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Page 1: Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques

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Body & Society

DOI: 10.1177/1357034X05049848 2005; 11; 1 Body Society

Nick Crossley Maintenance

Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques: On Body Modification and

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Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques:On Body Modification andMaintenance

NICK CROSSLEY

Much work in the sociology of the body has been devoted to an analysis of bodymodification and maintenance; that is, to practices such as diet, exercise, body-building, tattooing, piercing, dress and cosmetic surgery (e.g. Crossley, 2004a,2004b; DeMello, 2000; Entwistle, 2000; Featherstone, 1982, 2000; Gurney, 2000;Monaghan, 2001; Pitts, 1998, 2003; Rosenblatt, 1997; Sanders, 1988; Sassatelli,1999a, 1999b; Smith, 2001; Sweetman, 1999; Turner, 1999). In this paper I seek tocontribute to this work on two fronts. First, developing a theme already presentin the literature, I explore the reflexive and embodied nature of practices ofmodification/maintenance. It is very easy when discussing this topic to slip intoa dualistic framework, opposing the body to either self or society and seemingto suggest that the former is transformed by the latter. We talk, for example,about ‘my body’, what ‘I’ think of ‘it’, what ‘I’ put ‘it’ through and what ‘I’ want‘it’ to look like. On one level this linguistic habit resonates with our experience.Our socially instituted capacity for reflexivity allows us to turn back upon andobjectify ourselves, effecting a distinction between what Mead (1967) referred toas the ‘I’ and the ‘me’; the body as subject and the body as object. On this level

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we both are our bodies and we have a body (Crossley, 2001). However, it isnecessary to recognize this split as reflexive rather than substantial in nature. Itderives from our acquired capacity to assume the role of another and thereby toachieve an outside perspective on ourselves, a process which generates a sense ofour being distinct from the qualities we identify with our self when assuming this‘other’ role. It does not indicate a substantial distinction between mind/self andbody. It does not often even reflect the emergent stratification between the bodyas a biochemical structure and the body as a sensuous, active agent. ‘My body’,the body I ‘have’, is a moral, aesthetic, acting and sensuous being. I worry asmuch about its appearance, performances and transgressions as I do about itsbiological structure. The best work in the sociology of the body recognizes this.It challenges dualism, insisting that ‘I’ am ‘my body’ and that body projects aretherefore reflexive projects (see esp. Crossley, 2001, 2004a; Entwistle, 2000;Monaghan, 1999; Smith, 2001; Sweetman, 1999; Wacquant, 1995, 2004).

In this article I advance this idea through an exploration of what I call reflex-ive body techniques (RBTs), a concept which builds upon Marcel Mauss’s (1979)concept of body techniques (see also Crossley, 1995, 2004a, 2004c) and upon myown earlier work on reflexive embodiment (Crossley, 2001). The concept ofRBTs, I will show, affords a powerful analytic purchase upon the embodied andreflexive processes and practices involved in projects of body modification/main-tenance and, indeed, upon the reflexive separation of the embodied I and me.

The concept of RBTs also frames my second theme: the social distribution anddiffusion of practices of modification. Specifically, I will demonstrate and seek toexplain the fact that the overall repertoire of RBTs belonging to any group canalways be differentiated into: (i) clusters which all members practise, (ii) clusterswhich the majority or a large minority practise and (iii) clusters which only asmall minority practise. Furthermore, I will demonstrate and seek to explain thefact that within the ‘zone’ of less widely practised RBTs we find clusters which‘go together’ thematically and/or in the sense of being statistically associated.Recognizing this pattern of distribution is important because it alerts us both tothe different meanings attaching to specific clusters and to their variableconditions of diffusion and appropriation; their levels of accessibility and thedifferent balance of costs and rewards that attach to them.

This is an important observation in relationship to our broader focus. Generaldescriptions such as ‘body modification’ and ‘body maintenance’ can be mislead-ing because they imply that we are dealing with a set of practices with a commonidentity, purpose, accessibility, etc. They fail to distinguish between the sociallogic of distinct sets of practices. This can lead to theoretical accounts which dolikewise. Giddens’ (1991) theory of ‘the body in late modernity’, to take one

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example, offers a single explanation of practices of body maintenance, basedaround the need for social agents to construct coherent self-narratives in anincreasingly detraditionalized and risk-aware environment. This is arguably agood account in relationship to some practices of modification, perhaps diet andexercise (although see Crossley, 2004b). But it is far from obvious that it explainsall modification practices. We are forced to ask whether other practices, includ-ing both more mundane and widespread practices, such as tooth-brushing andwashing, and also more marginal practices, such as scarification and multiplepiercing, can be explained in the same way. And even if they can we mustquestion whether the difference in rates of uptake between such practices can beignored, as it is by those who theorize body modification at a very high level ofabstraction and generalization, in a largely undifferentiated fashion. The fact thatsome practices achieve an almost 100 percent rate of uptake in our society, whilstothers are practised by less than 1 percent of the population, and others still by30 percent, 40 percent or 50 percent is and should be question begging for soci-ologists of the body, as indeed should the clustering and association of specifictechniques. They suggest the presence of a social dynamic we have not yet recog-nized or analysed.

There are, of course, many focused empirical studies which explore in detailthe specificities of particular practices, such as bodybuilding, piercing or cosmeticsurgery (Davis, 1995; DeMello, 2000; Irwin, 2001; Klein, 1993; Klesse, 1999;Kosut, 2000; Monaghan, 1999, 2001; Myers, 1992; Pitts, 1998; Rosenblatt, 1997;Sanders, 1988; St Martin and Gavey, 1996; Sweetman, 1999; Turner, 1999; Vail,1999). These are an important antidote to overgeneralized theories and they shedlight upon individual practices. However, their specificity denies us the possi-bility of a broader, comparative grasp of the spectrum of practices to be found incontemporary societies. What is needed, to complement these studies, and whatI hope to move towards in this article, is a broad and differentiated frameworkfor thinking about body modification/maintenance in general; a framework thatcan draw a diverse range of practices together, while remaining sensitive to theirparticularities. The article will not take us all of the way to this goal but I hopeat least to take a few important steps in that direction.

A thorough analysis of patterns of differentiation, at least insofar as it includesconsideration of different rates of uptake, requires that we integrate the quali-tative methods and theoretical investigations common in the sociology of thebody with certain more quantitative techniques, designed specifically to enableexploration of distributions, associations, clustering, etc. Any of a range of suchtechniques might be used, from quite basic frequency distributions through tomore complex statistical techniques. In this article, alongside frequency

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distributions and cross-tabulation, I will use ‘multi-dimensional scaling’ (MDS),a technique which allows us to visualize, in the form of scatterplots or ‘percep-tual maps’, the statistical associations between large numbers of categorical vari-ables (Canter, 1985; Kruskal and Wish, 1978). On an MDS plot we can see whichRBTs ‘go together’, in the sense that practice of one is associated with practice ofthe other(s), because they form visible clusters. These statistical associations andclusters often reflect thematic clustering. RBTs are statistically associated becausethey belong to a common lifestyle, habitus or self-narrative. Their association atthe level of meaning increases the probability that agents drawn to one will bedrawn to the other(s), which in turn generates a statistical association betweenthem.

Moreover, under certain conditions an MDS plot allows us, simultaneously,to map frequency distributions. One example of this is a pattern of distri-bution/interpretation, which I return to later, known as the radex (Canter,1985). In a radex, variables (e.g. body techniques) which occur most frequentlyin a population cluster towards the centre of the plot, or towards a point thatwe can treat as the centre. Most people do most of them and this causes themto congeal centrally on the plot. Less frequently occurring variables spreadprogressively outwards from this centre, with the least frequent appearing at theextremes of the plot. In our attempt to interpret such plots we can representthese frequency patterns by drawing concentric circles onto the plot whichlocate specific sets of variables in different frequency ‘zones’. In addition,however, as we move out from our innermost circle, we find that the lessfrequently occurring variables form distinct clusters in accordance with theother variables that they are positively and negatively associated with – and withwhich, as noted above, they may also therefore be thematically associated. Thisallows us to further subdivide our plot. We can mark out clusters at the‘margins’ of our plot by way of segments. In Figure 1, for example, threeconcentric circles demarcate frequency zones into which hypothetical variables(represented by letters) fall. A and J are variables which occur most frequently(e.g. they might be very commonly practised body techniques). F, T, G, P andQ are variables which occur less frequently. And D, I and N are variables whichoccur relatively rarely (they might be techniques which very few peoplepractise). In addition to mapping frequencies, however, the plot allows us tomap out thematic clusters. We can divide our map into interpretable segments.We might seek to interpret the clustering D, T and G, for example, as evidenceof their belonging to a common habitus or, following Giddens (1991), a specificnarrative trajectory (A is too commonly practised to count). Perhaps they areall techniques which embody values of ‘health and fitness’, while P, Q and N

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belong to a ‘modern primitivist’ habitus. How we divide the plot, where wedraw our lines, will reflect our own theoretical judgements. We might wish touse theoretical understandings to formulate hypotheses regarding clusteringprior to our mapping exercise or may simply use theory for retrospectiveinterpretation. In either case, however, maps require theoretically basedinterpretation if they are to have any sense. We try to match clusters with theor-etical accounts – always expecting that some anomalies will be thrown up alongthe way. What prevents this from being an interpretative ‘free for all’ is theunderlying structure of the map we are working with – which is largely givenby virtue of MDS technique.1 We have considerable room for manoeuvre whenwe slice the map up, but we are always restrained by the relative positioning ofthe variables (and our understanding of the technique that has produced it). Wecannot pretend that two variables are close if they are not.

