bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How to Develop and Administer a College Recreational Sports Graduate Administrative Assistant Research Program
Authors: Haines Danell J. , Kaiser Ken , Farrell Annemarie
Published: August 2016

Strategies to teach young college recreational sports (CRS) professionals how to conduct research and to increase conducted and reported research within the CRS field need to be developed and shared within the profession. The product of these strategies will help to ensure data-driven decision making in CRS. The purpose of this article is to share the strategy used to develop and administer a Graduate Administrative Assistant (GAA) research program. It is hoped that the program will be replicated in other CRS departments because of the research experience that GAAs receive and the increased research in CRS. There are certain elements that make a CRS GAA research program work. First, the GAA needs to be aware of the research requirement before signing the GAA contract. Ongoing communication between the GAA and research mentor is necessary for the continual progress of the project. Before starting the research project, the GAA is required to write a research proposal. The proposal provides a step-by-step plan on how to administer the research project and includes the following sections: introduction, methodology, analysis of data, significance of study, budget, and timeline. Achievable research goals or purposes are established up front and from the research proposal. In addition, project tasks are placed on a timeline. Finally, flexibility is required on the mentor's part to adjust expectations, allow more time for teaching research skills, or assist with parts of the project that do not provide significant GAA learning. The capstone of the GAA research experience is the research symposium. The GAAs present their research to a captive audience of CRS professionals and invited guests. The CRS GAA research program provides the GAA with practical research experience and scholarly achievement while providing the CRS profession with new knowledge.
The Campus Recreation Assessment Model
Authors: Haines Danell J.
Published: August 2016

Campus recreation assessment is an essential component for providing the finest programs, services, facilities, and equipment to the campus community. The assessment process becomes manageable and less intimidating once simplified. The author recommends the use of an assessment model that includes the department mission, vision, and values, along with program, facility, management, and operations goals and objectives. Included in the assessment process is feedback from a diverse group of people such as participants, nonparticipants, programmers, administration, and external evaluators. An essential component of the process is the collection of learning outcomes data from participants, which provides evidence of the unique learning that takes place within campus recreation programs. The results from the assessment process should assist the strategic plan review and drive decision making. Finally, results need to be shared for “impact” purposes to promote campus recreation, expand programs, advocate for facility growth, and motivate participants.
Measuring Outcomes from Recsports Experiences (MORE) Instrument Validation: A Valuable Tool to Assess College Student Learning
Authors: Fortman Tyler L. , Haines Danell J.
Published: August 2016

A parallel model ( n = 634) was used to validate the Measuring Outcomes from Recsports Experiences (MORE) proxy pretest-posttest form. Results compared the instrument to the MORE true pretest-posttest form on performing characteristics and statistical properties. The MORE proxy pretest-posttest form demonstrated strong reliability, Cronbach's α = .94, with subscale reliability coefficients ranging from .66 to .86. The parallel model indicated only minor effects of form and statistical properties ( rs = .56, p < .01). The MORE proxy pretest-posttest form is a valid, reliable tool to evaluate the learning outcomes from college recreational sports.
“I'd be Dead If I Didn't Have this Class:” the Role of Leisure Education in College Student Development
Authors: Clark Brianna S. , Anderson Denise M.
Published: August 2016

Participation in recreation during college has been shown to positively impact student development; however, little to no research exists examining leisure activities within a for-credit classroom. The purpose of the study was to examine the role for-credit leisure education classes (leisure skill classes) have on student development at the university level. Focus groups were conducted with students currently enrolled in seven leisure skill classes. Two major themes emerged, motivation/benefits of leisure skill class enrollment and contributions to student development. Students were motivated to participate in the classes due to numerous benefits the class offered (i.e., able to try something new, reduced cost, health benefits, socialization, needing credit). In addition, the classes contributed to development by giving them the opportunity to become well-rounded students and future professionals. Practitioners should consider the multitude of benefits for-credit leisure skill classes can offer in a college setting.
Specialized Accreditation of Sport Management Programs: Perspectives of Faculty and Administrators
Authors: Williams Jo , Colles Colleen
Published: August 2016

Changes in higher education, demands for accountability, and concerns over academic quality have brought increased attention to accreditation (Eaton, 2006). The growth of specialized accreditation has created numerous opportunities but also brings challenges (Tullis & Carney, 2007). The sport management discipline has recently launched an outcome-based and mission-driven accreditation organization: the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions sport management faculty and administrators have towards the potential benefits and challenges of accreditation. Surveys (N=322) were distributed and 119 useable responses were obtained. In general, respondents indicated support for COSMA but many also expressed concerns. Institutions that had joined COSMA had different perspectives than those who had not, particularly in relation to the value of external benefits such as competitive advantages and increased marketing potential. Concerns over costs, involvement of business professionals and the credibility of the organization were also considered.
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes: The Role of the Internship Portfolio in Sport Management Assessment
Authors: Williams Jo , Colles Colleen
Published: August 2016

