Conveners
Session 3: Sport and Gender
- Annelies Knoppers (Utrecht University)
Session 3: Sport and COVID-19/the Pandemic
- Lawrence Wenner (Loyola Marymount University)
Session 3: Sport, Race & Ethnicity
- Doo Jae Park (University Of Michigan)
Session 3: Sport Globalization & Mega-Events
- John Horne (Independent Scholar)
Session 3: Sport, Power Relations & Empowerment
- Mike Sam (University Of Otago)
Session 3: Sport & Disability
- Ernest Yeboah Acheampong (University of Education, Winneba)
Session 3: Sport, Politics & Policy
- Sun-Yong Kwon (Seoul National University)
Since 1970, the Arctic Winter Games have been bringing together young people from across the circumpolar north. This sporting and cultural gathering prioritises sharing and exchange between young people and promotes indigenous cultural and sporting practices (Dene Games, Arctic sports). As such, the Games’ purpose is to contribute to building an Arctic community. Furthermore, via their...
The underrepresentation of women coaches worldwide is a significant issue facing sport. While research shows women coaches bring many benefits to the sport environment, significant barriers preclude women from coaching, including gender role assumptions, experiences of harassment, a male dominated environment, competing domestic responsibilities, low pay or an unclear career pathway, lack of...
Within the contexts of New Zealand and Norway, where an increased number of private actors in sport are observed, we ask the research question: What should we call a young football player, based on their relationship with the organization that provide sport for them? We apply an institutional perspective on neoliberalism and a case study design with qualitative data from various actors’...
Boxing has been the subject of an ongoing debate of its effects on the physical and mental health of participants as well as the legitimization and glamourization of physical violence which may result in the exploitation of men and women from vulnerable socioeconomic communities. To the contrary, advocates argue that boxing provides a healthy lifestyle alternative to the appeals of antisocial...
Indigenous baseball players play an important role in Taiwan baseball. In Taiwanese professional baseball, more than 40% of the players are indigenous. This study examines the relationship between the Taiwanese indigenous’s socio-economic status and baseball participation. The research methods are semi-structured interviews and participatory observations on 15 high school new graduate...
The anxiety associated with public locker rooms have proven to be one of the most substantive barriers to engagement in sport and physical exercise for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Haegele & Maher, 2022). However, little is known about existing and/or potential accommodations to help improve the locker room experience for people with ASD. This presents a troubling dichotomy: On...
COVID-19’s impact on physical activity in local neighbourhoods has been significant given that many communities have had to severely limit access to or completely close physical activity spaces in efforts to help reduce transmission risk. As a direct consequence, some local governments in Canada turned their attentions to re/organizing infrastructure such as major public roads and streets...
For the first time, the East Asian Youth Games, formerly the East Asian Games, were scheduled to be held in Taichung of Taiwan in 2019 following four years of preparation. However, Taichung's hosting rights were revoked by the East Asian Olympic Committee on July 24, 2018. Why was the 2019 EAYG - one of the few international sporting events in which Taiwan won the bid - cancelled? Did the...
This paper examines how international discourse on sex testing is localized in South Korea and used as a means of policing athletes’ bodies in local sports leagues. Since the World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) instituted sex testing in the 1940s, it has provoked a persistent debate on its aim, necessity, effects, standards, legitimacy, and practices in public as well...
This paper seeks to shine a sociological light on the recent and rapid rise of LIV – a new professional golf tour, financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, that is causing considerable concern in the established golf profession – the PGA. The paper frames the PGA as a longstanding profession and ‘moral community’ (Durkheim, 1952), which saw its position, until recently, as...
A foundational purpose of the sociology of sport is “to critically examine the role, function and meaning of sport in the lives of people and the societies they form” (ISSA, 2016). From theoretical perspectives borne within the sociology of sport, sports are substantive cultural experiences that can advance diverse social goals, including responding to the needs/interests of student groups...
Peripheral countries hosted the main sporting events in the 21st century, we can say that these countries had a strategic interest in organizing mega-events. This study will analyze the way in which the peripheral countries used the mega sporting events as a discourse to expand their political influence and as public diplomacy. As objectives we will seek to: discuss the concept of diplomacy of...
