bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teaching Sport Sponsorship Activation through a Client-Based Experiential Learning Project
Authors: Pauline Gina , Pauline Jeffrey S.
Published: August 2016

Sport management programs continue to focus on developing innovative pedagogical strategies to prepare students to enter and successfully navigate the rapidly evolving, highly competitive sport industry. One effective tactic is to integrate experiential learning projects into the classroom. This paper describes a collaborative three-year partnership involving a sport management program, athletic department, and corporate sponsor. The relationship provided scholarships for the program, internship opportunities, research funding, and an experiential learning project. Specifically, the lead author applied the metadiscrete experiential learning model developed by Southall, Nagel, LeGrande, and Han (2003) to a client based sponsorship activation project for an upper-level sport marketing course. The paper offers a blueprint and specific recommendations for faculty who wish to develop a client-based collaborative effort that can provide a hands-on learning experience for students and generate programmatic resources, research possibilities, student scholarships, and funding opportunities for an academic program. Such projects can further prepare students as well as enhance the fit between sport management programs and the sport industry.
Professional Sport League Assessment of Sport Management Curriculum
Authors: Petersen Jeffrey , Pierce David
Published: August 2016

Undergraduate sport management curriculum continues to be debated amongst this discipline’s educators. Curricular content impacts professional sport organizations as program graduates become employees. This study gathered the input of human resource professionals from NFL, MLB, and NBA franchises regarding curricular topics via an existing, modified questionnaire. The questionnaire included a five-point scale assessment of 61 curricular topics. A 34.8% response rate was proportionally distributed between the leagues. An ANOVA of means for ten curricular areas revealed significant differences with the following rank order: Field Experience 4.38; Communication 4.23; Legal Aspects 4.02; Ethics 3.98; Management and Leadership 3.97; Marketing 3.96; Economics 3.68; Budget and Finance 3.59; Governance 3.25; and Socio-Cultural Aspects 3.25. An ANOVA of topics revealed seven significant between-league differences including: Sport Sociology, Ethics, Market Shares/Ratings, Business Writing, Labor Relations, Stadium/Arena Economics, and Risk Management/Liability. These results can inform the development or modification of curricula to better prepare students for professional sport needs.
Discovery, Integration, Application and Teaching: Service Learning through Sport and Physical Activity
Authors: Bruening Jennifer E. , Madsen Rachel M. , Evanovich Justin M. , Fuller Rhema D.
Published: August 2016

Service learning and civic engagement have taken on both renewed and increased importance in sport management (Chalip, 2006; Frisby, 2005; Inglis, 2007). The following manuscript represents data collected from 10 offerings of a Sport Management Service Learning course. Ninety-one of the 131 students consented to the use of selected journals, online discussions, and group papers. Analysis was organized around the following a priori themes and subthemes that emerged from the literature: discovery (the increased knowledge of different cultures, reduction of negative stereotypes, and increased self knowledge), integration (the reward of helping others, feeling like you can make a difference, working with others, and connecting to the community), and application (leadership skills and the emotional power of service learning helps students connect intellectually with coursework) (Boyer, 1990; Eyler & Giles, 1999). Subthemes for discovery also emerged from the data and included: knowledge of classmates’ cultures, future plans and being viewed as an expert. A discussion of the findings and recommendations for future research on and application of service learning as a sport management pedagogy follows the results.
Experiential Learning in Sport Sales: Student Perceptions of Sport Sales Expectations, Skills and Preparation
Authors: Pierce David A. , Petersen Jeffrey C.
Published: August 2016

Experiential learning within sport sales is a growing component of the sport management curriculum. Assessment of student learning outcomes within these experiences is important in quantifying the effectiveness of the learning experience. This study utilized a survey to examine the change in students’ perceptions of sport sales as a result of completing an experiential, client-based sport sales program. The methodology included development and analysis of a survey instrument and application of that survey with enrolled and non-enrolled groups with pre- and post-test experiential learning assessment. Student expectations of a career in sport sales significantly decreased after program completion (t(56) = 2.33, p < .05), while their perception of skill level and preparation for a sport sales employment did not significantly change for the experimental group. These findings relate this learning experience to a realistic job preview for the students, which typically decrease an individual’s expectations toward a particular job (Premack & Wanous, 1985).
Mentorship Among Female Sport Management Doctoral Students
Authors: Chester Melissa N. , Mondello Michael
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study was to ascertain what role mentoring played in female sport management faculty’s decision to pursue doctoral degrees and to investigate and identify factors related to successful transition through the doctoral program. A qualitative, descriptive-interpretive approach utilizing a cross case analysis of current female faculty in sport management was used to discover participants’ subjective views regarding a specific experience or experiences in an effort to provide unique, relevant data (Anda, 2001). This methodology allowed for a greater understanding of the participants and their experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight participants dichotomized by race: four White and four Black Assistant Professors teaching in undergraduate and graduate programs at various types of Carnegie classified institutions. Collectively, seven major themes and four major personality traits and characteristics developed from verbatim transcriptions of the interviews. The seven themes included athletic involvement, career in athletics, career aspirations, pedagogy decision, influence of mentor, mentor roles, and context of mentoring. The four personality traits and characteristics related to success were athletic involvement/career in athletics, single with no dependents, competitive/confident, and vigilance/determination.
Environmental Behavior Frameworks of Sport and Recreation Undergraduate Students
Authors: Casper Jonathan M. , Pfahl Michael E.
Published: August 2016

