bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Do High School Athletics Pay?: The Effects of Varsity Participation on Socioeconomic Attainment
Authors: Howell Frank M. , Miracle Andrew W. , Rees C. Roger
Published: August 2016

It has been reported that participation in high school athletics has a positive effect on education, occupational status attainment, and earnings. (Otto and Alwin, 1977; Howell and Picou, 1983). The findings regarding the economical benefits of sport participation have emerged from two regional panel studies and need to be examined for generalizability beyond local labor markets. We test this hypothesis using the five-wave Youth in Transition panel based on a national sample of 1,628 males. The respondents were surveyed repeatedly during their high school years (1966-69). They were followed-up 1 year posthigh school (1970) and again 5 years (1974) after graduation. Our results do not support the hypothesis. However, we suggest that the lack of supportive findings may be explained by the stage in the life cycle at which the follow-up was completed. That is, any economical payoff owing to participation in high school athletics is not an immediate return but may begin to accrue 10 or more years after graduation when career lines have begun to unfold. Another possibility is that the effect of high school sports participation on earnings may only occur for those also subsequently attending college. The implications of specific explanations of sport participation outcomes for the life course interpretation are discussed.
Fair Treatment for the Active Female: A Content Analysis of Young Athlete Magazine
Authors: Rintala Jan , Birrell Susan
Published: August 2016

The availability of female role models is examined through a content analysis of Young Athlete magazine. Two research questions are posed: Do males and females receive differential treatment in Young Athlete? Does the representation of males and females in Young Athlete reflect actual participation rates? Young Athlete depicts sport as a male activity. For example, less than one-third of all photographs depict females, and the percentage decreases with the prominence of the photograph. Compared to actual participation rates, Young Athlete subtly distorts girls’ involvement. Girls are markedly under-represented in team sports, even those they dominate numerically. Discussion focuses upon the issue of fair treatment. The conclusion that statistical representation is a safe but narrow definition of fair treatment is explored with reference to current theoretical perspectives on media.
Activity through the Years: Leisure, Leisure Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction
Authors: Brown Barbara A. , Frankel B. Gail
Published: August 2016

This study examines participation in leisure physical activity, leisure satisfaction, and life satisfaction from a life course perspective, using self-report data from a stratified random sample of adults living in a midsized Canadian city. Findings indicate that physical activity is most strongly associated with leisure satisfaction in the younger age groups, whereas no consistent age pattern is observed in the relationship between physical activity and life satisfaction. Regression analyses that are controlled for income, education, and age indicate major gender differences in the impact of participation in leisure physical activity on life satisfaction, with participation being more important for females. Path analysis indicates that leisure satisfaction contributes both directly and indirectly to life satisfaction. The findings provide evidence for age variation in sources of life satisfaction apart from leisure, and for important gender differences in the role of physical activity.
Liberal and Radical Sources of Female Empowerment in Sport Media
Authors: Duncan Margaret Carlisle , Brummett Barry
Published: August 2016

This study of spectator groups viewing televised professional football revealed that spectators, particularly women, acted upon sport texts to empower themselves. Radical empowerment for women occurred when female spectators subverted the premises of the televised football spectacle, using irony, sarcasm, and limited commitment to the game to refuse the preferred (patriarchal) readings of the text. Liberal empowerment occurred when women (and men) used mediation as a way of extending the self into the game. While men often availed themselves of mediation in this way, women did so less often, perhaps because liberal empowerment is ultimately disempowering to women.
A Reassessment of the Psychosocial Functions of Sport Scale
Authors: Martin Douglas E. , Dodder Richard A.
Published: August 2016

© 1993 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.

In the early 1970s Spreitzer and Snyder developed the Psychosocial Functions of Sport Scale to assess people’s perceptions of the importance of sport, and they administered this instrument to a sample of Toledo, Ohio, residents. This study reassesses the reliability and construct validity of the scale and examines college students’ perceptions of the importance of sport. Factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha indicate that Spreitzer and Snyder’s scale meets the criteria of reliability and construct validity. An item analysis indicates that most subjects believe sport to be important for individuals and society. Subjects’ responses to 12 of the 15 items are strikingly similar to the response distribution reported by Spreitzer and Snyder; however, there are notable differences on three of the items, suggesting that the present sample did not view sport as an institution that develops good citizens, promotes fair play, or alleviates drug problems in society.
Coaches’ Views of Risk, Pain, and Injury in Sport, with Special Reference to Gender Differences
Authors: Nixon Howard L.
Published: August 2016

