Sport Identity Research Articles

SPORT AS A MEANS OF INCLUSION AND INTEGRATION FOR "THOSE OF US WITH DISABILITIES"

Can sport provide a platform for disability awareness as regards both social and biological dimensions? How can sport serve as a tool or means of social inclusion for persons or athletes with disabilities? To address these questions our qualitative study begins with a review of current research on the social dimensions of disability, namely diverse forms of social exclusion experienced by those of us with disabilities (McCall, 2016), such as attitudinal, institutional and environmental barriers, subsequently followed by a case study in Greece. Initially, we discuss today’s shift to inclusion—which advocates a more inclusive and people-first perspective as well as a more empowering language—and distinguish between two concepts/approaches, integration and inclusion, mainly through educational schemes, so as to facilitate the analysis that follows on sport’s role in eliminating social and institutional barriers and promoting inclusion. Inclusive education is a central objective of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and other UN and UNESCO initiatives. In this context researchers have been examining sport and physical education as tools, instruments or means of social inclusion and/or integration. Accordingly, to determine whether—and to what extent—sport participation contributes to the inclusion and integration of people with physical disabilities, interviews were conducted with 20 athletes in Athens: semi-structured interviews with 14 male and 6 female Paralympic and World Champions. The findings confirm that both genders confront many forms of social exclusion (attitudinal, environmental and institutional), however their sport participation plays a significant and positive role in their lives. All 20 acknowledge or report sport gives them a social identity, a sport identity and a meaning in life , in addition to contributing to their social integration/inclusion. Conclusions : The lack of disability awareness, information and knowledge accounts for many of the barriers. Recognizing both the social and biological dimensions of disability is important. The disability community needs visibility , i.e. coverage in mainstream media to cultivate inclusion, promote and reproduce role models and mentors, along with a wider disability awareness campaign, in which sport could play a vital role in changing stereotypes and attitudes, in addition to eliminating the supercrip identity. Article visualizations:

Attracting Spectators to Youth Sport Events: The Case of the International Children’s Games

The purpose of this study was to determine whether perceptions of value of a youth sport event were predicted by a spectator’s sport identity, their connection to an athlete, and how their assessment of the event’s uniqueness affects these relationships. Data were collected from spectators (N=714) at the 2013 International Children’s Games using a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results provided support for an indirect only mediated model, such that spectators who highly identified with being a sports fan perceived the event as being valuable when they also viewed the event as unique. Having a personal connection to an athlete did not predict perceptions of uniqueness or value. Thus, purposefully selecting and designing unique events and promoting the unique attributes of the event could increase an event’s appeal to spectators who highly identify with the sport.

Let’s Talk Sports: An Egocentric Discussion Network Analysis Regarding NFL Crisis Perceptions

This egocentric discussion network analysis examines American sports fans’ crisis perceptions regarding four National Football League (NFL) crises. The purpose of this research was to examine how stakeholders’ perceptions of sport-related crises are communicated within the rhetorical arena. This research addresses several lingering questions regarding the influential role of sport identification, fan communication behavior, and social relationships among sports fans in the development of crisis perceptions. The situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) model is extended by applying it to sport crisis and the network perspective. In sum, this sport crisis egocentric discussion network, driven by functional specificity hypothesis, enabled an in-depth investigation into network selection, activation, and influence regarding sports fans’ crisis perceptions, and the significance of identification and the discordant communication exchanged within a sports fan’s personal network.

The Effect of Intellectual Capital and Individual Self-Efficacy on Sport Identity of Kradeniz Technique University Physical Education Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of intellectual capital and individual self-efficacy on the sporting identity of the students in the field of physical education in Turkey. In order to measure the intellectual capital variable, the standard questionnaire (Bontis, 1998) was used, to measure the individual self-efficacy variable the standard questionnaire (Sherr & Mados, 1982) was used, and to assess the sport identity of the standard questionnaire (Cheslak, 2004) was used.The reliability of the questionnaires was also assessed by Cronbach's alpha test, respectively; The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the intellectual capital questionnaire was 0.84, for the self-efficacy questionnaire 0.75 and for the sports identity questionnaire 0.8. The questionnaires were distributed among the statistical sample (181 students of physical education of Karadeniz Technique University). The findings indicated that intellectual capital with a coefficient of 0.85 and its three dimensions (human capital, structural capital, and communicative capital) as well as individual self-efficacy with a coefficient of 0.815 and its three dimensions (no interest in harassing others, desire of extending effort and different ways to face obstacles) on physical education students’ identity was significant. It can be concluded that with the increase of intellectual capital and the efficiency of physical education students, the identity of sports identity will be improved.