This study examined the values, beliefs, and norms of undergraduate sport management and recreation administration student’s related to environmental awareness and personal actions utilizing Stern’s (2000) value-belief-norm (VBN) framework. Students (N = 341) in sport-related programs at two universities completed the survey. Structural equation modeling found the VBN framework explained both personal and organizational environmental behavior. Values were a significant predictor of environmental beliefs. Beliefs significantly explained personal norms, but not behavior. Personal norms were the strongest indicator for proenvironmental action and predicted personal and organizational conservation behavior equally. This study extends research related to environmental behavior and provides a departure point to improve understandings of the current foundational environmental perspectives held by future sport and recreation managers.
On the Need for a More Adequate Theory of Sport Participation
Authors: Theberge Nancy
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the major approaches to the analysis of participation in sport, and to present suggestions for new approaches offering more useful bases for the explanation and understanding of the participation phenomenon. Past research has focused on the characteristics and backgrounds of sport participants or on the process of socialization into sport roles. Employing the theoretical guidelines provided by Giddens, it is recommended that future research be based on a conceptualization of participation as a process by which men and women actively create their sporting lives within the constraints of particular social and political structures. Examples of this approach are provided and the implications of the approach are discussed.
Sport and Hegemony: On the Construction of the Dominant Culture
Authors: Whitson David
Published: August 2016

This paper seeks to analyze the contribution of sport to a common sense acceptance of the performance principle, and its associated discipline and accountability, as natural and indeed valuable features of social life. It will be our purpose, furthermore, to argue that a conceptual framework incorporating the ideas of “hegemony”, “structure of feeling”, and “dominant, residual, and emergent” cultures, offers significant analytical advantages over frameworks based on more straightforward notions of socialization and social control.
The Effects of Participation in Sport during the Last Two Years of High School
Authors: Marsh Herbert W.
Published: August 2016

The effects of participation in sport during the last 2 years of high school were examined by use of the nationally (United States) representative High School and Beyond data collected between 1980 and 1984. After background variables and outcomes collected during the sophomore year of high school were controlled for, sport participation positively affected 14 of 22 senior and postsecondary outcomes (e.g., social and academic self-concept, educational aspirations, course work selection, homework, reduced absenteeism, and subsequent college attendance) and had no negative effects on the remaining 8 variables. These positive effects were robust, generalizing across individual characteristics (race, socioeconomic status, sex, and ability level), school size, and school climates (academic, social, and sport). The positive effects of sport participation were mediated by academic self-concept and educational aspirations, supporting the proposal that sport participation enhances identification with the school.
An Investigation of Campus Stereotypes: The Myth of Black Athletic Superiority and the Dumb Jock Stereotype
Authors: Sailes Gary A.
Published: August 2016

This investigation examined the beliefs of college students regarding specific stereotypes about African American athletes and about college student-athletes. Beliefs about intelligence, academic integrity, and academic competitiveness among male college student-athletes, as well as assumptions about intelligence, academic preparation, style of play, competitiveness, physical superiority, athletic ability, and mental temperament in African American athletes, were investigated. A fixed alternative questionnaire was administered to 869 graduate and undergraduate students. The findings indicate that white and male students believe that athletes are not as intelligent as the typical college student and that they take easy courses to maintain their eligibility and that African American athletes are not academically prepared to attend college, are not as intelligent and do not receive as high grades as white athletes, and are generally temperamental. African American and female students believe that African American athletes are more competitive and have a different playing style than white athletes.
Reading the Muscular Body: A Critical Decoding of Advertisements in Flex Magazine
Authors: White Philip G. , Gillett James
Published: August 2016

