Involving millions of European citizens, the emotions of sport and physical activity contribute to shape interaction models, accomplish socialization processes, express local, national and transnational identities and senses of belonging.
The Research Network 28 ‘Society and Sports’ aims at encouraging and supporting research within this highly relevant field, serving as a forum for exchange, collaboration and sharing among sociologists of sport and those with overlapping interests.
Sports, physical activities and body cultures: Crisis, critique and change
Far from merely having an economical dimension, the crisis, which currently affects the European societies, poses new political and social challenges, opening the way to many possible transformations. Established practices and institutions may crumble and die and new configurations and alliances may arise.
As highlighted in the conference theme, two processes are at work. On the one hand, a systemic transformation has driven the shift from public to private power and adapted the state to capital markets. On the other hand, there has been a proliferation of vital types of critique too.
How are these dynamics reflected in the field of sports, physical activities and body cultures? How does the sphere of sport face the challenges coming from the financial crisis? What models for sport will be sustainable in the future? Are alternatives for the current sport policies necessary? To what extent are post-crisis developments in the context of sport specific when compared to the spheres of economics and politics? To what extent can be the evidence from sport transposed to other spheres of social and cultural life?
The RN-28 ‘Society and Sports’ invites papers exploring these and other questions from all areas of the sociology of sport. Possible themes include but are not limited to:
- 01_23JS28JS33 –
Sports, Gender and Sexualities (1)
Joint session with RN23 – Sexuality and RN33 – Women’s and Gender Studies
Chair: Oktay Aktan <oktay.aktan@tu-dortmund.de>, University of Dortmunt
Michael Meuser <michael.meuser@tu-dortmund.de>, University of Dortmunt
Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of the Littoral Opal Coast
In team sports, the selection of a player for a team is not merely a technical decision. The player who can cope and harmonize with the collective team identity is chosen by the coach. Being suitable or to fit into the team is also a question of gender. In a homo-social dimension, especially among men, there is the question of how the process of choosing or to be chosen (re)produce a hierarchy of masculinities. In a hetero-social dimension the gender segregation is established from the beginning of the organized sport competitions, which harshly distinguishes the male and female teams and championships from each other. On the other hand, the formation of a team i.e. the constitution of collectivity for instance in amateur leisure sports and/or sports in schools can/may turn out to be a question of negotiation.
With this in mind, we intend to organize a network session between sport and gender studies, to discuss the reflections of both intra- and inter-gender relations in sports on the progressive re-constellation of “gender” perception in society. The current social scientific approach of intersectionality including other dimensions of social inequality, such as ethnicity, milieu, religion etc. will also be of particular interest in our session.
- 02_23JS28JS33 –
Sports, Gender and Sexualities (2)
Joint session with RN33 – Women’s and Gender Studies and RN23 – Sexuality
Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of the Littoral Opal Coast
Michael Meuser <michael.meuser@tu-dortmund.de>, University of Dortmunt
Oktay Aktan <oktay.aktan@tu-dortmund.de>, University of Dortmunt
Being expressions of cultural embodiment, both sexuality and sports can be analyzed as a mirror of societies’ transformations. For this reason the analysis of sports and sexuality can be a key to analyze changes in social interaction and collective representations.
In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite papers aimed at both understanding the relationships between sports and sexualities, and using them as a tool to analyse broader social transformations. For example: how have sports and physical cultures built their specificities, in particular with relation to genders and sexual differences and consequently to body-related social norms? How have sports’ institutions managed to include gender and sexual diversities (e.g. cases of intersexed and/or transgender athletes)? Which innovations can be observed in sport practices (techniques, dressing-codes, aesthetics, etc.) with relation to sexuality? To what extent have issues of sexual violence and homophobia amongst sport fans been successfully addressed? What are the contemporary challenges and opportunities when we consider the relationship between sports and sexuality? We encourage contributors to address questions of this sort, thus exploring the importance of gender and sexuality in sports’ research, and vice versa, examining how sports matters in sexuality research.