The main purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which college coaches subscribe to a set of beliefs in the culture of sport concerning risk, pain, and injury. These beliefs were derived from a prior content analysis of Sports Illustrated. A secondary purpose of this paper is to consider whether gender makes a difference in how coaches think about risk, pain, and injury. The data are from a survey of coaches at a medium-size (11,500-student) comprehensive university in the southeastern United States. The results showed ambivalence among coaches in their views of risk, pain, and injury, which suggested the existence of a risk–pain–injury paradox.
Constructed Case Studies: Athletes’ Perspectives of Disengaging from Organized Competitive Sport
Authors: Koukouris Konstantinos
Published: August 2016

Disengagement from sport is examined from a phenomenological perspective. This perspective permits committed adult athletes to explain in their own time and their own words why they ceased participating in formally organized competitive sport. Thirty-four former advanced and elite athletes were interviewed. The constructed case study method provides the opportunity to examine causal relationships among all factors leading to disengagement from sport, and follows a “holistic” method of analyzing interviews (cognitive mapping). Former athletes identified the problem of settling into a job and financial constraints as the primary factors influencing their disengagement from sport. Most athletes left sport voluntarily and experienced elements of rebirth rather than social death.
A Little Pain Never Hurt Anybody: A Photo-Essay on the Normalization of Sport Injuries
Authors: Curry Timothy J. , Strauss Richard H.
Published: August 2016

This visual study explores the social conditions that promote the normalization of injuries in sport. Photographs taken at a university wrestling team’s meets and practices, and in a hospital operating room, convey some of the details and social ambience of today’s approach to collegiate sports medicine. Quotations drawn from photo-elicitation interviews with the coaches and athletes express the views of the participants. This study suggests that the normalization of injuries in sport—illustrated when universities make medical care immediately available and coaches and athletes minimize the significance of injury—encourages continued participation. Such continuation may be questioned by those concerned with the long-term effects of “playing with pain.”
Televised Sports and Ritual: Fan Experiences
Authors: Eastman Susan Tyler , Riggs Karen E.
Published: August 2016

Examination of idiosyncratic sports rituals engaged in by viewers of televised sports revealed complex patterns of negotiation and participation in the televised events. In addition to being well-recognized tools for defining group membership, personal rituals revealed the creation of multistranded connections between fans and teams or players, despite separation by an electronic wall. Personal rituals revealed a balancing of the need for suspense with a need for reassurance, and extended to superstitions and part-play/part-serious efforts to influence game outcome. Exploration of private sports-viewer rituals illuminates the ways individuals alter their experiences of televised sports in order to gain social and cultural empowerment.
Sport, World Economy, Global Culture, and New Social Movements
Authors: Harvey Jean , Houle François
Published: August 2016

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on sport and globalization. In the first section of the paper major elements of the current debate are presented. The second section discusses the current literature on globalization and its related processes. Four elements are discussed in this section: the global economy, communications, new social movements, and the question of identity/culture. The third section comments on sport and key issues of the debate on globalization in light of the discussion in the previous section. An emphasis is put on the interrelationships between sport and new social movements.
Homogenization, Americanization, and Creolization of Sport: Varieties of Globalization
Authors: Houlihan Barrie
Published: August 2016

The paper explores the relationship between globalization and the concept of cultural imperialism. In addition, the paper addresses the problem of assessing the significance of particular sports and forms of organization of sport in the relationship between the global culture and recipient cultures. The paper distinguishes between the reach or penetration of the global culture and the response of recipient communities. Material is drawn from a number of countries including Ireland, Australia, and those in the Caribbean to identify six distinct patterns of globalization. The paper explores the factors that affect the extent of penetration by the global culture and those factors that produce a passive, participative, or conflictual response by local cultures.
Career Winnings and Gender in Thoroughbred Racing
Authors: Grimes Paul W. , May Margaret A.
Published: August 2016

Using career data for the top jockeys in 1993, a two-equation recursive model is estimated to explain the annual number of mounts raced and the total purse winnings earned across gender. The empirical results indicate that after controlling for performance and experience characteristics, female jockeys secure significantly fewer mounts than male jockeys. Holding performance, the quality of mounts, experience, and the number of mounts constant, the model predicts a significant annual winnings differential in favor of female riders. However, the, observed mean winnings differential favors male riders by a factor approaching six. The results suggest that discriminatory barriers may limit the access of female jockeys to quality mounts and premier racing events and thereby may lower their winnings.
Disqualifying the Official: An Exploration of Social Resistance through the Subculture of Skateboarding
Authors: Beal Becky
Published: August 2016

