bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Justice Do It! The Nike Transnational Advocacy Network: Organization, Collective Actions, and Outcomes
Authors: Sage George H.
Published: August 2016

The focus of this study is on the organizational dynamics, collective actions, and outcomes of a transnational advocacy network that was formed to protest the labor practices of Nike’s sport shoe factories in Asia. Transnational advocacy networks arise and are sustained with the intent of changing social conditions. The Nike transnational network sought to improve the lives of workers in Nike factories in Asia so that they have jobs that pay a living wage, have good working conditions, can organize on their own behalf, and are treated with dignity and respect. A broad theoretical perspective that emphasizes the determinant and interactive effects of the emergence, development, and accomplishments of the Nike transnational network is employed.
Race, Sport, and Crime: The Misrepresentation of African Americans in Team Sports and Crime
Authors: Berry Bonnie , Smith Earl
Published: August 2016

Criminological literature and statistics show that African Americans are comparatively overrepresented in the United States criminal justice system. This study explores whether African American athletes are similarly overrepresented as criminally involved sports figures. Data abundantly illustrate that African Americans fare worse in all phases of criminal justice compared to whites. It has been speculated that African Americans, perhaps due to cultural influences or blocked opportunities, do commit more crime than other racial categories. There is equally strong reason to believe that the representation of African Americans in the criminal justice system is largely a result of racial bias on the part of social control agencies. Crime among athletes, regardless of race, can be explained through social forces, such as collective behavior, organizational influences, and social process. We conclude that African American athletes are socially expected to be engaged in crime and suggest a new approach to this area of study.
Rethinking the Relationships between Sport and Race in American Culture: Golden Ghettos and Contested Terrain
Authors: Hartmann Douglas
Published: August 2016

This article proposes a new way of thinking about the relationships between sport and race in the U.S. It is critical of sport’s racial form and function but does not overlook its unique and potentially progressive characteristics. This theoretical framework is generated through an extended review and critique of longstanding popular beliefs and post-1970s scholarly critiques thereof. It draws most heavily from the latter but also argues that academic critics have been too quick to dismiss the opportunities for racial resistance and change available through sport and, thus, failed to grasp the full extent to which sport is implicated in American racial formations. In contrast, sport is portrayed as a “contested racial terrain.” This formulation, in combination with the “golden ghetto” metaphor, not only conveys the complexity of racial dynamics in sport but also reveals the broad public significance of sport in a racialized culture.
Subverting Bodies/Ambivalent Representations: Media Analysis of Paralympian, Hope Lewellen
Authors: Schell “Beez” Lea Ann , Rodriguez Stephanie
Published: August 2016

Socially constructed ideals regarding gender, sexuality, and corporeality often work to constrain efforts by marginalized groups to claim subjectivity through participation in sport. Increased participation in sport by female athletes has generated increased attention by national and international sport media. Though this might be thought of as a positive consequence, some researchers find that mainstream media contribute to dominant ideologies that depict sport as primarily a male (and nondisabled) domain. The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the example of Paralympian Hope Lewellen, how a woman athlete with a disability may claim subjectivity through sport, thereby subverting stereotypic concepts of gender and disability. Further, we analyze how the sport media simultaneously works to repress Lewellen’s subversive potential by portraying her in stereotypical ableist ways.
Media Promotion of the Paradigm Citizen/Golfer: An Analysis of Golf Magazines’ Representations of Disability, Gender, and Age
Authors: Maas Kay W. , Hasbrook Cynthia A.
Published: August 2016

Golf is described as elitist, racist, and sexist. Recently it has become clear that golf is also able-bodiest. Casey Martin, a young, upper class, white, male golfer with a physical disability, was featured in the media for challenging the Professional Golf Association (PGA) rules prohibiting use of a golf cart during tournament play. Drawing on Connell’s (1987) construct of hegemonic masculinity and Wendell’s (1996) notion of the “paradigm citizen” (p. 41), we examine if and how hegemonic masculinity and the paradigm citizen/golfer are reinforced, maintained, and challenged within four issues of major golf magazines and a special golfing issue of Sports Illustrated published around the time of the trial. We find that golfers with disabilities are absent from advertisements and photographs and given minimal attention in articles. Proportions of golfers who are older and women golfers, while generally consistent with subscriber proportions, were well under U.S. golfer population percentages. Data suggest that golf magazines continue to maintain and reinforce hegemonic masculinity and the paradigm citizen/golfer.
An Ideal Misconstrued: Newspaper Coverage of the Atlanta Paralympic Games in France and Germany
Authors: Schantz Otto J. , Gilbert Keith
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze newspaper coverage of the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics by the French and German press. Drawing on media theories and critical concepts of exclusion and disability. 104 articles from 8 French and German nationwide newspapers were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The results suggest that performances of athletes with disabilities are of little importance to the French and German sport press. Indeed, the way in which the newspapers reported on the Paralympics misconstrued the ideal of the Paralympic Games. Instead of reporting on the sporting and idealistic aspects of this meeting, the press chose the commercial logic of general news value and focused primarily on national success and medal rankings of the countries.
North American Professional Team Sport Franchises Ownership Patterns and Global Entertainment Conglomerates
Authors: Harvey Jean , Law Alan , Cantelon Michael
Published: August 2016