The Development of Sámi Sport, 1970–1990: A Concern for Sweden or for Sápmi?

It is widely agreed that sport and national identity are two interwoven phenomena. Recently, researchers have taken an interest in how sport has been used for nation-building purposes among groups not defined in terms of nation-states. These include the Sámi, an Indigenous people living in an area that extends over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Sámi championships and a Sámi national football team have been important elements in shaping a Sámi national identity across the state borders. Against this background, the historical development that led to the formation in 1990 of a Sámi National Sports Federation was highly complicated. The period from 1970 to 1990 was fraught by the dilemma of how sport was to be organized – based on the division of the Sámi by state borders or through a transnational Sámi sports organization. The outcome was a compromise in that the Sámi National Sports Federation was founded as an umbrella organization under which Sámi in Norway, Sámi in Finland, and Sámi in Sweden established separate and autonomous Sámi ‘district associations’.

Developing narrative identities in youth pre-elite sport: bridging the present and the future

ABSTRACT Narrative research has contributed to understandings of athletic identity as an evolving story of the self that is creatively put together by the agentic individual but necessarily dependent on broader narratives within which we all live our lives. However, most studies in sport have focused on retrospective ‘big stories’ of athletes’ lives, rather than on-going, future-oriented identity construction through storytelling. In this study, we explored Finnish pre-elite athletes’ emerging stories of the self to understand the processes associated with the narrative selection and the resources they tap into in making sport meaningful to them. Nine women and eight men aged 17–18 were invited to create a visual representation of themselves as athletes and discuss them in conversational interviews. In the narrative analysis, we identified three storylines, ‘the high-performance athlete’, ‘the performance, relational and fun athlete’ and ‘the lifestyle athlete’ and explored how stories were selected to construct a positive athletic identity and sustain motivation. We argue that the end point of the identity narratives was to establish a positive future perspective and hope in the face of adversities. The future-oriented narrative content signals a need for more diverse narrative methodologies in sport beyond retrospective approaches such as the life story interview, especially with younger participants.

‘I dream of Genie’: Eugenie Bouchard’s ‘body’ of work on Facebook

ABSTRACT New visual regimes of fame and femininity continue to challenge the traditional realms of sport stardom and media representation. Through new media, individual athletes potentially have more agential control over their imagery, content and forms of self-presentation. This article offers an exploratory case study of French-Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard’s self-presentational on Facebook. Through her construction of an online Genie persona, Bouchard offers an idealised, desirable and commodified ‘body’ of work on Facebook. Collectively, Genie’s playful embodied projections and performances merge athletic endeavours and self-depreciating tennis posts with an array of provocative, hetero-sexy displays. Poignantly, such self-presentations are notable for the frequency of bikini-clad and ‘Genie hot body’ imagery, coupled with the reduced emphasis on tennis performances. As such, Bouchard’s visual regime seemingly illuminates, confronts and challenges traditional sporting and feminine identity constructions. By enacting and performing the online Genie persona, Bouchard largely eschews the expected sport stardom parameters of merit and achievement, while foregrounding a postfeminist body politics around desirability and agency through her self-sexualising and self-objectifying practices.

Emotions in Group Sports: A Narrative Review From a Social Identity Perspective.

Recently, novel lines of research have developed to study the influence of identity processes in sport-related behaviors. Yet, whereas emotions in sport are the result of a complex psychosocial process, little attention has been paid to examining the mechanisms that underlie how group membership influences athletes’ emotional experiences. The present narrative review aims at complementing the comprehensive review produced by Rees et al. (2015) on social identity in sport by reporting specific work on identity-based emotions in sport. To that end, we firstly overview the different terminology currently used in the field of emotions in groups to clarify the distinct nature of emotions that result from an individual’s social identity. Secondly, we discuss key concepts of social identity to better understand the mechanisms underlying identity-based emotions. Thirdly, we address existing knowledge on identity-based emotions in sport. We close the present narrative review by suggesting future research perspectives based on existing meta-theories of social identity. Evidence from the social psychology literature is discussed alongside existing works from the sport literature to propose a crucial theoretical approach to better understand emotions in sport.