This paper describes some of the ways in which popular culture may be a site of social resistance. The subculture of skateboarding is described as one form of popular culture that resists capitalist social relations, and the skateboarders’ particularly overt resistance to an amateur contest provides a framework for characterizing their daily and more covert behaviors of resistance. Although social resistance has the potential to change dominant social relations, it is often limited by contradictions and accommodations. In this case, the skateboarders’ sexist behavior is one of their significant contradictions. Finally, some implications of social resistance are addressed.
Leadership, Cohesion, and Team Norms Regarding Cheating and Aggression
Authors: Shields David Lyle Light , Gardner Douglas E. , Bredemeier Brenda Jo Light , Bostrom Alan
Published: August 2016

The present study drew from the model of moral action proposed by Shields and Bredemeier (1995) according to which a sport team’s collective norms influence behavior. The focus was on team cheating and aggression norms in relation to demographic variables, leadership style, and team cohesion. Participants were baseball and softball players (N=298) at the high school and community college level. It was found that age, year in school, and years playing ball all correlated positively with expectations of peer cheating and aggression, and with the belief that the coach would sanction cheating if necessary to win. MANOVA results indicated higher anticipations of cheating and aggression among males, college athletes, winning team members, and nonstarters. Significant relationships between leadership style variables and collective team norms, and between team cohesion variables and collective team norms, were also obtained.
Celebrity Feminism: Nike Style Post-Fordism, Transcendence, and Consumer Power
Authors: Cole Cheryl L. , Hribar Amy
Published: August 2016

We interrogate Nike’s implication in the developments of 1980s and 1990s popular feminisms by contextualizing and examining the advertising strategies deployed by Nike in its efforts to seduce women consumers. Although Nike is represented as progressive and pro-women, we demonstrate Nike’s alliance with normative forces dominating 1980s America. We suggest that Nike’s solicitation relies on the logic of addiction, which demonized those people most affected by post-Fordist dynamics. While Nike’s narrations of “empowerment” appeal to a deep, authentic self located at the crossroads of power and lifestyle, we suggest that these narratives offer ways of thinking/identities that impede political action. Finally, we consider the relations among Nike, celebrity feminism, and the complex and invisible dynamics that enable transnationals to exploit Third World women workers.
Hockey Violence: A Test of Cultural Spillover Theory
Authors: Bloom Gordon A. , Smith Michael D.
Published: August 2016

Cultural spillover theory holds that the more a society tends to legitimate the use of violence to attain ends for which there is widespread social approval, the greater the likelihood of illegitimate violence. This study was a test of cultural spillover theory as it applies to hockey violence. Based on data from a representative sample survey of Toronto hockey players and a comparison group of nonplayers, we tested the proposition that violence in hockey “spills over” into violence in other social settings. The results offer support for a cultural spillover explanation of hockey violence. Older players in highly competitive select-leagues were more likely to approve of violence and to act violently in other social settings than were younger select-league players, house-league players, and nonplayers of all ages.
The Odds of Transiting from One Level of Sports Participation to Another
Authors: Leonard Wilbert M.
Published: August 2016

The present study contributes to, updates, and extends the literature on sport and social mobility by reconceptualizing and reoperationalizing the odds of attaining college and professional athlete status. Using 1990 U.S. census data and team rosters, rates for achieving college and professional sports “careers” were computed for men and women of color in the most popular U.S. sports. A methodological contribution of this research is that the norming variables employed in the statistical calculations were refined, that is, they were age, race/ethnicity, sport, and sex specific. This inquiry contains the most systematic, extensive, and refined measures for assessing the likelihood of achieving the ultimate in sport upward social mobility—major league professional athlete status. A discussion of why the odds of obtaining professional athlete status vary is explored along with some of the conceptual and operational issues created by the concept Hispanic.
The Use of “Subculture” and “Subworld” in Ethnographic Works on Sport: A Discussion of Definitional Distinctions
Authors: Crosset Todd , Beal Becky
Published: August 2016

Within sport ethnography, the term “subculture” has been employed so broadly that the term has lost much of its explanatory power. In this paper, we attempt to reclaim the explanatory powers of the concept subculture by differentiating it from the concept “subworld.” The paper reviews the theoretical foundations of the concept of subculture and subworld, proposes definitional distinctions, and finally makes recommendations for the use of these concepts in future ethnographic research in sport.
Didn’t Cyclops Lose His Vision? An Exercise in Sociological Optometry
Authors: Ingham Alan G. , Beamish Rob
Published: August 2016

This paper begins with an examination of five “manifest absurdities” that arise in the exchange between MacAloon and, Hargreaves and Tomlinson. It continues with a critical analysis of Morgan’s attempt at conflict resolution, paying special attention to his distorted discussion of hegemony. Against this background, the authors argue that one of the major omissions in sociology (of sport or otherwise) is the careful analysis of the enculturation of social subject (especially against the background of contemporary concerns about time, space, and resources). Thus, in the final section of this paper, the issue of the enculturation of the social subject is addressed through a fusion of the insights of Sigmund Freud and Raymond Williams. In fusing Williams and Freud, the authors engage the social subject, the enculturated subject, as a problematic which must be followed in its precarious maneuvering between enablement and constraint—that is, the trialectic of being and becoming social.
Christian Athletes and the Culture of Elite Sport: Dilemmas and Solutions
Authors: Stevenson Christopher L.
Published: August 2016