This paper provides a critical decoding of advertisements in Flex, a popular bodybuilding magazine. The analysis focuses on the visual and narrative representation of the muscular male body and bodywork practices in advertisements promoting bodybuilding technologies. The images of the muscular body found in bodybuilding advertisements encourage masculine self-transformation through bodywork. Moreover, the taken-for-granted representation of the muscular body as natural and desirable is rooted in an ideology of gender difference, championing dominant meanings of masculinity through a literal embodiment of patriarchal power. The foregrounding of the muscular body as a cultural ideal offers conservative resistance to progressive change and alternative masculinities by valorizing a dominance-based notion of masculinity.
Participation in High School Competitive Sports: A Subversion of School Mission or Contribution to Academic Goals?
Authors: Fejgin Naomi
Published: August 2016

Longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 First Follow-Up) were used to assess the net effect of athletic participation on student outcomes after controlling for student background and 8th-grade measures of the dependent variables. The analyses show positive effects of sport participation on grades, self-concept, locus of control, and educational aspirations, and a negative effect on discipline problems. Analysis also shows that athletic participation is unequally distributed across gender and socioeconomic groups: Males, students from higher socioeconomic levels, students attending private and smaller schools, and those with previous experience in school and private sport teams are more engaged in high school competitive sport.
Interpretations and Explanations of Deviance among College Athletes: A Case Study
Authors: Snyder Eldon E.
Published: August 2016

This case study analyzes a group of college athletes who were involved in a series of larcenies. A focal point of the study is that these athletes did not fit the usual profile of deviants who would commit large-scale crimes. Furthermore, the athletes in question were apparently not committing the crimes for material gain. Differential interpretations that are given to explain the athletes’ behaviors include defective character traits, the use of alcohol, peer pressure, and the quest for excitement. These interpretations and explanations are discussed within a broader interpretive model of behavior.
Toward an Integration of Gender into Bourdieu’s Concept of Cultural Capital
Authors: Laberge Suzanne
Published: August 2016

Although Bourdieu’s conceptual system can be of interest to feminists, few have used it because of its androcentrism. This paper considers McCall’s (1992) proposal to correct this androcentric bias by integrating gender distinction with the concept of cultural capital. This integration is supported by some theoretical affinities between Bourdieu’s model and Harding’s (1986) feminist approach, which relate to three elements at work in the production of social life: dichotomous symbolic structure, the organization of social activity, and schemes of subjective dispositions. Some limitations to Bourdieu’s model are considered. However, in the last part of the article, it is argued that the adaptation of Bourdieu’s model is a potentially enriching approach, and an illustration is provided with examples of gendered experiences in sport.
Machines, Missiles, and Men: Images of the Male Body on Abc’s Monday Night Football
Authors: Trujillo Nick
Published: August 2016

This paper examines how images of the male body are reproduced in media coverage of professional football. Specifically, it examines television coverage of football games broadcast during the 1993–1994 season on ABC’s Monday Night Football, paying special attention to the discourse of sportscasters Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, and Dan Dierdorf and to the production techniques (eg., camera angles, slow-motion replays, etc.) of the program. Guided by a critical orientation, the paper examines how three patriarchal images of the male body and football, and the resulting paradoxes, are reproduced on Monday Night Football, including (a) the body as tool: football as work, (b) the body as weapon: football as war, and (c) the body as object of gaze: (watching) football as pleasure.
Racial Participation and Integration in English Professional Basketball 1977-1994
Authors: Chappell Robert , Jones Robyn L. , Burden Adrian M.
Published: August 2016

This study investigates racial trends, in terms of participation and integration, in the highest levels of English professional basketball A longitudinal approach is utilized whereby the facial and international compositions of teams and coaching staffs who comprised the First Division of the English National Basketball League during the period 1977-1994 are examined. The findings demonstrate that although a substantial increase in the number of Blacks, and more specifically black Britons, who played the game at the highest level in England took place during the set time period, no evidence of racial discrimination, as demonstrated through “stacking,” exists. It is hypothesized, however, that racism within English basketball is alternatively manifest through numerous social dynamics particular to the English context that are responsible for the predominance of black athletes within the sport. These developments, in turn, are interlinked with the wider global processes of commercialization and Americanization.
The Commodified 23, or, Michael Jordan as Text
Authors: Armstrong Edward G.
Published: August 2016

Semiotics is employed in an examination of Michael Jordan (the signified) and his uniform number (the signifier). A systematic comparative framework is used to limit the potentially infinite multiplicity of interpretants. Its themes are the way Jordan expresses the modernity-postmodernity division and is, himself an aspect of this cultural characterization. Seven diacritical alternatives are considered: (a) secularism versus immanence; (b) bureaucratization versus decanonization; (c) equality versus diversity; (d) rationality versus intensities; (e) obsession with records versus spectacles; (f) quantification versus fragmentation; and, (g) specialization versus commodification. Treating Jordan as text, as postmodern athlete archetype, leads to a consideration of the commodification of his number, a process in which Jordan himself is transformed into a salable commodity.
Michael Jordan’s Family Values: Marketing, Meaning, and Post-Reagan America
Authors: McDonald Mary G.
Published: August 2016