Increased accountability has led institutions of higher education to search for assessment tools that provide documentation on the achievement of specific learning outcomes. Portfolio assessment has become commonplace among many disciplines but limited work has been presented within sport management. The purpose of this research is to present an adaptable portfolio assessment framework that will allow faculty to assess student learning outcomes using the internship portfolio. Student achievement is assessed in relation to the development of broad-based skills and the application of curriculum content standards. Over 500 entries from 35 portfolios were analyzed via scoring rubrics. Data collected indicated that with appropriate support, the portfolio framework could be used to assess individual student achievement within the desired areas. A positive relationship between portfolio scores and major GPA was found; however, no significant differences in portfolio scores were identified based on job descriptions.
The Written Word: Player-Press Relationships in American Sports
Authors: Telander Rick
Published: August 2016

This paper provides an overview of the role relationship between professional athletes and sports journalists. After a brief historical review it discusses (a) the current conflicts between players and sports writers in light of changing role definitions for both athletes and journalists, (b) ethical guidelines for writers covering athletes as personalities, and (c) how the emergence of superstar athletes has intensified the potential for conflict in player-press relations. The major conclusion is that conflict in player-press relations is likely to continue. Its intensity will vary with the players’ understandings of the role of the press in professional sport, the knowledge and empathy of the sports writers themselves, and the sophistication of the consumers of sport publications.
Sportpolitics: Los Angeles, 1984 — “The Olympic Tradition Continues”
Authors: Edwards Harry
Published: August 2016

In 1968 I organized the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Its purpose was to carry out a black athletes’ boycott of the Mexico City Olympic Games in protest against racism in American sports in particular and American society in general. Those of us associated with OPHR were viciously attacked in the U.S. media for introducing politics into the Olympics. My response to these attacks was simple: “The Olympics are and have always been political!” My position on this issue has not changed, but now I am far from alone in my view.
Accepting the Risks of Pain and Injury in Sport: Mediated Cultural Influences on Playing Hurt
Authors: Nixon Howard L.
Published: August 2016

This paper considers the nature and implications of cultural messages about risk, pain, injury, and comebacks in sport that are mediated by a popular American sports magazine. The analysis is based on evidence from a content analysis of Sports Illustrated articles, the results of which suggest that athletes are exposed to a set of mediated beliefs about structural constraints, structural inducements, general cultural values, and processes of institutional rationalization and athletic socialization that collectively convey the message that they ought to accept the risks, pain, and injuries of sport.
The Unequal Opportunity for Equal Ability Hypothesis: Racism in the National Football League?
Authors: Kooistra Paul , Mahoney John S. , Bridges Lisha
Published: August 2016

This paper examines race equality within the labor market of professional football, specifically addressing the issue of whether NFL team management discriminates against marginal nonwhite players. To examine this, we compared the racial proportions of “protected” players to proportions of players designated as “Plan B” free agents. We considered Plan B players as “marginals” from management’s viewpoint. Our hypothesis that these athletes would be disproportionately white was confirmed. Reasons for the statistically significant differences in the racial proportions are discussed.
“Battling” Gendered Language: An Analysis of the Language Used by Sports Commentators in a Televised Coed Tennis Competition
Authors: Halbert Christy , Latimer Melissa
Published: August 2016

In this study, we examine how sports commentators minimized women’s athletic participation, abilities, and achievements in the 1992 televised “Battle of the Champions” tennis competition between Martina Navratilova and Jimmy Connors. Using content analysis, we found clear differences in naming practices, adjective and adverb use, amount and type of praise and criticism, and character flaws attributed to the players. In the unique case of male versus female athletic competition it also becomes apparent that commentators “gender” the athletic event. Although women have made great strides in sport, their achievements will continue to be meaningless as long as sports broadcasters undermine, trivialize, and minimize women’s performances through biased commentaries.
Participant Observation and Research into Football Hooliganism: Reflections on the Problems of Entrée and Everyday Risks
Authors: Giulianotti Richard
Published: August 2016

This paper discusses the author’s fieldwork experiences while initiating and undertaking substantive participant observation research with two rival groups of Scottish football hooligans (“football casuals”). Key problems examined are those that emerge from attempted entrée into the hooligan subcultures and the everyday risks of comparative research with violent fans. The author provides regular illustrations to highlight how dangers such as the researcher’s personal characteristics, lack of guiding sociological literature, and interaction with police officers can threaten the urban ethnographic project. The resultant ambivalence of some research subjects toward the author is interpreted as one reason for minimizing the prospect of his “going native.”
The Sport Supply in France: From Centralization to Segmentation
Authors: Chifflet Pierre
Published: August 2016