One underreported issue in the research on Christian athletes has been the difficulties these athletes experience in living with the demands and expectations of the dominant culture of elite, competitive sport. Data were derived from in-depth interviews with 31 elite athletes (23 males and 8 females), who were also professing Christians and associated with the evangelical organization, Athletes-in-Action. The athletes reported that it was by turning to or returning to an evangelical Christian faith that they were better able to cope with their problems and with the demands of the culture of elite, competitive sport. Discussion of these findings included a consideration of Coakley’s (1994) model “of conflict, doubt, and resolution,” which attempts to represent the conflicts experienced by Christian athletes in elite sport, and the approaches they take to assuage these conflicts.
Athletes, Runners, and Joggers: Participant-Group Dynamics in a Sport of “Individuals”
Authors: Smith Stuart L.
Published: August 2016

A figurational framework is employed to analyze aspects of the phenomenon of mass nonelite road running in Britain. More particularly, the paper explores the dynamics of identifiable participant-groups in a sport where, formally, all are in competition with all. The analysis of data derived, primarily from a series of interviews with a range of participants in Britain, indicates that there are three identifiable participant-groups involved in the sport. A distinction between “athletes” and others—a distinction between winners and losers—is widely recognized outside road running circles, but one between “runners” and “joggers” is not. This lack of general recognition gives rise to a tension between these groups, more acutely felt on the part of the runners, as they are faced with having to defend what they see as an important status difference.
Beyond the Locker Room: Campus Bars and College Athletes
Authors: Curry Timothy Jon
Published: August 2016

This paper extends the research conducted on male bonding in locker rooms to another well-known but under-researched site, the campus bar. Through a life history of a former athlete, we learn about the connection between what is said in the locker room and behavior outside. We also gain insight into the role campus bars play in facilitating aggression and sexual misconduct by male athletes.
Experiments in Pro Wrestling: Toward a Performative and Sensuous Sport Ethnography
Authors: de Garis Laurence
Published: August 2016

This paper examines epistemological and ontological issues in ethnographic research and texts. Based on my experiences as a subject in an ethnographic study of pro wrestling, I present an ethnography of the ethnographer. In this paper, I discuss problems arising from a hierarchy of understanding that privileges the ethnographer, the primacy of visualism, and a desire to penetrate and uncover hidden truths. I propose that a performative approach to ethnography recognizes the agency of the ethnographic object and opens access to other sensorial phenomena.
“Just Do It”: Consumption, Commitment, and Identity in the Windsurfing Subculture
Authors: Wheaton Belinda
Published: August 2016

Debates about changing contemporary Western societies have emphasized the increasingly fluid and fragmented nature of identities, suggesting that people draw their sense of identity from increasingly diverse sources, including sport and leisure lifestyles. Drawing on ethnographic work on windsurfing subcultures, this article explores the ways in which participants create and perform (sub)cultural identities through their “new sport” consumption and its attendant lifestyle. The paper identifies the main features of the windsurfers’ status system, illustrating that demonstrating commitment, not the conspicuous display of equipment or subcultural style, is central to the meanings the windsurfers give to their participation and subcultural identity. The paper concludes by examining to what degree purported features of contemporary postmodern culture, such as a loss of self-identity, are reflected in such seemingly “image-based” new sport consumption practices.
The Cleveland “Indians”: A Case Study in American Indian Cultural Dispossession
Authors: Staurowsky Ellen J.
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this paper is to trace the tangled web of relationships between and among European-American notions of property, individual and group possessory rights, and the role societal institutions play in promoting the exploitation of American Indian culture and people through the misappropriation of “Indianness” by sport teams. The analysis progresses from a discussion about the racial “invisibilities” of “Indianness” and “Whiteness” that are infused in these images and ultimately how these images are expressions of a “possessive investment in Whiteness” to a discussion delineating the property dimensions of this imagery and concludes with an examination of the mechanisms in place that leach children to become misappropriators.
Travel and the Home Advantage in Professional Sports
Authors: Smith D. Randall , Ciacciarelli Anthony , Serzan Jennifer , Lambert Danielle
Published: August 2016

