Dr James Cherrington BA, MA, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Sport and Physical Activity
Summary
I am an interdisciplinary researcher with an interest in the social, technological, and environmental landscape of physical activity and health. I have a sustained record of producing original, high-quality publications across the disciplines of political ecology, (e)mobility and green exercise, with a particular focus on cultures of mountain biking. My teaching involves introductory modules on the sociology of physical activity, alternative physical activities, and sport branding. Currently, I am supervising doctoral projects relating to e-mountain bikes and ageing, the naturalisation of foreign athletes, neurological disability, and racism in nursing.
About
Jim Cherrington is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sport and Physical Activity. After completing his undergraduate and postgraduate education at Sheffield Hallam University, Jim joined Sheffield Hallam in 2010. An interdisciplinary researcher, working within political ecology, science and technology studies, and environmental philosophy, his research focuses predominantly on issues of spatial conflict with specific attention given to cultures of mountain biking. In 2023, these interests lead Jim to establish the Cultures of Mountain Biking (CoMTB) Research Group, an interdisciplinary, culturally diverse, and global group of researchers whose aim is to understand the social, cultural, and political significance of mountain biking in contemporary societies. Other topics that Jim has examined include: disabled people’s experiences of green exercise, community (sport) development, mHealth technology, sport in everyday life, and the development of visual methodologies. Jim is the editor of ‘Mountain Biking, Culture and Society’ (Routledge, 2024), and co-editor of 'Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments' (Routledge, 2022). His current research includes funded work with Metropolitan Police around thermoregulation strategies among armoured police officers, and an examination of women’s experiences of bicycle repair in the UK.
Identity, Embodiment, Place, Adventure
Teaching
School of Sport and Physical Activity
College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences
Sport and the Social Sciences
Courses taught:
- BSc (Hons) Physical Education and School Sport
- BSc (Hons) Sport Business Management
- BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science
- BSc (Hons) Physical Activity, Sport and Health
- BSc (Hons) Sport Coaching
Modules taught:
- The Impact of Sport and Physical Activity
- Alternative Physical Activities
- Sport, Brands and Culture
Research
- Evaluating the Use of E-Mountain Bikes
- Women's Experiences as Bike Mechanics in UK
- Thermoregulation Strategies Among Armed Police Officers in the Metropolitan Police Force
- Shimano State of the Nation Report
- Protect Our Winters. Downhill from Here? How Climate Change Threatens Cycling as we Know it.
- Are e-bikes ruining mountain biking?
- Shimano
- Protect Our Winters
- Peak District MTB
- Mountain Bike Instructors Award Scheme (MIAS)
- The National Trust
Publications
Journal articles
Cherrington, J., & Brighton, J. (2024). ‘My body was no longer a problem’: Electric mountain biking, disability, and the cultural politics of green exercise. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. http://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12715
Cherrington, J. (2024). Electric mountain bikes, ableism, and ‘enwheelment’ in outdoor leisure. Tourism Cases. http://doi.org/10.1079/tourism.2024.0031
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2023). The electric mountain bike as pharmakon: examining the problems and possibilities of an emerging technology. Mobilities. http://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2023.2186800
Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2022). Posthuman to Inhuman: mHealth technologies and the digital health assemblage. Theory & Event, 25 (4), 726-750. http://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2022.0039
Cherrington, J. (2021). The Ontopolitics of Mountain Bike Trail Building: Addressing Issues of Access and Conflict in the More-than-Human English Countryside. Somatechnics, 11 (3). http://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2021.0363
Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2021). Temporal Ontology in Ecology: Developing an ecological awareness through time, temporality and the past-present parallax. Environmental Philosophy. http://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil202135102
Cherrington, J. (2021). The Myth of the Repack Group: Some Problems and Provocations from an Actor-Network Perspective. Leisure Sciences: an interdisciplinary journal. http://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1870587