In the last decade in France, the sport supply has changed due to a diversified demand. To understand this supply system, strategic analysis is used. Such an analysis allows characterization of the French sport system and identification of the transformations caused by social, cultural, economic, and political changes. This article provides evidence about the construction of a “mixed” national system linking sport federations to the state and, up to the 1980s, favoring high-performance sport. Evidence is also provided that since the 1980s, a system that takes into account economic profitability as well as individual needs has responded to diversified objectives. Local political administrations have thus played a preponderant role in sport policy, but the commercialization of sport has also competed with public politics.
Firm but Shapely, Fit but Sexy, Strong but Thin: The Postmodern Aerobicizing Female Bodies
Authors: Markula Pirkko
Published: August 2016

This paper aims to reconstruct the cultural dialogue surrounding the female body image in aerobics. To do this I have used several methods: ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and media analysis. I found that the media ideal is a contradiction: firm but shapely, fit but sexy, strong but thin. Likewise, women’s relationships with the media image are contradictory: They struggle to obtain the ideal body, but they also find their battles ridiculous. I interpret my findings from a Foucaultian perspective to show how the discourse surrounding the female body image is part of a complex use of power over women in postmodern consumer society. In addition, I assume a feminist perspective that assigns an active role to the individual aerobicizers to question the power arrangement.
The Role Exit of Professional Athletes
Authors: Drahota Jo Anne Tremaine , Eitzen D. Stanley
Published: August 2016

Previous research on the role transition of ex-athletes to a new career is somewhat limited because the studies have applied theories that do not fit the unique characteristics of athletes. This research uses another approach, Ebaugh’s role exit theory to understand the role exit process of professional athletes. Ebaugh claims that her theory, is applicable to all role exits. We found that Ebaugh’s theory applies to athletes, but with modification. Data were collected from interviews with 27 former professional athletes. The experiences of these athletes generally fit within Ebaugh’s 4 stages. However, the athletes paths are not entirely accounted for by the model. Thus, the model is modified to include: (a) a new stage of “original doubts” that precedes becoming a professional athlete; (b) the difference by the era in which the athlete played; (c) the significance of the type of involuntary exit; and (d) the “withdrawal” behaviors associated with leaving sport.
An Act of Honor or Exploitation? The Cleveland Indians’ Use of the Louis Francis Sockalexis Story
Authors: Staurowsky Ellen J.
Published: August 2016

Using a critical theory approach, this paper examines how perceptions of historical accuracy impact on the legitimation of the Cleveland Indians’ claim that the Native imagery used in the promotion of the franchise was chosen to honor the first Native American to play in the major leagues, Louis Francis Sockalexis. An analysis was conducted of data gathered from Cleveland’s own account of the naming of the franchise along with past and present renderings and antecedents of the story as they appear in a variety of publications and media sources over a 100-year time period beginning in 1897 and ending in 1997. In light of the findings, Cleveland’s professed organizational intent to honor Sockalexis was tested and found to be based on faulty information. The implications of this discovery are addressed.
Football Hooliganism and the Practical Paradigm
Authors: King Anthony
Published: August 2016

There has been a convergence in the study of football hooliganism in the 1990s between the approaches of Clifford Stott and Steve Reicher, and Anthony King, whose work emphasizes the interactional rather than predispositional element to football violence. Instead of looking only to the dispositional factors within the members of the crowd, which past research has emphasized, both Stott and Reicher and King highlight the way in which violent outcomes are the results of mutual interactions between the crowd and other agencies, such as police. Consequently, crowd violence cannot be read off as the automatic result of premeditated intention but should be seen as a complex and potentially contingent occurrence, where prior dispositions inform interactions but do not determine them.
Exploring Effects of School Sport Experiences on Sport Participation in Later Life
Authors: Curtis James , McTeer William , White Philip
Published: August 2016

