Abstract des Autors

The aim of this article is to apply central questions of a historical anthropology of the body to reflections from sport philosophy and physical education on the problem of learning with the body. To this end, I undertake to critically examine (a) common conceptions of learning; (b) the relationship between the body, movement, and society; and (c) the question of possibilities for playfully exploring and reflecting upon learned, embodied habits through the medium of physical activity itself. I argue against the widespread equation of learning with administratively planned “instructed learning” in favor of a self-conscious reclaiming of learning by the subjects themselves. Furthermore, I counter cognitively reductive concepts of learning with the idea that learning and the development of the social self always possess physical dimensions. In the process of the subject's constitution, the body represents a kind of linkage point. The incorporation of the social sphere into the individual takes place via the body; conversely, assimilated social structures are expressed in the media of physicality (movements, postures, gestures). I then examine cases of physical learning both within and outside of disciplinary social institutions (for example, in the new youth movement-orientated cultures of skateboarders, roller skaters, mountain bikers) and consider whether those engaged achieve a temporary disassociation from their incorporated routines and inherited social habits. I conclude with a consideration of the extent to which learning “with the body” can be used in pedagogical contexts as a medium of understanding oneself. Verf.-Referat