This paper takes as its point of departure how semi-professional sportswomen talk about their own alcohol use. Drawing on semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with 21 sportswomen in three elite codes in Australian women’s sport: rugby league, netball and Australian Rules Football, the paper describes how these women narrated their own drinking, and its relationship to their...
This presentation intends to analyze the links that Paralympic athletes and their staff members establish between the Paralympic athletes’ selfpresentation as cyborgs or supercrips and their access to sponsors. Based on an interview survey of 15 Paralympic athletes and 42 members of their staff, we will show that not all Paralympic athletes can be associated with inspirational cyborg or...
The system of settler colonialization in Canada has made Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+, and disabled community members increasingly vulnerable to poverty, violence, and policing. The (post-)COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis context has created an urgent need to support community members who are experiencing the exacerbated effects of inequality that have preceded the pandemic. Although...
Since its introduction by Roland Robertson’s seminal work in 1992, the concept of glocalisation has been widely adopted and discussed across a variety of disciplines including the sociology of sport. In their conceptual paper, Giulianotti and Robertson (2012) identified mega-events – along with sports, business and identity – as one of the four key fields of inquiry into glocalisation within...
Even though sport has been characterized by scoring higher, winning against the other team, improving performance that are highly based on competition, there are other ways to conceptualize the nature and purpose of sports. Especially, folk physical education and activity hold a significant potential to challenge the Anglo-Saxon sport culture and organization. Following Alexey Kylasov's...
Wellbeing has emerged as a central feature of social life. By virtue of its intersection with politics, economics, health, education, and consumer lifestyle – wellbeing is now a key concept within an ever-expanding network of discourses and policies linked to state policy, power and resources. This presentation explores the contested terrain of wellbeing by examining it in relation to various...
Despite numerous interventions for equality between women and men in sports, the number of women sport coaches has not increased. Even though women’s participation in sports and qualification for coaching has increased, the representation of women in sports coaching has rather declined (La Voi, 2014). That said, scholars argue that the underrepresentation of women in the coaching role is a...
The aim of this study was to understand Deaf as agents who had the potential to diverge from the dominant discourse, such as suppression and helplessness, by exploring the negotiation processes between Deaf culture and hearing culture through the experiences of Deaf athletes. As a theoretical framework, the concept of cultural hybridity presented by Bhabha (1994) provided a basis for analysis...
The socio-economic and socio-cultural situation of a particular athlete affects their concept of empowerment and fulfillment, especially in the sporting world. Bodybuilding, which is a non mainstream sport in developing countries like the Philippines, shows this dynamic, especially in training, coaching, and engagement in fitness and physique sports by women. Even though there are a number of...
Like many urban centres across Europe, Liverpool was hard hit by the socio-economic realities of government austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic. To help prevent the city’s foodbanks from emptying, Fans Supporting Foodbanks was set up in 2015 to raise funds and groceries in the battle against food insecurity. Established by normally opposed fan groups in Liverpool, the concept has grown, with...
Persons with a migration background (PMM) are underrepresented in German sports clubs, hindering the integrative potential of organised sports activities. This phenomenon has been explained in past research mostly through individual factors such as socialisation or personal preference. This research project aims to investigate underrepresentation from a structural perspective, filling a...
High school baseball players first appeared in professional league in Taiwan as early as 1998. However, it was not an official and systemized entry for them until 2013 when the first draft for high school players came into play. Compared to most players who announced their eligibility in college, these 18-year-old players took a big gamble on their career decisions. There are growing numbers...
While the multifactoriality of Olympic performance is well documented, there is little work that specifically addresses the factors of Paralympic performance. In this paper, we will present i) the performance strategies implemented by Paralympic athletes; and ii) the variety and complexity of these experiences, which are at the interface of high-level sport practice, but also of impairment and...
Athlete maltreatment has become “one of the greatest concerns faced by governing bodies, authorities and practitioners in sport” (Stirling, 2009, p. 1901). Yet, despite this concern, maltreatment scandals continue to occur globally, with many countries remaining committed to elite sport systems for ideological and political purposes. To date, the most dominant causes of athlete maltreatment...
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has been implemented in numerous football leagues in Europe. The Norwegian Football Federation aims to implement VAR in both the men’s and women’s elite divisions, however, it has only been confirmed for the men’s division. This is also the case for many other countries. The gendered differences in the implementation of VAR may negatively impact the...
