Barefoot Running: Feeling the World Through Your Feet

Abstract

This thesis paper explores barefoot and minimalist running in Ottawa, Ontario and Boulder, Colorado. The objective has been to answer the following questions: how can we understand barefoot and minimalist style running as cultures, how are barefoot and minimalist style running being done in different ways, how do the senses play out and create nuances between barefoot and minimalist style runners. I argue barefoot and minimalist running are distinct cultural forms. I applied an Ingoldian notion of culture that contends cultures are generative, relational, temporal and improvisational. I conducted a multi-site study and I interviewed participants, as well as conducted participant observation. My findings reveal that the different sensations experienced by the two styles of running make them meaningful in different ways. These different sensations and ways of meaning create nuances between barefoot and minimalist running and differentiate them and as a result, there are found to become different cultural forms.