Sociology of the body as an independent research direction: prerequisites for formation and subject field

Abstract

In the contemporary society, under globalization, digitalization, urbanization and networkization, the body acquires new meanings, is included in new discourses and becomes a significant object of sociology. The article considers the possibility of sociology of the body as an independent scientific direction similar to such directions as sociology of medicine, sociology of sexuality, feminist sociology, sociology of sports, sociology of food and nutrition, sociology of aging, etc. The problem of the body has a long tradition of scientific research, and the author identifies the prerequisites for sociology of the body in various areas of social knowledge: philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and general sociology. The author describes four basic research fields in sociology of the body: body as an object of social control; issues of sex and gender; body as an object of consumption; body and technology - development of biotechnology and selftracking technologies. These thematic blocks of sociology of the body are not isolated from such related fields as sociology of medicine, sociology of sexuality, feminist sociology, etc. All directions in the sociological study of the body are interrelated; however, each of them, including sociology of the body, has its own research field. Thus, sociology of the body studies the body in all its diverse social manifestations; the body as an element of social structure and social action; mutual influence of the body and contemporary transformations, such as urbanization, globalization, digitalization, networkization, etc.; emerging social movements focusing on the construction of identity and of the individual corporal project. The body becomes a project that can/should be improved and promoted. The “formed” body reflects such life attitudes of the individual as a sense of style and taste, attitudes to health, self-control, etc. Thus, through the body, the individual creates one’s social representation and identity: the image of “I”.