Since the 90-ies a more general theory of the body has been developed in the social sciences, esp. in Britain and the USA (e. g. Turner 2008, Shilling 1993), which is grounded in cultural studies. The history of this shift will be sketched and interpreted as paradigmatic. This relatively recent new branch of the humanities is apt to focus on apparently heterogeneous themes like medical care, health, discourse of diet, death, anorexia, beauty, identity, style etc. Most of these themes are relevant to physical education, but treated quite differently in actual discourses in German sport pedagogy. Nevertheless, sport pedagogy in Germany is a quite differentiated and sophisticated field of theory and research (Balz et. al. 2011). But before looking at the latest trend it is necessary to consider the main features of former and actually dominating approaches and to arrange them in a proper order, not only discriminating between conservative and critical positions, or between normative and empirical approaches. Instead, the main approaches will be reorganized according to the underlying concepts of the body, coming to a nomination of candidates for criteria like ‘phenomenologist’, ‘biologist’, ‘institutional’; these concepts of the body will be discussed and contrasted with genuine features of body theory. This will lead to the question: Who is right, the fighters against a sedentary lifestyle or the critical analysts of fat phobia like Sykes (2011)? If both, is there any bridge between them?

Thus, the comparison of the argumentative rationality of sport pedagogical approaches , confronted with intricately sociological thoughts will lead to a sound methodological and epistemological framework  for the reconstructive analysis of the genesis of habitus (Bourdieu 1972). The power of the appointment of the ‘missing link’ between sociological body theory and sport pedagogical research will be shown using videographic material from the study ‘ZeitRäume’ (BMBF study on movement in all-day schools (StuBSS, Philipps-University Marburg). Four schools with different organizational features and diverse material opportunities for movement will be characterized, leading to a ‘movement portrait’ for individual school. Some examples of the informal/non-formal activities of pupils during breaks will be interpreted and compared to PE-lesson material, revealing the methodical steps of the ZeitRäume study in more detail. The aim of the study was 1. to get deeper knowledge on the activities of different peer-groups on the school yard ('watching habitus/hexis formation in the making'), 2. taking the points of view of the actors into consideration and 3. reconstructing at least some underlying features of habitus formation at school. In processes of practical participation the acting persons are supposed to be exposed to the necessity of social adaptation and assimilation in the cultural environment (Alkemeyer 2011) of the school. To some degree, they have to use conventionalized patterns of behavior, according to socio-culturally framed pre-decisions on socially acceptable and non-acceptable behavioral patterns. If there is an underlying layer of socially constructed bodily representations, gestures should be able to show unconscious procedural structures, which are constitutive for shared concepts within a social context.

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