This paper maps the current ownership patterns of North American major professional sports franchises in order to assess the extent to which they are interconnected with media/entertainment conglomerates. First, the 120 franchises are classified according to owner’s industrial sector. Second, five models of linkages between franchises and media/entertainment corporations are followed by case studies representative of each. The paper concludes that indeed empirical evidence supports the alleged increasing control of North American pro sport franchises by large media/entertainment conglomerates. However, the paper also demonstrates that the phenomenon involves much more diversity than the major conglomerates commonly identified in the current literature. Finally, the paper discusses the impacts of this trend on sport, as well as on fans.
Sexual Stories as Resistance Narratives in Women’s Sports: Reconceptualizing Identity Performance
Authors: Iannotta Joah G. , Kane Mary Jo
Published: August 2016

Previous research has relied on the personal narratives of female coaches and athletes to generate knowledge related to homophobia in women’s athletics. We suggest that the body of knowledge generated from these investigations has served to construct a meta story of victimization surrounding women’s sport experiences. We make this claim primarily around theoretical frameworks that link a final, liberating stage of development with being explicitly out as a lesbian. As a result, only a narrow range of sexual identity performances (e.g., linguistically naming oneself as lesbian) is recognized as being effective in creating climates of tolerance and, by extension, social change. Employing an analytical tool developed by Plummer (1995), we examined the “sexual stories” of intercollegiate coaches who did not identify themselves as “out” lesbians, but who nevertheless employed a multiplicity of strategies related to the performance of their sexual identity to actively resist social injustice. Based on these findings, we call for a reconceptualization of identity performance that recognizes the non-linear, fluid and contextualized nature of sexual identity.
Factors Influencing the Process of Withdrawal by Female Adolescents from the Role of Competitive Age Group Swimmer
Authors: Brown Barbara A.
Published: August 2016

The high attrition rates observed among young athletes, particularly adolescents, have been attributed to and studied primarily as outcomes of negative aspects of the organization and administration of competitive youth sport. The present study extends this research by examining withdrawal from competitive sport roles in the broader context of the role constellation and lifestyle of adolescent girls. A conceptual framework was developed to examine the process of withdrawal from the role of competitive age group swimmer. It was hypothesized that withdrawal is influenced by six categories of factors: (a) the salience of gender-role stereotypes; (b) the diversity and salience of the opportunity set; (c) the degree of social support from significant others for the sport role; (d) the extent to which the athlete role is perceived as central to personal identity; (e) the extent to which positive and negative outcomes are associated with sport involvement; and (f) the degree of commitment to the athlete role. Survey data were collected from 211 former swimmers and 193 currently involved age group swimmers in Ontario, Canada. It was concluded that a combination of factors from a variety of sources interact to influence the role transition.
Longitudinal Analysis of Adolescent Girls’ Participation in Physical Activity
Authors: Butcher Janice
Published: August 2016

Adolescent girls were resurveyed each year from grade 6 to grade 10 to determine the change in physical activity participation as they matured and the variables most related to continued participation in physical activity in grade 10. Primary participation declined over the 5 years while secondary sport involvement increased. The five types of variables most related to participation in grade 10 were (a) significant others’ participation and encouragement (socializing agents), (b) movement satisfaction, especially satisfaction with sport ability (personal attribute), (c) independent, assertive self-descriptions (personal attribute), (d) sports equipment available (socialization situation), and (e) preference for active rather than sedentary activities (personal attribute). For interschool teams, the first two personal attributes were most influential. For community organized activities, the socializing agents and socialization situation variables were most important, and for both average hours per day and total activities participated in, sports equipment available was most highly correlated.
Sport Executives and Voluntary Associations: A Review of the Literature and Introduction to Some Theoretical Issues
Authors: Beamish Rob
Published: August 2016

