I am immensely happy to have been a co-editor of the above book. With Dr Louise Mansfield and Prof Mike Weed, we have attempted to bring together the enormous diversity of scholarly thinking about PA policy and practice.

Rather than solely focusing on physical activity as a means for making populations “healthier” (as judged by traditional health markers), we have included a wide range of chapters to encourage academics, policy makers, practitioners and students to question some of the assumptions about physical activity that have become established in recent years. 75 contributing authors provide contemporary and evocative chapters which frame physical activity in:

• different ways for …
• different groups who have …
• different motivations for achieving …
• different outcomes.

Therefore, interventions that policy makers deploy must be informed not only by good evidence but also by a sympathy for people whose lives are complex and often constrained by unbudgable (and un-nudgable) forces. Being physically active might not only be a healthy choice … it might also be deeply political.

More detail on the book, including the full table of contents can be found here.

Joe Piggin