed at increasing well-being among high-school students aged 16–17 through the promotion of movement, this study engages in a conceptual exploration of ‘movement in everyday lives’ related to well-being. Combining participant observation and photo-elicitation interviews, the study investigates different kinds of meaning experienced in relation to movement. Theoretically, the study is framed by existential phenomenology with a focus on corporeality, temporality and intersubjectivity. An existential theory of well-being is applied to a discussion of the relationship between bodily movement and well-being. The findings point to movement as a way for students to balance two existential modes within the dimensions of corporeality, temporality and intersubjectivity: one of activity and tenseness, and one of break and stillness. For the students, movement entails bodily experiences ranging from modes of self-forgetfulness to the body demanding attention in different ways; they experience movement as a break from everyday obligations, but also as a way of moving forward; and they experience movement as an occasion for being social and for withdrawing from the social worlds.
AB - Health-promoting initiatives focusing on physical activity include advice on integrating active behaviour into everyday activities pointing to a tendency to combine a health agenda with other agendas. From a public-health perspective, this might be a valuable strategy, but it calls for a conceptual awareness and exploration of the target groups’ perceptions of this broader concept of physical activity. Nested in a Danish intervention study aimed at increasing well-being among high-school students aged 16–17 through the promotion of movement, this study engages in a conceptual exploration of ‘movement in everyday lives’ related to well-being. Combining participant observation and photo-elicitation interviews, the study investigates different kinds of meaning experienced in relation to movement. Theoretically, the study is framed by existential phenomenology with a focus on corporeality, temporality and intersubjectivity. An existential theory of well-being is applied to a discussion of the relationship between bodily movement and well-being. The findings point to movement as a way for students to balance two existential modes within the dimensions of corporeality, temporality and intersubjectivity: one of activity and tenseness, and one of break and stillness. For the students, movement entails bodily experiences ranging from modes of self-forgetfulness to the body demanding attention in different ways; they experience movement as a break from everyday obligations, but also as a way of moving forward; and they experience movement as an occasion for being social and for withdrawing from the social worlds.
KW - Faculty of Science
KW - Movement
KW - Well-being
KW - High school students
KW - Health promotion
KW - Existential phenomenology
U2 - 10.1080/2159676X.2020.1731574
DO - 10.1080/2159676X.2020.1731574
M3 - Journal article
VL - 13
SP - 488
EP - 506
JO - Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health
JF - Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health
SN - 2159-676X
IS - 3
ER -