Since the overwhelming majority of sport opportunity in Canada is enjoyed, organized, and administered by voluntary associations, it is surprising that so little research has been done in this area. This paper reviews the voluntary association literature in general and the sport voluntary association literature in particular. Broadly stated, the general literature shows that voluntary association membership reflects the normative order and no matter what indicator of socioeconomic status is used, there is a direct relationship between SES and participation in voluntary associations. The same, in an accentuated form, is found in sport associations. Furthermore, instrumental associations, both as a whole and in sport, are more dominated by upper SES personnel than are expressive associations. Concerning gender relations, the review shows that the exclusion of women from so many spheres of social life is found with equal severity in the voluntary association literature as a whole and in the sport literature in particular. The final section of the paper examines how power and the control over rules and resources can be used to explain the existing patterns of voluntary association in Canadian sport.
Evolution of the Concept of Sport and the Participation/Nonparticipation Phenomenon
Authors: Claeys Urbain
Published: August 2016

This paper deals with the evolution of the concept of sport and the changing sport participation patterns in Europe. The concept of sport has evolved under the influence of the “Sports for All” philosophy. The entire Sports for All campaign has helped open up the definition of sport. Its borders have been shifted, both for participants and scientists. There are now more sports than ever, and more physical activities are considered sports. Sport participation is a result of a complex set of factors: facilities and organizations, patterns of sport socialization, personal motivations, and also the current changes taking place in society. In this discussion, special attention is paid to the relationship between sport socialization and sport participation patterns.
Sport and International Understanding—A Contradiction in Terms?
Authors: Heinilä Kalevi
Published: August 2016

The official value orientation of international sport emphasizes common good causes such as international understanding, peace, friendship, and Olympic solidarity. However, when nations compete in international sport events their operational goals are defined in terms of national interests and materialized in terms of competitive success. This is a basic dilemma and contradiction in international sport, and it is clearly evident in the Olympic movement. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) operates on the basis of common good causes, the national Olympic committees (NOCs) operate on the basis of national interests. In fact, the NOCs are even reluctant to supervise any rules and resolutions interfering with this national pursuit of success, let alone recognize the common good values in international sport. In this paper it is hypothesized that international sport is vulnerable to a legitimation crisis because it is premised on values that are incompatible with the values and policies that guide involvement at the national level. This hypothesis is based on the results of a semantic differential pilot study through which the basic ideological concepts of international sport are compared with the operational concepts underlying national sport systems. It is concluded that since we know very little about the meanings people assign to international sport, it is difficult to make statements about the consequences of international events.
Gender Roles and Barriers to Participation in Sports
Authors: Fasting Kari , Sisjord Mari-Kristin
Published: August 2016

This study attempts to measure quantitative and qualitative dimensions of leisure time in an effort to see how they are related to the sport participation rates of women and men. Using data collected from a sample of 83 women and 128 men—all of whom were employed, married parents—it was found that women did more housework than men did but the time spent on housework did not account for differences in participation rates for either women or men. Most important in explaining participation in sports among women was the average number of hours per week their spouses were away from home in the evenings. On the basis of these findings it was concluded that the quantitative dimensions of leisure were not associated with sport participation rates; however, the qualitative dimensions of leisure were associated with barriers to participation for women but not for men. The data suggested that compared to men, women were less likely to feel they had the freedom to participate in sport. This difference was explained in terms of a combination of factors including differential socialization and different patterns of motivation related to sport participation among women and men.
Posthuman Podiums: Cyborg Narratives of Elite Track and Field Athletes
Authors: Butryn Ted M.
Published: August 2016

This paper examines the cyborg identities of 7 elite track and field athletes using a paradigmatic analysis of narratives (Polkinghorne, 1995, 1997). Following a discussion of philosophical and cultural studies conceptualizations of technology, and a brief overview of various types of sport technologies, I present several themes that emerged through an analysis of the collection of stories told by participants during in-depth interviews. In general, while participants engaged with a range of technologies, their stories dealt predominately with the tensions within world-class athletics between modernist notions of the “natural” body and postmodern conceptualizations of corporeality. The paper concludes with comments about the ongoing politics of sporting cyborg bodies and the increasing relevance of cyborg theory to critical sport studies work.
What’s the Big Idea? Reading the Rhetoric of a National Sport Policy Process
Authors: Sam Michael P.
Published: August 2016

National taskforces and inquiries are used extensively by governments wishing to review their involvement in sport. Underpinning these reviews are dominant ideas like “national unity” or “excellence.” Ideas matter in public policy because they form the basis for framing political judgments and because their meanings are continually translated into future plans and actions (Hoppe, 1993). This study investigates the role of ideas in shaping and circumscribing the findings and recommendations emanating from a national taskforce in New Zealand. Information was gathered through interviews with Taskforce members, observations of public consultations, and analysis of submitted documents. Key ideas included notions of efficiency, competitiveness, and leadership. These ideas are discussed, focusing in particular on their contradictory/paradoxical nature and their role in (re)producing power relations. The paper concludes with future research questions and a call for more critical investigations into sport policy-making.
On the Sidelines: Sex and Racial Segregation in Television Sports Broadcasting
Authors: Coventry Barbara Thomas
Published: August 2016