Michael Jordan ’s body offers a significant site to explore larger cultural meanings and anxieties in post-Reagan America. Informed by cultural studies sensibilities, this paper explores selected sporting and advertising accounts to suggest that representations of Jordan’s athletic body are constructed by promoters in ways which rely on particular associations of Black masculinity, sexuality, and the nuclear family. The carefully crafted image of Michael Jordan offers an enticing portrait of Black masculinity, playing off notions of natural athleticism and family sentiment in ways designed to induce devotion. This public persona of Jordan participates in the moralistic “family values” climate of post-Reagan America, while simultaneously working to deny historical and stereotypical depictions of Black masculinity as overtly erotic and dangerous. Thus marketing strategies encourage a voyeuristic, albeit “safe” enjoyment of Jordan’s commodified body.
Gendered Sports Programming: 1992 Summer Olympic Coverage and the Feminine Narrative Form
Authors: Daddario Gina
Published: August 2016

Approached from a feminist perspective, this article draws from genre criticism which argues that gender can be inscribed in television programming. Specifically, it examines how NBC adopted characteristics of feminine narrative form in its coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. I examine NBC’s use of rhetorical constructions, such as pretaped video profiles and personal interviews, to represent the Olympic Games and suggest that parallels exist between soap operas and Olympic programming, thereby attracting a female-inclusive audience.
Making Weight: Lightweight Rowing, Technologies of Power, and Technologies of the Self
Authors: Chapman Gwen E.
Published: August 2016

This paper uses a Foucauldian framework for understanding how human experience is shaped by relations of power to explore the weight management practices of members of a women’s lightweight rowing team. Like other forms of disciplinary power, making weight involves implementing a regimen governed by normalizing assumptions, maintained through self-monitoring, and supported by discourse. The practices of making weight also are examined as a technology of the self that the rowers used to create and understand themselves. The position of women’s sport at the intersection of sports and gender discourse offered the rowers opportunities to oppose relations of power while reinforcing their limits within the confines of a disciplinary matrix.
New Directors, Customers, and Fans: The Transformation of English Football in the 1990s
Authors: King Anthony
Published: August 2016

In the 1990s, English professional football has undergone rapid and marked changes with the restructuring of the Football League, the signing of new and lucrative television contracts, the construction of all-seater stadiums, and the growing involvement of progressive entrepreneurial capitalists—the new directors—in the game. This article examines one element of those transformations; the political use which the new directors have made of the concept of the customer. The article argues that the use of this term has been important to the transformation of the relation between the fan and the clubs, facilitating and legitimating the profit-making projects of the new directors. Drawing on the tradition of dialectical critical theory derived from Mannheim and Adorno, the article submits this notion of the customer critique to demonstrate its deliberate partiality and its intensely political nature.
Sporting Goods Trade, International Division of Labor, and the Unequal Hierarchy of Nations
Authors: Harvey Jean , Saint-Germain Maurice
Published: August 2016

The main goal of this paper is to provide an analysis of the evolution of the international division of labor with regard to the sporting goods sector. Its purpose is also to assess which of the current dominant critical theories of the international division of labor most accurately describes the trends in the sporting goods sector. The first proposition examined here is that none of the current dominant critical theories of the international division of labor describes appropriately the trends of the last 20 years in sporting goods trade. The second proposition is that the evolution of the international division of labor in the sporting goods sector shows two trends that on the surface may appear contradictory: a regionalization, as well as a globalization of sporting goods trade. Twenty-eight countries were selected for the study. Data support both propositions. The paper ends with suggestions for further studies.
Fifty Million Viewers Can’t Be Wrong: Professional Wrestling, Sports-Entertainment, and Mimesis
Authors: Atkinson Michael
Published: August 2016