Aims, Method and Data

I begin the main body of the article by outlining the concept of RBTs, discussingcertain thorny issues that attach to it, such as the problem posed by the idea ofpurpose, and elaborating its relationship to human selfhood. Having establishedthe concept in this way, I then reflect upon the distribution of RBTs within thepopulation, returning to the radex concept outlined above, showing how itrelates to reflexive body techniques and positing a preliminary account forexplaining the social distribution of RBTs. Before doing any of this, however, itis necessary to spell out the four primary aims of the article in a little moredetail.

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F I

T A J

D G N

P Q

Figure 1 A Radex

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First, I aim to advance our substantive understanding of practices of bodymodification/maintenance by formulating an approach, centred upon RBTs andtheir distribution, which allows us to deal with a broad range of practices, in anon-dualistic way, without subsuming them into an over-general theoreticalaccount. Second, following Williams and Bendelow’s criticism that ‘Discourseson . . . the “reflexive” body continue to be pitched, for the most part, at the levelof broad claims and sweeping generalisations with little concern for empiricaldetail’ (1998: 104), I aim to demonstrate a way in which the analysis of bodymodification/maintenance can be made more empirical. Moreover, it is mycontention that the framework I posit, centred upon RBTs, lends itself equallyto qualitative and quantitative forms of investigation. Indeed it demands both.The present article leans in the quantitative direction, but it flags up qualitativeissues and I have researched RBTs in a more ethnographic and phenomenologicalway elsewhere (Crossley, 2004a). Third, I aim to advance both my own earlierattempts to build upon Mauss’s (1979) concept of ‘body techniques’, a conceptwhich I believe to be crucial for the sociology of the body (see also Crossley,1995, 2004a, 2004c) and my own earlier theorization of reflexive embodiment(Crossley, 2001). Finally, I aim by way of a discussion of statistical methods thathave been little used in sociology, to explore a potential methodological inno-vation for the study of the body, and particularly for the analysis of body tech-niques.

To allow me to demonstrate this more fully I have conducted a small ques-tionnaire survey (n = 304), focused upon the distribution and diffusion of anumber of RBTs and ‘ensembles’ (defined below). The questions used in thesurvey were drawn from a consultation and piloting exercise, and also a mediasearch. These preliminary investigations allowed me to build a rough picture ofthe current societal repertoire of RBTs and their ensembles. In the questionnaireitself respondents were asked to indicate whether they had engaged in any ofthese techniques within a given time-frame, which varied according to thepractice. In some cases further elaboration was asked for (e.g. What sort ofexercise? How many hours? How many tattoos? Where on your body?). Anumber of questions concerning consultation of body-related2 web-sites, maga-zines and magazine/newspaper articles – all potential sources of information onRBTs – were also included. Finally, I included a few basic demographic ques-tions.

Sampling for the survey was opportunistic and snowballed. I approachedfriends, family, colleagues and students, asking them both to fill in the question-naire and to distribute it within their own personal networks. The resultingsample was relatively balanced with respect to gender – though with slightly

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more females3 – and involved representation from a variety of age,4 social class,5ethnic6 and religious7 groups. I make no claim with respect to representativeness,however. The sample was convenient and sufficient for my present, preliminaryinvestigations, but it is far from perfect. Nor do I suggest that the survey resultsare particularly startling. I found what I expected to find. The point of the survey,however, was to allow me to check that my assumptions were borne out amongsta population whom I have no reason to believe are unusual,8 to consider how wemight move from assumptions to empirically verifiable models, and also toexplore the above-mentioned methodological innovations.

With this said, we can turn to the main arguments of the article. I begin witha discussion of Mauss’s formulation of ‘body techniques’. My claim, to reiterate,is that we can conceptualize and analyse practices of body modification/main-tenance as particular types of body technique, namely reflexive body techniques,and that there are advantages to doing so.

Body Techniques

Mauss (1979) arrived at the concept of body techniques after having observedboth that certain embodied practices (e.g. spitting, hunting techniques and eatingwith a knife and fork) are specific to particular societies, and that others varyconsiderably in style across societies and social groups. Women walk differentlyto men, the bourgeoisie talk differently to the proletariat, the French militarymarch and dig differently to British troops and so on. Building on these obser-vations, he defines body techniques as ‘ways in which from society to societymen [sic] know how to use their bodies’ (1979: 97). This definition is potentiallyproblematic as it can seem to suggest, in the fashion warned against above, that‘men’ and ‘their bodies’ are different things. Given the way in which Mausspursues his point, however, it is reasonable to assume that this is not his inten-tion. Indeed, the concept is used to effect a sophisticated, albeit often tacit inno-vation in non-dualistic sociology. Mauss’s description of body techniques as‘habitus’ is an important point of entry for grasping this innovation. ‘Habitus’,he explains, is a Latin rendering of the Greek ‘hexis’ (or ‘exis’), a concept whichis central to Aristotle’s philosophy, wherein it denotes acquired and embodieddispositions9 which constitute forms of practical reason or wisdom (see Aristotle,1955). Habitus and thus body techniques have a double edge in this definition.They are forms of embodied, pre-reflective understanding, knowledge or reason.And they are social. They emerge and spread within a collective context, as theresult of interaction, such that they can be identified with specific social groupsor networks:

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. . . I have had this notion of the social nature of ‘the habitus’ for many years. Please note thatI use the Latin word – it should be understood in France – habitus. The word translates infi-nitely better than ‘habitude’ (habit or custom), the ‘exis’, the ‘acquired ability’ and ‘faculty’ ofAristotle (who was a psychologist). It does not designate those metaphysical habitudes, thatmysterious ‘memory’, the subject of volumes or short and famous theses. These ‘habits’ do notvary just with individuals and their imitations; they vary between societies, educations, propri-eties and fashions, prestiges. In them we should see the techniques and work of collective andindividual practical reason rather than, in the ordinary way, merely the soul and its repetitivefaculties. (Mauss, 1979: 101)

I will return to the question of how body techniques distinguish and differenti-ate social groups later. Here I am interested in the manner in which the conceptsimultaneously holds together social, corporeal and cognitive elements. In doingthis ‘body techniques’ rejoins the Durkheimian tradition it derives from in tworespects. First, it rejoins the concept of ‘social facts’, integrating it with aconsideration of biological and psychological facts (see also Lévi-Strauss, 1987).Body techniques are social facts. They vary across societies and social groups.They pre-exist and will outlive the specific individuals who practise them at anypoint in time. Mauss even seeks to show – albeit somewhat problematically(Crossley, 1995, 2004a) – how they ‘constrain’ agents. At the same time, however,they presuppose biological structures and embody knowledge, reason andpsychological properties. Styles of walking vary across social groups, forexample, indicating a social basis, but all of these different styles presupposebipedalism, not to mention the plasticity and intelligence that allow the organismto develop and learn different ways of walking. They thus have biologicalpreconditions. Furthermore, styles of walking embody understanding andknowledge. Switching to ‘tiptoes’ when silence is required, for example, indicatesa grasp of the conditions most conducive to minimizing noise, while walking atightrope, and indeed walking per se, requires a practical grasp of principles ofbalance, force, etc. When we adjust our posture to steady ourselves we engage inpractical physics. Finally, certain styles of walking, such as a proud march orarrogant strut, embody an emotional intention (in the phenomenological senseof ‘intention’) and may even be employed as a means of generating such an inten-tion (see Crossley, 2004c). As both Sartre (1993) and Merleau-Ponty (1962) note,we can generate emotional intentions, putting ourselves into particular moods,by acting out the mood; that is, by performing the body techniques (partly)constitutive of it. This is a key function of body techniques within certain rituals(Crossley, 2004c). Thus, body techniques have a psychological dimension too.

Second, ‘body techniques’ extends the Durkheimian notion of collectiverepresentations, a notion that Mauss himself developed with Durkheim(Durkheim and Mauss, 1963). It identifies collective forms of wisdom and

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reasoning which are pre-representational in form; that is, forms of pre-reflectiveknowledge (know-how) and understanding that consist entirely in a capacity todo certain sorts of things. The movements of the body, for Mauss, are not, as theywere for the behaviourists and other writers of his time, mere movements. Theyare practical and embodied forms of knowledge and understanding. Importantly,this does not mean that movement is guided by knowledge but rather that certainforms of knowledge and understanding are inseparable from and consist entirelyin particular forms of acquired, embodied competence. By the same token thismeans that certain forms of knowledge and understanding are inseparable fromthe capacity to do certain sorts of things, irrespective of whether representationsor propositions are involved. Body techniques are ‘collective pre-representations’– though, as we will see shortly, not everyone in the collective has equal accessto them.

