“KOM IGEN, NU ÖSER VI. VI ORKAR LITE TILL!”: En socialantropologisk studie av jympa på Friskis och Svettis.
Abstract
This bachelor thesis examines the group workout class jympa at the Swedish gym chain Friskis
och Svettis, which can be understood as an actor in the popular fitness community. The aim is
to explore jympa and try to understand what makes it meaningful to its practitioners. The thesis
includes discussions about the facility itself and what it can mean to practitioners, as well as
discussions about the views on the body itself and of other people’s bodies when it comes to
clothes and movements to music. Finally, there will be a discussion about the health effects and
how jympa workout classes help the practitioners to encounter life outside the facility. The
findings from this study show that jympa participants associate jympa with movement to music
and the social context that exists within the jympa community. Overall, the results indicate that
the jympa practitioners tend to care less about external influences, although social structures,
such as the fitness culture, find their way into the jympa workouts. The concepts utilized
throughout this thesis are Heterotopia, Liminality, Embodiment and Sense of Coherence. These
terms are utilized in several ways to give a new perspective on the views on jympa as a practice.
The study is mostly based upon participant observations in multiple jympa workouts at various
Friskis och Svettis facilities during the beginning of 2022. Furthermore, there are in-depth
interviews with instructors and participants from the jympa workouts where we dig deeper into
the meaning of jympa workouts.
Degree
Student essay
Collections
Date
2022-08-23Author
Johansson, Emma
Keywords
Socialantropologi
Heterotopi
Liminalitet
Förkroppsligande
Fitness
Friskis och svettis
Language
swe