Is there still hope for clean sport? Exploring how the Russian doping scandal has impacted North American sport culture and identity using an ethnographic content analysis

ABSTRACTAt the Olympic and Paralympic levels, competitive sport reflects individual, organisational, and political power, serving as a significant source of both social and economic national pride. When revelations arose against Russia concerning systematic doping, the integrity of international sport was called into question and countries experienced threats towards their national identity. Since 2014, news coverage of the Russian doping scandal dominated North American sport media headlines. Media is considered a powerful outlet capable of influencing behaviours, attitudes, and actions through the transmission of ideas, values, and norms. As such, the purpose of this research was to identify dominant discourses surrounding the Russian systematic doping program as presented in the North American media from Sochi 2014 to Pyeongchang 2018. We conducted an ethnographic content analysis of 55 newspaper articles to identify how the media perpetuated attitudes and ideas surrounding cultural identity in sport. Two discourses were identified: (a) the frustration and disappointment held by North Americans against international sport governing bodies, and (b) the desire to fight for clean sport. Whereas the former discourse left readers feeling hopeless about the state of international sport, the latter provided suggestions to prevent doping in the future. Through our interpretations of the media articles, we have come to understand how the media reinforces North American identity as being morally superior in the fight against doping. We encourage readers to reflect on our interpretations of the North American media’s discourse and to think critically about the current state of doping in sport.

‘Our wee country’: national identity, golf and ‘Ireland’

The careers of professional golfers offer a noteworthy opportunity to examine the ways in which national identity is imagined, constructed and experienced. This paper examines the nexus of national identity and golf in ‘Ireland’, and more particularly, Rory McIlroy’s public statements on the identity politics surrounding his country of choice for the 2016 Olympic Games. In so doing, it reveals aspects of McIlroy’s personal and sporting habitus, the value he associated with being ‘Irish’, his legitimization of Northern Ireland (NI), and the possible effect of his decision on others’ orientation towards his sporting identity on the island of Ireland. Given the current political instability in NI, it remains to be seen whether McIlroy’s talent as a golfer and his transnational social status will translate into him being a powerful cultural intermediary for sport in/and NI.

Two project players and a kilted kiwi with a granny from fife: (re)presenting Scotland at the 2015 Rugby World Cup

Research into the representation of national identities in international sport has developed markedly in the last 24 years. Much of this has focused on the print media portrayal of national identities in mega-events like the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup. This article looks at the ways in which rugby union players representing Scotland at the 2015 Rugby World Cup were portrayed across four newspapers during the 6 weeks of the tournament. It considers the ways in which national identities came into focus through newspaper narratives focusing on three members of the Scotland team who were born outside of that nation. This work highlights the contested terrain of the rules around player eligibility and broader notions of acceptance of these players as representatives of the Scottish nation.

Voluntary sensemaking: the identity formation process of volunteers in sport organizations

ABSTRACTResearch questionVolunteers are essential to the management of nonprofit community sport organizations (CSOs). Although previous research has focused on the individual or institutional factors that influence volunteerism in these contexts, there has been less attention to how these factors collectively impact group identity formation, which is associated with collective solidarity.Research methodsUsing the theoretical lens of identity work, this case study analyzes this process from a critical realist perspective. Document analysis and a focus group with three paid staff members were used to generate data on the ‘sensebreaking’ and ‘sensegiving’ cues projected by a CSO, and interviews were conducted to understand volunteers’ ‘sensemaking’ of these cues, along with the corollary influence on group identity formation.Results and findingsResults indicate reconciling sport identities and adjusting to formalized tasks were salient ‘sensebreaking’ cues. Moreover, the reputation of the CSO and establishment of role identities were identified as key ‘sensegiving’ mechanisms, while symbols and conviviality among volunteers helped promote collective group identities.ImplicationsThe discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of findings, focusing specifically on the identity work performed by volunteers and group identity formation, and also discusses key implications for practice.

Jewish Girls, Gender, and Sport at the Chicago Hebrew Institute: Athletic Identity in Jewish and Cultural Spaces