The ‘mindful’ aspect of body techniques is not very well developed in Mauss’swork and its lack of development is one among a number of problems. We needto engage more seriously with the embodied subjectivity and agency he hints at,drawing upon the work of other writers who have developed this theme(Crossley, 2001; Merleau-Ponty, 1962, 1965; Ryle, 1945; Sartre, 1969, 1972).Furthermore, we need to recognize more flexibility and room for imaginationand improvisation in bodily action than he does (Crossley, 1995, 2004a). Finally,we need to do more to grasp the link between body techniques and the inter-corporeal contexts in which they are practised. The sociality of body techniques,for Mauss, consists in their group specificity, but we must recognize also a formof sociality that consists in the way in which their performance is shaped to meetthe interactive exigencies of specific situations (Crossley, 1995, 2004a). None ofthis detracts from the importance of Mauss’s innovation, however. His conceptof ‘body techniques’ gives us a way of thinking sociologically about bodilyactivities, a way that prioritizes the social dimension while simultaneouslybuilding links to biology and psychology. This is a gain for theory, but it equallygrows out of and facilitates solid empirical analysis, thereby providing much-needed means to fill a gap within the sociology of the body.

Reflexive Body Techniques (RBTs)

Much of Mauss’s essay is devoted to an attempt to catalogue different body tech-niques according to their purposes and attributes. My concept of reflexive bodytechniques extends this effort. RBTs, as I define them, are those body techniqueswhose primary purpose is to work back upon the body, so as to modify, maintainor thematize it in some way. This might involve two embodied agents.

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Hairdressing, massage, dental work and cosmetic surgery, for example, usuallyentail that one ‘body’ is worked upon, physically, by another or by a team ofembodied agents. It might even be extended to include such distanciated andmediated interactions as those that connect the manufacturers of pharmaceuticalsto those who distribute and use them. Pill-popping is a socially complex, dis-tanciated and mediated RBT. Equally, it can entail a single ‘body’ acting uponitself. This might involve one part of the body being used to modify/maintainanother part; for example, when I use my hand to brush my hair or clean myteeth. It might, however, entail a total immersion of the body into a stream ofactivity whose purpose is to modify or maintain that body as a whole. When Ijog, for example, I launch my whole body into action, in an effort to increase myfitness, burn off fat/calories, tone up my lower body, etc.

Each society or social group has a repertoire of RBTs. This repertoire is oneelement in the broader set of collective pre-representations of that society. Anda portion of our daily routine is taken up performing techniques from this reper-toire. We wash, clean our teeth, brush our hair, dress ourselves, perhaps shaveand/or apply cosmetics. Other techniques from the repertoire are built intoweekly or monthly routines. We exercise, shave parts of our body, have our haircut, cut our finger nails, dress up for a night out, etc. And beyond our routines,we periodically venture ‘one-off’ modifications, such as a piercing, tattoos orcosmetic surgery, all of which involve bodily manipulation of the body; that is,RBTs. RBTs are techniques of the body, performed by the body and involving aform of knowledge and understanding that consists entirely in embodiedcompetence, below the threshold of language and consciousness; but they areequally techniques for the body, techniques that modify and maintain the bodyin particular ways.

It might seem peculiar to regard the more mundane of these techniques asacquired aspects of a culture. As Mauss’s work shows, however, they do varyacross societies. And, as Goffman has argued, they only seem mundane to thoseof us who have achieved sufficient temporal distance from the process of learningthem to have forgotten that we did have to learn them, sometimes with difficulty:

To walk, to cross a road, to utter a complete sentence, to wear long pants, to tie one’s shoes,to add a column of figures – all these routines that allow the individual unthinking, competentperformance were attained through an acquisition process whose early stages were negotiatedin cold sweat. (Goffman, 1972: 293)

For practical purposes it also makes sense to refer to ‘ensembles’ of RBTs; thatis, sets of techniques which are practised together for a common purpose. ‘Exer-cising’, ‘getting dressed’ and ‘putting on make-up’ are each examples of this. Eachrefers not to a single body technique but to a set (an ensemble) of techniques. It

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may be necessary, for purposes of certain types of research, to break these en-sembles down into their constituent techniques. If we were studying health andfitness, for example, we might want to break ‘exercising’ down into finercategories such as gym work and swimming, or even ‘2 � 12 reps bench press’and ‘20 lengths front crawl’. We may even need to tease out the peculiarities ofthe way in which the technique is performed: e.g. bench press with arms paralleland feet touching the ground. It is not always necessary to chase the descriptiondown to this level, however. Identification of the basic ensemble may besufficient. My above-mentioned survey includes a mix of specific body tech-niques and ensembles but for economy of expression I will use ‘RBT’ to refer toboth.

It is my contention that practices of body modification/maintenance are bestunderstood in terms of RBTs. I have three reasons for this. First, the concept ofRBTs entails that ‘bodies’ are maintained and modified by way of bodily effortand embodied competence. We thus both avoid dualism and thematize reflex-ivity. Second, the concept encourages us to identify the ‘mindful’ and socialaspects of embodied activity (e.g. know-how and understanding), not subordi-nating those aspects to the symbolic meaning bestowed by representations,discourse, consciousness, etc., and not reducing embodied activity to meremechanical behaviour. Third, the concept is sufficiently concrete to facilitateempirical analysis and sufficiently rich for that to include both ethnographi-cal/phenomenological investigation of the doing of RBTs, their lived dimension(see Crossley, 2004a; Wacquant, 2004), and also more quantitative explorationsof them. As forms of practical understanding, RBTs need to be understood quali-tatively, in a phenomenological manner. And they are also thematized withinprojects and narratives which call for qualitative investigation. But qua socialtechniques they are diffused and distributed through society. They can beobserved, categorized, enumerated and tested for statistical association both withone another and with other social phenomena. They thus call for and admitquantitative analysis also.

Before we can push ahead with this concept, however, we need to reflect uponthe role of ‘purpose’ in relation to RBTs. I have said that RBTs are body tech-niques whose primary purpose is to act back upon the body so as to modify ormaintain it. At its most basic this entails that RBTs are generic body techniqueswhich an agent annexes, in a specific context, for the explicit purpose of (perhapsamongst other things) modifying their body in a particular way: for example, inan effort to lose weight they elect to take a walk once a week. In many cases,however, reflexive purposes have generated either dedicated techniques or dedi-cated variations upon generic techniques. ‘Jogging’, for example, is a form of

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running adapted to serve the purpose of exercise. In contrast to a mad dash forthe bus, a jog entails that I pace myself (a temporal modification), adjust mybreathing and ‘settle into’ a comfortable and efficient posture and stride. Joggingembodies a particular temporal projection (I will run for this long). It is oblivi-ous to the urgency that animates the person running after the bus. And in theserespects it embodies the purpose of running for the benefit of running. When Ijog I relate to my environment in a different way. Perhaps I lengthen my step,utilizing my body differently in order to utilize the ground differently; simul-taneously utilizing the ground differently in order to utilize my body differently,pushing it towards the ‘burn’ that I am seeking. Street-lights and other randomobjects become stage markers, triggering alterations in pace and direction, for ajourney whose only goal is transformation of the ‘vehicle’ itself and whosesuccess is measured against this goal. In this way, both agent and environmentare instituted10 in a specific ‘jogging-like’ manner by way of a dedicated RBT.Moreover, in contrast to the person running after the bus, whose fear of missingthe bus and looking silly often leads them to ‘disguise’ their sprint as much aspossible, I commit myself publicly to my jog. My action is accountable. Iembody a social type or role, ‘the jogger’. And I am able to do this becausejogging is not my private invention but rather a socially emergent and publiclyknown technique that belongs to my society’s repertoire. I have selected andlearned from this repertoire and for this reason everybody knows what I amdoing when I stagger past them.

Purpose also enters into the analysis of reflexive body techniques in therespect that the body can be modified for different reasons. One might modifyone’s body for reasons of health, beauty, sporting success, etc. Again, this mightinvolve significant permutations of an apparently singular technique. Body-builders, powerlifters and individuals who want to ‘tone up’ and ‘trim down’might each use dumbbells and barbells, for example, and might even do the sameexercises (bench press, squat, etc.). However, the way in which they do thoseexercises will vary. The ‘toner’ will tend to do a high number of repetitions withweights they can quite easily lift because this is good for toning; the powerlifterwill do relatively few reps with a weight that is very heavy for them because thisincreases strength; the bodybuilder, who is concerned to increase muscle bulk butalso muscular definition and ‘rips’, will use a combination of the two. Further-more, both of the latter two will tend to work out for much longer in any weeklycycle. We need to be mindful of these differences when studying RBTs.