While largely discounted as a genuine sport by most, professional wrestling has evolved from a minor source of “entertainment” to a culturally powerful multi-media complex. Attracting audiences in abundance of fifty million viewers on a weekly basis, professional wrestling has become the number one rated “sports-entertainment” program on television. In doing so, professional wrestling broadcasts challenge long-standing cultural constructions of sport in North America, while hyperbolising and unapologetically exploiting that which is highly entertaining about professional sports contests. Specifically, professional wrestling's mandate is to excite audiences via contrived and hyper-violent athletic competition. Drawing on Elias' (1978, 1983, 1994, 1996) and other process-sociologists' (Dunning, 1999; Maguire, 1999; Sheard, 1999) understanding of mimesis, it is argued here that professional wrestling derives the bulk of its cultural appeal from the ways in which the staged violence is presented as both “sporting” and “exciting” to audiences.
Sport and Social Status for Adolescent Males and Females
Authors: Thirer Joel , Wright Stephen D.
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the social status criteria for male and female adolescents in the mid-1980s and to compare these results with those of Eitzen (1976) and Coleman (1961a, 1961b). It was further intended to transcend these previous studies by examining the criteria by which male and female adolescents ascribed social status for females relative to being an athlete. The results indicated that the trend toward deemphasizing the importance of athletics as a status symbol for male adolescents, which appeared in Eitzen’s research, was not supported. Being an athlete was still the foremost criteria for male popularity when judged by both male and female adolescents. This is similar to the pattern reported by Coleman (1961a, 1961b) in his research of males judging males. For females, being an athlete was ascribed fairly low social status when judged by both male and female adolescents. This indicates that at the time of the present study, even with the impact of Title IX legislation, athletic performance is still not a valued attribute for female adolescents in the eyes of male and female peers.
Injury in Women’s Sport: Classifying Key Elements of “Risk Encounters”
Authors: Pike Elizabeth C. J. , Maguire Joseph A.
Published: August 2016

This paper provides a development from previous conceptual frameworks related to the risk/pain/injury nexus in sporting subcultures (Hughes & Coakley, 1991; Maguire & Roberts, 1998; Nixon, 1992; Young, 1991). To do this, we have developed a model of factors contributing to injury risk in sport. In outlining our framework we seek to trace the enabling and coercive social forces that combine to act upon athletes and consequently promote participation to the extent of risking injury. This paper is grounded in a two-year study of female rowers in the United Kingdom. Several dimensions of sporting activities are mapped out, including the physical and structural settings, or “stage” upon which the sport takes place; preparation and participation in the sport itself; and the athletes’ attitudes toward, and actions on, receiving an injury. The themes identified in the model are used to “make sense” of the substantive insights drawn from the rowers’ stories.
Free Agency and Pay Discrimination in Major League Baseball
Authors: Singh Parbudyal , Sack Allen , Dick Ronald
Published: August 2016

Over the last three decades, Major League Baseball has often served as a natural setting for the study of discrimination in the workforce. Much of this research has found that salary discrimination has all but disappeared in Major League Baseball. However, an issue that remains unresolved is whether salary discrimination can be found among players who are not eligible for free agency. The important theoretical question raised here is whether market constraints on competition for labor encourage wage discrimination. The purpose of this study was to examine this issue by using recent data. Our results suggest that race is not a significant predictor of compensation, even among players who are not eligible for free agency. Two interpretations of these findings are presented, as well as implications for social policy.
Running into Injury Time: Distance Running and Temporality
Authors: Collinson Jacquelyn Allen
Published: August 2016

Despite a growing body of research on the sociology of time and, analogously, on the sociology of sport, to date there has been relatively little sports literature that takes time as the focus of the analysis. Given the centrality of time as a feature of most sports, this would seem a curious lacuna. The primary aims of this article are to contribute new perspectives on the subjective experience of sporting injury and to analyze some of the temporal dimensions of sporting “injury time” and subsequent rehabilitation. The article is based on data derived from a 2-year autoethnographic research project on 2 middle/long-distance runners, and concludes with some indicative comments regarding the need for sports physiotherapists and other health-care practitioners to take into account the subjective temporal dimension of injury and rehabilitative processes.
Inclusive Soccer—Exclusive Politics? Sports Policy in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement
Authors: Bairner Alan
Published: August 2016

This article examines the proposals of a ministerial advisory panel that was set up in 2000 to examine the problems confronting soccer in Northern Ireland, not least of which is that the game has been perceived to be administered by and for Ulster unionists. It is argued that although the panel made the case for a more inclusive soccer culture, which would be welcome to Irish nationalists, this advice is at odds with the central message of the Good Friday Agreement, the cornerstone of the peace process. Far from promoting a centrist political culture, the Agreement has actually increased polarization. Reflecting on wider debates on cultural diversity, the article argues that it is difficult to convince sports administrators to accept responsibility for promoting social inclusion in a political context in which difference is celebrated and sectarianism institutionalized.
“Tuning into One’s Self:” Foucault’s Technologies of the Self and Mindful Fitness
Authors: Markula Pirkko
Published: August 2016

