Sociology Of Sport Research Articles

Research on Analytical Model of Participation and Social Influence of She Sports Activities Based on Multi-source Data Fusion

The present research looks into the involvement and societal impact of women's sports activities by developing an analytical model based on multi-source data fusion. The She people, a nomadic farming tribe in southern China, have a rich cultural legacy, with sports playing an important part in community bonding and cultural expression. This study tries to explore the complex dynamics of sports engagement within the She community by combining multiple datasets from surveys, social media analysis, observational studies, and historical records. The analytical model constructed in this study examines the elements that influence sports participation among the She people, taking into account gender dynamics, resource availability, cultural norms, community support, and individual incentives. By combining data on community cohesion, gender dynamics, cultural preservation, and individual well-being, the model provides insights into the social impact of She sports activities. Further, this research examines the unequal impact of sports engagement on several demographic groups in the She community, providing a more nuanced understanding of how sports activities interface with larger social structures and inequities. The findings of this study contribute to the progress of knowledge in sports sociology and cultural anthropology, while also providing practical insights for developing inclusive and sustainable sports practices in the She community. As a result, increased sports participation and high-quality development were linked to stronger social bonds and community cohesion.

Forced migration, resettlement, and sport: Lessons from the Kabul-Edmonton soccer team.

Forced migration is one of the most pressing crises of our lifetime. Of the millions forced to migrate, many come to know the brutality of state-managed migration that habitually denies asylum seekers and places substantive restrictions on refugees who have been resettled. Sociologists of sport and leisure have examined the sporting experiences of refugees through an intersectional lens, foregrounding how displacement and resettlement are differently lived and negotiated across overlapping power structures and markers of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and legal status. Through a participatory and collective photovoice project, this article explores the experiences of an all-Afghan soccer team that played in a social, co-ed soccer league in the spring of 2022, just after they arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In photovoice narratives and subsequent interviews, team members underlined many of the barriers they faced as they navigated the formal and informal rules and dominant norms of this seemingly inclusive sports landscape. In doing so, they revealed some of the limits of official discourses of Canadian multiculturism, which rarely accommodate more significant forms of difference, and which reproduce racial and ethnic hierarchies that powerfully discipline newcomers who are encouraged to embrace their precarious status as model minorities.

A SOCIAL SEMIOTIC STUDY OF IMAGES IN FOOTBALL GAMES

This study delvesinto the realm of funny posters and images displayed by fans during the World Cup and Gulf Cup games, employing a social semiotic approach to interpret and understand their content, imagery, and cultural significance. The investigation focuses on how these images function as communicative tools that not only entertain but also convey deeper social and cultural messages to a global audience.The findings underscore the significance of visual literacy in contemporary media and offer a new perspective on the social dynamics of major sporting events. This research contributes to the fields of visual communication, cultural studies, and sports sociology by highlighting how seemingly trivial elements like fan posters can have profound social implications.

Introduction to the special issue—sport, the media and Ireland: intersections of gender, class and geography

The seven articles in this special issue of Sport in Society explore constructions and intersections of gender, class and geography in Irish sport media. Drawing on theoretical and methodological approaches from a variety of disciplines, ranging from sport sociology to film and cultural studies, the articles encompass both established ‘mainstream’ print and broadcast media, and alternative media platforms. They examine the cultural politics of sport media institutions, forms of representation, and media production and sharing, tracing how hegemonic intersections and hierarchies are both reproduced and negotiated in this national context. Although focused principally on the Republic of Ireland, the issue will be of interest to international readers as the articles variously identify the role of media and cultural contexts in the shaping of popular understandings and experiences of transnational sports; or have an internationally comparative dimension; or deal with transnationally circulating ‘Irish’ sport media texts within international networks.