That the home team wins more than half its games is well-established. One factor said to produce this home advantage is travel between venues, which is seen as disruptive for the visiting team. Unfortunately, the media and athletes have been more supportive of travel effects than the research literature. While players continue to speculate that travel matters, empirical results find little support for travel factors. In the present paper we demonstrate that, at least for some professional sports, team travel can exert a very small influence on the outcome of the contest even after the quality of the teams competing is controlled. We conclude, however, that the belief that some factors confer an advantage to the home team is more the product of social forces than the influence those factors regularly have on game outcomes.
Reading between the Lines: A Discursive Analysis of the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs “Battle of the Sexes”
Authors: Spencer Nancy E.
Published: August 2016

1998 marked the 25-year anniversary of the historic “Battle of the Sexes” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. That match has been credited with enhancing the status of girls and women in sport (Frey, 1998: Hahn. 1998: Nelson, 1998). Although the match was staged during the conjunctural moment now referred to as second wave feminism, it was commemorated within the context of third wave feminism. In this paper. I revisit discourses written about the Battle of the Sexes in 1973. Although it continues to be articulated as a watershed moment in women’s sport, recent characterizations of the match reflect transformations from second to third wave feminist discourses.
Latinizing Fenway Park: A Cultural Critique of the Boston Red Sox, Their Fans, and the Media
Authors: Klein Alan
Published: August 2016

This study examines racial tolerance through the intersection of the media, fans, and the Boston Red Sox. Through the 1998 season Red Sox home games in which Dominican Pedro Martinez pitched attracted large numbers of Latinos. This marked the first time that large numbers of people of color regularly attended Fenway Park. Media reports simultaneously promoted both an awareness of this cultural phenomenon and portrayed it as widely applauded. In presenting a story of Boston’s “embracing the ace,” the media reports also wound up pushing a view of widespread approval of the new Latino presence both in Fenway and society at large. This study sought to compare the impressions of widespread exuberance for Martinez and the Dominicans at the Park with actual interviews of those Anglos at the Park. It also sought to examine what motivated the Dominicans to attend in such large numbers and to so publicly celebrate their identity. The results showed that Anglos held a fractured view about Dominicans: a very positive view of Pedro Martinez as a Dominican but a fairly evenly split view of Dominicans in general. For their part, Dominicans were unconcerned with what Anglos thought and came to the game only to lend support to their Latino hero, as well as bask in his reflected glow. One methodological conclusion arrived at is that media content analysis must be cross checked against some sort of data and must not be assumed to accurately reflect social reality.
Fit and Flexible: The Fitness Industry, Personal Trainers and Emotional Service Labor
Authors: Maguire Jennifer Smith
Published: August 2016

The contemporary United States fitness industry, in conjunction with the medical endorsement of exercise and the marketing of lifestyle consumption, has made possible the emergence and rapid growth of health and fitness services. This paper brings together the sociological fields of work, consumption, and physical culture, suggesting how the structure and organization of personal training impacts upon how fitness is sold. Drawing from interviews with personal trainers, the occupation is discussed as a combination of frontline service work, emotional labor, and flexible work strategies, resulting in a variety of job roles: the representation of the fitness club, the brokering of clients’ consumer relationships with the fitness industry, the motivation of clients through service relationships, and the entrepreneurial cultivation of a client base and semi-professional authority.
Two Kicks Forward, One Kick Back: A Content Analysis of Media Discourses on the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship
Authors: Christopherson Neal , Janning Michelle , McConnell Eileen Diaz
Published: August 2016

The 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship serves as a particularly good site for examining both the social construction of gender and the structure of contradiction surrounding women’s role in sport and society. We conducted a content analysis of 576 American newspaper articles reporting on the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship. Contradictory messages surrounding women and sports were present, as past research has suggested. An analysis of more qualitative aspects of our data reveals the structure of these contradictions and provides substantial depth to this analysis. We discuss how the media actively promoted or constructed certain gender ideologies and how these gender ideologies contributed to the popularity of the event.
BMX Spaces: Children’s Grass Roots’ Courses and Corporate-Sponsored Tracks
Authors: Rinehart Robert , Grenfell Chris
Published: August 2016

The relatively recent growth of so-called Extreme Sports has created an opportunity for scholars to examine sport, games, and play once again—but as the concepts are played out in emerging sport forms. In this ethnography of BMX bikers, we examine one group of youth within two different venues: the grass-roots, child-driven activity of setting up ramps, courses, and jumps locally, and the corporate, adult-driven activity where skateparks have become “safe zones” for children to practice their skills. Where does the grass-roots, pick-up, play activity of BMX [d]evolve into the for-profit multinational corporation business concern, and what are similarities and/or differences between BMX culture and other youth-oriented forms of sport? We attempt to understand BMX Sport as an emergent form of extreme sport and to unravel the complex connections between grass roots activity and for-profit, commodified activity, and what these activities mean to these participants.
A Comparison of Health Risk Behavior in Adolescent Users of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids, by Gender and Athlete Status
Authors: Miller Kathleen E. , Barnes Grace M. , Sabo Don , Melnick Merrill J. , Farrell Michael P.
Published: August 2016