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Body Techniques and Selfhood

Reflexive body techniques play a central role in the construction of a reflexivesense of self; that is, in the process whereby the agent turns back upon their self,effecting a split between what Mead (1967) calls ‘I’ and ‘me’. Whenever we dressourselves, wash ourselves, exercise, etc., we effect this split. We act towardsourselves in such a way that we become objects for ourselves. Qua active agent(‘I’) we act upon ourselves as a passive object (‘me’). The rhythm by which wevacillate between I and me in these activities will vary according to the body tech-nique in question. An agent on a long run might lose their self in their run forlong periods, immersed in the pre-reflectiveness of the ‘I’ and never appearingbefore their self as ‘me’ until they finish. An agent who is cleaning their teeth, bycontrast, might be rocking constantly between the positions of the brushing ‘I’and the brushed ‘me’. In all cases, however, as both Mead and Merleau-Ponty(1962) emphasize, I and me remain distinct. If I touch my own hand, to useMerleau-Ponty’s (1962) example, I always reach a point at which the experienceshifts from that of touching to that of being touched. The two experiences nevercoincide and, as such, I never coincide with myself. I am always split (Crossley,1996, 2001). So it is with all reflexive body techniques. I and me vacillate andinteract but never coincide. Even as I look in the mirror – the use of the mirroritself being an RBT11 – the lived I who perceives and the perceived ‘me’ remainseparated. ‘I’ see ‘my body’ (me) but that external image does not coincide withthe lived experience that confronts it. As Merleau-Ponty puts it:

At the same time that the image of oneself makes possible the knowledge of oneself, it makespossible a sort of alienation. I am no longer what I felt myself, immediately to be; I am thatimage of myself that is offered by the mirror. . . . I leave the reality of the lived me in order torefer myself constantly to the ideal, fictitious or imaginary me, of which the specular image isthe first outline. In this sense I am torn from myself . . . (Merleau-Ponty, 1968: 136)

As the mirror demonstrates, however, this is a separation that is integral to adeveloped sense of ‘self’ and, indeed, of self-as-embodied. The mirror, to useMerleau-Ponty’s expression, tears us away from ourselves but thereby gives usthe distance from ourselves that allows us to see, perceive and form a perspectiveupon ourselves. The same holds for other RBTs. They turn us back uponourselves, thematize our bodily aspect within our own embodied intentionalityand thereby put us into a relationship with an objectified image of our self.

Learning reflexive body techniques is, in this respect, part of the processthrough which our specific sense of self is developed. By means of these tech-niques we learn to constitute ourselves for ourselves, practically. Learning toattend to ourselves is learning to posit ourselves for ourselves. It constitutes a

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specific experience of self. We learn to play the role of another in relationship toourselves, much as Mead (1967) says of play and games in infancy. Indeed, inmany cases where we tend to ourselves in these ways we are precisely taking overthe role of another, a parent or guardian, who once tended and cared for us inthese ways. We do to ourselves what they have done for us at an earlier time andhave taught us to do, applying their standards and techniques to ourselves.

Having said that RBTs facilitate the differentiation of I and me, effectivelythereby constituting the self process, it is important to add that they may beselected in accordance with agents’ projects of self-development. Specific typesof ‘self’ presuppose particular reflexive body techniques for their ‘practice’. Evenin these cases, however, the effect of practising the technique may be to heightenthe I–me distinction and shape the perception of the me in particular ways, suchthat RBTs are more than mere instrumental props. Techniques of weight trainingare deployed by the bodybuilder in pursuit of muscular gain, for example, but atthe same time these techniques orient the agent towards their body in particularways. They embody a particular attitude towards the body, that of the ‘bodysculptor’, which the bodybuilder appropriates as they appropriate these tech-niques within their habitus. They heighten body and muscular awareness.Furthermore, RBTs can have a ritual function, serving to symbolically and ‘magi-cally’ mark the transition of the self from one situation to another (Crossley,2004c). As rituals, body techniques have the power to transform imaginative andaffective structures of intentionality (in the phenomenological sense), therebysituating those who practise them differently. We capture this notion colloquiallywhen we refer to the Friday-night rituals through which people prepare them-selves for a night out (washing, making up, applying aftershaves and deodorants,dressing and doing their hair). Performing these techniques, in the manner of aritual, is part and parcel of the way in which agents put themselves ‘in the mood’for a night out, effecting an existential (affective, imaginative, cognitive) tran-sition from their mundane, workday mode to their ‘soirée’ self. Similarly,Sweetman’s (1999) work on tattooing and piercing suggests that these ritualsmark a symbolic transition for those who undergo them, allowing these agentsto effect transformations of their self.

Change, transformation and trajectory are important here; but so too areconservation and repetition. Many of the above-mentioned techniques areoriented towards preserving and maintaining a particular aspect of self. Further-more, they form part of a routine. They are repeated on a daily, weekly, monthlyand/or yearly basis. Certain technical interventions, such as a tattoo or cosmeticsurgery, might serve to mark a new chapter in a life narrative, but others, byvirtue of their repetition, function to structure time in a more familiar and

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safe-because-same manner. They invest the flow of lived time with meaning bypunctuating it, but this meaning centres upon continuity and sameness ratherthan transition. It is integral to grasp this balance of reproduction and trans-formation in our understanding and analysis of RBTs, and indeed also thedifferent temporal configuration that specific techniques can assume. RBTs havea spatio-temporality that is central to their meaning. This is reflected in thelinguistic duality of ‘body maintenance’ and ‘body modification’, which I haveemployed hitherto in this paper. The former denotes techniques used repetitively,for reproductive purposes, the latter denotes techniques used to effect a specifictransformation.

Why agents engage in this body work is a key question in sociology, aboutwhich most of the major perspectives in the area have something to say (seeBartky, 1993; Baudrillard, 1999; Bordo, 1993; Bourdieu, 1977, 1984; Foucault,1980; Giddens, 1991; Shilling, 1993). I do not have the space to address thisquestion fully here. However, it is my contention that we must approach it in away that recognizes the great diversity of RBTs in the societal repertoire and thevery different social logics that can attach to their appropriation. ‘One size fits all’explanations, such as we get from most of the above-mentioned theorists, aredeeply problematic because they fail to recognize this diversity. In what followsI will explore this issue of diversity and social logics in more detail in an effort tolay the basis for a more sophisticated approach to body work, centred upon RBTs.

Group and Technique

One of Mauss’s key contentions with respect to body techniques concerns theirgroup specificity. This specificity is such that some techniques serve to mark outgroup boundaries. Indeed, where they are specifically reflexive techniques theycan serve to cultivate bodily markers of collective identity. Durkheim’s (1915)famous analysis of aboriginal totemic clans, for example, places great emphasisupon the role of techniques of body marking in the construction of collective,clan identities:

They do not put their coat-of-arms merely upon things which they possess, but they put itupon their person; they imprint it upon their flesh; it becomes part of them . . . it is morefrequently upon the body itself that the totemic mark is stamped . . . (Durkheim, 1915: 137)

The best way of proving to oneself and to others that one is a member of a certain group is toplace a distinctive mark on the body. (Durkheim, 1915: 265)

Likewise, Bourdieu’s (1977, 1984) focus upon distinction and Elias’s (1984) uponthe civilizing process both draw out forms of bodily practices, specific to social

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groups, which alter bodily appearance and thereby distinguish and mark outthose groups visually. Furthermore, as Durkheim also emphasized, techniques ofbody modification are sometimes employed to mark out categorical distinctionswithin a group, for example between males and females or adults and children.

Contemporary western societies differ considerably from the totemic clansstudied by Durkheim. Interestingly, however, my above-mentioned surveyrevealed gender to be a key factor affecting appropriation of reflexive body tech-niques. The survey found statistically significant and often very large differencesfor gender in relation to 21 (out of 40) RBTs and 6 (out of 19) forms ofconsultation (see Table 1). In particular, practices such as the shaving of armpitsand legs, the painting of toenails and fingernails, manicure and the use of cosmet-ics (other than soap and shampoo) were sharply gender differentiated.

This finding bears out the claim of those who argue (i) that gender remains anextremely strong locus of social division in contemporary societies, (ii) that thebody is a key site where this division is constructed and played out and (iii) thatgender identity is something which is ‘done’ or ‘practised’ (e.g. Bartky, 1993;Connell, 1987). In addition, the arguments of these writers provide a strong andimportant lead for the analysis of RBTs, which I will return to later on. Import-antly, however, the concept of RBTs, as both a theoretical and an empiricalnotion, allows us to further elaborate upon and explore these ideas about gender;to go beyond general theoretical claims about transformations of the bodyassociated with, for example, ‘emphasised femininity’ (Connell, 1987) by speci-fying just what transformations are effected, by what means and by what typesand proportions of women (relative to men). Furthermore, as I discuss in moredetail below, we can begin to explore the patterns of clustering of these varioustechniques and, by means of this, differentiate varieties within emphasized femi-ninity.

The low numbers of men practising certain techniques is as interesting as thehigh number of women in this respect. Shaved armpits are as much an affront to‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell, 1987), punishable amongst men, at least in theabsence of extenuating circumstances, as they are an expected standard of‘emphasised femininity’. And a monitoring of the appropriation of these tech-niques among men allows us to gauge changes in masculinity. We can speculateupon all of this without recourse to the concept of RBTs, of course, but the latterprovides an important and workable means for empirically operationalizing suchspeculation and recording change. Shifting rates of uptake for particular RBTsamong men and women respectively, allow us to track shifts in dominant modelsof masculinity/femininity – although, of course, the meaning of changes is neverself-evident and must be deduced.

