bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Style Matters: Explorations of Bodies, Whiteness, and Identity in Rock Climbing
Authors: Erickson Bruce
Published: August 2016

The concern for style in climbing has been a long-standing debate in the climbing community, ranging from discussions around the politics of bolting routes to what exactly constitutes a first ascent. These debates, when read through Lacanian psychoanalysis, illustrate a larger concern for the construction of identity within rock climbing. Style becomes a strategy of differentiation that works through the signifier of whiteness to promise wholeness to the identity of the climber. Descriptions of the events in August of 2000 when four American climbers on a North Face expedition in Kyrgyzstan were taken hostage by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan illustrate that whiteness only covers up deficiencies in the subject and creates a constant state of insecurity. Through the concept of whiteness as a logic of difference, it is possible to understand how this event illustrates the construction of whiteness, and specifically, the moments when whiteness fails to provide being to the subject.
Sport and the Mass Media in Japan
Authors: Horne John
Published: August 2016

The tendency in discussions of media consumption in the past decade has been to move away from political economy or the “production of consumption” perspective; it has been accompanied by a growing interest in the active audience, symbolic culture, and textual analysis. Though sport and the mass media are a popular research topic in English-language publications, the major focus has been on a narrow range of advanced capitalist economies. This article on the relationship between the mass media and sport in Japan takes issue with both these emphases and contributes to on-going debates about sport, the media, and the commodification of popular culture. First, it provides a sketch of episodes in the development of the mass media in Japan—especially the newspaper press, radio, and television—in conjunction with that of sport. The focal point is the involvement of business corporations in the development of relations between professional sport and the mass media and the underlying commercial logic that steers that development. Second, by focusing on Japanese examples, the article provides additional empirical data so that similarities and contrasts can be drawn among existing accounts of the development of mediasport in advanced capitalist countries. In particular, it is argued that much of the writing about sport and the mass media has been derived from examination of “Anglo-American” experiences. Attention to media and sport in Japan, both as an economic commodity and as a vehicle for the creation of meaningful discourse about national identity, raises questions about debates concerning sport, media, and globalization.
Gender, Social Class, and the Sporting Capital–Economic Capital Nexus
Authors: Stempel Carl
Published: August 2016

In “Do High School Athletes Earn More Pay?” Curtis, McTeer, and White reopened an important line of inquiry about the conversion of sporting capital to economic capital. They found associations between adolescent participation sports and adult income for Canadian men and women with some college education. The present study revises and extends Curtis and colleagues’ understanding of sport as cultural capital and its relation to economic capital, tests the nature of the high school varsity sport–adult income relationship for the United States, and examines gender and class differences in the degree to which adult sporting practices mediate the varsity sport–adult income relationship. The results show that American class and gender patterns of income and participation are similar to those found by Curtis and colleagues and that adult participation in sports more strongly mediates this relationship for men than for women. I conclude by proposing a gendered theory of sports as cultural capital to explain those differences.
Where’s the Honor? Attitudes Toward the “Fighting Sioux” Nickname and Logo
Authors: Williams Dana M.
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this research was to explore support for Native American sports nicknames. A survey of students at the University of North Dakota, a school with substantial Native student enrollment, was conducted to determine support or opposition to the school’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname and logo. A majority of Native American and a minority of White students thought that the nickname conveyed disrespect and argued for change. Although the study was situated within Bonilla-Silva’s theory of “new racism,” the results indicated that a frame of color-blind racism provided an inadequate explanation of attitudes toward these nicknames.
Serious Athletes or Media Clowns? Female and Male Wrestlers’ Perceptions of Media Constructions
Authors: Sisjord Mari Kristin , Kristiansen Elsa
Published: August 2016

The present study explores Norwegian female and male elite wrestlers’ perceptions of media coverage of wrestling and of themselves as athletes. In-depth interviews were conducted with four female and four male elite wrestlers. Data analysis revealed that the wrestlers experienced media attention as limited and gender stereotyped, with a dominant focus on hegemonic masculinity. In addition, the wrestlers perceived that media coverage distorted their sport performance by focusing on sensational aspects and scandals rather than on actual performances and results. Some of the athletes’ descriptions of representations in the sports media and commercial television illustrated that, in their perception, they were viewed more as media clowns than as serious athletes.
Female Fandom: Identity, Sexism, and Men’s Professional Football in England
Authors: Jones Katharine W.
Published: August 2016

