This book focuses on the significance of the body in contemporary feminist scholarship. In recent years, the body has become a `hot item' in both contemporary social theory and research. This renewed interest has received a mixed reaction from feminists. While the body may be back, the `new' body theory often proves to be just as disembodied as it ever was. The body revival seems to be less an attempt to re-embody masculinist science than just another expression of the same condition which evoked the feminist critique in the first place: a flight from femininity and everything that is associated with it in western culture.

Embodied Practices offers a critical appraisal of the recent `body revival', drawing upon insights from contemporary feminist theories on gender and power to explore the subject. The book sets an agenda not only for research about the body but for an embodied perspective on the body as well.