Making sense of one’s sports history: The body, microanalysis, peripheries

Abstract

This article explores the meanings and directions I have given to my work as a sports historian, and which have contributed to the construction of my “sense of history.” More precisely, it brings to light the three main axes of reflection that have marked my scientific trajectory: the place (physical and symbolic) of the body in research, the choice of interdisciplinarity, and the perspective of examining the evolution of sports practices from the national peripheries. These axes should be understood not as a linear succession of intellectual stages but rather as the progressive interweaving of different reflections on my own work. More than a return to oneself and a study of the intimate, these fragments of embodied history, which question the motivations and the “true objectivity” of the researcher, intend to make their contribution to the collective history of the profession.