Abstract
There are many complex and varied impacts of changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on ‘afflicted bodies’ during attempts to rehabilitate following a serious health event, such as a cardiac event. This chapter draws on ethnographic research, which overlapped with the first wave of the pandemic, to investigate socio-cultural influences on embodied experiences of exercise and health during the cardiac patient journey. Methods involved participant observations and repeat in-depth semi-structured interviews with cardiac patients and their significant others. Data were thematically analysed, with Bourdieusian theoretical perspectives permeating the study. During these strange and difficult times, Bourdieu’s theory offers insights into how individuals navigate crisis events in relation to their bodily practices, physicalities and feelings about place, especially given the twofold shaking of the habitus caused by ill-health and then the pandemic.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akhmerov, A., & Marbán, E. (2020). COVID-19 and the heart. Circulation Research, 126(10), 1443–1455.
Angus, J. E., Dale, C. M., Seto Nielsen, L., Kramer-Kile, M., Lapum, J., Pritlove, C., Abramson, B., Price, J. A., Marzolini, S., Oh, P., & Clark, A. (2018). Gender matters in cardiac rehabilitation and diabetes: Using Bourdieu’s concepts. Social Science and Medicine, 200, 44–51.
Bangsbo, J., Blackwell, J., Boraxbekk C-J., Caserotti, P., Dela, F., Evans, A.B., Jespersen, A.P., Gliemann, L., Kramer, A.F., Lundbye-Jensen, J., Mortensen, E.L., Lassen, A.J., Gow, A.J., Harridge, S.D.R., Hellsten, Y., Kjaer, M., Kujala, U.M., Rhodes, R.E., Pike, E.C.J … Viña, J. (2019). Copenhagen Consensus statement 2019: Physical activity and ageing. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(14), 856-858
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1978). Sport and social class. Social Science Information, 17(6), 819–840.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). Les trois etats du capital culturel. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences, 30(1), 3–6.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Routledge, Kegan and Paul.
Bourdieu, P. (1994). Sociology in question. Sage Publications Ltd.
Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason. Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian meditations. Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2006). The Forms of Capital. In H. Lauder, P. Brown, J.-A. Dillabough, & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Education, Globalisation and Social Change (pp. 60–107). Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1977). Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Sage.
Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Polity Press.
Bowness, J., McKendrick, J., & Tulle, E. (2021). From non-runner to parkrunner: Subjective athletic identity and experience of parkrun. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(5), 695–718.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597.
British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. (2023). The BACPR Standards and Core Components for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation 2023 (4th Edition). http://www.cardiacrehabilitation.org.uk/docs/BACPRStandards-and-Core-Components-2023.pdf
British Heart Foundation. (2019). Quality and outcomes report. https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/publications/statistics/national-audit-of- cardiac-rehabilitation-quality-and-outcomesreport-2019
Burström, B., & Tao, W. (2020). Social determinants of health and inequalities in COVID-19. European Journal of Public Health, 30(4), 617–618.
Clerkin, K. J., Fried, J. A., Raikhelkar, J., Sayer, G., Griffin, J. M., Masoumi, A., et al. (2020). COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease. Circulation, 141(20), 1648–1655.
De Biase, S., Cook, L., Skelton, D. A., Witham, M., & Ten Hove, R. (2020). The COVID-19 rehabilitation pandemic. Age and Ageing, 49(5), 696–700.
Epstein, E., Patel, N., Maysent, K., & Taub, P. R. (2021). Cardiac Rehab in the COVID Era and Beyond: mHealth and Other Novel Opportunities. Current Cardiology reports, 23(5), 1–8.
Evans, A. B., & Crust, L. (2015). ‘Some of these people aren’t as fit as us …’: experiencing the ageing, physically active body in cardiac rehabilitation. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 7(1), 13–36.
Evans, A. B., Blackwell, J., Dolan, P., Fahlén, J., Hoekman, R., Lenneis, V., McNarry, G., Smith, M., & Wilcock, L. (2020). Sport in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic: Towards an agenda for research in the sociology of sport. European Journal for Sport and Society, 17(2), 85–95.
Grund, S., Gordon, A. L., Bauer, J. M., Achterberg, W. P., & Schols, J. M. (2021). The COVID rehabilitation paradox: Why we need to protect and develop geriatric rehabilitation services in the face of the pandemic. Age and Ageing, 50(3), 605–607.
Helpard, H., & Meagher-Stewart, D. (1998). The “kaleidoscope” experience for elderly women living with coronary artery disease. Canadian Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 9(3), 11–23.
