Reconsidering feminisms and the work of Norbert Elias for understanding gender, sport and sport-related activities.

This paper reconsiders the relationships between feminist perspectives and the figurational/process-sociological perspective of Norbert Elias for understanding gender, sport and sport-related activities. The main aim of the article is to respond to CoIwell's claim that there are differences between feminist and figurational approaches to understanding and explaining gender that potentially negate the possibility of being a feminist and figurational sociologist at the same time. The paper makes a contribution to the wider discussions about the adequacy of Elias's work in understanding gender and sport, and the potential of blending feminist and figurational perspectives on sport and gender It introduces the principles underlying feminist and figurational approaches to sociology The key features of the ongoing debate about the differences between feminist and figurational approaches are briefly outlined. I reply to Colwell's criticisms of my work and revisit issues surrounding the role of values and evaluation in sociology Involved-detachment is introduced as a feminist interpretation of Elias's theory of ever changing balances of involvement-detachment The final part of the paper presents some reflections about working with involved-detachment in specific research on women's involvement in sport-related fitness activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]