ABSTRACT
The contemporary world of gyms is an extremely complex and varied reality that is attracting increasing critical interest from many quarters as it is linked with consumer capitalism and how neo-liberal logic puts bodies at work in urban spaces (Sassatelli, 2015). The creation of specialized, typically commercial, spaces defined by the possibility of ‘taking care of the body’ strengthens the impression that modern urban living otherwise is and must be unhealthy, unnatural and harmful to the body. As a highly specialized and separated institution, the fitness gym reinforces the functionalized structure of consumer capitalist urban living and its emphasis on individualized (self) control of conducts furthering individualization and de-politicization of active leisure. Its diffusion, for example, has probably rendered less urgent the provision of parks, outdoor exercise tracks, cycling paths and other public gymnastic solutions, which may incidentally be less prone to commercialization, more universally available and more incisive in changing urban living. It has certainly had the effect of globally reinforcing the neo-liberal, middle-class idea that health and well-being matters are matters of individual will and consumerism (Maguire Smith, 2007; Sassatelli, 2010; Spielvogel, 2003).