This study explores sex and racial segregation within television sports broadcasting. It uses logit log-linear analysis to examine the relationship between job classifications within sports broadcasting and such explanatory variables as sex and race. The results show that women are concentrated in competition-level reporting and reporting but are underrepresented as studio analysts and play-by-play announcers. People of color are most likely to be found doing competition-level reporting, followed by studio analysis. They are least likely to work as play-by-play announcers. In addition, people of color are virtually limited to broadcasting baseball, basketball, and football. Although Whites also cover these three sports, they occupy practically all of the jobs covering other sports. The findings regarding sex and race support the social closure perspective that argues that women and people of color would be concentrated in lower positions within an occupation.
Power, Policy, and Political Priorities: Elite Sport Development in Canada and the United Kingdom
Authors: Green Mick
Published: August 2016

This article analyzes government and quasigovernmental agencies’ use of “planning dictates” in relationships with national sporting organizations (NSOs) in Canada and national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport in the United Kingdom (UK). Attention is drawn to the asymmetries of power contouring elite sport policy developments in both countries that, though unobservable in an empirical sense, nonetheless warrant investigation. The analysis draws on semistructured, in-depth interviews with key personnel in three Canadian NSOs and three UK NGBs in swimming, athletics, and sailing; senior officials at Sport Canada and UK Sport; and sport-policy analysts and academics. Although Canadian NSOs have been subject to such planning dictates for the past 20 to 30 years, the requirement for UK NGBs to comply in this way have only emerged since the mid-1990s. Accordingly, the article concludes with suggestions for further research in the UK.
The “Crack Choir” and the “Cock Chorus”: The Intersection of Gender and Sexuality in Skydiving Texts
Authors: Laurendeau Jason
Published: August 2016

This article undertakes a qualitative exploration of women’s and men’s songs in the skydiving community in order to explore the intersection of gender and sexuality in this context. Analyses reveal that men’s songs constrain the transformative potential of women in skydiving by trivializing, marginalizing, and sexualizing them. Further, they reinforce male hegemony in skydiving through the construction of a hyperheterosexual masculinity. Meanwhile, women’s songs resist male hegemony in the sport, laying claim to discursive and physical space. One central strategy in this resistance is the construction of a strong heterosexual femininity, thereby asserting a sexual subjectivity neither defined nor controlled by men. This resistance, however, shores up a particular version of heterosexual femininity that contributes to women’s trivialization and sexualization in this setting.
Injured Distance Runners: A Case of Identity Work as Self-Help
Authors: Hockey John
Published: August 2016

This article examines the importance of “identity work” for the maintenance of athletic identity in the face of prolonged injury, and the part that type of work played in successful athletic rehabilitation. It is based on collaborative autoethnographic research undertaken by two middle/long distance runners during a 2-year period of injury and rehabilitation. The narrative delineates the various kinds of identity work that were crucial to the process of rehabilitation, focusing in turn on routines and settings, appearance and embodiment, identity talk, and differential association. The article concludes by conceptualizing identity work as a strategy that can play a vital part in the recovery process of injured athletes.
Patterns of Personal and Social Adjustment among Sport-Involved and Noninvolved Urban Middle-School Children
Authors: McHale James P. , Vinden Penelope G. , Bush Loren , Richer Derek , Shaw David , Smith Brienne
Published: August 2016

This article examines patterns of adjustment among urban middle-school children as a function of involvement in organized team sports. Four hundred twenty-three seventh-grade students (216 boys and 207 girls) reported on their involvement in sport, self-esteem, delinquent activity, and drug use during the year preceding the survey. Physical Education teachers rated social competence, shyness/withdrawal, and disinhibition/aggression. Compared with noninvolved children, sport-involved youth reported higher self-esteem and were rated by teachers as more socially competent and less shy and withdrawn. Sport-involved youth, including those in contact sports, were not rated as more aggressive than noninvolved children. And though sport-involved youth reported a slightly broader range of delinquent activities than noninvolved youth, sport-involved boys were actually less likely than noninvolved boys to have experimented with marijuana.
Globetrotters and Local Heroes? Labor Migration, Basketball, and Local Identities
Authors: Falcous Mark , Maguire Joseph
Published: August 2016

