Expanding Physical Activity Frameworks: Introducing a Justice Domain
by Roger Isom
A Fifth Domain of Physical Activity: Justice
Public health has long categorized physical activity across four domains: occupational, transportation, household, and leisure (Piercy et al., 2018). These categories shape everything from surveillance to intervention design. They are foundational—but they are not neutral.
They are built on a simple premise: physical activity is defined by where movement happens.
Ecological models and global guidelines reinforce this structure, organizing movement across work, home, travel, and leisure contexts (Sallis et al., 2006). This framework has strengthened measurement—but it also raises a deeper question: Are there additional dimensions of movement we have yet to fully capture?
By centering location and visibility, public health risks privileging forms of movement that are easily observed and quantified. Research shows that how we define physical activity domains can shift who appears “active,” often masking inequities tied to access, labor, and opportunity (Quinn & Barone Gibbs, 2023). In other words, classification is not just technical—it is political.
Movement as Resistance—and Solidarity
At the 2026 Active Living Conference, this tension came into focus during reflexivity. In Minneapolis, at the memorial for George Floyd, I reflected on the lives lost to racial, policy, and structural violence—and on what followed: protest, gathering, and marching.
Across communities, people continue to respond to injustice not just with words, but with their bodies. Protesters march. Artists dance in defiance. Communities organize boycotts animated by rhythm and collective presence. But justice-driven movement is not limited to protest.
Physical activity also shows up in health advocacy and social demonstrations—people walking to raise awareness, running to fund research, and gathering in motion to support causes larger than themselves. We see it in expressions of Black excellence, where movement becomes culture and collective identity—through stepping, through the traditions of Divine Nine fraternities and sororities “strolling the yard,” and through performances that embody unity, pride, and resistance. This is not leisure in the traditional sense. It is not occupational or transport-based. It is activism—embodied movement rooted in purpose, history, and community. And through this lens, it represents Black excellence at its finest.
Public health acknowledges that physical activity serves multiple purposes beyond fitness, including social participation and well-being (Bailey et al., 2012). Yet our dominant frameworks still fail to capture movement that is explicitly tied to justice, advocacy, and collective action.
The Case for a Justice Domain
What we are missing is not more data. It is a new physical cultural studies lens to elevate public health.
I argue for a fifth domain of physical activity in the context of public health: the Justice Domain.
This domain recognizes movement that is:
Driven by advocacy, resistance, or solidarity
Rooted in social, political, or community context
Inclusive of both protest and purpose-driven collective action (e.g., fundraising walks, awareness campaigns)
(PCS) Embodied before it is observable
Unlike traditional domains, which are defined by setting, the Justice Domain is defined by intent.
This distinction matters. Because when people march for policy change, walk to fund life-saving research, or gather in motion to celebrate Black culture and contributions to moving society forward, they are engaging in physical activity—but not for recreation alone. They are moving to shift systems, support communities, and redistribute attention and resources.
And that activism has health implications in moving social drivers—individual, collective, and structural.
Expanding the Frame: A Walktime Books Agenda
Walktime Books is my public health initiative to reimagine physical activity as more than movement—it is expression, culture, and a reflection of community health. Through health literacy and storytelling, we work to expand how physical activity is understood: not just as health promotion and disease prevention, but as something deeply social, contextual, and lived. Central to this vision is our commitment to advancing a broader framework—one that recognizes activism, solidarity, and collective action as valid and vital forms of physical activity within the Justice Domain. Because when people move for change, they are not just being active—they are reshaping the conditions that make health possible.
Adding a Justice Domain is not about replacing the existing four. It is about completing them.
Because the most transformative forms of movement are often the least visible in our datasets—and the most powerful in our communities.
If public health is serious about equity, it must expand how it defines physical activity. Not just as energy expenditure. Not just as behavior. But as expression, resistance, solidarity, and collective action.
Sometimes, the movements that matter most are not those we measure—but those that move us toward justice.
References
Bailey, R., Hillman, C., Arent, S., & Petitpas, A. (2012). Physical activity as an investment in personal and social change: The human capital model. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 9(8), 1053-1055. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.9.8.1053
Piercy, K. L., Troiano, R. P., Ballard, R. M., Carlson, S. A., Fulton, J. E., Galuska, D. A., George, S. M., & Olson, R. D. (2018). The physical activity guidelines for Americans. JAMA, 320(19), 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.14854
Quinn, T. D., & Barone Gibbs, B. (2023). Context Matters: The importance of physical activity domains for public health. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, 6(4), 245-249. https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2023-0030
Sallis, J. F., Cervero, R. B., Ascher, W., Henderson, K. A., Kraft, M. K., & Kerr, J. (2006). An ecological approach to creating active living communities. Annual Review of Public Health, 27(1), 297-322. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102100