- 03_05JS28 –
The Commercialization of Sport and Fitness (1)
Joint session with RN05 – Sociology of Consumption
Chair: Fabio Lo Verde <fabio.loverde@unipa.it>, University of Palermo
Understood as a suggestive manifestation of consumer culture, the fitness boom is larger than fitness activities and has tapped into sport in innovative ways. The mixing of physical, sportive activities and popular culture has been envisioned through extreme rhetorical cliché, either celebration or comdenation. This often corresponds to disciplinary specialisations: physical education and medical practice have typically played the celebratory tune in contrast to sociology, history and gender studies. This session aims at going beyond such readings to take a proper sociological look at the sport, fitness and physical activities practices which are organized through commercial institutions and relations (of various sorts).
Marrying the sociology of sport and leisure with the sociology of consumption, the session will address critical questions such as: which institutional settings favour participation in sport and fitness activities? What are the advantages and shortcomings of commercial provision vis a vis public provision in the case of physical activities? Which kinds of relations are favoured in commercial fitness premises? Which values are promoted through sport and fitness practices as organized by commercial premises? How do trainers and trainees perceive and cope with commercialism? Which varieties of commercial relations can we discover in the field of fitness and sport activities, how do they differ and how do they compare with other commercial services? How does differentiation within the field respond to social boundaries (gender, class, ethnicity) without it? To what extent the “law of the market” explains the cultural dynamic in the fitness and sport activities? Papers should ideally address key relevant theoretical issues through empirical research.
- 04_05JS28 –
The Commercialization of Sport and Fitness (2)
Joint session with RN05 – Sociology of Consumption
Chair: Roberta Sassatelli <roberta.sassatelli@unimi.it>, University of Milan
Understood as a suggestive manifestation of consumer culture, the fitness boom is larger than fitness activities and has tapped into sport in innovative ways. The mixing of physical, sportive activities and popular culture has been envisioned through extreme rhetorical cliché, either celebration or comdenation. This often corresponds to disciplinary specialisations: physical education and medical practice have typically played the celebratory tune in contrast to sociology, history and gender studies. This session aims at going beyond such readings to take a proper sociological look at the sport, fitness and physical activities practices which are organized through commercial institutions and relations (of various sorts).
Marrying the sociology of sport and leisure with the sociology of consumption, the session will address critical questions such as: which institutional settings favour participation in sport and fitness activities? What are the advantages and shortcomings of commercial provision vis a vis public provision in the case of physical activities? Which kinds of relations are favoured in commercial fitness premises? Which values are promoted through sport and fitness practices as organized by commercial premises? How do trainers and trainees perceive and cope with commercialism? Which varieties of commercial relations can we discover in the field of fitness and sport activities, how do they differ and how do they compare with other commercial services? How does differentiation within the field respond to social boundaries (gender, class, ethnicity) without it? To what extent the “law of the market” explains the cultural dynamic in the fitness and sport activities? Papers should ideally address key relevant theoretical issues through empirical research.
- 05_16JS28 –
Gender, Health and Physical Activity (1)
Joint session with RN16 – Sociology of Health and Illness
Chair: Ellen Annandale <ellen.annandale@york.ac.uk>, University of York
Oliver Williams <osw1@leicester.ac.uk>, University of Leicester
The recent ‘obesity epidemic’ currently afflicting affluent societies around the world has prompted a focus on ‘healthy citizenship’. This has stimulated a lifestyle-focused approach to reducing the collective waistline of societies across the globe as seen in the focus on diets, behaviours considered to be unhealthy (e.g. smoking and alcohol consumption) and raising physical activity levels. This session will focus on how, and in what ways, gender both influences, and is influenced by, physical activity and what is understood as being ‘healthy’. Therefore, it offers an opportunity to consider the ways in which the gendered body is implicated in this most modern of crises.
We invite empirical and theoretical papers addressing such issues as:
•The gendering of exercise and health behaviours.
•The gendered construction of the healthy and active body.
•The perception of ‘healthy lifestyles’ and the performance of gender.
•The relationship between health, physicality and the construction of gendered identities.
- 05JS28 –
The Commercialization of Sport and Fitness
Joint session with RN05 – Sociology of Consumption
Chairs: Roberta Sassatelli & Fabio Lo Verde
Understood as a suggestive manifestation of consumer culture, the fitness boom is larger than fitness activities and has tapped into sport in innovative ways. The mixing of physical, sportive activities and popular culture has been envisioned through extreme rhetorical cliché, either celebration or comdenation. This often corresponds to disciplinary specialisations: physical education and medical practice have typically played the celebratory tune in contrast to sociology, history and gender studies. This session aims at going beyond such readings to take a proper sociological look at the sport, fitness and physical activities practices which are organized through commercial institutions and relations (of various sorts).
