bodiesthrough

Bodiesthrough is a neologism used in discussions of embodiment and mobility to describe the ongoing process by which a person’s body mediates their passage through space, social norms, and material infrastructures. The term draws attention to movement and interaction as constitutive of experience, rather than treating the body as a fixed, passive vessel.

Etymology and usage are not standardized. The phrase combines body and through to signal movement through environments and practices, rather than a static state of being. It has appeared in late 2010s to early 2020s scholarly writing in fields such as cultural studies, performance studies, and disability studies, where authors explore how bodily experience is enacted through continuous negotiation with surrounding spaces and technologies.

Core concepts associated with bodiesshrough include embodiment, phenomenology, and embodied cognition. Proponents emphasize sensorimotor processes, proprioception, and tactile feedback as integral to perception and action. The idea also highlights how tools, prostheses, wearable technologies, and architectural design extend or constrain the body’s capacity to move through and make sense of environments.

Applications of the concept appear in discussions of urban design, accessibility, and inclusive architecture, as well as in performance studies and digital media where bodily interaction with space is central. Critics caution that the term can be underdefined or used to subsume complex social factors under movement and access, calling for careful integration with analyses of power, race, gender, and economy.

See also: embodiment, phenomenology, mobility, disability studies, embodied cognition, urban design.