Suicide in the Context of Elite Sport: a Meta-Ethnographic Synthesis

Suicide or its attempts are a serious problem that has drawn the attention of different areas of knowledge related to the field of sports. However, in most cases, the analyses are based on psychopathological visions or physical trauma without understanding the particularities of mental health. The article presents a meta-ethnography review of the literature on qualitative research on suicide in athletes from 2012 to 2022. The topics addressed in the studies are diverse: the importance of healthy relationships, the visibility of mental health problems, the normalization of violence by coaches, and the lack of emotional support. It is essential for athletes to have a support network (including coaches, mental health professionals, etc.). The issues that have affected athletes identified with suicidal ideation include a prolonged combination of concussion symptoms, academic problems, normalized violent training practices, high demands, the invisibility of suffering, and exposure to traumatic events. It required training of teachers/coaches in mental health, social support during injury recovery, ongoing mental health education, close relationships between coaches and athletes, involvement of sports psychiatry/psychology specialists, support from the environment, and balance between performance and personal development. Keywords: Mental health; Sport; Suicide; Social Sport Psychology; Sociology of Sport.

Cycling tribes: lifestyles, values, and aesthetics

ABSTRACT Popular literature (Magnusson 2012; Weiss 2010; 2012; 2013) has celebrated varying ‘bike tribes’ including road cyclists, mountain bikers, BMXers, touring riders, commuters, and urban hipsters on fixed-gear bikes. Such literature identifies how each ‘tribe’ is differentiated by habits, clothing, aesthetics, and values. With these varying cycling ‘tribes’ in mind we explore the lived experiences of road cyclists in the San Francisco Bay area of the United States as they negotiate the varying practices, rituals, meanings, and material culture that cycling offers. We engage in broader discussions within the sociology of sport regarding the utility of Maffesoli’s (1996) idea of contemporary life being characterized by ‘neotribal’ affiliations. We use ethnographic methods drawing upon both participant observations and interviews to explore the extent to which the fluidity and transience of road cycling also intersect broader structural forces, and how riders navigate their engagement with the cycling industry.

Social Change and Mutations in the Human Sciences Applied to Physical and Sporting Activities in Tunisia

This research focuses on the relationship that exists between scientific transformations in human sciences applied to physical and sporting activities during social change in Tunisia after the revolution. The main objective of our study is to identify the link between studies published in the sociology of sport in relation to the major social changes in Tunisia after the revolution. The data was collected through the analysis of research and studies published by teacher-researchers in sociology of sport at the higher institutes of sport and physical education of Tunisia in various international journals. The main results of this article show that the research carried out during this period is not directly linked to the changes that have arisen from the world of Tunisian physical education, but it aims to position it according to Western sporting social phenomena. In addition, the existence of certain studies which take into account the training process and the conceptions of learning physical education in contemporary Tunisian schools.

The moral economy of the English football crowd: The European Super League and the contingency of football fan activism

On 18 April 2021, six of the most storied clubs in English football – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – announced they would be joining a new breakaway European Super League. These proposals triggered vehement opposition from football fans, which catalysed the intervention of the UK government in the form of a fan-led review of football governance. The reaction to the European Super League – which collapsed within 48 hours – demonstrates that the commodification and globalisation of football is contested. This article applies the lens of moral economy to analyse the contemporary mobilisations of football fans in England counter to these processes. The novel application of a moral economy framework provides a fresh perspective within the extant literature on football fan activism. This article represents the first systematic application of a moral economy approach to the political sociology of contemporary sport and its fandom. Employing an expanded understanding of moral economy, the article extends its application beyond the analysis of pre-modern food riots popularised by E.P. Thompson, incorporating the insights of Karl Polanyi and Andrew Sayer. Adopting this broader meaning, the concept of moral economy enables us to explore emergent and dynamic forms of fan activism, which seek to contest the commodification of football. The supporter mobilisations against the European Super League are examined to illuminate this perspective. Through an exploration of the contingency of the moral economy of football fandom, this article expands, in conceptual terms, the literature on football-based social movements, connecting it to the wider commodification and financialisation of football (as an important aspect of everyday life) and the internal contradictions and crisis of advanced capitalism.

Is There a Global Narrative for Kinesiology?

At the National Academy of Kinesiology’s annual meeting in 2023, four International Fellows shared their insights into whether there is a global narrative for kinesiology. Panelists comprising Fasting (Norwegian, sport sociology), Jacobs (Canadian, exercise physiologist), Macdonald (Australian, pedagogy), and Tsung-Min Hung (Taiwanese, sport and exercise psychology) spanned both subdisciplines and continents. This paper represents a synthesis of their thinking, complemented with more incidental views from a range of scholars who accepted an invitation from Macdonald to contribute brief perspectives. Framing the paper are the concepts of globalization and its tethered process of neoliberalization, the latter argued to be a dominant ideology in many Western democracies that shapes the priorities of educational institutions. We conclude that the term “kinesiology” is not universally deployed to reference the discipline, although global narratives related to program priorities, knowledge status, metrics, and professionalization in the four continents represented exist.