Contrary to popular assumption, adolescent anabolic-androgenic steroid use is not limited to serious male athletes. This paper examines the relationships among gender, athletic participation, and health-related problem behaviors among adolescent steroid users. Regression analyses were performed on a nationally representative sample of over 16,000 high school students (the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey), of whom nearly 500 had used steroids. Compared to nonusers, steroid users were significantly more likely to report substance use, suicidal behavior, and sexual risk-taking; however, patterns of risk behavior varied by the user’s athletic status and gender. After controlling for age, race, ethnicity, and parental education, both athletic participation and female gender were negatively associated with most risk behaviors among users of anabolic steroids.
Do High School Athletics Pay? Some Further Evidence
Authors: Picou J. Steven , McCarter Virginia , Howell Frank M.
Published: August 2016

This research summary expands previous studies of the consequences of interscholastic athletic participation for socioeconomic attainment. Data from five southern states were used for applying multiple regression techniques to estimate athletic participation effects. The findings suggest that white males receive substantial payoffs from athletic participation; the lack of consequences for other subgroups are briefly discussed.
Explaining Positive Deviance: Becker’s Model and the Case of Runners and Bodybuilders
Authors: Ewald Keith , Jiobu Robert M.
Published: August 2016

This research explores the topic of “positive deviance,” that is, behavior which is pronormative but becomes deviant when pursued with an intensity and extensity going beyond conventional bounds. An application of Becker’s original explanation for marijuana smoking was adapted to the cases of serious, but not champion, long-distance runners and bodybuilders. Questionnaire data on 72 bodybuilders and 136 long-distance runners were analyzed using factors analysis and Guttman analysis. For runners, three dimensions were discovered and named “experience,” “sensation,” and “enjoyment.” Guttman analysis suggested that the three dimensions formed a sequence supporting the Becker model. No support for the model was found among the bodybuilders’ data. Reasons why the model might not apply to activities such as bodybuilding were discussed. Overall, it was concluded that the Becker model does explain socialization into positive deviance but that the conditions under which it does so must be further documented.
College Basketball and Role Conflict: A National Survey
Authors: Sack Allen L. , Thiel Robert
Published: August 2016

Data from a national survey of college basketball players are analyzed to identify conditions that cause student athlete role conflict and the coping mechanisms used to make this conflict more manageable. NCAA division was found to be strongly related to role conflict regardless of the measure used. Gender was also found to have an impact. Role conflict was also related to scholarship status, the number of hours athletes perceive they must devote to basketball, and whether they believe their coaches make unreasonable demands on their time and energy. It was also found that athletes who ranked low in their high school graduating class and had sought help from an academic counselor were more likely than others to deal with role conflict by taking various academic shortcuts. One final conclusion is that the vast majority of college athletes, with the exception of Division I males, have little problem reconciling their roles as athletes and students.
Understanding Labor as a Concept for the Study of Sport
Authors: Beamish Rob
Published: August 2016

William J. Morgan has recently argued that the existing critical analyses of sport are in error because they cannot take into account the peculiar logic of sporting action. Although there are a number of points in Morgan’s argument with which one could take issue, in this paper I examine only one—his erroneously narrow reading of the concept of labor in Marx’s work. In the course of my argument, I show first that Marx’s conception of “labor in general” is not the narrow conception Morgan presents it as. I indicate how Marx’s conception of labor is indebted to Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes and has a broadly creative dimension to it. Second, labor, as the source of use-values, is not necessarily the rational, instrumental activity Morgan implies, and sport labor within the political economy is not that much different from other forms of entertainment labor. Finally, I argue that Morgan’s claim that alienation is linked to solely those forms of praxis which become dehumanized through the increased instrumental rationality of capital is also an erroneously narrow reading of the conception.
Do High School Athletes Earn More Pay? Youth Sport Participation and Earnings as an Adult
Authors: Curtis James , McTeer William , White Philip
Published: August 2016

This paper reports on tests of relationships between participation in organized sport as a youth and earned income in adulthood. The data are drawn from a sample survey of adult Canadians. The results, both before and after appropriate controls, show that those who participated in organized sport as a youth tended to have higher annual earned incomes as adults than those who did not participate in this way. The relationships are stronger and more consistent for males than females across social subgroups defined by education level completed. Further supplemental analyses compare the explanatory import of youth sport participation and other forms of voluntary community involvement as a youth. Also presented are interpretations of the results, which emphasize the “cultural and social capital” and “physical capital” outcomes of involvement in youth sport activity.
One David Beckham? Celebrity, Masculinity, and the Soccerati
Authors: Cashmore Ellis , Parker Andrew
Published: August 2016

