Warming Up: The Collective Work of Sociability in Belarusian Fitness Clubs

Abstract

Why do Minsk residents ignore their neighbors while waiting for the elevator but chat with strangers in the gym locker room? What makes the affective environment of thefitness club so different from those found in public and quasi-public spaces, like residentialbuildings, grocery stores, and bureaucratic offices? In this article, which isbased on 17 months of ethnographic research, I analyze the effects of Belarus’s burgeoningconsumer culture on social relations in the capital. After exploring some historicalorigins of Belarus’s unfriendly service culture, I trace a (partial) shift in thebuyer-seller dynamic away from the Soviet principle of “the customer is always wrong”towards a more customer-centric orientation. Drawing from my observations and interviewsin training gyms, CrossFit boxes, capoeira classes, aerobics clubs, and yoga studios,I argue that the positively charged affective environments of gyms and fitnessstudios are created with framing devices (such as club décor and rituals) which serve tobracket off the space from everyday life and permit people to temporarily assume moreopen and outgoing personas. The emotional labor performed by club administrators,instructors, and clients themselves also helps to create the warm and welcoming environmentsthat are critical both for business and for allowing clients to establish connectionsand friendships with other club members. The article concludes with a discussionof the solidarity that emerged following the contested August 2020 presidential election.While it appeared to many that this newly discovered national unity and goodwillappeared “overnight,” I suggest that instead we have witnessed the culture of friendlinessfound in fitness clubs and other new consumer spaces spilling over into public life