Men, Sport, Spinal Cord Injury and Narrative Time

Abstract

Based on life history data, this article explores how time is experienced by three men who have become disabled through playing sport. Comparisons are made between their experiences of time at the following periods in their lives: (a) pre-spinal cord injury (SCI) when they inhabited able bodied, sporting, disciplined and dominating bodies; (b) immediately following SCI during rehabilitation; and (c) as they live at the moment post-SCI. The ways in which three different narratives operate to shape the post-SCI experiences of time for these men are highlighted, and the implications of this process for their identity (re)construction as disabled men is discussed.