Sporting mega-events, physical activity, and Actor Network Theory: Mapping actants of movement at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Abstract

This article explores the potential of Bruno Latour's Actor Network Theory (ANT) for rethinking the relationship between sporting mega-events and physical activity (PA). Engaging with ANT as theory and methodology, we explore how PA is a result of human–nonhuman interactions occurring during and around sporting events. More specifically, based upon a collaborative ethnography of the 2023 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Women's World Cup (FWWC23), we focus on humans and nonhumans (football, physical spaces, and seats) as actants (intermediaries and mediators) that enabled and/or constrained PA. In so doing, we provide an alternative to PA initiatives (such as the collaboration between FIFA and the World Health Organization with the BeActive #BringtheMoves campaign at the FWWC23) that focus on human intentionality and view the body as controllable. Instead, in this article we recognize PA as a complex phenomenon dis/re/assembling as objects, humans, and actants interact in (un)expected ways. Simultaneously, we discuss both the affordances and challenges offered by ANT in sporting mega-event literature and for research and policies that link sporting events and PA.