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One might expect to find similar sharp distinctions in relation to the practicesof certain religious groups and perhaps subcultures of various kinds. I found nostatistically significant differences pertaining to class, however. And althoughcontemporary ethnographic studies of specific working-class communities have

Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques � 17

Table 1 Gendered Reflexive Body Techniques

Female (%) Male (%) p =

Reflexive Body TechniquesBig differences (with female predominance)Shaved leg hair in last 4 weeks 83.2 5 .000Used cosmetics in last 7 days 84.8 9.2 .000Shaved armpit hair in last 4 weeks 85.3 11.7 .000Worn earrings in last 7 days 71.2 7.5 .000Worn a necklace in last 7 days 74.9 30 .000Combed hair in last 7 days 95.7 59.2 .000Worn a ring in last 7 days 81.5 42.5 .000Had or done a manicure in last 4 weeks 53.6 10 .000Painted toenails in last 4 weeks 48.9 0.8 .000Painted (hand) nails in last 4 weeks 44.6 0 .000Worn a bracelet in last 7 days 56 20 .000

Small but statistically significant differences (with female predominance)Used anti-perspirant/deodorant in last 7 days 98.4 89.2 .000Used aftershave/perfume in last 7 days 85.9 71.7 .002Dieted for weight loss over last 7 days 8.2 1.7 .001Body piercings other than ears 14.1 4.2 .005Flossed in last 4 weeks 48.9 30.8 .002Sunbathed in last 12 months 58.2 43.3 .001Dyed or coloured hair in last 4 weeks 32.1 5.8 .000Used ‘Quick Tan’ lotion in last 12 months 29.3 8.3 .000

Male predominance (small but statistically significant differences)Used bodybuilding supplements in last 6 months 0 3.3 .013Has 3 or more tattoos 0 2.5 .031

Consultation PracticesRead magazine/newspaper article on beauty tips 57.1 3.4 .000Read magazine/newspaper article on health tips 50 10.8 .000Read magazine/newspaper article on skin care tips 48.4 2.6 .000Read magazine/newspaper article on exercise tips 36.1 16 .000Read any of the above 69.6 24.2 .000Read a health-dedicated magazine 21.7 5.8 .034Consulted a beauty-dedicated website 3.8 0 .032

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identified aspects of a distinctly working-class body consciousness(Charlesworth, 2000; Skeggs, 1997), the available sources of secondary statisticaldata in this area suggest that differences in uptake of RBTs are relatively small.The General Household Survey for 1990, for example, suggests that the middleclasses are slightly more likely to engage in a range of forms of exercise (reportedin Social Trends, ONS, 1993). The differences are only slight in most cases,however, and each of the main forms of exercise is a minority pursuit in relationto every class, such that linking these forms of exercise to specific class identitiesis highly problematic. Clearly this is an area that calls for further research;research that is sensitive to the details picked up in the more qualitative forms ofinquiry. It may be that we need to specify RBTs very precisely, in terms ofnuances and purposes, to hook into significant class differences. In this article,however, I want to push the idea of a social distribution of RBTs in a differentdirection, and to identify further principles of differentiation governing theirappropriation. However one defines a group, I suggest, whether one focusesupon national societies, gender and class groupings or highly specific subcultures,there is always an internal differentiation and distribution of RBTs, with its owndistinct socio-logic.

In what follows I will map this out in more detail, focusing upon the groupconstituted by my questionnaire survey. For the purposes of my particular surveyit was necessary to make certain assumptions about the purposes of particularRBTs, bracketing out further qualitative exploration of those purposes. I opted tosacrifice depth for the pursuit of breadth in circumstances where the pursuit ofboth was not possible. I hope it will be apparent, however, that this both yieldsfindings not attainable by more qualitative means, and that it raises questionswhich, although perhaps best answered by more qualitative approaches, wouldnot be raised in the first place by means of those methods. What follows is onehalf of a story but is no less valuable than the other half.

Mapping Techniques

Consider, first, the frequency distribution for the techniques surveyed by myquestionnaire, as given in Figures 2 and 3. The range of this distribution stretchesfrom 100 percent, for having washed one’s hands at least once in the last sevendays, through to 0.3 percent, for having had a septum or tongue piercing, orhaving ever used anabolic steroids for purposes of building one’s muscles. Thisis a continuum and any attempt to demarcate definite lines of division along itwould inevitably be arbitrary. Moreover, we already know that certain of thepractices are heavily gendered, such that some scores represent a mean of high

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Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques � 19

No. Technique %

1 Washed hands in last 7 days 1002 Bath/shower in last 7 days 99.73 Brushed teeth in last 7 days 99.34 Washed face in last 7 days 98.75 Washed hair in last 7 days 97.46 Used anti-perspirant/deodorant in last 7 days 94.77 Combed hair in last 7 days 81.38 Used aftershave perfume in last 7 days 80.39 Worn ring in last 7 days 66.1

10 Worn necklace in last 7 days 56.911 Shaved armpit hair in last 4 weeks 56.312 Used cosmetics in last 7 days 54.913 Sunbathed in last 12 months 52.314 Shaved leg hair in last 4 weeks 52.315 Used any food supplement in last 6 months 48.416 Used a breath/mouth freshener in last 4 weeks 46.417 Worn an earring in last 7 days 46.118 Flossed in the last 4 weeks 41.819 Worn a bracelet in the last 7 days 41.820 Eaten ‘carefully’ for weight-loss reasons in last 7 days 41.121 Used vitamin supplements in last 6 months 37.522 Had or done a manicure in last 4 weeks 36.223 Painted toenails in last 4 weeks 29.924 Done between 1 and 4 hrs exercise in last 7 days 28.325 Painted fingernails in last 4 weeks 2726 Used a sunbed in last 12 months 25.327 Dyed or coloured hair in last 4 weeks 21.728 Used ‘Quick Tan’ lotion in last 12 months 21.129 Done between 5 and 9 hrs exercise in last 7 days 15.130 Ever had cosmetic dental surgery 8.631 Got between 1 and 3 tattoos 6.932 Had bellybutton pierced 6.733 Done 10 hrs exercise or more in last 7 days 6.634 Dieted for weight-loss purposes in last 7 days 5.935 Had nostril pierced 2.336 Had eyebrow pierced 2.337 Had cosmetic surgery 1.638 Got 3 or more tattoos 139 Had genital and/or nipple piercings 140 Had a septum piercing 0.341 Had a tongue piercing 0.342 Ever used steroids for bodybuilding purposes 0.3

CoreZone

IntermediateZone

MarginalZone

Figure 2 Frequency Distribution of Reflexive Body Techniques

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female and low male scores. I return to this latter point shortly. First, however,I want to suggest that, although any exact cut-off points would be arbitrary, wecan divide this continuum into three overlapping zones. At one end of thecontinuum we have a core zone consisting of RBTs that are statistically normal;that is to say, which most people (e.g. 90 percent+) practise within a specifiabletime-frame. At the other end of the continuum we have a marginal zone consist-ing of RBTs that are statistically deviant; that is, which most people (e.g. 95percent+) do not and never have practised. Between these two zones we havewhat we might think of as an intermediate zone, a broad continuum of RBTswith rates of uptake that vary in the general population but which are neither sohigh as to be normal and thus ‘core’, nor so low as to be statistically deviant andthus ‘marginal’.

In what follows I will be using this concept of ‘zones’ to develop a differen-tiated account of body work in late modern societies. The appropriation of RBTsin these different zones requires different explanations, I will suggest. First,however, I want to push the idea one step further by unpacking the idea of acontinuum. While useful as a point of departure, the image of the continuum isproblematic on account of its linearity. We know, for example, that some bodytechniques are strongly gendered, such that they might qualify as ‘core’ forwomen, while they are ‘marginal’ for men. Likewise, we can at least speculatethat other techniques in the intermediate and marginal zones will be furtherdifferentiated from one another. Marginal techniques might belong to different

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Core Intermediate Marginal

Zone Zone Zone

0000

11110000

22220000

33330000

44440000

55550000

66660000

77770000

88880000

99990000

111100000000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

Figure 3 Distribution of Reflexive Body Techniques (percentages)(bar numbers correspond to RBTs named and numbered in Figure 2)

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and competing subcultures, for example, such that placing them side by side in acommon ‘marginal’ category paints a misleadingly homogeneous picture. To dojustice to this we can attempt a two-, rather than a one-dimensional mapping ofRBTs, using multi-dimensional scaling (see Figure 4).