This paper presents findings on the relationship between high school sport participation and involvement in sport as adults. The data are provided by a survey of a large representative national sample of adult Canadians. For different age subgroups among women and men, we tested the school sport experiences hypothesis that sport involvement during the high school years contributes to later adult involvement in sport. The measurement of sport involvement in the high school years is concerned with intramural and inter-school activities. Adult sport activity has three measures: sport involvement per se, involvement in an organized setting, and competitive involvement. The results are consistent with the school experiences hypothesis. High school sport involvement, for inter-school sport activities, is a comparatively strong predictor of adult sport involvement. The effects of high school involvement persist after controlling for correlated social background factors. Moreover, the effects of school sport experiences hold across age and gender subgroups. Although diminished with temporal distance from the high school years, the effects of high school involvement nonetheless extend even to respondents aged 40-59 (i.e., those approximately 22 to 42 years beyond their school years) among both genders. Interpretations of the results are discussed.
A Qualitative Assessment of the Significance of Body Perception to Women’s Physical Activity Experiences: Revisiting Discussions of Physicalities
Authors: McDermott Lisa
Published: August 2016

This paper builds upon an earlier exploratory discussion about the term physicality that called for conceptual clarity regarding our theoretical understanding and use of it within the context of women’s lives. In light of fieldwork conducted, physicality is suggested to be the complex interplay of body perception, agency, and self-perception. This article focuses on examining one feature of this construct by assessing the relevance of body perception to two groups of women’s experiences of their physicalities through two differently gendered activities: aerobics and wilderness canoe-tripping. Pivotal to this has been qualitatively understanding the lived-body as experienced and understood by the women. In-depth interviews and participant observation were used to explore the meaning and significance these women derived from experiencing their bodies/themselves through these activities. Of specific interest was understanding the effects of these experiences in terms of shaping their understandings of their physicalities particularly beyond that of appearance. Central to this has been apprehending the physically and socially empowering effects of these experiences, especially at the level of their identity. Through the data analysis, body perception was found to be relevant to the women’s physical activity involvement in two distinct ways: as a factor initiating activity involvement and as a perception emerging through the experience. In turn, these differing perceptions of the body were found to impact diversely upon their physicalities, either broadening them or contributing to alternative ways of understanding them.
Reconceptualizing Inclusion: The Politics of University Sports and Recreation Programs for Students with Mobility Impairments
Authors: Promis David , Erevelles Nirmala , Matthews Jerry
Published: August 2016

In this essay, we explore and expand the meaning of “inclusion,” as it relates specifically to the sports and recreation programs that are made available to students with mobility impairments enrolled at colleges and universities. In the first part of the essay we examine how the two disciplinary areas of disability sport and disability studies address the politics of inclusion. In the second section of the paper, we will use one public university. South State (a pseudonym), as an example to demonstrate how certain social institutions interpret the concept of inclusion. Finally, we expand this discussion to offer an alternative theorization of the concept of inclusion that will impact not only students with disabilities but also students marked by race, class, gender, and sexuality who are also excluded despite the university’s espousal of the popular rhetoric of “inclusion.”
Meanings Given to Performance in Dutch Sport Organizations: Gender and Racial/Ethnic Subtexts
Authors: Knoppers Annelies , Anthonissen Anton
Published: August 2016

This article focuses on the dominant meanings given by coaches and managers to “performance” in Dutch (amateur) sport clubs and how such meanings contribute to organizational processes related to (the intersection of) gender and race/ethnicity. We use the results of six studies conducted in (amateur) sport organizations in the Netherlands for this discussion/exploration. We argue that the relatively slow increase in the number of women and ethnic minorities in leadership positions can in part be explained by the dominant meanings given to “performance.” We also show how the salience of the intersection between gender and race/ethnicity is situation-specific.
Commercialization in Professional Cycling
Authors: Brewer Benjamin D.
Published: August 2016

The rediscovery in the past three years of the widespread and highly organized use of performance-enhancing drugs—known as “doping”—in professional cycling has thrown the sport into a period of turmoil. Through a critical historical analysis, the article argues that profound institutional changes introduced into professional cycling by the sport’s governing body both facilitated and reflected the increasing commercial penetration of the sport. These institutional transformations put new pressures on team managers and racers, leading to significant changes in team organizations and rider preparation, in part fostering a new social organization of doping practices.
‘Radical’ Social Theory of Sport: A Critique and a Conceptual Emendation
Authors: Morgan William J.
Published: August 2016

The social theory of sport literature has taken a new and welcome critical turn in the last few years. That turn is revealed in the emergence of a Marxist-based corpus of literature which challenges headlong the fundamental tenets of mainstream (functionalist) sport sociology. The purpose of the present paper is to critically respond to this new critical theory of sport; in particular to its two major versions—what I call, respectively, vulgar Marxist, and hegemonic sport theory. I argue that both versions of this theory are conceptually flawed, and that these conceptual flaws are themselves ideologically grounded. The point of my criticisms, however, is not to undermine or otherwise deflect the critical thrust of this theory, but to suggest that that thrust requires a new conceptual scaffolding which is more sensitive to the ideological temperament of advanced capitalist society.
Knowledge for Work in the Physical Education Profession
Authors: Lawson Hal A.
Published: August 2016