Marrying the sociology of sport and leisure with the sociology of consumption, the session will address critical questions such as: which institutional settings favour participation in sport and fitness activities? What are the advantages and shortcomings of commercial provision vis a vis public provision in the case of physical activities? Which kinds of relations are favoured in commercial fitness premises? Which values are promoted through sport and fitness practices as organized by commercial premises? How do trainers and trainees perceive and cope with commercialism? Which varieties of commercial relations can we discover in the field of fitness and sport activities, how do they differ and how do they compare with other commercial services? How does differentiation within the field respond to social boundaries (gender, class, ethnicity) without it? To what extent the “law of the market” explains the cultural dynamic in the fitness and sport activities? Papers should ideally address key relevant theoretical issues through empirical research.
- 06_16JS28 –
Gender, Health and Physical Activity (2)
Joint session with RN16 – Sociology of Health and Illness
Chair: Oliver Williams <osw1@leicester.ac.uk>, University of Leicester
Ellen Annandale <ellen.annandale@york.ac.uk>, University of York
The recent ‘obesity epidemic’ currently afflicting affluent societies around the world has prompted a focus on ‘healthy citizenship’. This has stimulated a lifestyle-focused approach to reducing the collective waistline of societies across the globe as seen in the focus on diets, behaviours considered to be unhealthy (e.g. smoking and alcohol consumption) and raising physical activity levels. This session will focus on how, and in what ways, gender both influences, and is influenced by, physical activity and what is understood as being ‘healthy’. Therefore, it offers an opportunity to consider the ways in which the gendered body is implicated in this most modern of crises.
We invite empirical and theoretical papers addressing such issues as:
•The gendering of exercise and health behaviours.
•The gendered construction of the healthy and active body.
•The perception of ‘healthy lifestyles’ and the performance of gender.
•The relationship between health, physicality and the construction of gendered identities.
- 07_20JS28 –
Sport and the Visual: New Developments and Opportunities
Joint session with RN20 – Qualitative Methods
Chair: Roger Penn<r.penn@qub.ac.uk>, Queen’s University Belfast
Ajit Singh<ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld
In recent years there has been an enormous increase in the use of visual data within sociology. This has taken broadly two paths. The first has involved the development of analyses of visual data that have been constructed externally in the form of photographs, video, text, film, television and graffiti. The second involves the production of visual data by sociologists themselves as part of their research activity. This has become much easier with the advent of digital cameras and camcorders. This ‘visual turn’ has raised a wide range of interesting questions, both of a methodological nature and from a broad theoretical angle. It also raises important ethical questions concerning the legality or appropriateness of such visual imagery. Since sport generates social interactions, which are largely based on physical expressions and bodily movements, it constitutes a privileged field for the development of visual sociology. Hence, this session will aim to bring together sociologists who work in this area in relation to sport. Themes of interest will include substantive analyses, as well as methodological issues (particularly how to break out of the ‘quantitative-qualitative’ divide) and theoretical contributions.
- 08_b07JS28JS34 –
Sport and Religion/Spirituality
Joint session with RN34 – Sociology of Religion and RN07 – Sociology of Culture
Chair: Stef Aupers <aupers@fsw.eur.nl>, Erasmus University Rotterdam;
Davide Sterchele <D.Sterchele@leedsmet.ac.uk>, Leeds Metropolitan University;
Hubert Knoblauch <Hubert.Knoblauch@tu-berlin.de>, Technische Universität Berlin
Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement. At the same time, the study of the analogies between traditional sports and institutionalized religions still generates relevant sociological insights.
In order to contribute to these streams of analysis and to open new horizons for further studies, the ESA research networks ‘Sociology of Culture’, ‘Society and Sports’, and ‘Sociology of Religion’, invite potential contributors to submit abstracts to the joint session on ‘Sport and religion/spirituality’. The session will thus provide a forum for exchange and sharing among sociologists of culture, sport and religion, who deal with these themes from different but overlapping perspectives.
- 09_20JS21JS28 –
Doing Social Research on Sports. Methodological and Empirical Challenges (1)
Joint session with RN20 – Qualitative Methods and RN21 – Quantitative Methods
Chair: Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of Turin
Ajit Singh <ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld
Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University
Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.