In this article I consider women’s relationship to football culture, showing how women sometimes downplay their gender identities to reinforce their fan identities. To accomplish this I interviewed 38 female fans at English men’s football (soccer) matches and analyzed their responses to abusive or insulting behavior by male fans. Women used three strategies to respond to sexism and homophobia. First, they expressed disgust at abuse, sometimes redefining fandom to exclude abusers. Second, they downplayed sexism. Their third strategy was to embrace gender stereotypes, arguing that femininity was inconsistent with “authentic” fandom and that abuse was a fundamental part of football. Finally, I suggest that examining nontraditional male fans using a similar framework might yield useful results.
Athletic Expenditures and the Academic Mission of American Schools: A Group-Level Analysis
Authors: Ward Russell E.
Published: August 2016

Most studies find positive correlations at the individual level of analysis between athletic participation and academic success. One opportunity for scholarship left largely unexplored concerns the effect of athletics on group-level processes. The author used a resource-based perspective to explore the influence of athletic investment on academic achievement at the organizational level. Data were collected from 227 school districts. Multiple regression analyses revealed negative but insignificant relationships between athletic expenditures and indicators of basic skills and college preparation. Future research might determine whether the nonassociation observed in this study between athletic spending and academic performance generalizes to different school settings.
Digital Activism: Neoliberalism, the Internet, and Sport for Youth Development
Authors: Wilson Brian , Hayhurst Lyndsay
Published: August 2016

This article reports findings from an interview-based study focused around the role of the Internet in the development and operations of four nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that use sport as part of their youth engagement efforts. Findings showed, on the one hand, how the emergence of certain NGOs would not have been possible if not for the Internet. On the other hand, it was clear that the Internet contributes to a form of “ironic activism,” meaning that the practices that underlie certain forms of Internet-enabled NGO activity also reproduce neoliberal, market-driven approaches to dealing with social problems. The article includes discussion about ways in which the use of communication technologies by “sport for development” NGOs is reflective of broader developments in and around the NGO community.
Medical Uncertainty and Clinician–Athlete Relations: The Management of Concussion Injuries in Rugby Union
Authors: Malcolm Dominic
Published: August 2016

This article addresses clinical practice in sport medicine. Combining notions of medical uncertainty with a figurational sociological emphasis on interdependence, the article illustrates how uncertainty characterizes the medical understanding, clinical treatment, and patient experience of concussion. Faced with uncertainty, the clinician’s desire for recognition and validation through athletes’ dependence on them enables medically based diagnostic and treatment guidelines to be replaced by the understanding and definition of concussion dominant in the sport subculture. Clinicians further invoke strategies that protect their professional status and therefore secure their interdependence with others in the sport club figuration. The study advances our understanding by illuminating the basis on which clinicians and athletes negotiate treatment and the impact of these experiences on clinicians’ actions and beliefs.
“Big Freaky-Looking Women”: Normalizing Gender Transgression through Bodybuilding
Authors: McGrath Shelly A. , Chananie-Hill Ruth A.
Published: August 2016

Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with 10 college-level female bodybuilders, this paper focuses on several aspects of female bodybuilding that are underexplored in existing literature, including purposeful gender transgressions, gender attribution, racialized bodies, and the conflation of sex, gender, and sexual preference. We draw on critical feminist theory and the social constructionist perspective to enhance collective understanding of the subversive possibilities emerging from female bodybuilders’ lived experience. Collectively, female bodybuilders’ experiences affect somatic and behavioral gender norms in a wider Western-type industrialized society such as the United States.
Learning Masculinity through Japanese University Rowing
Authors: McDonald Brent Douglas
Published: August 2016

This article is based on a larger ethnographic project that examines the construction of gendered identity within a Japanese men’s rowing club. For members, notions of masculinity and Japanese identity converge to the point of naturalization. The embodied experience of being a rower is underpinned by the cultural artifacts of hierarchy, social positioning, and group membership. Membership in university rowing clubs somatizes and naturalizes the valued characteristics associated with salary-man identity (duty, loyalty, self-sacrifice, mental and physical endurance) to the point of common sense. The resultant masculine identity is congruent with forms of hegemonic masculinity that are critical for successful employment in company-centered Japan.
Now’s When We Throw Him Under the Bus: Institutional and Occupational Identities and the Coverage of Doping in Sport
Authors: Sefiha Ophir
Published: August 2016

This article explicates the processes by which sports news is constructed by analyzing the case of performance enhancing drug use coverage. An ethnographic study was conducted of a North American cycling news journal and website. Investigating fundamental tasks of the journalist profession illuminates the labor practices of sport media. Contextualized within institutional, economic and cultural conditions of production, these practices serve to frame not only what but how, texts are constructed. Results indicate that while performance enhancing drug use in sport is considered highly newsworthy, investigative costs, public fatigue, and lack of medical and legal knowledge account for the limited coverage.
The Gaelic Athletic Association, Transnational Identities and Irish-America
Authors: Darby Paul
Published: August 2016