This article addresses the global migration of sports labor. The contested presence of North American players in English basketball, first documented by Maguire (1988), is considered in the context of questions regarding the reception of migrants in local cultures. A 2-year ethnographic project incorporating participant observations, interviews, and focus groups investigated fans’ consumption of local basketball. Complex and nuanced interpretations of migrant players were evident. These were informed by local identities and civic pride, cultural stereotypes, and local experiences of spectating. Thus, the presence of migrant athletes is viewed specifically through the local lens—responses were shaped by the varying roles and interpretations of consuming basketball in the lives of local residents. Such observations reinforce the need for empirically grounded case studies to explore local consumption in light of the wider political–economic patterning of global sport.
Intercollegiate Media Guides as Contested Terrain: A Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Kane Mary Jo , Buysse Jo Ann
Published: August 2016

In the aftermath of the passage of Title IX, Michael Messner laid the theoretical groundwork for what was at stake as a result of this landmark legislation. He argued that women’s entrance into sport marked a quest for equality and thus represented a challenge to male domination. He further argued that media representations of athletic females were a powerful vehicle for subverting any counterhegemonic potential posed by sportswomen. Scholars should therefore examine “frameworks of meaning” linked to female athletes because they have become “contested terrain.” Our investigation addressed Messner’s concerns by examining the cultural narratives of intercollegiate media guides. We did so by analyzing longitudinal data from the early 1990s through the 2003–04 season. Findings revealed an unmistakable shift toward representations of women as serious athletes and a sharp decline in gender differences. Results are discussed against a backdrop of sport scholars in particular—and institutions of higher education in general—serving as agents of social change.
“The Way New Zealanders Would like to See Themselves”: Reading White Masculinity Via Media Coverage of the Death of Sir Peter Blake
Authors: Cosgrove Amanda , Bruce Toni
Published: August 2016

In the face of growing scholarly concern about whiteness, and following Denzin’s (1996) argument that “those who control the media control a society’s discourses about itself” (p. 319), it becomes vital to interrogate and map what is at stake in specific representations of whiteness that gain purchase and mobilize the nation in shared ways. In death, America’s Cup sailor and adventurer Sir Peter Blake was held up as a New Zealand hero representative of a “true” national character. We argue that in the context of marked changes in the racial, political, and economic landscape of New Zealand, Blake’s unexpected death represented an important moment in the symbolic (re)production of historically dominant but increasingly contested notions of national character that are synonymous with white masculinity. We conclude that, as long as the centrality of whiteness is under threat, we are likely to see the ongoing rearticulation of nostalgic visions of nationalism.
Cautionary Notes on Whiteness and Sport Studies
Authors: King C. Richard
Published: August 2016

This essay offers a critical reading of whiteness studies and its implications for the study of sporting worlds. It argues that, as promising as the deconstruction of whiteness might be, a series of epistemological and political problems accompany such inquiry. After reviewing the emergence of whiteness studies and the recent integration of this field into sport studies, I enumerate the liabilities and blind spots associated with the way many scholars conceptualize whiteness and its proper study. The essay closes with a set of alternatives designed to enhance understandings of race, culture, and power in sporting worlds.
Classification of Disabled Athletes: (Dis)Empowering the Paralympic Practice Community
Authors: Howe P. David , Jones Carwyn
Published: August 2016

In recent years the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the institution responsible for the administration, organization, and management of the Paralympic Games, has reshaped the landscape of sport for the disabled. This article argues that the IPC has marginalized the practice community, notably the International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled. By wrestling away control of the classification systems developed by these organizations, the IPC has transformed them to such an extent that they fail to provide opportunities for equitable sporting practice and the result has been a threat to the ideology of Paralympism. We illustrate this by examining two classification systems that are currently used within Paralympic Sport: the integrated functional system employed in the sport of swimming and the disability-specific system used within athletics.
Representing the Female Pugilist: Narratives of Race, Gender, and Disability in Million Dollar Baby
Authors: Boyle Ellexis , Millington Brad , Vertinsky Patricia
Published: August 2016

Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby won five Academy Awards but also came under attack from female boxers and disability activists. Ostensibly a drama about a tenacious woman’s quest to become a professional fighter and the male coach who assists her, Million Dollar Baby appears to insert a radical portrayal of femininity, female athleticism, and power into the male-dominated genre of boxing films and, more generally, a media that has been largely hostile to female boxing. We explore the extent to which the female lead can be viewed as a transgressive figure along with the discourses of containment that reduce her threat to longstanding cultural myths about boxing as a male preserve. Our analyses of the film’s racial, gender, class, and disability politics contend that its focus is not women’s boxing, disability, or the right to die; rather, like boxing, this film is about the male struggle to protect masculinity in a sporting world deeply shaken by the increasing presence of women.
Beyond “Decorative Sociology”: Contextualizing Female Surf, Skate, and Snow Boarding
Authors: Thorpe Holly
Published: August 2016