As with all forms of multivariate statistics, multi-dimensional scaling offerscontrasting methods for mapping data. As such we are forced to select the most

Mapping Reflexive Body Techniques � 21

3210–1–2

3

2

1

0

–1

–2

–3

vitamin supp

1-4 hrs exercise5-9hrs exercise

1-3 tattoos

>3 tattoos

cossurg

steroidbodybuilding supplemfood supplement

cosmetics

other pierce

tongueeyebrow

bellybutton

quick tan

sunbed

sunbathe

paint t nailspaint f nails

manicuredyehair

pithairleghair

diet

careful eat

ring

braceletnecklace

earringbreathfreshner

floss

brush teethwash facewash handscomb hairbath/showerafter/perfumeanti/deowash hair

Figure 4 A Radex ModelKeyReflexive techniques located in the inner circle of the radex. In the last 7 days: washed hair,used deodorant or antiperspirant, used perfume or aftershave, had a bath or shower, washedhands, washed face, brushed teeth.Reflexive body techniques located outside of the inner circle but within the wider oval. Inthe last 7 days: worn a ring, worn a necklace, used cosmetics, worn an earring, worn a bracelet,eaten carefully for purposes of weight management, done between 1 and 4 hrs exercise. In last 4weeks: shaved armpit hair, shaved leg hair, used a breath/mouth freshener, flossed, had or donea manicure, painted toenails, painted fingernails, dyed or coloured hair. In last 6 months: usedany food supplement, used any vitamin supplement. In last 12 months: sunbathed, used a sunbed,used quick tan lotion. Had bellybutton pierced.Reflexive body techniques located outside of the oval: got 1, 2 or 3 tattoos, got more than 3tattoos, got an eyebrow piercing, got a tongue piercing, got another more ‘exotic’ piercing, donebetween 5 and 9 hrs exercise in the last week, used a bodybuilding supplement in the last 6months, used steroids for bodybuilding purposes in the last 6 months, ever had cosmetic surgery,currently on a diet.

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appropriate mapping of variables from among a number of possibilities.12

Furthermore, outlying variables can skew maps inappropriately and sometimeshave to be removed from the analysis. Nevertheless, with these points conceded,it is possible, as Figure 4 demonstrates, to map RBTs in the form of a ‘radex’ (asdescribed earlier). Concentric circles demarcate frequency zones (from high tolow as we move outwards from the centre), while segments demarcate seeminglymeaningful and coherent clusters of practices. Our core zone is represented onthis map by a tiny circle near its centre, containing a tight cluster of those RBTswhich are nearly universally practised amongst the population surveyed. Thetechniques mapped here are so close in space that their labels overlap and areimpossible to read (they are listed in the key to the map along with a fuller expla-nation of all labels). These core RBTs are less important for present purposes,however, than those orbiting them. The broader oval drawn around the innercircle is the boundary between the intermediate zone and the marginal zone.Those RBTs on the inside of the oval are intermediate, those on the outside aremarginal. Most of the labels in these zones are easier to read but there is a slightlyobscured cluster to the upper left of the central core, to the right of ‘bracelet’ (i.e.worn a bracelet in the last seven days), which contains ‘shaved leg hair’ and‘shaved armpits’ (in previous four weeks), and overlaps slightly with ‘necklace’(i.e. worn necklace in previous seven days).

This arrangement of concentric circles only tells us what the graph in Figure3 tells us. The two-dimensional nature of the plot allows us to differentiatefurther among our RBTs, however. Specifically, we find that, as we moveoutwards from the central core, less frequently practised techniques begin toseparate out from and cluster with one another in patterns which can be inter-preted in broadly thematic terms. I have marked these clusters by way ofsegments. Thus, towards the top left of the map we find a cluster specificallyrelated to the doing of femininity. Certain RBTs at either end of that cluster, suchas exercising 1–4 hours a week, wearing a ring and being careful about what oneeats (for reasons of weight management) are less gender specific but sandwichedbetween them we find all of the strongly (feminine) gendered RBTs. Movingclockwise from that segment we come to a more heterogeneous segment of tech-niques, which perhaps indicate an elevated level of ‘body consciousness’ relativeto the norm but have little thematic unity apart from that. This segment involvestechniques which serve both exclusively aesthetic (use of sunbed) and exclusivelyhealth-oriented (taking vitamins) ends, as well as techniques which could serveeither/both end(s). It is possible, using MDS, to further differentiate the tech-niques in this section. Doing so I found that the techniques more closely associ-ated with appearance tend to separate out from those associated with health, with

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the ‘either/and’ techniques falling between, such that we can regard health andappearance as distinct thematic segments. I do not have the space to explore thisany further here, however.

As we move further round we come to another more distinctive cluster,comprising 5–9 hours exercise a week, use of bodybuilding supplements and useof anabolic steroids for bodybuilding purposes. We might be tempted to deemthis a bodybuilding cluster. As with any cluster, however, we can push ouranalysis further and differentiate within it. In this case, for purposes of illustrat-ing MDS technique as much anything else, I have done this. In the first instanceI selected from my sample only those respondents who had done more than fivehours’ exercise in the previous seven days. I then reran the MDS analysis,13

selecting all variables with a direct relationship to bodybuilding: namely, workingout with weights in a gym, reading bodybuilding magazines, visiting bodybuild-ing web-sites, taking bodybuilding food supplements and taking steroids (forbodybuilding purposes). The results, displayed in Figure 5(A), suggest a polaritybetween gym work and other bodybuilding practices. This indicates, as onemight guess, that working out with weights in a gym is by no means indicativeof ‘bodybuilding’. Many more people ‘work out’ than ‘bodybuild’.

Pushing this further still, I ran the MDS analysis again,14 using the samerespondents and variables, but this time mapping respondents (cases) rather thanthe variables. Using MDS in this way allows us to conduct a form of clusteranalysis. We are able to see what sorts of ‘camps’ our respondents fall into whenclustered according to specific variables, and which respondents fall into whichcamps.

The results for this analysis are given in Figure 5(B). In all, the 82 respon-dents who exercised for more than five hours in the seven days prior to fillingin my questionnaire break down into five clear clusters which we can profilein terms of their relationship to the basic variables we have used in our MDSanalysis (I double-checked this using hierarchical cluster analysis and achievedthe same results).15 Seventy-eight of the respondents fall into one of twoclusters (Cluster B and Cluster C). Cluster C contains all respondents whoexercised for more than five hours but did not work out in the gym or engagein any bodybuilding-related practice (n = 55). Cluster B contains respondentswho did work out in the gym but didn’t do any other bodybuilding-relatedactivity (n = 23). Cluster A, to the left, contains two respondents, both ofwhom worked out in the gym and used a bodybuilding supplement. Furtherleft again, in the bottom left corner, we have a single respondent (case 23) whoregistered positively for all indicators of bodybuilding, including steroid use.Finally, towards the bottom right of the plot we have ‘case 52’, a respondent

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Cluster A

n = 2

Cluster B

n = 23

Cluster C

n = 55

Figure 5(A) The ‘Bodybuilding’ Segment(The obscured because overlapping variables at the right of Figure 5(A), are, from left to right,‘use of a bodybuilding supplement’, ‘use of steroids’ and ‘consultation of bodybuilding websites’[in identical positions], then ‘readership of a bodybuilding magazine’.)

Figure 5(B) A Cluster Analysis

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who had exercised for over five hours in the previous seven days and had reada bodybuilding magazine in the previous month, but hadn’t worked out in thegym and hadn’t done anything else bodybuilding related. In effect then, theassociation between five hours+ exercise in a week and the various ‘body-building’ variables turn out to be more complex than Figure 4 suggests. Mostof the 82 respondents who did a lot of exercise didn’t do it in the gym, withweights, and the majority of those who did, did not engage in any other ‘bodybuilding’ RBTs. Only three respondents out of the 82 really ‘profile’ likebodybuilders on the closer inspection that this further analysis affords us. Inaddition, ‘case 52’ indicates that a person may do a lot of exercise and readabout bodybuilding but not engage in the central RBT of the bodybuildingworld (i.e. working out in the gym).

Having identified our clusters in this way we could, in a more detailedanalysis, proceed to profile our clusters socially and, if we had the data, perhapsbiographically also. I am not going to push the analysis in this direction,however. My purpose has simply been to show how we can use MDS to furtherextend the analysis of Figure 4. At which point we can return to it.

At the bottom of Figure 4 we have a cluster of tattooing- and piercing-related variables. These are widely spread, reflecting the fact that the ‘>3tattoos’ and ‘1–3 tattoos’ variables are coded in a mutually exclusive fashion inthe data set and so could not be positively associated, but their very distinctlocation, low on the plot, suggests a genuinely meaningful cluster based aroundthese less conventional (perhaps primitivist-inspired) modifications. Interest-ingly, bellybutton piercing, which is also included on the plot, is located atsome distance from this cluster (in the ‘feminine’ segment), suggesting that thisparticular type of piercing has a different location within the societal repertoireof RBTs. It has migrated beyond the bounds of an ‘alternative’ subculture onthe margins into the mainstream (that is, the intermediate zone/femininesegment).

As my discussion of the ‘heavy exercise’ cluster demonstrates, Figure 4 is justthe beginning of what could be a much more detailed analysis. Each cluster canbe further analysed and mapped. As it stands, however, Figure 4 and my analysisof it are useful because they allow us to conceive of body modification/mainten-ance as a structured and differentiated social space. Moreover, they locateconcrete practices in that space in accordance with real frequency distributionsand real statistical associations. As such they invite and facilitate explanationsthat will advance our understanding of ‘body work’. In the final section of thearticle I offer a preliminary explanatory framework.