This article explores the application of Michel Foucault’s technologies of the self—practices of freedom that are characterized by ethics of self-care, critical awareness, and aesthetic self-stylization. Foucault’s argument states that the technologies of self can act as practices of freedom from disciplinary, discursive body practices. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the intersections of Foucault’s theory with commercial fitness practices to identify possibilities for changing the dominant, feminine body discourse. The focus is on fitness practices collectively defined as mindful fitness and specifically one hybrid mindfulfitness form that combines Pilates, yoga, and Tai Chi with western strength training. Through in-depth interviews with the instructors of this hybrid form, this study analyzes the possibilities for mindful fitness to act as a practice of freedom by detailing what can be meant by critically aware, self-stylized fitness professionals for whom ethical care of the self translates to ethical care of the others.
The Makers of Sport Policy: A (Task)Force to Be Reckoned with
Authors: Sam Michael P.
Published: August 2016

Taskforces, commissions of inquiry, and advisory committees are significant institutional features in the development of government sport policy. This study analyzes New Zealand’s Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness, and Leisure (2001) and uses empirical data gathered from observations of consultations, interviews with committee members, and available documents. It is argued that procedural, organizational, and political considerations significantly shaped and constrained the Taskforce’s findings and recommendations. Two fundamental contradictions are discussed. The first concerns the expectations for these bodies to develop both innovative and pragmatic recommendations in light of their ad hoc nature, their broad mandates, and short time lines. The second contradiction speaks to the paradoxical nature of taskforces in developing sport policy, noting in particular their dual roles as both advocates for the sport sector and investigators responsible for addressing problems and issues.
Untangling the Links among Athletic Involvement, Gender, Race, and Adolescent Academic Outcomes
Authors: Miller Kathleen E. , Melnick Merrill J. , Barnes Grace M. , Farrell Michael P. , Sabo Don
Published: August 2016

Although previous research has established that high school sports participation might be associated with positive academic outcomes, the parameters of the relationship remain unclear. Using a longitudinal sample of nearly 600 western New York adolescents, this study examined gender- and race-specific differences on the impact of two dimensions of adolescent athletic involvement (“jock” identity and athlete status) on changes in school grades and school misconduct over a 2-year interval. Female and Black adolescents who identified themselves as jocks reported lower grades than did those who did not, whereas female athletes reported higher grades than female nonathletes. Jocks also reported significantly more misconduct (including skipping school, cutting classes, having someone from home called to the school for disciplinary purposes, and being sent to the principal’s office) than did nonjocks. Gender moderated the relationship between athlete status and school misconduct; athletic participation had a less salutary effect on misconduct for girls than for boys.
Unprofessional Practice? The Status and Power of Sport Physicians
Authors: Malcolm Dominic
Published: August 2016

In this article I examine the role and working practice of rugby union club doctors in England. While medicine is widely perceived to be one of the most powerful professions in Western societies, sociologists of sport have argued that sport clinicians often wield relatively limited power over their athlete-patients. In this article I therefore attempt to shed further light on the “peculiar” character of sports medicine. Using data drawn from interviews and questionnaires, I argue that this phenomenon can be understood only by looking at the structure of the sports medicine profession, the specificities of the rugby club as a workplace setting, and the relationships club doctors have with clients (coaches and athletes) and other health care providers (physiotherapists).
Does Sport Foster Social Capital? The Contribution of Sport to a Lifestyle of Community Participation
Authors: Perks Thomas
Published: August 2016

Little research has been done to date on the contribution of sport to a lifestyle of community participation. This is despite theoretical support from the social capital literature for the suggestion that the relationships and trust fostered through sport participation should lead to involvement in community activities outside of sport. The present study addresses this gap in the research by testing whether participation in organized youth sport positively predicts involvement in particular community activities as an adult. Based on an analysis of survey data collected from a representative sample of Canadians, the findings show that youth sport participation was positively related to adult involvement in community activities, although the predictive effects of youth sport participation were small. The findings also show that the effects of youth sport participation on adult participation in community activities lasted throughout the lifecycle. Both findings are consistent with the social capital literature.
“Gendered Risk Regimes”: A Theoretical Consideration of Edgework and Gender
Authors: Laurendeau Jason
Published: August 2016

Recently, a number of researchers have drawn on Lyng’s (1990) theorization of the concept of edgework in explorations of voluntary risk activities in late modernity. Unfortunately, a theoretical consideration of how these edgework activities are gendered is underdeveloped in the edgework literature. In this article I outline the theories that have dominated edgework literature, critique the general oversight of a nuanced theory of gender in edgework, and highlight a sample of evidence showing that participation in “risk sports” (as one example of edgework) is a gendered experience. I also outline the concept of a “gendered risk regime” as a tool for exploring risk and gender as ongoing and intersecting constructions.
Telling the Truth in Public Policy: An Analysis of New Zealand Sport Policy Discourse
Authors: Piggin Joe , Jackson Steven J. , Lewis Malcolm
Published: August 2016