РАЗВИТИЕ РОССИЙСКОЙ СОЦИОЛОГИИ ФИЗИЧЕСКОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ И СПОРТА КАК НАУЧНОГО НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ И УЧЕБНОЙ ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ

For over a century, Russian sociologists have been engaged in the study of physical culture and sport, with a particular focus on the mass and professional spheres. Physical education and sport are integral parts of social, cultural as well as socio-political life. Motivation, socialization through sport, education and health improvement, attitudes to physical education, the problems of Olympic and mass sports movement, etc., have come to the fore in different historical periods. All this can be found in the scientific publications of Russian sociologists and other social and humanitarian scientists. In the meantime, the analysis of sociological publications on this topic and their systematization, with the exception of the work of Russian sociologist O. A. Milstein, have not been carried out in a practical manner. In this paper, a scientific analysis of a variety of sources was carried out using two distinct approaches: comparative-historical and problem-chronological. The sources included brochures, articles and monographs, dissertations, and periodicals. Consequently, the principal thematic orientations of sociological inquiry into physical culture and sport in Russia, as well as the distinctive characteristics of sociological research across different historical eras, are elucidated. The institutionalization of the sociology of sport is considered in close connection with the institutionalization of Russian sociology. Moreover, experts examine the teaching of courses on the sociology of physical culture and sport in Russian universities. The process began in the 1920s and was subsequently interrupted. It can be stated that there has been an increase in the number of scientific publications on the sociology of physical culture and sport during the 2000-2020s. Furthermore, a number of textbooks on this subject have emerged during the same period.

Sociology of sports in Kazakhstan: analysis of the state of Health and physical culture of young people

Sociology of sports in Kazakhstan: analysis of the state of Health and physical culture of young people

Trans Women and/in Sport: Exploring Sport Feminisms to Understand Exclusions

This paper explores past and present conceptual aspects of sport feminisms to understand trans women and/in sport. The adverse treatment of trans sportswomen now runs through governing bodies, sport media, individuals who are in decision-making roles, policy formation, and public social attitude. The move to exclude and/or restrict trans women from sport is apparent at national and international levels and demonstrates shifts in sport policy. The aim of the paper is to explore past and present developments in sport feminism to highlight the value of its dynamism to explain, critique, and challenge the current treatment of trans women athletes. The paper highlights the need to further develop, within sport sociology, a de-colonial transfeminism. De-colonial in this context involves postcolonial feminism, Black feminism, and queer of color critical approaches.

Sports and the Limits of the Binary: An Introduction

In this special issue introduction for “Sports and the Limits of the Binary: Trans and Nonbinary Athletes and Equity in Sport,” we provide an overview of the contemporary landscape of trans/nonbinary athlete inclusion, from both academic and nonacademic perspectives. We especially highlight the sociology of sport’s contributions to the literature on this topic, as well as the key foundations and influences from black, queer, decolonial/postcolonial, and disabled scholars. We then introduce ourselves as the guest editors of this special issue and how we arrived at this area of research before closing with brief synopses of each article in this issue.

‘Falling Upward’ into Sports Retirement: A Rohrsian Exploration of the Sports Retirement Experience

Retirement from sport is widely reported as a challenging time of transition in the lives of elite athletes and is one that has been explored from a range of different perspectives both by sport psychologists and socio-cultural scholars of sport. However, of late, a small number of scholars have considered athlete career transition within the context of religion and spirituality, identifying the religious identity and belief of athletes as central to their transition experiences. That said, this work does not go as far as developing a theological understanding of sports retirement. Here, we explore and frame the phenomenon of sports retirement through the theological lens put forward by the neo-Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr in his book Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. In this paper, we suggest how Rohr’s ideas might help develop an alternative and more nuanced understanding of sports retirement, building on those currently promoted in sport psychology and the sociology of sport the literature.