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Explaining Zones and Segments

Much work in the sociology of the body, as noted earlier, has tended to offereither very general accounts of body modification/maintenance, treating theRBTs which fall under this rubric as manifestations of a single phenomenon, orthey have focused very specifically upon particular clusters of practices. Theanalysis above allows us to begin to move beyond both of these approaches. Itfacilitates an approach which focuses upon the whole range of modifi-cation/maintenance techniques but differentiates and distinguishes betweenthem. Or again, which focuses upon the specificity of particular tech-niques/clusters but seeks, in doing so, to locate them on a broader map. Recon-figuring the problematic of body modification/maintenance in this way allows usto consider the different meanings of the techniques in these zones and thedifferent types of circumstances in which they emerge; their different sociallogics. I can only hope to offer a preliminary analysis along these lines in thisarticle, not least because a full analysis would require much more research.Nevertheless we can make a fruitful start.

The Core ZoneThe core zone constitutes a cluster of practices which are ‘normal’ in both thestatistical sense that most agents practise them and in the sense that they reflectpervasive social (moral) norms – specifically norms of hygiene in this case. Thetechniques belonging to this zone are integral to the construction of a self butnot in the ‘choice’ and narrative-based sense suggested by Giddens (1991). Theyare too widely practised to reflect anything distinctive about the self, as Giddens’conception of distinct narrative trajectories suggests, and their practice is toomuch a part of the taken-for-granted texture of the contemporary lifeworld toappear to agents as a matter of choice. One doesn’t choose to do these techniquesin any meaningful sense. One just does them as matter of course. They are, toborrow Bourdieu’s (1979, 1989) term, doxic. This was revealed in my surveythrough the reactions of respondents to my questions. Several made it clear theyfelt it odd that I should ask about such matters as washing one’s face – ‘of course’they had washed their face in the last seven days! Moreover others jokinglyfeigned offence at being asked.

The fact that respondents were able to claim moral injury is important as itindicates the normative aspect that attaches to these practices and suggests that,insofar as they play a role in the construction of selfhood, these techniques attachto a very basic level of selfhood and recognition. Techniques in the core zonerepresent a threshold that must be crossed if the agent is to be accepted as a

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competent member of their society. Indeed, it is not uncommon for workers inmental health and other welfare services to take non-performance of these tech-niques as indications that intervention is necessary because the agent being scrutinized is unable to ‘care for themselves’. They are deemed ‘incompetent’.This is another reason why I would say that these techniques are not chosen.They are enforced and expected. Non-compliance is punished, usually throughthe informal sanctions of peers but sometimes through the specialized inter-ventions of a variety of agents of normalization who collectively comprise the‘carceral network’ of late modern societies (Foucault, 1979, 1980). The other sideof this is that agents are expected to have a right to perform these RBTs.Commentators on life in total institutions, for example, often suggest thatrestricted access to the equipment required for these techniques and/or loss ofeffective control over them is extremely damaging and represents a powerfulassault upon self (Bettelheim, 1986; Goffman, 1961).

The techniques in the core zone are much more likely to be oriented to main-tenance than modification of the body, at least in the sense that they reproducesameness through time. Moreover, their temporal structure is more likely to berepetitive than transitional. They structure, by punctuating, the lived time of theagent in a predictable because repetitive pattern. What belongs to this core zoneis historically variable in the longer term, however. A cursory glance at Elias’s(1984) account of the civilizing process or Nettleton’s (1992) genealogy ofdentistry, for example, indicates that these core practices of contemporary societyhave not always been so (see also Gurney, 2000; Mort, 1987). The question ofhow these practices emerge and achieve both their extensive diffusion and theirtaken-for-grantedness goes beyond the remit of this article. There is no reason tosuppose that there is only one path to the ‘core zone’. And I cannot begin to tracethe many distinct paths that specific RBTs and ensembles have followed.However, drawing from the accounts cited above one might tentatively suggestthat the core zone identified in my survey is the effect of: (i) a search for distinc-tion among aspiring groups, whose techniques have then been variously adoptedby ‘the lower orders’ on account of their kudos and/or imposed upon them bycharitable and philanthropic movements representing those (once aspiring nowdominant) groups, extending their dominance; (ii) the struggles of differentprofessional groups (e.g. dentists and public health officials) and the strongposition they have been able to secure for themselves within the power balancesof welfare societies; (iii) the influence of the hygiene and cosmetics industries.Struggles for domination and balances of power are central in each case here and,as such, my designation of the core zone, following Bourdieu (1979, 1989), asdoxic, is doubly apposite. The taken-for-grantedness of the techniques falling

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within this zone is an effect of power balances which enforce their normalcy andinvolves a forgetting of the historical struggles involved in the achievement ofthat state of normalcy.

The Intermediate ZoneAs we move out from the core zone, into the intermediate zone, we enter a moredifferentiated space (as indicated by the segmentation which cross-cuts the inter-mediate zone), which cannot be accounted for by a single explanation. What wefind in this zone, on one hand, are techniques that demarcate key categoricaldistinctions in our society, particularly those of gender; techniques that, for theincumbents of these categories, might still be doxic. In fact, as we saw in Table1, there is a frequency distribution of these RBTs among females too; some arecore, some intermediate and some marginal. Given more space for analysis wemight construct a radex of these RBTs too, drawing out not only their broadfrequency distribution but equally their thematic/associational clustering(pushing the analysis further as I did for the bodybuilding segment in Figure 5).For the present it must suffice to say that the doxic nature of ‘core’ feminine tech-niques is as likely an effect of struggles and power balances as those of the moregeneral core zone. This is, of course, the argument of many key accounts of thedoing of femininity (Bartky, 1993; Connell, 1987).

The gender segment is only one among a number in the intermediate zone,however. In addition we find a selection of practices relating variously to thehealth and appearance of the body. These RBTs, arguably, are better accountedfor by notions of choice and active self-construction. Fewer people practise them,so that they can serve to distinguish and mark out a distinct identity. And becausethey are less widely practised their appropriation is less likely to be obvious,taken for granted and expected, and more likely to be a matter of choice.Although informal pressures may attach to these RBTs no formal institutionalmechanisms exist to enforce them, beyond the seductive allure of the fashion andadvertising industries. Having said this, these techniques may well becomehabitual and routinized for specific agents. Moreover, we should not discount thepossibility that an agent’s choices and narratives are affected by their resources(economic, cultural, symbolic and social), by the exigencies of their situation, bythe particularities of their biographical trajectory and by features of the collec-tive habitus which they share with similarly resourced/situated agents. As notedabove, the statistical evidence for a class–RBTs association is weak. A wider andmore focused analysis might find differences here, however. And of course otherbroad social groupings or categories may mark out their distinction within thiszone too, forming a distinct segment within it – as in the feminine segment.

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Like the core zone, the intermediate zone is historically variable. It is subjectto the movements of fashion, and contains practices which might previously havebelonged either to the core or the marginal zone. Indeed, it is not at alluncommon for techniques from the marginal zone, a zone of innovation andexperimentation, to migrate into the intermediate zone after being appropriatedby the fashion and advertising industries. Likewise, when these techniques fallout of fashion they will tend to fall back into the marginal zone. And migrationcan occur between the core and intermediate zones also. Once fashionable tech-niques, appropriated because they mark distinction, can, as noted above, beappropriated by moralizing movements intent on imposing them upon society asa whole, or alternatively can become so fashionable as to outgrow fashion (andcertainly their power of distinction) to become normal.

The Marginal ZoneThe marginal zone too is highly differentiated. It is, as noted above, a site ofinnovation and proto-fashion but also perhaps a wasteland for démodé tech-niques. The techniques in this zone are statistically deviant. Some will belongto distinct social movements or social fields, such as modern primitivism orbodybuilding. And some of these, such as primitivism, will represent a currentof resistance against the doxa and orthodoxy of the mainstream and core zones.They express a resistance or activist habitus (see Crossley, 2002 and esp. 2003).Some, like bodybuilding, will involve practices, such as the use of steroids,which are illegal. Some, however, might be socially defined as manifestations ofindividual ‘psychopathology’. The practices associated with ‘deliberate self-harm’, ‘anorexia nervosa’ and ‘bulimia nervosa’ (not included in my survey) areexamples of this (on these practices and the social movements mobilizingaround them see Cresswell, 2003). In some cases these ‘psychopathological’RBTs are very difficult to dissociate from the more extreme techniques of, forexample, modern primitivism; particularly as the former have become a focusof social movement mobilization and subcultural elaboration. Mobilizationblurs the distinction, often used by psychiatrists, between individual ‘pathol-ogy’ and subcultural variation. They are at least distinct, however, in the sensethat they have not achieved the recognition afforded to primitivism, perform-ance art (another movement at the margin) and bodybuilding. The latter, whileregarded as weird and immoral by many, and often criticized because they aresaid to involve damage to the body, have achieved at least a sufficient degree ofacceptance to keep the agents of psy-complex at bay. They are not completelyfree of attempts to regulate and police them, on account of the belief that theyoften transgress the law (e.g. steroid use) or basic standards of decency, but

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they are not officially pathologized as deliberate self-harm as the eatingdisorders are.