In this article we use Foucault’s conception of games of truth to investigate how truth in public policy is rhetorically constructed through the notion of “transparency.” Data was collected from various public sources regarding a medal target policy promoted by Sport and Recreation New Zealand (Sparc) for the national team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. By analyzing the multifarious rhetoric surrounding the medal target policy, we show that the notion of transparency, although ostensibly appealing and helpful as a mechanism to justify goals, exposes inherent contradictions that were counter to Sparc’s goals. The discussion encourages scholars and practitioners to conceive of policy as ongoing contests over truth. We suggest that practitioners might benefit from considering the problematic implications of promoting “transparent” public policy.
Beyond the Marathon: (De)Construction of Female Ultrarunning Bodies
Authors: Hanold Maylon T.
Published: August 2016

This article examines the ways in which high-performance female ultrarunning bodies are created by and understood through the discourses of the normative running body, the ideal female body and pain. Using a Foucauldian framework, this paper shows how the ultrarunning body becomes a desired body beyond the marathon and how these same desires produce multiple and complex subjectivities for female ultrarunners. In-depth interviews were conducted with 8 high performance female ultrarunners. Findings suggest that ultrarunning is a sporting space which gives rise to more diverse subjectivities than previously found in distance running literature. Simultaneously, this discourse produces disciplined bodies through the mode of desire and “unquestioned” social norms, paralleling the constructs of extreme sports and (re)producing middle-classness.
Islam, Hijab and Young Shia Muslim Canadian Women’s Discursive Constructions of Physical Activity
Authors: Jiwani Nisara , Rail Geneviève
Published: August 2016

This article focuses on the results of a study exploring young Shia Muslim Canadian women’s discursive constructions of physical activity in relation to Islam and the Hijab. The aims of the study were primarily informed by feminist poststructuralist and postcolonial theories. Poststructuralist discourse analysis was used to analyze the transcripts of conversations with 10 young Hijab-wearing Shia Muslim Canadian women. The results show that the participants discursively constructed physical activity in terms of being physically active (involved in fitness activities rather than sport), feeling good about themselves (i.e., being physically and mentally healthy), and losing weight or remaining “not fat.” The participants mentioned that they would choose Islam over physical activity if they had to make a choice between the two. Participants strongly resisted the Islamophobic discourse present in Canada, and appropriated an intersectional discourse that legitimates their refusal to choose between their right to religious freedom and their right to physical activity.
Corporate Nationalism and Glocalization of Nike Advertising in “Asia”: Production and Representation Practices of Cultural Intermediaries
Authors: Kobayashi Koji
Published: August 2016

This paper explores the links between corporate nationalism and glocalization by examining Nike’s strategy of representing “the nation” within advertising campaigns in “Asia”. Drawing from interviews with advertising practitioners, this study offers two key findings: (a) sporting national identities are represented through a multilevel process of negotiations among various institutions and individuals; and (b) local cultural intermediaries play a central role in encoding and circulating the advertisements due to complex creative labor processes, symbolic struggles, and local sensibilities. Overall, the study illuminates the context of advertising production as the “multiple regimes of mediation” (Cronin, 2004) through which representations are negotiated and articulated under specific social relations, cultural codes, and conditions of production.
Interaction Ritual Theory and Sports Fans: Emotion, Symbols, and Solidarity
Authors: Cottingham Marci D.
Published: August 2016

The study of sport spectatorship has an increasing focus on the importance of fandom beyond fan violence. Fundamental to understanding fan behavior are the meaningful rituals and emotions experienced by fans. In this paper, I use the theoretical work of Randall Collins to examine the ritualistic outcomes of collective effervescence, emotional energy, and group symbols and solidarity among sport fans. I illustrate these concepts using case study data from participant observation of fans of a U.S. football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and content analysis of news articles. I extend Collins’ interaction ritual (IR) theory by taking the group as the unit of analysis and analyzing group solidarity beyond situational interactions and typical sport settings, including the significant life events of weddings and funerals. While critiquing Collins’ (2004) a priori portrayal of sports fans, the analysis advances IR theory, improving its utility for understanding sports fan behavior.
Young People’s Embodiment of Physical Activity: The Role of the ‘Pedagogized’ Family
Authors: Dagkas Symeon , Quarmby Thomas
Published: August 2016

