Trails to Community: An Ethnography of Ultrarunning

Date
2019-06-27
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Abstract
Background: Ultrarunning is a form of extreme long-distance running in which participants run further than the marathon distance of 42.2km. Ultrarunners are found around the world and represent a broad sociocultural demographic profile. Ultrarunning leads to a particular form of individual embodiment. However, it also seems to result in a peculiar form of social organisation. Ultrarunners, worldwide, commonly refer to their collectivity as an ultrarunning community. This project is an ethnographic exploration of that collectivity. Research Question: The research question that founded and directed this ethnography is, ‘what is ultrarunning community?’ The project was an attempt to explore the structure, identity, and experience of ultrarunning community around the world. Methods: This project relied on ethnographic methods. In particular, this ethnography is one of insider anthropology given my role as complete insider and long-time participant in the sport of ultrarunning. Data collection relied on qualitative and quantitative techniques, including in-person interviews, participant observation, online interviews and questionnaire, cultural material artifacts, and autoethnographic insights. The study population was n=3,784 across all data collection types. Data analysis included descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative thematic analysis. Results: The descriptive statistical analysis resulted in a comprehensive sociocultural demography of the ultrarunning community worldwide. The thematic analysis resulted in 16,170 expressions across 53 codes. These codes were organised into 14 meta-themes and woven into a single meta-narrative. The meta-narrative describes the structure, experience, and identity of the ultrarunning community. The emerging, emic, social organisation of the ultrarunning community was compared and contrasted against an etic, analytic framework of social collectivities. The ultrarunning community appears to share many characteristics of subcultural groups, including subcultures and countercultures, as well as community, neo-tribes, social worlds, and social networks. However, as was found in the case of the individual experience of ultrarunning, the ultrarunning community pushes the boundaries and limits of current etic understandings of social organisations.
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Ethnography, Sociocultural Anthropology, Anthropology of sport, Ultrarunning, Running, Extreme sport, Community, Community study, Participant observation, Exploration, Long distance running, Social organisation
Citation
MacNairn, I. A. S. (2019). Trails to Community: An Ethnography of Ultrarunning (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.