Department of Geography, University College London, UK.
Health Place. 2017 Jul;46:337-343. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.10.003. Epub 2016 Dec 18.
Recreational running is increasingly widespread and could therefore be seen as the obvious target for those hoping to encourage greater public health through exercise. Existing qualitative research on this topic has, however, tended to focus on groups of highly committed runners. It is accordingly unclear whether their findings can be extrapolated to the much larger population of comparatively casual runners. This existing work has also tended to emphasise the social nature of the activity in particular ways. Whilst much recreational running happens alone, most commonly these studies have centred on the establishment of shared identities and group subcultures. Drawing on a study involving accompanied runs and interviews with recreational runners who do not belong to running clubs in London, this paper presents an alternative account. These respondents were relatively uninterested in the idea of proper running technique, ambivalent about the presence of others when running, and reticent about being pulled into a more committed collective practice. In view of how these more casual runners may be of particular interest to public health promoters, this finding suggests future campaigns might do well not to focus too greatly on the potential enjoyments of running community membership and start instead with a different set of social dynamics.
休闲跑步越来越普及，因此可以被视为那些希望通过运动促进公众健康的人的明显目标。然而，关于这一主题的现有定性研究往往集中在高度投入的跑步群体上。因此，他们的发现是否可以推断到数量更大的相对休闲的跑步者群体尚不清楚。这项现有研究也倾向于以特定的方式强调活动的社交性质。虽然很多休闲跑步都是独自进行的，但这些研究大多集中在建立共同身份和群体亚文化上。本文借鉴了一项涉及陪同跑步和对伦敦不参加跑步俱乐部的休闲跑步者进行采访的研究，提出了另一种解释。这些受访者对正确的跑步技术的想法相对不感兴趣，对跑步时他人的存在持矛盾态度，也不愿被拉进更投入的集体实践。鉴于这些更休闲的跑步者可能对公共健康促进者特别感兴趣，这一发现表明，未来的运动可能不会过于关注跑步社区成员的潜在乐趣，而是从一组不同的社会动态开始。