Drawing from Bourdieu, this study investigated the multifaceted influences that operate in and through combinations of family and social class with regard to the embodiment of physical activity in young adolescents in the UK. The findings suggest that pedagogical practices within the family environment are crucial to the development of embodied dispositions toward physical activity and health. The results illustrate that the family operates as a “pedagogical” field where personal histories and prevailing social circumstances exert a strong influence on children’s embodied physicalities.
Between Adoption and Resistance: Grobalization and Glocalization in the Development of Israeli Basketball
Authors: Shor Eran , Galily Yair
Published: August 2016

Sports provide one of the most prominent fields in which one can study the interaction between globalization and glocalization processes. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in globalization theory and on both primary and secondary data, the present article examines the case of Israeli basketball. This case demonstrates the tension between grobal and glocal processes, also evident in other Middle-Eastern and East-Asian countries. We first discuss the process by which American basketball practices, ideology, language, culture, and players came to dominate Israeli basketball. We then move to examine the glocal responses to this process, which combine adoption and acceptance with local resistance to the increasing domination of American players and culture.
Radical Theorists of Sport: The State of Play
Authors: Critcher Chas
Published: August 2016

The recent and exceptional attempts of Gruneau and Hargreaves to develop a radical theory of sport are evaluated. The considerable advances they make to appropriate sport as a cultural formation are offset against the need to integrate consideration of gender, leisure, and the institutional conservatism of sport into the analysis.
Parkour, Masculinity, and the City
Authors: Kidder Jeffrey L.
Published: August 2016

Parkour is a new, and increasingly popular, sport in which individuals athletically and artistically negotiate obstacles found in the urban environment. In this article, I position parkour as a performance of masculinity involving spatial appropriation. Through ethnographic data I show how young men involved in the sport use the city (both the built environment and the people within it) as a structural resource for the construction and maintenance of gender identities. The focus of my research highlights the performance of gender as a spatialized process.
“It Ain’t Just Black Kids and White Kids”: The Representation and Reproduction of Authentic “Skurban” Masculinities
Authors: Atencio Matthew , Beal Becky , Yochim Emily Chivers
Published: August 2016

The recent emergence of “skurban” (the fusion of skateboarding and urban) reflects the racially diverse history and culture of skateboarding within urban areas in the United States. Skurban follows on from skateboarding’s integral link with the urban since the 1980s. We aver that urban skateboarding is now underpinned by proliferating racial formations that reproduce a version of masculine authenticity that is highly marketable. Through our interrogation of two mainstream media skate videos featuring Stevie Williams and Paul Rodriguez, we propose that skurban reflects the ascendancy of highly valued urban racial masculinities. These masculinities enhance youth and action sport brand marketing strategies. Simultaneously, these diverse racial masculinities gain currency in alignment with discourses of individual entrepreneurialism, “free market” capitalism, and multicultural notions of diversity.
“Who Are You?”: Exploring Adolescent Girls’ Process of Identification
Authors: Walton Theresa A. , Fisette Jennifer L.
Published: August 2016

We used ethnographic methods to examine the ways that adolescent girls (n=9) defined and understood themselves as individuals and in relation to cultural identities. We utilized Cook-Sather’s (2002, 2006, 2007) theory of translation to make sense of their identification as an unfixed process of negotiation by centering their voices and revelations. While the girls struggled to articulate cultural identities in relation to themselves, they had clear notions of those identities and the social expectations associated to them. They noted the ways cultural identities could be both empowering and constricting. Moreover, we found that they understood and discussed cultural identities in relation to themselves and others in ways that both resisted and maintained social categories.
The Sport Participation–Social Class Relationship among a Selected Sample of Female Adolescents
Authors: Hasbrook Cynthia A.
Published: August 2016

This study proposed and tested a theoretical explanation of how social class background influences sport participation. Two theoretical constructs of social class were operationalized within the context of sport participation and tested to determine how well they explained the social class-sport participation link: life chances/economic opportunity set (the distribution of material goods and services), and life-styles/social psychological opportunity set (values, beliefs, and practices). Life chances consisted of the availability and usage of sport equipment, facilities or club memberships, and instruction. Life-styles consisted of selected parental achievement and gender role expectations that encourage, fail to encourage, or discourage sport participation. Social class background was determined by father’s occupation as ranked in the Duncan Socioeconomic Index. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample of high school students, with some questionnaires eliminated to control for cultural and/or racial differences and variation in parental influence. The construct validity of the instrument was supported by factor analytic results. The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was r = .956. Partial correlation analyses revealed that while individual life chances/economic opportunity set variables explained a greater portion of the relationship between sport participation and social class background than did the individual variables of life-styles/social psychological opportunity set, a combination of all three economic opportunity set variables and two social-psychological opportunity set variables accounted for more than 50% of the relationship between sport and class.