Following criticism leveled at sociologists by Chris Rojek and Bryan Turner in “Decorative Sociology: A Critique of the Cultural Turn,” this article identifies a troubling absence of systematic contextualization in sport sociology. In addressing this issue, I begin by describing the role of history and context in sociology and conclude that the discipline should take history more seriously, not least by giving context greater due. I then engage the debate as to whether radical contextual cultural studies or social history offers the best explanation of context. Here I argue for the latter. In justifying my position, I adapt a model employed by the conservative social historian Arthur Marwick in “The sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c. 1958–c. 1974,” to contextualize a contemporary cultural phenomenon, the female boarder (i.e., the female surfboard rider, skateboarder, and snowboarder). Ultimately, this paper illustrates that the systematic and transhistorical tools developed by social historians have the potential to facilitate a more all-encompassing contextualization of cultural phenomena, to examine multiple historical conjunctures, and to help sociologists take time and change more seriously.
The Institutionalization of an Elite Sport Organization in Norway: The Case of “Olympiatoppen”
Authors: Augestad Pål , Bergsgard Nils Asle , Hansen Atle Ø.
Published: August 2016

In this article, we argue that neoinstitutional theory can increase our understanding of the different ways nations develop structures for top-level sport. Theorists of the neoinstitutional school concentrate on how and to what degree organizations adapt to both formal and informal expectations in their institutional environment. Elite sports organizations participate in different organizational fields, and that pulls the organization in different directions. The empirical case for our discussion is the organization of elite sport in Norway. We will attempt to place elite sport in Norway in an international context by relating its development, structure, and working procedures to the development of corresponding elite sport systems in other Western countries. In addition to striking similarities among various national models for the organization of top-level sport, there are distinguishing national features that result from different cultural and political traditions.
Negotiating Identities through Disability Sport
Authors: Huang Chin-Ju , Brittain Ian
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study was to explore the multiplicity and complexity of identity construction for elite disabled athletes within the arena of disability sport. This involved in-depth semistructured interviews that explored the experiences of 21 British and Taiwanese elite disabled athletes from the sports of powerlifting and track and field. The results indicate that both societal perceptions based in the medical model of disability and the participants’ impaired bodies play a key role in their identity formation and sense of self-worth. The study also highlights the role that success in international disability sport can have by offering potential for positive subjectivity, a changed self-understanding, and an increased sense of personal empowerment. Finally, the notion of multiple identities also appears to be supported by the research participants’ narratives.
Recentering Beijing: Sport, Space, and Subjectivities
Authors: Zhang Tan , Silk Michael L.
Published: August 2016

At present, and as China negotiates the instantiation of consumer capitalism, her urban spaces have experienced agonizing growth affecting housing, the internationalization of cities, interactions between government and developers, the development of rural land, migrant flows, and social stratification within the city. Focusing on Beijing, we locate the efforts to host major sporting events—especially the 1990 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympic Games—within the dynamics of the spatial reconfigurations in Beijing, a rapid reordering based on “capital space” (Harvey, 2001), gentrification, and the lifestyle practices of a burgeoning middle and upper class of Beijingers. In so doing, we offer a multidimensional account of the complex manner in which power, mobility, and transformation within a modernizing Beijing intersects with the discursive constitution of bodies, concluding with regard to new forms of social cleavages and inequalities that derive from embracing, however selectively, the logistics of the market in the framework set by the Chinese nation-state.
Back to Basics: Class, Social Theory, and Sport
Authors: Bairner Alan
Published: August 2016

It is relatively easy to understand why Marxism has been increasingly discredited in recent years both in the sociology of sport and in the social sciences more generally. Guilty by association with the failed attempts to construct communist societies, it has also come under attack from a variety of sources for its economic reductionism and its perceived inability to think beyond class. Even those Marxists such as Gramsci, who are invoked within the sociology of sport by exponents of cultural studies, are lauded not for their Marxism per se but rather for their (mistakenly inferred) willingness to play down the significance of political economy. This essay argues, however, that much has been lost as a result of the retreat from Marxism, and specifically, the abandonment of the belief in the ultimate determinacy of the economic realm and the importance of social class. This is not meant to imply that other sources of identity, together with the various forms of discrimination suffered by a host of different social groups, do not matter or that their materiality cannot be linked effectively to class-based analysis. One might argue, however, that the interests of those groups have been better served in recent years by academic sociologists than have the interests of the poor. With that in mind, the time has come, perhaps, for Marxist sociologists of sport to offer fewer apologies and to replace these with a more robust defense of the subtleties of historical materialism as properly understood. At the very least this means reviving the argument that our identities can best be understood in terms of economics.
Merely Identity: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Sport
Authors: Carrington Ben
Published: August 2016