This article draws on the concept of transnationalism to examine the role and function of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) among Irish migrant communities in the United States. In particular, it examines the role of the GAA in the production and reproduction of shifting notions of Irish national identification in America. The analyses here are rooted in ethnographic research conducted in the US and Ireland and are informed, theoretically, by the work of Basch, Glick-Schiller and Szanton Blanc (1994) and Duany (2002) on transnational identities. The article argues that Irish nationalism, as constructed and articulated in and through the GAA in America, can be considered as a deterritorialized form of identity rather than one that is necessarily limited or constrained by national borders.
Multimedia Use in a Sport Setting: Communication Technologies at Off-Track Betting Facilities
Authors: Kruse Holly
Published: August 2016

Although there is a growing body of research on public social practices related to the use of mobile phones, internet terminals, and laptops, there are few integrated analyses of the uses of multiple interactive technologies in public settings, and especially those involving sports. This article looks at one such space in which technology is embedded in a complicated network of social and economic relations: the screen dominated pari-mutuel horse race wagering facility. Specifically, the paper examines the relationship that built environments, public screen, and communication technologies have on social practices, and considers the juxtaposition of different places in the quotidian, and in a place of reflexive research practice.
The Female Signifiant in All-Women’s Amateur Roller Derby
Authors: Carlson Jennifer
Published: August 2016

I analyze women’s flat-track amateur roller derby by asking: how do derby skaters negotiate the requirements associated with emphasized femininity? By drawing on Hebdige’s (1979) analysis of punk, I develop the term female signifiant to argue that roller derby is an aggressive contact sport with a theatrical edge. It provides a rich, adventurous space to satirize athletic and feminine norms. Specifically, skaters’ sport participation is characterized by an interrogation of emphasized femininity without necessarily undermining the masculine/feminine gender binary.
Spatialities of Anger: Emotional Geographies in a Boxing Program for Survivors of Violence
Authors: van Ingen Cathy
Published: August 2016

The primary aim of this article is to begin to articulate the spatiality and sociality of emotion in an action research project called Shape Your Life, a project designed to teach recreational boxing to female and transgendered survivors of violence in Toronto. In particular, the article is a theoretical and empirical examination of anger, the dominant emotional response to injustice. A case is made for a spatially engaged approach to the study of anger as a politically meaningful response to violence and social injustice in the lives of survivors. Taking the anger of survivors of violence seriously provides a spotlight on the connection between the body, social space, and emotion. The article then draws from participants’ spatialities of anger to argue that anger has deep implications for people involved in unequal power relations and that anger can be used to impel change in the lives of survivors.
Portrayals of Women Golfers in the 2008 Issues of Golf Digest
Authors: Apostolis Nicolas , Giles Audrey R.
Published: August 2016

This research note examines Golf Digest’s depictions of gender through the publication’s portrayals of women in its 2008 issues. Through the use of intersectional theory and critical discourse analysis of the contents within Golf Digest, we found that despite its emerging use of women columnists and content concerning women in articles or advertisements, the magazine mainly reproduced dominant images about white, wealthy, heterosexual women athletes. In particular, we argue that the magazine often reinforces exclusionary attitudes toward women golfers by maintaining systems of privilege and oppression that benefit wealthy, white, heterosexual males. As such, we focus on gender as the most visible intersectional identity with white males, and discuss how including mainly white, wealthy, heterosexual women also conveys messages about other women’s involvement in golf.
High School Students’ Attitudes Toward Providing Girls Opportunities to Participate in Sport
Authors: Brown Marni , Ruel Erin , Medley-Rath Stephanie
Published: August 2016

In light of the increasing participation of girls/women in sport, we investigate the attitudes of high school boys and girls toward potential increased opportunities for girls’ to participate in sport. There has been little research on high school students’ attitudes toward girls’ sport participation decomposed by gender and athletic status. We find that, on average, high school students are supportive of increased opportunities for girls to participate in sport. Girls are more supportive than boys on average. While there is no difference among girls by athletic status, male competitive athletes show the most negative attitudes toward opportunities for girls to participate in sport compared with male noncompetitive athletes. Lastly, racial minority groups express positive attitudes toward increased opportunities for girls to participate in sport compared with whites.
Alcohol and Marijuana Use among American High School Seniors: Empirical Associations with Competitive Sports Participation
Authors: Denham Bryan E.
Published: August 2016

