This book suggests a serious reconsideration of movement and social interaction. It challenges the entrenched tendency to separate body and self, and thereby to define the body and movements as phenomena that are separate from communicative and social life. The book offers an account of a singular, practical approach to human movement called the "Sherborne Developmental Movement" (SDM) and it formulates principles and guidelines for how this approach and other movement-based activities can best be documented.
In the first part of the book, the author spells out the characteristics and potentials of SDM and how this approach contrasts sharply with the current preoccupation with health, fitness and physical activity. The second part is devoted to research strategies and methods, with main emphasis on observation and the use of video recordings in systematic investigations of actual interaction.
Throughout the book the author elucidates how movements, sociality and individual development are always interconnected.
This book is written for health care providers and teachers working with movement and physical activity in education and health care settings. It is of special interest to students and practitioners in physiotherapy, psychology, pedagogy and occupational therapy, but also for social educators and others who are interested in the growth and development of children, adolescents and adults with or without special needs.
Eline Thornquist trained as a physiotherapist and is now professor at the University College of Bergen, Norway. In addition she works as a clinician at a private institute. She has varied clinical experience and regularly teaches basic and advanced levels of physiotherapy at institutions of higher learning in Norway. She has published widely in international professional journals and is the author of several textbooks in the fields of physiotherapy, clinical communication, and theory of science.