Some commentators have suggested that the embrace of “identity politics” has gone too far and that we are now in a putative postidentity moment. Within the academy this argument has been articulated from two divergent positions. The first derides identity politics as a move away from materialist concerns. The second, more conservative, position argues that identity politics is at fault for being over-political, for reading politics into every aspect of knowledge production. I argue that identity is in fact a necessary, although not sufficient, precondition for any effective oppositional politics. I further suggest that these arguments are themselves evidence of the articulation of (white, male, and heterosexual) institutional power within the academic field of (sport) sociology. As an alternative, I argue for the renewal of a critical public sport sociology that draws upon and extends the cultural studies tradition of committed and engaged scholarship.
Playing with Fire: Masculinity, Health, and Sports Supplements
Authors: Atkinson Michael
Published: August 2016

Canadian men flock to gyms to enlarge, reshape, and sculpt their bodies. Fitness centers, health-food stores, muscle magazines, and Internet sites profit by aggressively selling “sports supplements” to a wide range of exercising men. Once associated with only the hardcore factions of male bodybuilders (Klein, 1995), designer protein powders, creatine products, energy bars, ephedrine, amino acids, diuretics, and growth hormones such as androstenedione are generically marketed to men as health and lifestyle-improving aids. This paper explores how a select group of Canadian men connect the consumption of sports supplements to the pursuit of “established” masculinity. I collected ethnographic data from 57 recreational athletes in Canada and interpreted the data through the lens of figurational sociology. Analytic attention is thus given to how contemporary discourses and practices of supplementation are underscored by middle-class understandings of masculine bodies in a time of perceived “gender crisis” in Canada.
The Paradoxes of Football Spectatorship: On-Field and Online Expressions of Social Capital among the “Grog Squad”
Authors: Palmer Catherine , Thompson Kirrilly
Published: August 2016

In this article we examine the cultural practices of a group of South Australian football supporters known as the “Grog Squad.” While hard drinking is undeniably a central part of this group of exclusively male fans, being a “Groggie” is much more than just being in a boozy boys club. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken throughout the 2005 South Australian football season, as well as Internet research, we argue that the style of support engaged in by the Grog Squad represents a paradox for how we typically understand football fans. On the one hand, much of the language and behavior of the Grog Squad is characteristic of the aggressive masculinity common in male contact sports. On the other, being a Groggie provides access to a range of resources, benefits, networks, and supports that confound many of the popular assumptions about male social relationships in sport. To explain the arrant sexism and homophobia of the Grog Squad simply in terms of hegemonic masculinity is to obscure the very real social supports and connections (best described as social capital) that are often overlooked in studies of male sports fans.
Dunky the Frog and the Politics of Irony
Authors: Brayton Sean , Alexander Ted
Published: August 2016

Although scholars have used poststructural and postmodern frameworks to understand the power relations of sport, critical research has rarely considered a politics of irony in the sporting realm. Using the controversial frog logo of Québec City’s professional basketball team, we explore irony as a reading strategy and method of critique that is already ambivalent. As a self-directed stereotype, Dunky the Frog is unique in its emergence through irony. It appears to be an offensive anti-French mascot intended by the team’s French Canadian owner to be an innocuous comic prop. This ironic use of frog imagery places the competing desires of liberalist sublimation and French Canadian self-representation into an irresolvable contradiction, one that encourages an alternative reading of mascot controversies and identity politics.
New Media, Social Movements, and Global Sport Studies: A Revolutionary Moment and the Sociology of Sport
Authors: Wilson Brian
Published: August 2016

By considering three main questions, this article develops an argument for rethinking existing approaches to understanding both sport-related social movements and “local” responses to globalizing forces in light of the emergence of Internet communication. They are: (a) How can extant conceptions of sport-related social movements be expanded to account for more advanced forms of cultural and political opposition that result from and are potentially enhanced by the Internet? (b) How does the link between the development of the Internet and the enhanced formation and functioning of (new) social movements offer a foundation from which to expand understandings of relationships between global sport-related influences and the responses of local cultures? (c) What methodological approaches are best suited for studying Internet-related forms of sport-related activist resistance? The article concludes that recent developments in communication technology have contributed to a situation in which there is immense revolutionary potential in sport-related contexts, and for sociologists (of sport) interested in contributing to activist projects.
Running Big: Clydesdale Runners and Technologies of the Body
Authors: Chase Laura Frances
Published: August 2016