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2020). Spectres of nature in the trail building assemblage. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 3 (1), 71-93. http://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-019-00048-w
Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2020). ‘Nature doesn’t care that we’re there’: Re-Symbolizing Nature’s ‘Natural’ Contingency. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14 (1), 1-26. http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1139
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2019). Mountain bike trail building, ‘dirty’ work and a new terrestrial politics. World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. http://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2019.1698234
Cherrington, J. (2019). Media Review: Joe Bowman and Aaron Bartlett (Directors/Producers), "Gamble", Steel City Media/Creative Concept. International review for the sociology of sport. http://doi.org/10.1177/1012690219843666
Cherrington, J., Black, J., & Tiller, N. (2018). Running away from the taskscape : ultramarathon as ‘dark ecology’. Annals of Leisure Research, 1-21. http://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2018.1491800
Cherrington, J. (2014). 'It's just superstition I suppose ... I've always done something on game day': The construction of everyday life on a university basketball team. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 49 (5), 509-525. http://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212461632
Cherrington, J., & Watson, B. (2010). Shooting a diary, not just a hoop: using video diaries to explore the embodied everyday contexts of a university basketball team. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 2 (2), 267-281. http://doi.org/10.1080/19398441.2010.488036
Book chapters
Cherrington, J. (2024). Introduction: Mountain bike culture as a ‘structure of feeling’. In Cherrington, J. (Ed.) Mountain Biking, Culture and Society. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Mountain-Biking-Culture-and-Society/Cherrington/p/book/9781032421919#
Cherrington, J. (2024). Introduction: Mountain bike culture as a ‘structure of feeling’. In Cherrington, J. (Ed.) Mountain Biking, Culture and Society. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Mountain-Biking-Culture-and-Society/Cherrington/p/book/9781032421919#
Cherrington, J. (2023). Running away from the taskscape: ultramarathon as ‘dark ecology’. In Nature Sports: Concepts and Practice. Routledge
Cherrington, J., Black, J., & Tiller, N. (2023). Running Away From the Taskscape: Ultramarathon as 'Dark Ecology'. In Melo, R., Van Rheenen, D., & Gammon, S. (Eds.) Nature Sports: Concepts and Practice. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Nature-Sports-Concepts-and-Practice/Melo-Rheenen-Gammon/p/book/9781032558530#
Cherrington, J. (2022). The myth of the repack group: some problems and provocations from an actor-network perspective [Book chapter]. In Leisure Myths and Mythmaking. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Leisure-Myths-and-Mythmaking/Lashua-Baker-Glover/p/book/9781032285771#
Cherrington, J. (2022). Mountain biking in the (Neg)Anthropocene. Encountering, witnessing, and reorienting to, the end of the ‘natural’ world. In Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (Eds.) Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments. (pp. 129-147). Abingdon: Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003225065
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2022). Introduction. In Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments. (pp. 1-17). Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003225065-1
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2022). Introduction: Sport and physical activity in catastrophic environments – Tuning to the ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’. In Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (Eds.) Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments. (pp. 1-18). Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Sport-and-Physical-Activity-in-Catastrophic-Environments/Cherrington-Black/p/book/9781032125411
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2022). Introduction: Sport and physical activity in catastrophic environments – Tuning to the ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’. In Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (Eds.) Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments. (pp. 1-18). Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Sport-and-Physical-Activity-in-Catastrophic-Environments/Cherrington-Black/p/book/9781032125411
Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2020). Community as Hyperobject: Exploring the ‘Spectral Plains’ of Leisure. In Glover, T., & Sharpe, E. (Eds.) Leisure and its Communities: Rethinking Mutuality, Collective Expression, and Belonging in the New Century. Routledge