Jewish Girls, Gender, and Sport at the Chicago Hebrew Institute: Athletic Identity in Jewish and Cultural Spaces Linda J. Borish (bio) Introduction The development of physical exercise and sport for Jewish girls at the Chicago Hebrew Institute (CHI), founded in 1903 to serve Jewish immigrants, expanded sporting opportunities for Jewish girls. Located on Chicago’s lower West Side, and a forerunner of the Jewish Community Center (JCC), CHI promoted the moral, physical, religious, and civic welfare of Jewish immigrants and residents. The institute combined physical and spiritual training in its Americanization programs for Jewish girls. In its early years, the CHI instituted a program of physical education and paid particular attention to the need for physical culture for Jewish boys and girls. This paper explores how gender and ethnicity shaped sport for Jewish girls at the CHI in the early twentieth century.1 Proponents of Jewish girls playing basketball, engaging in swimming, and running track and field, and Jewish girls themselves, acted as agents of change to gain access to cultural spaces and sports instructors. Using archival records, annual reports, scrapbooks, the American and Jewish press, and material culture sources, this essay examines the significance of Jewish girls at CHI in sport in gender and ethnic contexts. Gender, Jewish girls, and sport have received little attention from scholars in American Jewish history, women’s and sport history, and gender history. The research that has been done in gender, ethnicity, and sport indicates the important place of Jewish girls and women in American Jewish history and sport history.2 In the study of American sport and ethnicity, historians must include Jewish women’s experiences. As sport historian Jennifer Hargreaves has written, “There is a tendency for generalizations to be made about all women in sports from examples of white women,” and these stereotypically refer to white, Western, bourgeois women.3 In fact, studies of sport and Jews typically focus on the male gender and how American Jewish men participated in certain sports to demonstrate masculinity and to challenge the stereotype of the weak, frail, non-athletic Jew portrayed [End Page 149] in accounts of white middle-class Protestant viewpoints in the Progressive Era. As scholar Alan Klein asserted, “Popular cultural conceptions of Jews have them about as far removed from the sporting soma-type as one can imagine.” In terms of gender, “the historical tendency to bifurcate genders (masculine as contrasted with feminine) and to assign a range of traits to each has . . . led to placing Jewish men in the feminine camp.”4 In his study, Klein thus discusses Jewish men: “I show that in the U.S., Jews used sport as a vehicle for assimilation and in certain sports put up impressive numbers. The first half of the twentieth century had Jews performing at an elite level in boxing and basketball.” This refers certainly to “Jewish men” who “made names for themselves”; Klein remarks that “the continuation of perceptions of them as weak and unfit serves as a sober reminder that prejudice is immune to rational argument.”5 Moreover, in such publications as Jews and the Sporting Life: Studies in Contemporary Jewry, An Annual (2008), almost all the articles focus on Jewish men in sport. Editor Ezra Mendelsohn commented, “For the young American Jewish community . . . interest and participation in local sports activities was a hallmark of acculturation, and the heroics of Jewish sportsmen a source of ethnic pride on the part of a people often derided for its lack of physicality for its ‘softness’ and its ‘femininity.’”6 The emphasis in scholarly works typically spotlights the male gender in Jewish sport history. Historian Steven Riess explains, “Sport was regarded as almost inherently a male sphere, inappropriate for Victorian women, and the contemporary press described nearly all sports as manly.” Manliness and sport identity went hand in hand so that middle-class men developed their physical and spiritual self in building character and building their bodies. Riess states, “Sport boomed as a middle-class recreation in the late nineteenth century and contributed significantly to the redefinition of middle-class manliness.”7 However, Jewish women, as well as men, strove to participate in a range of sports as part of gaining access...

Anderson’s athletic identity concept: French-Canadian validation of the athletic identity questionnaire

Introduction Although sport identity is a notion widely used in the literature to explain one’s attachment to the athletic role, a few valid psychometric tools exist in French to measure such notion. Objective Validation of a French version of <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="IJASS_2018_v30n2_111_B2">Anderson’s (2004)</xref> Athletic Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) for a Québec French-speaking population. Method Participants (n = 389) completed the French version of the AIQ and were athletes, former athletes and non-athletes. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine model structure, whereas ANOVAS helped determine construct validity regarding athletic status. Results A four factor first order structure emerged, as well as a second order structure composed of three of the four original facets. Significant differences for all four scales across the three groups appeared. Conclusion AIQ-French is a valid psychometric tool which can measure different degrees of athletic identity best represented jointly by the importance, appearance and competence scales.

الهوية الرياضية والتماسك الجماعي لدى فرق الألعاب الرياضية الجماعية في الجامعات الفلسطينية "جامعة خضوري انموذجا"

The aim of this study was to identify the differences in sport identity and group cohesion among team sport games at Palestinian universities "Kadoorei University is a model" according to gender and game type variables. The study carried out on purposive sample consisted of (77) players. The researchers carried out tow scales for measuring sport identity and team cohesion. To analyse data, they used spss program. The results of the study revealed the following: The level of sport identity and their three domains among study sample were very high but it was high for group cohesion. There were significant differences in sport identity among team sport games at Palestinian universities "Kadoorei University is a model "according to gender variable in favor of male player, but there weren’t significant differences in group cohesion according to game type variable. There were significant differences in sport identity and group cohesion among team sport games at Palestinian universities “Kadoorei University is a model "according to gender game type variables. Based on the study findings, the researchers recommended making similar study on individual sport games at Palestinian universities.

