Conclusion: Drawing the Line

After so many different approaches to issues in and around martial arts, the conclusion begins by reflecting on the diversity and range of directions from, into, around, out of, and out into which studies could develop. It poses the question of how and why, where and when we draw the line in our studies, whether of ‘martial arts’ and/or any other subject. In deconstruction, the question of drawing the line is often treated as contingent, conventional, consequential and political. It is often thematised as ‘violent’ in its own right. Nonetheless, for multiple reasons, ‘drawing the line’ is both necessary and inevitable. Accordingly, the conclusion will set out some of the key implications relating to where, when, how and why academics draw the line in their foci and approaches, specifically to martial arts, but also in critical, intellectual and academic endeavours more widely.