Drawing on data gathered from high-school seniors in the 2008 Monitoring the Future Study of American Youth (N = 2,063), this research examined the explanatory effects of competitive sports participation on alcohol consumption and marijuana use using race and noncompetitive exercise frequency as controls. Among males, competitive sports included baseball, basketball, football, soccer, track and field, and weightlifting, and among females, sports included softball, basketball, soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, and volleyball. White males reported greater alcohol consumption than Black and Hispanic respondents, with competitors in baseball, football and weightlifting consuming alcohol more frequently. The use of marijuana did not depend on race, but baseball players and weightlifters reported significantly more use. Among females, race differences did not emerge in ordinal regression models testing effects on alcohol consumption, but participants in every sport reported drinking alcohol more frequently. White female athletes also appeared to smoke marijuana more frequently. Overall, results suggested comparably strong effects for female sport environments while male behaviors varied by race, noncompetitive exercise frequency, and sports competition. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are offered.
There’s No Dying in Baseball: Cultural Valorization, Collective Memory, and Induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame
Authors: Parsons Nicholas L. , Stern Michael J.
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this paper is to determine how the collective memory of a baseball player’s contributions to his sport changes posthumously. We seek to examine if levels of veneration accorded to an athlete depend on whether he is alive or deceased, the timing of his death, and type of death he experienced. Building upon theories of cultural valorization, we propose that collective efforts to remember retired athletes are greater if those athletes have passed on. More explicitly, we argue that a player’s death supplements his lifetime achievements in posthumous efforts to construct and maintain his memory. We analyze the history of voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) on players eligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The results suggest that a variety of performance and recognition measures affect the amount of votes a player receives. As predicted, dying and age of death exert a powerful influence on votes received toward entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. However, when hitters and pitchers are analyzed separately, we find partial support for our propositions.
Socioeconomic Status and Sport Participation at Different Developmental Stages During Childhood and Youth: Multivariate Analyses Using Canadian National Survey Data
Authors: White Philip , McTeer William
Published: August 2016

This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and sport and physical activity involvement at different stages of childhood and adolescence in Canada. From the previous literature on SES and health-related behavior, there was reason to test competing hypotheses on the direction of the predicted relationship. The data employed in our analyses came from Cycle 3 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth—1998–1999. Results, after controls, showed that SES was a significant predictor of sport involvement among 6–9 year-olds, but not for 10–15 year-olds. In the younger group, the higher the family SES the more frequent was the involvement. The effects of SES were much stronger for organized sport involvement than for participation in an informal context. The discussion bears on the implications of these findings for later adult physical activity and sport involvement and their ramifications for sport and exercise promotion policy.
Sport in Malaysia: National Imperatives and Western Seductions
Authors: Gilmour Callum , Rowe David
Published: August 2016

Professional sport has been radically altered by global capitalism, expanding from its once highly localized origins into an increasingly internationalized, mediatized, and commoditized cultural form. Like other commodities, sport has branched out from saturated domestic markets in the West. The rapid development of Asian economies has witnessed a wave of economic and cultural modernization, and the subsequent emergence of middle-class consumption has seen internationally recognizable commodity signs like the English Premier League (EPL) desired for their symbolic link to global cosmopolitanism. This paper addresses the Malaysian context, where the nation-building process has been problematized by the complex racial, cultural and religious make-up of its population. It analyses the obstructive tension between local sporting developmental agenda and the orchestrated intrusion of global (predominantly Western) sports commodities.
From the “Taiwan Yankees” to the New York Yankees: The Glocal Narratives of Baseball
Authors: Chen Tzu-Hsuan
Published: August 2016

This study examines both the general narratives of baseball in Taiwan and particularly New York Yankees-related narratives since Taiwanese player Chien-ming Wang joined the team in 2005. By reviewing newspaper coverage and TV ratings data, I argue that a nationalistic perspective was the undertone in the Taiwanese mass media; indeed, the media could define the Yankees as Taiwan’s vicarious national team or the “Evil Empire”, depending on Wang’s current relationship with the Yankees. However, with Wang’s departure from the Yankees, the Yankees have been removed from Taiwan’s nationalistic narratives and returned to being New York’s team. The idea of athletes connecting their homeland and the nation hosting the professional team seemed common and straightforward. However, as the relationship between athletes and their teams change, team-related national narratives can also change.
The Emergence of Football Spectating as a Social Problem 1880–1985: A Figurational and Developmental Perspective
Authors: Maguire Joe
Published: August 2016

