ABSTRACT
Changing cultural, political and economic conditions have posed new challenges for the individual body, and these have been reflected in shifting notions of an individual’s fitness for social life. Notions of fitness in the early twenty-first century are shaped, first and foremost, by the tenets of individualization, which take identity, health, and social mobility as individual duties and responsibilities. Ultimately, “being fit” is about possessing the appropriate capacities and resources to undertake the project of the self in a competent fashion, minimizing health risks, and maximizing market value. Fitness is a measure of aptitude for life in consumer culture and a service economy.