Specialized, theoretical knowledge is important to professions such as physical education as they attempt to gain and later maintain their status and control over the labor market. This knowledge must be monopolized and used in work by the profession’s members if they are to be granted this status and control by society’s members. Upon examination physical educationists do not enjoy a knowledge monopoly, nor do they appear to use their specialized, theoretical knowledge in work. Chief among the explanations offered are the limitations in the positivist conception of knowledge for the professions and the different frames of reference for researchers and practitioners. Analyses of the monopoly and use of knowledge in professions such as physical education yield insights about the ways in which knowledge is articulated and contested, the internal and external relationships of the profession, and the relationship among the structure of knowledge, the professions, and social theory.
Attitudes Toward Doping and Recreational Drug Use among French Elite Student-Athletes
Authors: Peretti-Watel Patrick , Guagliardo Valérie , Verger Pierre , Mignon Patrick , Pruvost Jacques , Obadia Yolande
Published: August 2016

This study examined attitudes toward doping among 458 French elite student-athletes (ESAs) ages 16–24, their correlates, and their relationship with cigarette, alcohol, and cannabis use. We found a consensus among ESAs concerning negative aspects of doping. A cluster analysis showed, however, that statements dealing with benefits of doping were endorsed by two significant minorities of respondents. These ESAs were more frequently older males with a lower parental academic achievement and no sporting history in their family. Recreational drug use depended on whether or not ESAs endorsed statements related to nonsporting benefits of doping. Using an analytical framework from the sociology of deviance, our findings suggest that athletes who dope themselves pursue legitimate goals with illegitimate means but justify their behavior with a legitimate rationale. Further research is needed on the nonrecreational use of recreational drugs.
Managing Black Guys: Representation, Corporate Culture, and the NBA
Authors: Hughes Glyn
Published: August 2016

This article explores the intersection of representation, management, and race in the National Basketball Association (NBA) through a larger question on the relationship between corporate strategies for managing racialized subjects and popular representations of race. The NBA “brand”is situated in terms of recent developments in corporate and popular culture and then analyzed as an example of diversity management. Relying on original interviews with NBA corporate employees, as well as business and marketing industry reporting, the article analyzes the NBA as simultaneously an organization and a brand. As such, the NBA helps to “articulate” the corporate with the popular, largely through an implied racial project that manages race relations by continuing to equate corporate interests with Whiteness. The analysis contributes to ongoing discussions about the role of sports in perpetuating social disparities based on race at a time when “colorblindness” remains the paradigm of White approaches to race.
Discipline and Push-Up: Female Bodies, Femininity, and Sexuality in Popular Representations of Sports Bras
Authors: Schultz Jaime
Published: August 2016

The invention of the commercial sports bra in 1977 was a significant advancement for physically active women. Despite its humble origins as an enabling technology, the sports bra has since been invested with new and varied cultural meanings and currencies. In this article I critically read popular representations of sports bras, specifically advertisements and “iconic sports-bra moments” that circulate around Brandi Chastain’s celebration of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s victory in the 1999 World Cup. I argue that such representations sexualize sports bras and the women who wear them. In addition, these representations homogenize and normalize ideals of femininity, which are considered achievable through technologies of disciplined body management, and reproduce the traditional gender order.
Narratives of Race Relations in Southern Alberta: An Examination of Conflicting Sporting Practices
Authors: Robidoux Michael A.
Published: August 2016

In March 2001 a minor hockey league in southern Alberta (Foothills Hockey) voted in favor of banning a local First Nations Hockey Association (Kainai Minor Hockey) from league play as a result of various violations committed by officials, players, and parents over the course of the season. Since that time hockey and recreation officials from Kainai have been attempting to get Kanai Minor Hockey reinstated into the league but have, up until this point, been unsuccessful. This article explores the exclusionary practices that led to the removal of Kainai from organized youth hockey and examines the racialized discourse that permeates First Nations–Euro-Canadian relations in southern Alberta. The article attempts to communicate these meanings in the same way the author encountered them, as unfiltered personal reactions reflecting how First Nations and their neighbors perceive and talk about each other.
Researching Rugby in New Zealand: Reflections on Writing the Self and the Research Problem
Authors: Obel Camilla
Published: August 2016

