Physical Culture, Physical Education and Relational Analysis

ABSTRACT This paper argues for the recovery of a notion of physical culture that can serve the purposes of relational analysis in social research. The recovery of the notion is undertaken through a brief etymology of the term, and through an historical overview of shifts in physical culture during the twentieth century. The recovered notion is described as one dimension of corporeal discourse, concerned with meaning‐making in and around the body centred on sport, physical recreation and exercise as three institutionalized, codified forms of physical activity. Various uses are described of this definition of physical culture within a program of relational research centred on school physical education. The paper concludes with a comment on some of the work that remains to be done in preparing the notion of physical culture for operationalization in relational social research in the physical activity field.