This paper has three main purposes: to undermine the dominant mythology surrounding football hooliganism, to propose an alternative conceptualization, and to highlight more general issues in the sociology of sport. The main basis for the study is a systematic survey of newspapers and FA minutes dating from the 1880s. Examination of the changing nature and extent of both the actual forms and the perception of spectator disorder by powerful outsiders is undertaken. Changes in the specific forms of spectator disorder, in perceptions of it and in attempts to control it, are more adequately understood in terms of class cultural conflict over ways of living in English society and by attempting to trace the antecedents of such conflict. Crucial in this regard has been a marked narrowing of the forms of behavior that are seen as consistent with public disorder—the defining and redefining of the limits of “decent” spectating reflects this process. Analysis of the more general issue of agency and structure is considered in the concluding remarks.
Saving Lives With Soccer and Shoelaces: The Hyperreality of Nike (RED)
Authors: Szto Courtney
Published: August 2016

Product (RED) was launched in 2006 as an initiative to activate the corporate sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. In 2009, Nike joined Product (RED)’s list of corporate partners with its “Lace Up, Save Lives” campaign. Nike (RED) directs 100% of its profits toward HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and grassroots soccer programs in Africa. This case study questions the symbolism projected by Nike (RED) and its implications by applying Jean Baudrillard’s theories on consumption and hyperreality. The manner in which Nike (RED) represents Africa, HIV/AIDS, soccer, and sport for development and peace are all discussed as mediated simulations that position Nike as the producer of knowledge. Data analysis observes that Nike (RED) laces produce a hyperreality, whereby the origin of truth becomes, according to Baudrillard, indecipherable and soccer becomes more important than HIV/AIDS.
Private and Moral Authority, Self-Determination, and the Domestic Transfer Objective: Foundations for Understanding Sport for Development and Peace in Aboriginal Communities in Canada
Authors: Hayhurst Lyndsay M.C. , Giles Audrey
Published: August 2016

Sport for development and peace (SDP) is a contemporary term for practices that have a long history, particularly in Canada’s provincial and territorial north, and especially with Aboriginal peoples for whom the region is home. Using a postcolonial international relations feminist approach, theories of global governance and private authority, and by exploring recent literature on self-determination in the context of Aboriginal peoples, we investigate 1) the assumptions at work in attempts to “transfer” SDP programming models in the Two-Thirds World to Aboriginal communities across Canada; 2) how the retreat of the welfare state and neo-liberal policies have produced the “need” for SDP in Aboriginal communities; and 3) how efforts toward Aboriginal self-determination can be made through SDP. We argue that, taken together, these concepts build a useful foundation better understanding for the historical and sociopolitical processes involved in deploying SDP interventions in Aboriginal communities.
Apartheid and Sport: South Africa Revisited
Authors: Krotee March L.
Published: August 2016

The South African government’s socially based policy of segregation and discrimination, or “apartheid,” has caused tremendous external, as well as internal, pressures to reverse the government’s inhumane treatment of its repressed populace. Until recently none of the pressures have been more forceful than those evoked by the sporting world and the United Nations. Since 1960, these forces have served to isolate South Africa from most international sports competitions, including the Olympic Games. At one juncture, various leanings in apartheid policy seemed to point toward a tilt in attitudinal posture not only in regard to sport but to various related apartheid conduct. Recent events, however, have elucidated a continued dominant posture concerning South Africa’s all-encompassing socially repressive apartheid practice. It appears that, unless the South African government initiates swift and salient apartheid expiration, the perilous game they are playing may get out of hand.
The Construction and Confirmation of Identity in Sport Subcultures
Authors: Donnelly Peter , Young Kevin
Published: August 2016

It is usual in interactionist research to view the process of socialization into subcultures as, in part, a process of identity formation. However, we prefer to examine this process, at least in the case of sport subcultures, as a far more deliberate act of identity construction. That is, through a variety of means, the most significant of which is modeling, the neophyte member begins to deliberately adopt mannerisms, attitudes, and styles of dress, speech, and behavior that he or she perceives to be characteristic of established members of the subculture. Such perceptions among neophytes are usually far from being completely accurate and are frequently stereotypical. Thus, it is necessary to examine also the complementary process of identity confirmation in order to conduct a more complete examination of socialization into a subcultural career. These processes, and neophyte mistakes emerging in them, are examined with respect to ethnographies of climbers and rugby players conducted by the authors, together with supporting material from studies of other sports-related aspects of ethnographic research.
“Together We Stand, Divided We Fall”; Social Criticism and the Sociology of Sport and Leisure
Authors: Deem Rosemary
Published: August 2016