This article offers a methodological account of my study of rugby union in New Zealand and an autobiographical description of the production of my researcher self. I argue that reflexivity in writing research requires both a scrutinizing of the act of producing the research problem and a “confessional” that reveals how the researcher enters the field, her biases, and her self as a product of knowledge and social life produced by others. In this article, the latter includes my position as a foreign woman researching the male sport of rugby and my reflections on the impact of gender on the research process despite my initial reluctance to include a gender perspective in the study. The former focuses on how I produced an historical and sociological account that questioned the local taken-for-granted explanations for the success of the national New Zealand All Black team and the position of rugby as the national game.
Rethinking Community: Introducing the “Whatever” Female Athlete
Authors: Helstein Michelle T.
Published: August 2016

Community is a powerful construct in the discourses of both feminism and sport, and so it is not surprising that it is a preeminent virtue in attempts to speak about, to, or for female athletes. In its popular conceptions, community is desired and celebrated as individuals coming together based on a solidarity, harmony, or agreement around an essence. In sport scholarship, the specific meanings, implications, contradictions, and effects that govern this particular understanding of community have remained unexplored. Thus, the aim of this article is to use the work of poststructural theorist Jacques Derrida to deconstruct this notion of community in an attempt to open up the concept of community to new theorizations and political uses. It will involve the introduction of Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the Whatever singularity, or in this case the Whatever athlete and its place in new possibilities for community in feminist sport contexts.
Cultural Landscapes of Purification: Sports Spaces and Discourses of Whiteness
Authors: Fusco Caroline
Published: August 2016

In this article, I ask the following question: what importance does “whiteness” play in shaping the built environments of sport? I examine (a) the significance of studying space; (b) how race and space intersect; (c) how whiteness is a historical legacy of architectural modernism, the style of design that characterizes many North American and Canadian sport spaces; and (d) the relationship between desires for rational, respectable, organized space and subjects and the production of white(ned) normativity. Using a spatial ethnographic approach, I show how discourses of whiteness and neoliberal discourses of respectability, degeneration, progress, reproduction, renewal, and reinvigoration are brought to bear on the subjects who administer, use, and maintain everyday sport and recreation spaces such as locker rooms. I argue that these discourses historically proceed through the racialized logics of modernity and serve to evoke or enforce hidden signs of racial (spatial) superiority and cultural hegemony.
The First Metrosexual Rugby Star: Rugby Union, Masculinity, and Celebrity in Contemporary Wales
Authors: Harris John , Clayton Ben
Published: August 2016

This paper examines media representations of Welsh rugby player Gavin Henson, arguing that through analysis of media discourses we can trace shifting shapes of masculinities in the (post)modern era of sport. Contradiction and inconsistencies are prevalent in the narratives that accompany the equally conflicting images of Henson, who both conforms to and challenges traditional rugby playing masculinities. The paper examines articles from Welsh and British newspapers from a critical (pro)feminist perspective, arguing that Henson transcends boundaries in a way that no rugby player has ever done before and analyzes his place as the first metrosexual rugby star. The study also examines the somewhat problematic concept of metrosexuality within critical (pro)feminist theories of sport and attempts to conceptualize the position and significance of the term. This work brings images of the continual, dialectic process of the (re)defining of gender identities to the study of masculinities, and sport masculinities in particular.
Old Times There Are Not Forgotten: Sport, Identity, and the Confederate Flag in the Dixie South
Authors: Newman Joshua I.
Published: August 2016

The study examines the significance of the Confederate flag in the local sport cultures of the American South. Building on a growing body of research related to sport, Whiteness, and the formation of local identity, this article questions how and why the Confederate signifier remains a contested, yet meaningful, symbol in the spaces and spectacles of the South’s most Confederate-emblazoned sporting institution: the University of Mississippi’s football team (the Ole Miss Rebels). Informed by (1) a critical historiography and (2) an exhaustive ethnography conducted from 2004 to 2006, this article mediates on the intersection of an exclusionary history and contemporary signifying acts of Dixie South Whiteness articulated through the sporting local. It concludes with a brief discussion on the international expansion of the flag’s sporting import.
Masculine Hegemonic Hoops: An Analysis of Media Coverage of March Madness
Authors: Kian Edward M. , Vincent John , Mondello Michael
Published: August 2016

This study examined print-media portrayals of women’s and men’s basketball teams, players, and coaches during the 2006 NCAA Division I tournaments. Drawing principally from Gramsci’s hegemony theory and Connell’s theory of gender power relations, we analyzed article narratives published over a 26-day period during spring 2006 in four major media outlets: newspapers, The New York Times and USA Today, and online sport publications, ESPN Internet and CBS SportsLine. A total of 508 articles were coded and analyzed for dominant themes. Six primary themes emerged from the data. Although the data revealed shifts in media representations of gender relations, overall these themes mostly supported Connell’s theory about the gender order.
The Logical Paradox of the Cultural Commodity: Selling an “Authentic” Afro-Brazilian Martial Art in Canada
Authors: Joseph Janelle
Published: August 2016