This article explores the cultural construction of Clydesdale runners and large or fat running bodies. I draw from Michel Foucault’s theoretical work and in-depth, semistructured interviews, primary source materials, and my experiences as a Clydesdale runner to examine the ways in which certain runners and their bodies are constructed as fat, unacceptable, and undisciplined. I begin with an overview of the development of distance running and associated weight divisions in the U.S. This is followed by an exploration of the ways in which large or fat runners and their bodies are constructed. I conclude with a discussion of the ways in which the “large” or “fat” running body is both a site of control and a site of resistance.
Athletic Fatness: Forgiving Corpulence in Elite Bodies
Authors: Jamieson Katherine M , Stringer Amy , Andrews Melissa Blair
Published: August 2016

In crafting this analysis of professional golfers John Daly and Laura Davies, we were struck by the contradictions to corporeal rationality that elite, corpulent athletes might enact through their mere presence, as well as through their public ability to compete with idealized athletic bodies. That sport and dominant beliefs about sport contribute to disciplining bodies is not a point of contention for us. It is, however, unclear where the disciplining lines are drawn, and what happens when bodies that resist corporeal rationality refuse to disappear. What are the consequences of/for publicly successful, undisciplined bodies operating instead in a corporeal irrationality? Of course this entire line of questioning suggests fissures in the disciplining systems of corporeal rationality outlined by several scholars (Kirk, 2004; Shilling, 2005). It is to when and where such disciplining systems come unhinged that we aim this analysis of John Daly and Laura Davies.
Olympism and Consumption: An Analysis of Advertising in the British Media Coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games
Authors: Maguire Joseph , Butler Katie , Barnard Sarah , Golding Peter
Published: August 2016

Drawing on work located within critical political economy and process sociology, this article uses content analysis to examine the types, frequency, and content of Olympic related advertising in the British press and television during the 2004 Athens Olympics. We assessed the degree to which The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsors incorporated themes derived from Olympism and the Celebrate Humanity program, as well as from consumer culture more broadly. Our findings suggest that relatively few advertisers incorporated themes relating to Olympism, and that those that did focused on “excellence,” which is arguably more indicative of the achievement sports ethic and consumerism than of Olympic ideals.
The Mäori All Blacks and the Decentering of the White Subject: Hyperrace, Sport, and the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Authors: Hokowhitu Brendan , Scherer Jay
Published: August 2016

In this article we examine a range of media discourses surrounding the continued existence of the Mäori All Blacks, a “racially” selected rugby side, and a specific public controversy that erupted in New Zealand over the selection of former All Black great Christian Cullen for the Mäori All Blacks in 2003. Having never played for the Mäori All Blacks or publicly identified as Mäori, Cullen claimed tangata whenua status via whakapapa (genealogical connection) to his Ngäi Tahu grandfather. We argue that Cullen’s selection emerged as a contentious issue because of the fragmentation that the inclusion of his “Whiteness” within the confines of “an Other” team (i.e., the Mäori All Blacks) brought to bear on traditional colonial binaries of race in the context of late capitalism. Finally, we locate the debates over Cullen’s selection and the continued existence of the Mäori All Blacks in relation to the current racialized political climate that has fueled a Right-wing reaction to the growing Mäori self-determination movement.
Triumph of Backlash: Wrestling Community and the “Problem” of Title IX
Authors: Walton Theresa A. , Helstein Michelle T.
Published: August 2016

Attempts to unify and mobilize the U.S. collegiate wrestling community to “save” it from decline frames Title IX as the main “problem” to overcome. The logic of a community of identification at work in this strategy limits the interventions that can be made for wrestling while enabling corporate men’s sport to remain the hegemonic form of U.S. collegiate athletics. We explicate and critique the varied articulations of wrestling as a community of identification following Helstein’s (2005) call to deconstruct assumptions of unified sporting communities and to consider communities of articulation. We illustrate how communities of identification necessarily fail and how moving toward communities of articulation offers an intervention that enables a reframing of the relationship between Title IX and collegiate wrestling that could motivate meaningful change.
Thinking Outside of the Box: Exploring a Conceptual Synthesis for Research in the Area of Athletic Labor Migration
Authors: Elliott Richard , Maguire Joseph
Published: August 2016

The global migrations of athletic workers have increased dramatically in magnitude, composition, and direction in recent years. Studies examining these migrations have, however, remained limited to specific areas and have restricted their vision to those workers employed in the athletic sector. Few studies have drawn on concepts derived from research tracing the migrations of workers in other areas: the highly skilled for example. This paper shows how an understanding of athletic labor migration could be extended by drawing on research from the area of highly skilled labor migration. The paper also proposes a potential framework for future research in this area.