The article explores four modes of critical social theory in the sociology of sport and leisure, and attempts to identify common ground between these, especially in relation to their treatment of gender issues. Perspectives differ not only in their concepts and explanations but also in their underlying domain assumptions. First, the Weberian/Figurational perspective taken by Rojek is considered; this approach is the least concerned with gender, although breaking new ground in other ways. Second, the article looks at the work of the neo-Marxist, Hargreaves, which does include gender and race as issues, although secondary to class. Third is the work of Clarke and Critcher, with an important emphasis on the politics of culture and consumption, but again gender is seen as secondary to class. Finally, recent feminist perspectives are analyzed; here gender is primary, but other issues like class have not always been fully incorporated. Synthesis between different critical approaches to sport and leisure is seen as desirable because of the huge task of transforming these social phenomena. The paper suggests, however, that since the domain assumptions of all four are so different, their best way forward may lie in a new radical pluralist approach that does not a priori see any one social division as paramount.
Participation in a Male Sport Model and the Value Alienation of Female Intercollegiate Athletes
Authors: Blinde Elaine M.
Published: August 2016

Due in part to changes brought about by Title IX and the NCAA, women’s intercollegiate sport programs have increasingly emulated the male model of intercollegiate sport. Given such a shift in orientation, the present study examined the relationship between the degree to which an athlete’s sport program emulated the male model of sport and (a) the nature and type of values emphasized in the athlete’s sport program, and (b) the degree of value alienation experienced by athletes. Such hypothesized relationships are consistent with feminist claims that women are alienated in structures that have been created and shaped by men without regard for the existence or experienees of women. A questionnaire was mailed to 952 former female athletes who had participated in sport programs at 10 Division I universities, with completed questionnaires received from 482 athletes. Results indicated that an increasing emphasis was placed on “male model values” as the sport program of athletes increasingly emulated the male sport model. Furthermore, athletes were slightly more likely to express feelings of value alienation with increasing emulation of the male sport model.
Age and Involvement in Sport and Physical Activity
Authors: Rudman William J.
Published: August 2016

This paper focuses on how age affects involvement in sport and physical activity. Investigated are questions related to how age differences in perceived barriers and outcomes to involvement in sport and physical activity, socioeconomic status, and sport philosophy/ideology affect joining a corporate versus a private sport and fitness program. A developmental lifestyle perspective is offered as the theoretical premise on which interpretations of the data are based. Findings from this study clearly show that reasons for involvement in sport and physical activity vary across the life cycle. At younger ages the psychological benefits associated with work related stress are perceived as the most important reason for involvement. During middle age, philosophical and ideological reasons begin to determine the setting where involvement in these programs takes place. Finally, for older individuals, philosophical differences along with socioeconomic factors determine both the extent and where involvement occurs.
Double Fault: Renee Richards and the Construction and Naturalization of Difference
Authors: Birrell Susan , Cole Cheryl L.
Published: August 2016

This study examines the implications of the entrance of Renee Richards, a constructed-female transsexual, into the women’s professional tennis circuit. The purpose of our analysis is to show how our culture constructs woman and produces particular notions of gender, sex, and difference by examining a case in which these ideological processes are literally enacted: the construction of a “woman,” Renee Richards, from a man. We do this by exploring the cultural meaning of transsexualism in the U.S.; by examining critically how issues of transsexualism, sex, and gender are framed by the media in the Renee Richards case; and by exploring the particular problematic posed by Richards’ entrance into the highly gendered world of professional sport. Although Renee Richards appears to challenge fundamental cultural assumptions about sex and gender, closer analysis reveals that the various media frames invoked to explain the meaning of Renee Richards reproduce rather than challenge dominant gender arrangements and ideologies.
More than a Sporting Touchdown: The Making of American Football in England 1982–1990
Authors: Maguire Joe
Published: August 2016

This paper examines the figurational dynamics and cultural significance of the emergence of American football on the landscape of English sports culture. To do this, it is necessary to place this development within the context of the more general debate concerning the Americanization of British culture. It is also necessary to examine how such changes in sports culture are intertwined with broader cultural changes. The substantive section focuses on the network of interdependencies involved in the making of American football in England in the 1980s. Attention is paid to the crucial role played by the marketing strategies of the NFL, Anheuser-Busch, and a British television company in promoting the game of American football in English society. An attempt is made to highlight the interweaving of interests of media and multinational corporations in the creation of a market not simply for the game of American football but also for the merchandising, sponsorship, and endorsement operations associated with it. The paper concludes with a consideration of Americanization, sport, and cultural change.
Dimensions of Power: A Question of Sport or Gender?
Authors: Knoppers Annelies , Meyer Barbara Bedker , Ewing Martha , Forrest Linda
Published: August 2016

Organizational power can be defined as access to and ability to mobilize resources such as supplies, support, and information (Kanter, 1977). Differences in organizational power in athletic departments can be seen as a function of sport (whether one coaches a revenue or nonrevenue sport) or of gender. This study examined the extent to which sport or gender best explained differences in the degree of organizational power that Division I college coaches hold in athletic departments. The sample consisted of 947 coaches who responded to a questionnaire that included items dealing with their access to supplies, support, and information. The results indicated that the nature of the intersection of sport and gender varied across the three dimensions of power. Consistently, however, female coaches of nonrevenue sports were most limited in their access to critical resources while male coaches of revenue sports had the most power. This led to the conclusion that an analysis on the distribution of power should examine it in the context of both gender and sport.
Wide World of Golf: A Research Note on the Interdependence of Sport, Culture, and Economy
Authors: Stoddart Brian
Published: August 2016