Hupin, D., Roche, F., Gremeaux, V., Chatard, J-C., Oriol, M., Gaspoz, J-M., Barthélémy, J-C. & Edouard, P. (2015). Even a low-dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces mortality by 22% in adults aged 60 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 49, 1262-1267
Kelly, P., Kahlmeier, S., Götschi, T., Orsini, N., Richards, J., Roberts, N., Scarborough, P., & Foster, C. (2014). Systematic review and meta-analysis of reduction in all-cause mortality from walking and cycling and shape of dose response relationship. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 11, 132–136.
Lewis, S., Willis, K., & Collyer, F. (2018). Navigating and making choices about healthcare: The role of place. Health & Place, 52, 215–220.
Lollgen, H., Bockenhoff, A., & Knapp, G. (2009). Physical activity and all-cause mortality: An updated meta-analysis with different intensity categories. International Journal of Sports Medicine., 30, 213–224.
Lwin, M. O., Lu, J., Sheldenkar, A., & Schulz, P. J. (2018). Strategic uses of Facebook in Zika outbreak communication: Implications for the crisis and emergency risk communication model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), 1974.
Mafham, M. M., Spata, E., Goldacre, R., Gair, D., Curnow, P., Bray, M., et al. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and admission rates for and management of acute coronary syndromes in England. The Lancet, 396(10248), 381–389.
Malcolm, D. (2014). Sport, health and medicine: A sociological agenda. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 3(1), 51–63.
Maton, K. (2014). Habitus. In M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key concepts (pp. 60–76). Routledge.
Naz, A., & Billah, M. (2021). COVID-19 and Coronary Heart Disease. Encyclopedia, 1(2), 340–349.
Neveu, E. (2018). Bourdieu’s Capital(s): Sociologizing an Economic Concept. In T. Medvetz & J. J. Sallaz (Eds.) The Oxford handbook of Pierre Bourdieu (pp. 347–374). Oxford University Press.
O’Doherty, A. F., Humphreys, H., Dawkes, S., Cowie, A., Hinton, S., Brubaker, P. H., Butler, T., & Nichols, S. (2021). How has technology been used to deliver cardiac rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic? An international cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals conducted by the BACPR. BMJ open, 11(4), e046051.
Online etymology dictionary. (2021). Rehabilitation. https://www.etymonline.com/word/rehabilitation
Palmer, V., Bowness, J., & Tulle, E. (2021). (Re)conceptualising physical activity as a career. Ageing and Society, 41(4), 936–954.
Pecci, C., & Ajmal, M. (2021). Cardiac Rehab in the COVID-19 Pandemic. The American Journal of Medicine, 134(5), 559–560.
Robbins, D. (2019). The Bourdieu paradigm: The origins and evolution of an intellectual social project. Manchester University Press. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvnb7qpj
Schellenberg, G., & Fonberg, J. (2020). Housing characteristics and staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistics Canada. https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/
Schrack, J. A., Wanigatunga, A. A., & Juraschek, S. P. (2020). After the COVID-19 pandemic: the next wave of health challenges for older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A
Shilling, C. (2010). Physical capital and situated action: A new direction for corporeal sociology. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25(4), 473–487.
Son, J. S., Nimrod, G., West, S. T., Janke, M. C., Liechty, T., & Naar, J. J. (2021). Promoting older adults’ physical activity and social well-being during COVID-19. Leisure Sciences, 43(1-2), 287–294.
Taylor-Smith, A., & Dumas, A. (2019). Class-based masculinity, cardiovascular health and rehabilitation. Sociology of Health & Illness, 41(2), 303–324.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. (2019). Rehabilitation.. https://www.csp.org.uk/conditions/rehabilitation
Tulle, E. (2008). Ageing, the body and social change: Running in later life. Palgrave Macmillan.
Vandenberghe, F. (1999). “The Real is Relational”: An Epistemological Analysis of Pierre Bourdieu’s Generative Structuralism. Sociological Theory, 17(1), 32–67.
Watson, J., & Grenfell, M. (2016). Working in the methodological ‘outfield’: The case of Bourdieu and occupational therapy. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 39(2), 151–169.
Webb, J., Schirato, T., & Danaher, G. (2002). Understanding Bourdieu. Allen & Unwin.
Williams, O., & Gibson, K. (2018). Exercise as a poisoned elixir: Inactivity, inequality and intervention. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 10(4), 412–428.
World Health Organisation. (2020). Rehabilitation. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rehabilitation
Yang, Y. (2014). Bourdieu, practice and change: Beyond the criticism of determinism. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(14), 1522–1540.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Blackwell, J., Henderson, H., Evans, A., Allen-Collinson, J. (2023). “You realise you tick a lot of boxes”: Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on the Rehabilitating Body Through a Bourdieusian Lens. In: Andrews, D.L., Thorpe, H., Newman, J.I. (eds) Sport and Physical Culture in Global Pandemic Times . Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14387-8_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14387-8_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-14386-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-14387-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)