19th Conference of the European Association for Sociology of Sport »Transitioning Sport - Transitioning European Societies«

19th Conference of the European Association for Sociology of Sport »Transitioning Sport - Transitioning European Societies«

FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh

The FIFA World Cup is the most exalted sporting event in the globe. Although Bangladesh is not historically a great football-playing nation and has never been any close to the final stage of World Cup qualification, the FIFA World Cup matters so much for Bangladesh. This content analysis is an effort to understand the implications of the FIFA World Cup 2022, held in Qatar, in Bangladesh from the standpoint of the sociology of sport. News, events, opinions and activities published in various national and international online English news portals capturing the connection between the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh have been analysed. Findings have been categorised and analysed according to the essence of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology: functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Three theoretical perspectives in sociology offer meaningful explanations about the interface between the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh. According to functionalism, the FIFA World Cup 2022 conveyed several beneficial consequences for Bangladesh. But some incidents of dysfunction were also noted. The ways Bangladeshi expatriate workers involved in World Cup-related construction projects were exploited and suffered has been explained by conflict theory. The whole of Bangladesh was inextricably connected with the FIFA World Cup 2022. This factor is explained by symbolic interactionism.

The Case for Marxist–Leninist Sport: Going Beyond the Limitations of Western Liberalism

The sociology of sport has developed within and been intricately involved in the critique of neoliberalism. While important, there are certain limitations to this scholarship that are related to the nature of Western liberalism and academia. This paper attempts to argue a role for Marxist–Leninist thought in the sociology of sport. Historically excluded from academia after World War II, this bias is part of what Gabriel Rockhill has described as the “Global Theory Industry,” that decries socialism while remaining favorable to Western liberal capitalism. The anti-communism of the theory industry means that much of the work on neoliberalism and Marxism in the sociology of sport has ignored the experiences and efforts of socialist countries, as well as theorists from the Global South. This article broadly critiques existing neoliberal and Marxist studies of sport while arguing that a Marxist–Leninist approach may give those in the field a better account of sport and its relationship to domestic and global politics.

Critical Friends, Dialogues of Discomfort, and Researcher Reflexivity in the Sociology of Sport

In this special issue, which calls for a “more radical sociology of sport and physical culture,” the purpose of this paper is to address how practices of reflexivity might be mobilized among critical sport scholars toward changing the intersectional, fragmented, and complex communities we inhabit inside and outside the academy. We begin by conducting a literature review of researcher reflexivity and positionality in Sociology of Sport Journal from 2000 to 2022. Utilizing Wanda Pillow’s “reflexivities of discomfort,” we interrogate our own research by engaging in a reflexive dialogue as “critical friends.” Through this work, we try to make sense of the potential of these dialogues for shaping our ethical, political, and personal approaches to research, writing, methodology, and knowledge production.

Beyond Reconciliation: Calling for Land-Based Analyses in the Sociology of Sport

This article examines the possibilities engendered by land-based analyses within the sociology of sport. We examine how “Canada’s” Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action on sport reproduce a logic of social inclusion, one which assimilates Indigenous athletes and Peoples into settler models of sport. To consider epistemological tools for unsettling settler sport systems, we turn to critical Indigenous scholarship on land-based analyses and pedagogies. To illustrate the possibilities of land-based analyses, we examine lacrosse, an Indigenous sporting practice with roots embedded in relational interconnectedness with the land. A land-based approach to sport offers opportunities for revising the assumptions, values, and ethics underpinning settler models of sport through, for example, emphasizing the importance of community, healing, and land stewardship.

Through the Decades: Critical Race Theory and Pathways Forward in Sport Sociology Research

Critical race theory (CRT) is a powerful framework and methodological tool for sport scholars and practitioners to incorporate into their work. While CRT tenets vary depending on discipline, individuals utilizing the framework understand the permanence of racism and how it is institutionalized within various social structures. In honor of the 40th year of the Sociology of Sport Journal, we conducted a review of the journal to assess how CRT has been used among sport sociologists. After reflecting on the 40-year history of Sociology of Sport Journal, we argue for the continued use of CRT and CRT extensions to fulfill the maximum potential of this foundational framework to achieve its goals of emancipation, social justice, and racial equity. We conclude by discussing the future of CRT in sport sociology research and practice in a post “racial reckoning” society, specifically within the U.S. context.