This research note argues that while golf is perhaps the most socially pervasive of games on a global scale, its social contours have been ignored by academic analysts. The paper isolates three themes as being likely avenues for further investigation: environmental issues, the internationalization of golf and its economy, and social access to participation. By virtue of its heavy demands on natural resources of land and water, golf is rapidly becoming an environmental issue. International economic patterns are altering traditional golf participation patterns, course ownership, and equipment production. Then, the predicted 1990s golf boom may occur among social groups previously untouched by the game, again with implications for its social contexting. In each of these three themes there are clear overlaps and social interlocking that render golf an excellent research site for many of the issues in sport sociology.
Burning Desire: Nostalgia, Ritual, and the Sport-Festival Flame Ceremony
Authors: Slowikowski Synthia S.
Published: August 2016

This essay first considers John MacAloon’s categorization of the sport-festival flame ceremony, particularly his discussion of the ritual as the expression of “spontaneous communitas.” The paper then goes on to forward a broad, transcendent reading of the ritual as it exists in the developed world and in the Olympic Games. The ceremony is proffered as one manifestation of a kind of universal image, and the soundings and bearings of that image as it has become important in physical culture and in the mass media are noted. One sport-festival flame ceremony context is defined by the feelings and emotions that are a part of public life and thought. In this sense the representation, the image, of the lighting of an altar at an athletic festival is recognized as a symbol of nostalgia. Furthermore, in a postmodern sense the ceremony is appraised as it has been selected, invented, and variously blurred, and as it has continued to garner narratives of such ideologies as nostalgia, in contemporary culture.
Fielding Our Dreams: Rounding Third in Dyersville
Authors: Mosher Stephen D.
Published: August 2016

While contemporary American sport films seem to be targeting the adolescent audience for a message of empowerment, a smaller group of sport films seems to have reached out to the adult audience with the “preposterous” claim that sport allows us opportunities for personal redemption. Through interviews conducted at the Dyersville, Iowa, site of Fields of Dreams, a critical examination of several contemporary adult baseball films, and analysis of the Pete Rose saga, I hope to show that the opportunity for personal redemption is not only possible but in fact is a primary function of all sport. When asked in Field of Dreams by Shoeless Joe Jackson, “Is this heaven?” Ray Kinsella responds, “No, it’s Iowa.” I maintain that the predominant mythos in contemporary sport is that, indeed, it is heaven.
Canadian Athletes’ Perceptions of the 1980 Olympic Boycott
Authors: Crossman Jane , Lappage Ron
Published: August 2016

In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with 48 randomly selected members of the 1980 Canadian Olympic team to determine the impact of the boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games upon their lives and athletic careers. Questions from a 24-item interview schedule focused upon the process by which the athletes were informed, their understanding of the boycott, their reaction to it, the impact on them, and their attitudes and opinions regarding the boycott. The 1980 Olympic boycott generally had a negative impact upon the lives of the athletes interviewed in this study, but the effect depended upon variables such as the sport in which the athlete competed, the stage of his/her career at the time of the boycott, the athlete’s performance expectations, the importance he/she placed upon the Olympics, his/her ability to cope, his/her support structure, and the degree to which the athlete identified with his/her sport. Several recommendations are made regarding future sports boycotts.
Toward a Better Understanding of the Sport Practices of Francophone and Anglophone Canadians
Authors: Curtis James E. , White Philip G.
Published: August 2016

The SSJ has recently published commentaries by Laberge and Girardin (1992) and McAll (1992), on our analyses of sport practices among Anglophone and Francophone Canadians, that obscure more than they clarify. The comments contain problems of misunderstanding and misrepresentations and put forward a nonviable theoretical interpretation of Francophone/Anglophone differences in leisure sport participation. They also recommend a problematic research strategy for the area of study. We briefly spell out some of the problems involved in the two sets of comments. We also present additional data for the late 1980s that further call into question the commentators’ interpretation.
The Sport Psychology Consultant: Olympic Coaches’ Views
Authors: Partington John , Orlick Terry
Published: August 2016

