East African Running

<p>What makes East African middle and long distance runners the best in the world? How should contemporary academia approach this question?</p><p>The success of East African distance runners has generated a plethora of studies but much of the 'evidence' presented to support hypotheses is anecdotal arguments being led by non-academics who use popular media as their medium rather than relying on scientific publications. This has resulted in many stereotypical arguments being advocated.</p><p>Within the academic community research has also been restricted by its isolation within either the natural science or social science communities. <em>East African Running: Towards a Cross Disciplinary Perspective</em> presents a rare collaboration between researchers from the sports sciences and social sciences to explore the questions raised by the phenomena of East African success on the track. The text includes: </p><ul> <li>psycho-social and economic explanations </li> <li>physiological and genetic explanations</li> <li>attempts to provide unified theories bringing together ideas from natural and social sciences </li> </ul><p>Includes contributions from John Bale Jim Denison Timothy D. Noakes and Craig Sharp.</p>