ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the "pain narratives and practices" of college athletes and will contribute to theoretical discussions of embodied practices, narratives, and identities. Chronic pain has a tremendous impact on the daily life and the identity of those who experience it. Chronic illness and chronic pain are often interpreted as biographical disruptions and assaults upon self-identity. Narratives are contingent on the social context and have been recognized as organizing elements not only for identity but also for community. In sociology, narratives are considered a social phenomenon and a method. One of the founding fathers of sociology, Max Weber, declared that sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects. Narrative research is distinguished from other qualitative research approaches by focusing on the story in the data, gathering data in the form of stories, and presenting data in the form of stories.