The examination of an Afro-Brazilian martial art, capoeira, offers a sport-tourism nexus in which to study authenticity discourses. This article, based on an ethnography of a capoeira group in Canada, exposes teachers’ representations of “authentic capoeira” as logical paradoxes. Teachers market what they know is neither original nor pure as “authentic” to take advantage of the expectations, desires, and economic resources of their Canadian students. In turn, students negotiate and accept sometimes-contra-dictory descriptions of real capoeira, fueled by their desire for fun, fitness, and proximity to a culture that is of another time and place. I suggest that authenticity discourses are critical to notions of multiculturalism in Canada, and are necessary components of the commoditization of culture.
New Media and the Repackaging of NFL Fandom
Authors: Oates Thomas Patrick
Published: August 2016

This essay identifies an emerging form of pleasure offered to fans of elite football. I name this mode of engagement “vicarious management” and focus on its emergence in National Football League (NFL) related products of fantasy football, media coverage of the NFL draft, and the video game Madden NFL. Through an analysis of sports marketing literature and promotional materials provided for consumers by ESPN and EA Sports, the article posits that the emergence of vicarious management is overdetermined by emerging financial opportunities in media culture and ideological instabilities within race and masculinity. I identify how vicarious management offers new opportunities for integrating and expanding corporate reach while constructing masculine athletic subjectivity in ways that addresses deeply felt anxieties in White masculinity.
Micropolitical Workings in Semi-Professional Football
Authors: Potrac Paul , Jones Robyn. L
Published: August 2016

This paper seeks to illuminate the micropolitical strategies that Gavin (a pseudonym) used in an attempt to persuade the players, the assistant coach, and the chairman at Erewhon City Football (soccer) Club to “buy into” his coaching program and methods. Data for the study were collected through in-depth, semistructured interviews, and a reflective log relating to those interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim with the subsequent transcripts being subject to a process of inductive analysis. Ball’s (1987) micropolitical perspective, Kelchtermans’ and Ballet’s (2002a, 2002b) work on micropolitical literacy, and Goffman’s (1959) writings on the presentation of the self, are used to make theoretical sense of the specific strategies used by Gavin in an attempt to persuade the players to see the merits of his coaching.
Uncivil Attention and the Public Runner
Authors: Gimlin Debra
Published: August 2016

While violence among the fans of competitive sports has received much scholarly attention (e.g., Elias & Dunning, 1986; Giulianotti, 2005), far less has been written about aggression targeted at community athletes like public runners. Yet accounts of such harassment figure prominently in runners’ own narratives. This article explores the phenomenon of runner harassment through these accounts and my own experiences as a long-time public runner, drawing first from the literature on fan aggression and second, from sociological work concerning behavior in public places more generally (e.g., Gardner, 1980, 1995; Goffman, 1963). It argues that jogger harassment can be understood in relation to the particular bodily form that running takes—that is, to the sweating, disheveled, panting body of public running—which both violates rules of public vs. private bodily display and signals an unacceptable degree of “involvement” (Goffman, 1963) in the activity and, ultimately, the self.
Theorizing Paula Radcliffe: Representing a Nation
Authors: Walton Theresa
Published: August 2016

In setting the world record at the London Marathon in 2003, Paula Radcliffe not only beat her female competitors but also her countrymen becoming the fastest British runner of the year, male or female, making her the nation’s best hope for the Olympic Games in 2004. From this position, she garnered a significant amount of media attention, becoming Britain’s most famous runner. Yet as a representative of her nation, both symbolically and on the national team, her place remains complicated. Radcliffe’s significant accomplishments, which were in part understood as British success, were also constructed as a foil for the lack of British men’s success in racialized and gendered ways. To explicate mediated articulations of national identity, I examined UK print media constructions of Radcliffe focusing on three major events of her running career: her world record, her failure to finish at the 2004 Games, and her World Championship marathon win in 2005. I found that Radcliffe achieved conditional status as a representative of Britain, while this media coverage also maintained and buttressed gendered and racialized hierarchies in the complex construction of British identity.
“Their Bottoms Are the Wrong Shape” Female Jockeys and the Theory of Established Outsider Relations
Authors: Velija Philippa , Flynn Leah
Published: August 2016