الهوية الرياضية والتماسك الجماعي لدى فرق الألعاب الرياضية الجماعية في الجامعات الفلسطينية "جامعة خضوري انموذجا"

The aim of this study was to identify the differences in sport identity and group cohesion among team sport games at Palestinian universities "Kadoorei University is a model" according to gender and game type variables. The study carried out on purposive sample consisted of (77) players. The researchers carried out tow scales for measuring sport identity and team cohesion. To analyse data, they used spss program. The results of the study revealed the following: The level of sport identity and their three domains among study sample were very high but it was high for group cohesion. There were significant differences in sport identity among team sport games at Palestinian universities "Kadoorei University is a model "according to gender variable in favor of male player, but there weren’t significant differences in group cohesion according to game type variable. There were significant differences in sport identity and group cohesion among team sport games at Palestinian universities “Kadoorei University is a model "according to gender game type variables. Based on the study findings, the researchers recommended making similar study on individual sport games at Palestinian universities.

A constraint-led approach to sport and physical education pedagogy

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) has emerged as a viable pedagogical option for teachers and coaches in the sport and physical education. The emergence of a CLA to teaching and coaching has paralleled a change in the current zeitgeist with many scientists embracing the ideas of complexity and a more ecologically driven agenda. The CLA articulates that through the interaction of different constraints – task, environment, and performer – a learner will self-organise in attempts to generate effective movement solutions [Renshaw, Ian, Keith Davids, Elissa Phillips, and Hugo Kerherve. 2011. “Developing Talent in Athletes as Complex Neurobiological Systems.” In Talent Identification and Development in Sport: International Perspectives, edited by Joe Baker, Stephen Cobley, and Jorg Schorer. London: Routledge]. However, successful employment of a CLA requires an understanding of ecological dynamics as these underpinning concepts manifest themselves as guiding principles for the design of CLA practice environments.FindingsWhile some practitioners are adopting the ideas of CLA in their work, there is some concern that the often dense academic language often associated with the approach is acting as a key barrier in the take up of CLA and resulting in a limited understanding of the key underpinning concepts and hence poor implementation. It is therefore incumbent on advocates of CLA to provide pedagogues with the knowledge and tools to base learning design on the key principles of CLA.ConclusionsIn this paper, we walk the reader through the key theoretical concepts in CLA. We introduce the key ideas underpinning a CLA to provide guidelines as to how practitioners can implement a CLA in their practice. Wherever possible, we provide ‘exemplars’ from sport and pedagogy settings in an attempt to de-mystify the potentially confronting language of the ecological dynamics landscape. We make clear that simply adopting a CLA should not be seen as a panacea for practitioners and conclude by emphasising that effective CLA teaching and coaching practice is therefore subject to the same pedagogical requirements when designing learning activities as when providing more traditional approaches.

Anderson’s athletic identity concept: French-Canadian validation of the athletic identity questionnaire

Introduction: Although sport identity is a notion widely used in the literature to explain one’s attachment to the athletic role, a few valid psychometric tools exist in French to measure such notion. Objective: Validation of a French version of Anderson’s (2004) Athletic Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) for a Quebec French-speaking population. Method: Participants (n = 389) completed the French version of the AIQ and were athletes, former athletes and non-athletes. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine model structure, whereas ANOVAS helped determine construct validity regarding athletic status. Results: A four factor first order structure emerged, as well as a second order structure composed of three of the four original facets. Significant differences for all four scales across the three groups appeared. Conclusion: AIQ-French is a valid psychometric tool which can measure different degrees of athletic identity best represented jointly by the importance, appearance and competence scales.

Exploring the skill of recruiting in the Australian Football League

The present study was designed to explore the skill of recruiting in the professional Australian Football League, with a particular interest in the approach to decision making and information processing. The research design utilised semi-structured interviews and a survey instrument. A total of 12 participants comprised of 11 active head recruiters representing 11 Australian Football League Clubs, and one former expert Australian Football League recruiter undertook semi-structured, in-depth interviews to provide insight into recruitment decision making. Additionally, all participants completed a survey determining preferences for intuitive and deliberative decision-making styles. A model created represents the identification of four influential factors in the recruitment approach including (a) recruiter background; (b) recruiter attributes; (c) recruiter understanding of team needs and (d) recruiter–coach relationship. In particular, recruiters revealed that the style of decision making they use is influenced by the relationship with the head coach. Recruiting as a stand-alone position is not well understood. This work shows that both intuition and deliberation are used, the extent to which appears to be influenced by the recruiter–coach relationship. This work offers a strong base to further explore recruiting and talent identification in professional sport, and, particularly, how relationships influence decision style and performance.

Call for contributors: Special issue on new approaches to identity in sport

Call for contributors: Special issue on new approaches to identity in sport