Individual interviews were conducted with 17 Canadian Olympic coaches in order to assess sport psychology consultants and services provided to their athletes and teams in the 4 years leading up to the 1984 Olympic Games. The coaches represented a wide range of sports; all but 2 had worked directly with a sport psychology consultant in preparing their athletes for the Olympics. A total of 21 consultants were reviewed and evaluated. The coaches outlined their personal criteria for assessing the effectiveness of a sport psychology consultant and his or her mental training program. A consensus regarding desired personal consultant characteristics is presented, as well as coaches’ reasons for retaining or terminating the services of a sport psychology consultant.
Relationship between Self-Efficacy, Wrestling Performance, and Affect Prior to Competition
Authors: Treasure Darren C. , Monson Jeffrey , Lox Curt L.
Published: August 2016

This study examined the relationship between self-efficacy, wrestling performance, and affect prior to competition. 15 minutes prior to competition, 70 male high school wrestlers (M = 16.03 years) completed a self-efficacy assessment, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and the Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety Inventory-2 (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990). Self-efficacy was found to be significantly associated with positive and negative affect and cognitive and somatic anxiety. Consistent with social cognitive theory, self-efficacy was a stronger predictor of performance when the measure was process oriented rather than win-loss. The findings suggest that confusion and equivocality in the literature could be removed if researchers assessed self-efficacy in a microanalytical fashion. Future research investigating the affective antecedents of performance should go beyond merely assessing negative states and recognize the potential role positive affect may play in sport behavior.
Coaches’ Attitudes, Knowledge, Experiences, and Recommendations Regarding Weight Control
Authors: Griffin Joy , Harris Mary B.
Published: August 2016

Because of a higher than normal incidence of pathogenic weight-loss techniques and eating disorders in athletes, 274 coaches were surveyed to discover their attitudes, knowledge, personal experiences, and recommendations regarding weight control. Coaches demonstrated relatively negative attitudes toward and limited knowledge about obesity, with a few gender and ethnic differences. They tended to make decisions about the need for weight control on the basis of appearance rather than objective indicators, and they saw more females as needing to lose weight and more males as needing to gain. Although a majority of the coaches had tried to lose weight themselves, some using dangerous weight-control techniques, they did not recommend such techniques to their athletes. Nevertheless, it is possible that their obvious concern about weight may have been interpreted by their athletes as encouragement for using pathogenic weight-loss methods.
Burnout in Competitive Junior Tennis Players: II. Qualitative Analysis
Authors: Gould Daniel , Tuffey Suzanne , Udry Eileen , Loehr James
Published: August 2016

This article reports findings from the second phase of a larger research project designed to examine burnout in competitive junior tennis players. This phase of the project was qualitative in nature and involved two components. First, interviews were conducted with 10 individuals who were identified as being most burned out in the quantitative phase (Phase 1) of the project. Content analyses of the 10 respondents’ interviews identified mental and physical characteristics of burnout, as well as reasons for burning out. Recommendations for preventing burnout in players, parents, and coaches also were gleaned. Second, the 10 individual cases were examined in light of the major tenants of the three existing models of athlete burnout. Results from the examination of the burnout models suggested that burnout is best thought of in terms of Smith’s (1986) chronic stress model with physical and social psychological strains falling under it.
Sudden Death in Sport: Managing the Aftermath
Authors: Vernacchia Ralph A. , Reardon James R. , Templin David R.
Published: August 2016

This study presents the case of a male university basketball player who died of a heart attack caused by an abnormal heart rhythm (Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome) and describes the various emotional stages his teammates and coaches experienced during the days and months following this tragic incident. The team’s emotional responses to their teammates’ sudden death were categorized into several stages: shock, confusion, and denial; performance resolve; realization of loss; glorification and memorialization; closure and relief; avoidance and debriefing; reentry and acceptance. A modified critical incident stress debriefing process was used by educational and clinical sport psychologists who collaborated to manage and provide care-giving services to team members and coaches.
Effects of Different Types of Goals on Processes That Support Performance
Authors: Kingston Kieran M. , Hardy Lew
Published: August 2016

Empirical studies attesting to the effectiveness of goal setting in sport have been plagued by equivocation. Inconsistencies may relate to task/goal complexity and the types of goals that participants are asked to use (Hardy, Jones, & Gould, 1996). This study addresses the second of these issues by examining the relative efficacy of two types of goal-setting training program that differ according to their primary focus. Thirty-seven club golfers completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 on three occasions at important competitions and the Sport Psychology Skills Questionnaire prior to, and following, the intervention. Two-factor (Group × Test) ANOVAs revealed a significant interaction (p < .05) for ability, indicating significant improvements from Test 1 to Test 2 for the process-oriented group, and between Test 1 and Test 3. The significant interactions (p < .05) for self-efficacy, cognitive anxiety control, and concentration provide further evidence for the positive impact of process goals in competitive situations.