Speakers
Description
Sport sociologists who adopt a comprehensive and carnal perspective (Wacquant, 2015) attempt to account for the dynamics of lived sport experiences from a physical, emotional, and sensory vantage point. To this end, while observant participation has historically occupied a hegemonic position (Quidu, 2022), several other methodological tools exist. The objective of this conference is to present three alternative and complementary methods to observant participation that we’re explored in different research settings. First, we used a “real-time explicitation” method (Quidu and Favier-Ambrosini, 2022) to collect in acto, the thoughts, perceptions, and sensations of runners. Second, still with runners, a “removal” method (Homewood et al., 2020) was employed to study self-tracking practices of amateur athletes by “imposing” on them a “disconnected” run, meaning they had to complete their run without their habitual use of a tracking device. The objective of this method was to examine the extent to which this momentary disconnection would destabilize them and document, in depth, the embodied modes of appropriations of embedded technologies. As a third method, in the context of a study of lived experiences of self-defined exercise addicts, we experimented with a “mobile interview” method (Carpiano, 2009), where interviews were conducted while running or cycling with participants. In pursuance of critically examining these methodological tools, our conclusion will entail comparing the “differential knowledge effects” (Lahire, 2005: 85-86) produced by each method, as well as highlighting their respective limitations.