This paper adopts Elias’ theory of established and outsider relations (Elias and Scotson, 1994) to argue that women riders are “outsiders” within the racing figuration. The paper draws on data collected from eight semi-structured interviews with experienced female jockeys. It is suggested by the authors that female jockeys remain outsiders within the racing figuration in the UK. In particular, female jockeys are largely resigned to their inferior position as their views of male jockeys remain deeply ingrained in stereotypes about gender. The increasing organizational changes that have allowed women to be a part of the Jockey Club, be granted licenses, train and compete alongside males do not appear to have changed attitudes toward female jockeys, who are largely perceived as weaker and less capable than male jockeys.
“The Transparency of Democracy”: The Production of Washington’s Nationals Park as a Late Capitalist Space
Authors: Friedman Michael T.
Published: August 2016

Following the trend of cities throughout the United States subsidizing new baseball stadiums within their economic redevelopment strategies, in 2005, the city government of Washington, D.C. agreed to subsidize the construction of Nationals Park for the use of the Washington Nationals baseball team. In its design of the stadium, HOK Sport architects sought to represent the “transparency of democracy” as they were inspired by the democratic image and iconography of the US Capital city. Using a perspective based in Lefebvre’s (1991b) production of space, I explore the power relations produced and reproduced within spatial and cultural production. I argue that instead of creating an inclusive space, architects designed a space that exemplifies the late capitalist moment in its focus on consumption, social control, and aesthetic production. Nationals Park, thus, excludes people by class, privileges visitors over residents, and provides an unrealistic view of the city that marginalizes less powerful groups.
“Wandering and Wondering”: Theory and Representation in Feminist Physical Cultural Studies
Authors: Thorpe Holly , Barbour Karen , Bruce Toni
Published: August 2016

In this paper we explore the potential of physical cultural studies for collaborative, interdisciplinary, theoretically-informed, reflexive research on the physically active female body. We use the metaphors of “wandering and wondering” to interrogate our experiences of movement within and across physical cultural fields and academic borders. Grounded in an ethnographic narrative approach, we revisit the ways in which different aspects of our identities were highlighted during our waka ama, snowboarding and basketball experiences. Drawing upon feminist readings of Bourdieu’s work, we challenged each other to reflect critically upon previously unquestioned or unexplored aspects of our subjectivities. While the paper focuses on the results of these discussions, we also offer insights into the collaborative process. Ultimately we argue that sharing narratives of our experiences and exploring them further with theory offers a good place to begin new interdisciplinary conversations that may push physical cultural studies research in new directions.
Negotiating the ‘F-Word’ in the Field: Doing Feminist Ethnography in Action Sport Cultures
Authors: Olive Rebecca , Thorpe Holly
Published: August 2016

This paper examines the potential of social theory for enhancing researcher reflexivity and praxis in the ethnographic field. More specifically, we advocate the potential of feminist interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “regulated liberties” for helping critical ethnographers navigate some of the embodied political and ethical tensions and challenges encountered in male-dominated physical cultures. Drawing upon examples from our fieldwork in surfing and snowboarding cultures, we illustrate some of the strategies we employ to subtly subvert problematic cultural norms and values within these action sport cultures. Engaging the work of poststructural feminist and Bourdieusian scholars, we raise some of the ethical questions and concerns we have experienced as cultural members and feminist researchers while engaging with participants in the waves and on the slopes.
Saturday Night’s Alright for Tweeting: Cultural Citizenship, Collective Discussion, and the New Media Consumption/Production of Hockey Day in Canada
Authors: Norman Mark
Published: August 2016

Drawing upon data collected during the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s 2011 Hockey Day in Canada broadcast, this paper examines how users of Twitter variously reproduced or contested this mediated television program. Three emergent themes from these data are discussed: the sociocultural importance of hockey to Canadians; the corporate sponsorship of Hockey Day in Canada; and the role of controversial commentator Don Cherry on the Canadian public broadcaster. These data suggest that new media can be a site for collective discussion on important sociopolitical issues, a conclusion that is discussed with reference to Scherer and Whitson’s (2009) argument that access to hockey broadcasts is a component of Canadian cultural citizenship; and Jenkins’ (2006a; 2006b) research on access to and participation in new media cultures.
Winning Is Not the Only Thing
Authors: Knoppers Annelies , Schuiteman Jayne , Love Bob
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study was to explore the dimensionality, situation specificity, and magnitude of game orientation in teenagers across the independent variables of gender, athletic status (athlete, nonathlete) and ethnicity (Anglo, Black, Hispanic). Subjects (N = 864) completed a Likert version of Webb’s Professionalization Scale (1969) in response to a description of a recreational and of a competitive situation. Responses to questions pertaining to the importance of victory and of skill comprised a professional orientation while questions focusing on fun and equity constituted a play orientation. The results indicated that game orientation was multidimensional and situation specific, and was mediated to some extent by ethnicity but not by gender and athletic status. The discussion includes a focus on methodology and instrumentation used in other studies pertaining to game orientation.