The politics and deviancy attaching to techniques in the marginal zone setsthem aside from the practices of the intermediate zone – even if some of themeventually make it into that zone. These techniques are not accepted as legitimatechoices and generally have social sanctions, formal and informal, attached tothem. To engage with them one must disengage from the broader societalcommunity, whether deliberately or not. As such they betray a different sociallogic to that of practices in the intermediate and core zones. On one level it isarguable, following Giddens (1991), that they reflect existential projects andchoices (see also Monaghan, 1999; Sweetman, 1999), perhaps profoundly so.However, there is an element of transgression here that is not adequatelycaptured by a generic and undifferentiated existential account. Electing to bebranded with red hot irons or to push one’s muscular development to the levelof the bodybuilder, given the social stigmatization and other sanctions that attachto such modifications, and that practitioners know attach to them, distinguishesthem clearly from RBTs which are accepted, encouraged or enforced. They thusrequire a different type of explanation. The practices in this zone reflect relativelyclosed social fields, which valorize otherwise disvalued practices, offeringalternative configurations of meaning for them, and/or relatively closed indi-vidual phenomenological fields which do likewise. To fully understand thesegments in this zone we would need to look to a form of social movement orsubcultural analysis and/or methods more sensitive to individual biographicaltrajectories and phenomenological fields, such as ‘existential psychoanalysis’(Sartre, 1969). Moreover, to distinguish between segments in this field it mightalso be necessary to focus upon the relative balances of power and socialconditions that allow some (e.g. performance artists and modern primitives) tosuccessfully pass off their activities as subversive actions, while the actions ofothers (e.g. self-harmers) are effectively pathologized.

As noted above, however, the marginal zone too is historically variable. Mosttechniques begin life as the practices of a small minority, and some of these prac-tices will go on to become the techniques of a majority or large minority, perhapseven normal techniques within a given society or group. Their marginality, atleast qua practices, is in this sense a relational phenomenon. Any account ofRBTs must be sensitive to such historical movement across zones.

There is much more work to be done to fill out this explanatory framework.I have not even begun to address the fact, for example, that ‘body work’ is locatedin a context that engenders all kinds of involuntary bodily changes which, inturn, agents seek to compensate for and ‘correct’ – the contemporary trend

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towards involuntary weight gain and obesity, which has triggered an increase indieting and working out, being a clear illustration of this (see Crossley, 2004b).However, we have here a basic framework which invites further elaboration –both qualitative and quantitative – and which takes our understanding of bodymodification/maintenance forward.

Conclusion

In this article I have attempted to push the sociological analysis of body modifi-cation/maintenance forward on substantive, theoretical and methodologicalfronts. Practices of modification/maintenance, I have argued, can be understoodas reflexive body techniques; social techniques, collectively shared but individu-ally rooted in the corporeal schemas of agents. The concept of RBTs has manyadvantages, but specifically it is important because it emphasizes reflexivity,refuses dualism and facilitates empirical investigation.

Each society, I have suggested, has a specific repertoire of such techniques buttechniques are not equally or evenly distributed and diffused throughout thesocial body. Specifically I have argued (i) that RBTs fall into different frequencyzones (core, intermediate and marginal), and (ii) that further differentiation isvisible in the intermediate and marginal zones, as RBTs cluster in accordancewith specific subcultures, fields and movements (and the concerns associatedwith these fields). Alerting ourselves to these distinctions is important, I havesuggested, because different clusters of RBTs have different socio-logics and needto be explained in different ways. Where some RBTs are strongly encouraged, ifnot made compulsory, for example, others are outlawed, and we must accountfor this in our attempts to explain these practices.

Alongside this substantive engagement it has been my intention to explore, formethodological purposes, the utility of multi-dimensional scaling. This method,like any method, has limitations. What I have attempted to show in this article,however, is the way in which we can use it to map out the social distribution ofRBTs, identifying their distinct patterns of clustering. Moreover, in relation tomy ‘heavy exercise’ cluster, I showed how we might move from general clustersof RBTs through to a cluster of social agents themselves, a step which may, inturn, facilitate a sophisticated form of social and biographical profiling ofparticular practitioner communities – e.g. primitivist communities or bodybuild-ing communities.

Many loose ends remain at the end of the article. Many avenues are yet to beexplored. This is a good thing. It invites and facilitates further analysis. One veryobvious way in which the analysis might be extended, however, is through a

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more detailed exploration of the specific clusters marked out on my map (Figure4). This is an exercise that might use statistical procedures such as MDS, butperhaps in conjunction with the more ethnographical and qualitative forms ofanalysis which the analysis of RBTs also affords.

Notes1. Things are not quite so simple as this, as there are different techniques for determining

distances, and any mapping exercise involves a process of variable selection – not least because outlierscan throw the map off course. These processes of selection are part of the interpretative process anddo shape the map. Nevertheless, there are still limits built into the use of the procedure about what itspossible output can be.

2. E.g. concerning beauty, health, tattooing, bodybuilding.3. The sample was 39.5 percent male and 60.5 percent female.4. In terms of age, 14.1 percent of the sample were 16–19-year-olds, 25.7 percent were in their 20s,

27 percent in their 30s, 14.1 percent in their 40s, 15.1 percent in their 50s, 2.6 percent in their 60s, 1percent in their 70s, 0.3 percent in their 80s.

5. In the sample, 29.3 percent were students, 4.6 percent retired, 1.3 percent unemployed, 4.3percent unskilled manual workers, 5.9 percent semi-skilled manual workers, 6.9 percent skilled manualworkers, 14.8 percent clerical workers, 10.5 percent managerial grade workers, 19.1 percentprofessionals, and 3.3 percent owned small businesses.

6. In the sample, 88 percent identified as White, 3.7 percent as Indian, 3.7 percent as Pakistani, 1.3percent as black, 1 percent as Chinese, 1.3 percent as mixed race and 1 percent in other terms.

7. The religious breakdown was: 30.2 percent Protestant, 10.3 percent Catholic, 8.3 percentunspecified Christian, 5.3 percent Muslim, 2.7 percent Hindu, 0.7 percent Jewish, 0.7 percent Sikh, 0.7percent ‘other’ religious and 41.2 percent ‘not religious’.

8. Some of my respondents were recruited from the health club I attend and have been studyingethnographically. They do represent a sampling bias in terms of a ‘body’ questionnaire. However, thiswas a minority of the sample.

9. ‘Disposition’ is the usual English translation of ‘hexis’ and ‘habitus’. ‘Habit’ would haveworked but, as Camic (1986) notes, its meaning has been considerably changed and degraded in the20th century, largely under the impact of psychological/physiological behaviourism.

10. I use Merleau-Ponty’s concept of ‘institution’ here, which is a modification of the phenom-enological concept of ‘constitution’. ‘Constitution’, Merleau-Ponty argues, suggests that the agentbestows meaning and order ex nihilo, where ‘institution’ suggests that the agent deploys sociallyacquired schemas of meaning and order – ‘techniques’ in this case (Merleau-Ponty, 1979).

11. As Merleau-Ponty (1968) notes, to recognize their image in the mirror infants must first learnto ‘derealize’ the image; that is, they must learn to see it as an image and not as another person. Thenthey must learn to use the mirror to manipulate their own image, matching actions to their invertedreflections. Much work in child development focuses upon this process whereby children learn to usethe mirror image to manipulate aspects of their own appearance (e.g. Amsterdam, 1971). AndRomanyshyn (1982) notes how this is extended in adolescent and adult life, where we play with andin front of the mirror, rehearsing anticipated agentic ‘performances’ and fantasizing. Mirror play is acomplex and acquired technique.

12. One can use different measures of ‘distance’ in multi-dimensional scaling, each of which yieldsdifferent results. If frequency distribution is important and one is dealing with head counts then Phi-squared is often a useful measure. I have used Phi-squared here.

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13. On this occasion ‘Euclidean square distance’ proved a more useful measure of distance for theMDS analysis.

14. Again distances were measured using Euclidean square distance. See notes 12 and 13.15. Cluster membership is not clear from the diagram as cases overlap in the same space. It is

available as output for MDS on SPSS. I have not included it here because the existence and basic profileof the clusters is more important than their actual composition, and because case numbers are arbitraryand are only of use to us if we want to further explore the details of cluster members, which we donot in this context.

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Vail, A. (1999) ‘Tattoos Are Like Potato Chips . . . You Can’t Just Have One’, Deviant Behaviour20(3): 253–73.

Wacquant, L. (1995) ‘Pugs at Work’, Body & Society 1(1): 65–94.Wacquant, L. (2004) Body and Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Williams, S. and G. Bendelow (1998) ‘Malignant Bodies’, in S. Nettleton and J. Watson (eds) The Body

in Everyday Life. London: Routledge.

Nick Crossley is Reader in Sociology at the University of Manchester (UK). He has published widelyon the issue of human embodiment. His first book on the subject, The Social Body, was published bySage in 2001. He is currently writing a follow-on book, Reflexions in the Flesh: Embodiment in LateModernity, which will be published by McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.

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