Woodhouse, D., & Cherrington, J. (2018). Walking in the shoes of others: Critical reflection in community sport management and physical activity. In Wilson, R., & Platts, C. (Eds.) Managing and developing community sport. (pp. 30-44). London: Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Managing-and-Developing-Community-Sport/Wilson-Platts/p/book/9781138674332
Cherrington, J., & Gregory, M. (2017). Where nature and culture coalesce: The social, cultural and political impact of outdoor recreation in Sheffield. In Turner, D., & Carnicelli, S. (Eds.) Lifestyle sports and public policy. (pp. 100-116). London: Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Lifestyle-Sports-and-Public-Policy/Turner-Carnicelli/p/book/9781138652217
Cherrington, J. (2015). Basketball, embodiment and the everyday. In Wellard, I. (Ed.) Researching Embodied Sport : Exploring Movement Cultures. (pp. 101-116). London: Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315761121
Books
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (Eds.). (2022). Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Sport-and-Physical-Activity-in-Catastrophic-Environments/Black-Cherrington/p/book/9781032125411
Cherrington, J. (n.d.). Mountain Biking, Culture and Society. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003361626
Cherrington, J. (n.d.). Mountain Biking, Culture and Society. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003361626
Reports
Cherrington, J., Winter, D., Dawes, S., Ross, W., & Twigge, A. (2023). Downhill from here: How climate change threatens cycling as we know it. Protect Our Winters. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1neIbFM8yxElveFvnXY91H8id5Ke6-p_o/view
Internet Publications
Cherrington, J. (2021). Are e-bikes ruining mountain biking? https://theconversation.com/are-e-bikes-ruining-mountain-biking-166121
Cherrington, J. (2020). Mountain bikers can strengthen the connection between humans, nature and recreational space. https://theconversation.com/mountain-bikers-can-strengthen-the-connection-between-humans-nature-and-recreational-space-137206
Presentations
Cherrington, J. (2024). E-Mountain Bikes, Disability and Green Exercise: A Stieglerian Analysis. Presented at: Leisure Studies 2024, Paisley, Scotland
Cherrington, J. (2024). The Weird and the Eerie in Mountain Bike Landscape Photography. Presented at: Cultures of Mountain Biking (CoMTB) Seminar Series, Online
Cherrington, J. (2024). Understanding the Relationship Between E-MTB, Disability and Green Exercise. Presented at: Reframing MTB, Sheffield
Cherrington, J. (2024). EMTB, Disability and Green Exercise. Presented at: Cultures of Mountain Biking Seminar Series, Online
Cherrington, J. (2023). Mountain Biking, Culture and Society (Book Launch). Presented at: Space and Place Seminar Series, Online
Cherrington, J. (2023). Book Launch: Mountain Biking, Culture and Society Book Launch. Presented at: Space and Place Research Seminar Series, Sheffield Hallam University
Cherrington, J. (2023). The Social, Cultural, and Political Importance of Mountain Biking (Keynote Presentation). Presented at: IMBA Annual Summit, Valposhiavo, Switzerland
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2022). Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments (Book Launch). Presented at: Changing Places Seminar Series, Sheffield Hallam University, UK, 2022
Cherrington, J. (2022). The Electric Mountain Bike as Pharmakon: Examining the Problems and Possibilities of an Emerging Technology. Presented at: Whose Body Is it? Sport and the Problem of Autonomy, Aarhus, Denmark
Other publications
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2023). Sport and PA in Catastrophic Environments. The Sport and PA Policy Podcast: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3j5dt-145f7b9?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share
Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2023). Sport and Nature in Catastrophic Times. https://soundcloud.com/mediasportpodcastseries/episode-42-jim-cherrington-and-jack-black-sport-and-nature-in-catastrophic-times
Other activities
- External Examiner: BSc Social Sciences, University of Bedfordshire.
- External Examiner: BA Business and Enterprise in Sport, Edinburgh Napier University
- Editorial Board Member: Sociology of Sport Journal
- Reviews Editor for The History, Culture and Sociology of Sports speciality section in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.
Postgraduate supervision
I am interested in offering PhD supervision for topics related to outdoor recreation; cultural studies; and social studies of technology.
- Adesola Abiodun - 'Effects of Recreational Sports on Neuromotor Fitness of Adults with Neurological Conditions' .
- Shanglin Li - 'Construction of Chinese Naturalised Athletes Cultural and National Identity Across Chinese Social Media.
- Hannah Reynolds, 'A Critical Analysis of E-Mountain Biking in The Third Age'.
- Victory Oforji, 'Investigating the Racial Discrimination and Bullying of Marginalized Student Nurses'