Space, Place and Body Culture: Yi-Fu Tuan and a Geography of Sport

The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan has undertaken a wide variety of studies in the field of human and cultural geography. His work has shown a concern for themes ranging from topophilia to the domestication of nature and from space and place to aesthetics. It is possible to utilise Tuan's ideas to point the way to more humanistic approaches to the geographical study of sport. This is done by taking several ‘fragments’ from his writings and applying them to sports-geographic projects. Despite Tuan's fleeting and somewhat naive allusions to sports, many of his ideas are applicable to sports-geographic studies. These include his thoughts on space and place, dominance and affection, I senses of place, and the composition of the good life. An autobiographical summary provides an exemplification of some of these ideas.