• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.415-428
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• 2017

This article is a socio-cultural research on the fitness members by employing an original synthesis of the work of Elias and Bourdieu. The purpose of this research is to provide a multidimensional and in-depth analysis of fitness members, by researching the relationship between body groups with differing economic and cultural capital (e.g. Gangnam and Gangbuk, private and public center). Through interviews and participant observation, the established and outsider relations of fitness members in both Gangnam and Gangbuk are examined (Gangnam 12: Gangbuk 12). Participants in social space differentiated by fitness capital and socio-economic positions gather in certain spaces that identify them as members of the same class location: the established body in Gangnam (Gangnam E), the outsider body in Gangnam (Gangnam O), the established body in Gangbuk (Gangbuk E), and the outsider body in Gangbuk (Gangbuk O). The E-O figuration of the body in fitness clubs shows differences in their body tastes and habitus (selecting a fitness centre, body ostentation, social assessment, making muscles, participation in other sports) and civilizing process (fitness manners and etiquette). The fitness centers in Gangnam and Gangbuk were not simply spaces for exercise but symbolic spaces that both recreate and perpetuate socio-cultural hierarchies between members.