Sporting celebrities are not regularly discussed within the broader realms of sociological debate. Yet that is not to say that their identities cannot offer insight into wider patterns of cultural change. Indeed, it is our contention within this paper that the reverse is true: that analyses of the autobiographical details of contemporary sports figures represent key sites through which cultural change can be viewed. To this end, we take one sporting icon of the present time, soccer star David Beckham, and assess his popular cultural image in terms of its contribution to debates surrounding identity, consumption, and the social construction of masculinities. Our central thesis is that while Beckham affords all the hallmarks of celebrity status, his identity remains both fluid and negotiable in accordance with the role and audience he seeks to address and the ends he seeks to achieve.
Professional Football Scouts: An Investigation of Racial Stacking
Authors: Woodward J. R.
Published: August 2016

In this article the author examines sports guides that are dedicated to critiquing collegiate football players eligible for the annual National Football League amateur draft. An effort is made to assess whether the scouts in these guides describe collegiate players in ways that correspond with U.S. race logic as articulated by Coakley (1998). More specifically, the article focuses on the mental and physical descriptions of African American and White athletes by professional scouts. The results show that African American players are more likely to be described in physical terms (rather than mental terms) than are White players in the same positions.
If You Let Me Play: Young Girls’ Insider-Other Narratives of Sport
Authors: Cooky Cheryl , McDonald Mary G.
Published: August 2016

In this article we explore the narratives that 10 White, middle-class female athletes, ages 11–14, (co)produce around their sport experiences. Through interviews, observation, and participant observation, we argue that, consistent with the advertising rhetoric of such multinational corporations as Nike, these girls all advocate hard work, choice, opportunity, and personal responsibility in playing sport and in challenging gender discrimination. We argue this reflects the girls’ subscription to elements of liberal feminism and to their frequent positioning as “insider-others”—that is, outside the dominant gender norms of sport but simultaneously the beneficiaries of Whiteness and middle-class norms. In contrast to Nike and liberal feminists who frequently argue for equal opportunity in sport, these girls’ insider-other narratives suggest the need for critical interrogation of the multiple meanings and effects of sport experiences.
Construct Validity of the Risk, Pain, and Injury Questionnaire
Authors: Walk Stephan R. , Wiersma Lenny D.
Published: August 2016

Nixon’s (1994a; 1994b; 1996a; 1996b) research using a Risk, Pain, and Injury Questionnaire (RPIQ) is perhaps the most systematic in the risk, pain, and injury literature. The RPIQ is intended to measure the acceptance of dominant discourses on risk, pain, and injury among athletes and others. This article presents a face validity critique of the RPIQ and results of a subsequent content validity analysis based on a study of 171 athletes from a West Coast university. Structural equation modeling used to test Nixon’s original 3-factor model (M1) revealed poor model fit. Two alternate models (M2 and M3) tested reformulated subscale constructs and items. Whereas M2 demonstrated poor construct validity, limited support was found for items in M3. Further replications of this research are recommended.
Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence in Professional Youth Soccer: The Case of Albion Football Club
Authors: Cushion Christopher , Jones Robyn L.
Published: August 2016

A sociological analysis was conducted into the collective nature of coaching as manifest in the triangular interaction between coach, athlete, and context within English professional youth soccer. The work of Pierre Bourdieu is predominantly used to interpret data collected ethnographically over the course of a 10-month season. Findings show how an authoritarian discourse is established and maintained, how it is structured by and subsequently structures the coaching context, and how accompanying behaviors are misrecognized as legitimate by both coaches and players. We conclude by reflecting on the limits of such work and its implications for future coaching education.
Space Invaders at Wimbledon: Televised Sport and Deterritorialization
Authors: Hills Laura , Kennedy Eileen
Published: August 2016

This analysis of the televising of the 2005 Wimbledon Tennis Championships in the United Kingdom and United States explores how the space of Wimbledon is communicated to different national cultures. The theoretical framing draws on the concepts of deterritorialization developed in Tomlinson’s (1999) work and space invaders as understood by Puwar (2004). A discourse analysis of newspaper reports and television broadcasts demonstrates ways in which the mediation of Wimbledon can be understood as subject to deterritorialization, which opens up the space of Wimbledon to bodies simultaneously marked as insiders and outsiders, revealing tensions around the visibility and invisibility of bodies. We conclude by pointing to the potential of these tensions for disrupting the power dynamics of sport.
Seeing Your Sporting Body: Identity, Subjectivity, and Misrecognition
Authors: Helstein Michelle T.
Published: August 2016

