ABSTRACT
Poststructuralism has been accused of focusing on analyses of discourse and language that exclude the material body and as such, it is considered unsuitable for understanding human movement and human movement learning. However, poststructuralist research, particularly the work of Michel Foucault, has often been used to analyze the physically active body within sport studies and physical education. In this chapter, I first briefly outline poststructuralism to contextualize Foucault’s work. I then distinguish between several different readings of Foucault to further illuminate what characterizes a poststructuralist analysis of the physically active body. I conclude with Deleuze’s (2006) reading of Foucault’s concept, the ‘historical formation’ that is comprised of both articulable (sayable, language) elements and visible (space and the material moving body) elements in order to develop a way to use poststructuralism to understand movement learning.