This article draws on the work of two poststructural theorists, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan, to illustrate that although it is possible to posit identity from an exclusively discursive account (Foucault) or an exclusively psychoanalytic account (Lacan), it is necessary to put such accounts into conversation to more productively engage in the process of identification. Through use of an advertisement (in which a female athlete sees herself in a mirror) and an analogy to the scientific laws of reflection, this article illustrates that in order to see oneself (identify) one must recognize something in, on, or through their body, and this recognition of the body is always a misrecognition that might more appropriately be called identification. This article is therefore a reading of identification through the productive exploration of the woman on both sides of the mirror, highlighting both discursive and psychoanalytic accounts of her subjectivity. The pervasiveness of the body within these accounts is notable because it highlights the possibilities of the body as a point of articulation between discursive and psychic accounts of identification. The article also illustrates that even when identity is acknowledge as constructed, fragmented, and multiple, it is still meaningful, material, and political.
Sport, Sexuality, and the Production of (Resistant) Bodies: De-/Re-Constructing the Meanings of Gay Male Marathon Corporeality
Authors: Bridel William , Rail Geneviève
Published: August 2016

Placing the sporting body and Michel Foucault’s technologies of power and of the self at the center of our research inquiry, this article explores the ways in which 12 Canadian gay male marathoners discursively construct their bodies within and beyond the marathon context. Thematic analysis of the research materials (gathered through guided conversations, written stories, and the first author’s research journal) revealed four main themes: self-governed bodily practices, body modification, the marathoning body as resistant to dominant representations of male corporeality in gay culture, and transformative potential. Following Foucault, materials were further submitted to discourse analysis through which we uncovered the appropriation of and resistance to dominant discourses. This analysis suggested the subjects’ discursive constructions as “hybrid” creations located both within, and sometimes in contest to, dominant discourses of physical activity, running, and the male body in gay culture. Our research explores the experiences of gay male athletes through a sociological lens that differs from the present literature, which has largely drawn on hegemony theory. It also adds new insights into distance running as a social phenomenon.
Fight Night Round 2: Mediating the Body and Digital Boxing
Authors: Baerg Andrew
Published: August 2016

This article addresses Leonard’s (2006a) call for inquiry into virtual sport by exploring how Electronic Arts’ Fight Night Round 2 (2005) inscribes the boxing body into the digital game. This article qualitatively analyzes the text of the game in order to consider how it deals with the immateriality of bodies in new media as it translates them into digital space. By focusing on the game’s avatar creation system and control set, I argue over and against the freedom proclaimed by theorists about new media that Fight Night Round 2 positions users within a hegemonic masculine subjectivity. The essay concludes by addressing how this positioning speaks to the significance of this mediation for boxing as the game positions users in relation to the sport.
Fatness, Fitness, and the Moral Universe of Sport and Physical Activity
Authors: Zanker Cathy , Gard Michael
Published: August 2016

We use what we call collaborative autoethnography in this article to tell the story of “Lindsey,” a person for whom sport and physical activity have been both friend and enemy throughout her life. Our intention is to place stories about disordered eating and over-exercising alongside modern panics about obesity and to wonder how children are likely to process the different things they are told about body weight, sport, and physical activity. We do this not to pathologize Lindsey’s behavior but rather to pathologize the moral universe that makes the moral superiority of the fit, athletic body possible.
The Integrative Power of Sport: Imagined and Real Effects of Sport Events on Multicultural Integration
Authors: Müller Floris , van Zoonen Liesbet , de Roode Laurens
Published: August 2016

Despite a lack of supporting empirical evidence, the belief that sport participation can be used to address a wide range of social problems remains popular. In this study we explored ways in which the social-integration value of sport participation was constructed by participants in an Amsterdam soccer tournament created to enhance integration. We used a critical discourse analytical perspective to analyze survey, interview, and ethnographic data. We found that the construction of the socially integrative values of this event created a space in which participants could construct its effects to reflect their own interests. The resulting practices seemed to do little to challenge problematic dominant discourses and social relations.
“It’s Fantasy Football Made Real”: Networked Media Sport, the Internet, and the Hybrid Reality of Myfootballclub
Authors: Hutchins Brett , Rowe David , Ruddock Andy
Published: August 2016

MyFootballClub (MFC) is a popular computer game, Web site, online networking experiment, business model, and an actual soccer club. This article uses MFC to address the question of how networked media sport is reshaping the media sports cultural complex (Rowe, 2004). Our aim is to show how the professionalization and mediatization of sport has created a longing to reconstruct a kind of communitas around supporter participation in the ownership and running of their team. We conclude by suggesting that it is now time to think less in terms of the longstanding relationship between sport and media, and more about sport as media given the increasing interpenetration of digital media content, sport, and networked information and communications technologies.