- 10_20JS21JS28 –
Doing Social Research on Sports. Methodological and Empirical Challenges (2)
Joint session with RN20 – Qualitative Methods and RN21 – Quantitative Methods
Chair: Ajit Singh <ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld
Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of Turin
Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University
Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.
- 11_07JS28 –
Sports and Culture: Participation Alike?
Joint session with RN07 – Sociology of Culture
Chair: Koen Breedveld <k.breedveld@mulierinstituut.nl>, WHJ Mulier Instituut, the Netherlands
Sports and culture may at first appear to be quite different practices, yet a closer look reveals that they actually have great deal in common. Both are free time activities that are heavily supported by governments (as merit goods, and because of their acclaimed external effects), both are increasingly commercialized, both correlate heavily with social status (education, income), and both experience difficulties in reaching out to new groups (youngsters, ethnic minorities, low SES). In fact, analyses show that participation in sports and culture are often correlated, and that non-participation clusters among the same groups.
In this session, we bring research on participation in sport and in culture together. By comparing theoretical perspectives, methodologies and research outcomes, we aim to improve our understanding of differences in participation and of the underlying causes (motives, structures) and to contribute to the discourse and research on participation in sports as well as in culture.
The session is open to all researchers, both quantitative and qualitative, drawing on large scale surveys as well as on smaller case-studies (in depth interviews, best practices). The aim is to discuss papers that are based on sound empirical research, and that are guided by clear theoretical perspectives.
- 11JS20JS28 –
Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research
Joint session with RN20 – Qualitative Methods and RN11 – Sociology of emotions
Chairs: Monica Aceti, Haifa Tlili, Sven Ismer & Katarina Jacobsson
We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field.
Three perspectives will be favoured.
- Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
- Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
- The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.
Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).
- 12_15JS28 –
Glocalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Sport (1)
Joint session with RN15 – Global, transnational and cosmopolitan sociology
Chair: Renan Petersen-Wagner <renan.petersen-wagner@durham.ac.uk>, University of Durham
Angel Manuel Ahedo Santisteban <manuel.ahedo@ehu.es>, University of the Basque Country
‘As more processes show less regard for state boundaries – people shop internationally, love internationally, marry internationally, research internationally, grow up and are educated internationally (that is multi-lingually), live and think transnationally, that is combine multiple loyalties and identities in their lives – the paradigm of societies organized within the framework of the nation-state inevitably loses contact with reality.’ (Beck, 2000, p. 80). With this open statement from Ulrich Beck, it is possible to envision how the idea of nation-state society has been challenged lately in sociology not only through his cosmopolitan theory, but also by a myriad of approaches as network society (Manuel Castells), mobile society (John Urry), glocalisation theory (Roland Robertson), and McDonaldisation theory (George Ritzer), between many others. In this regard, this call for papers is interested in both empirical and theoretical contributions that look into the role and characteristics of contemporaneous nation-state and nationalism within professional sport. What means to represent and support a country? Whose country to represent and support in case of multiple nationalities? What means to have multiple loyalties? How solidarity and social movements occur across political national borders? How mobility of coaches and athletes challenge the notion of a national team play/spirit? These are examples of questions that could be addressed, but are not an exclusive list. Special attention will be given to papers dealing with sport megaevents, which still confronts nation-states as Olympic Games, World Cups, and more regional events as European and Commonwealth Games.
- 13_15JS28 –
Glocalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Sport (2)
Joint session with RN15 – Global, transnational and cosmopolitan sociology
Chair: Angel Manuel Ahedo Santisteban <manuel.ahedo@ehu.es>, University of the Basque Country
Renan Petersen-Wagner <renan.petersen-wagner@durham.ac.uk>, University of Durham
‘As more processes show less regard for state boundaries – people shop internationally, love internationally, marry internationally, research internationally, grow up and are educated internationally (that is multi-lingually), live and think transnationally, that is combine multiple loyalties and identities in their lives – the paradigm of societies organized within the framework of the nation-state inevitably loses contact with reality.’ (Beck, 2000, p. 80). With this open statement from Ulrich Beck, it is possible to envision how the idea of nation-state society has been challenged lately in sociology not only through his cosmopolitan theory, but also by a myriad of approaches as network society (Manuel Castells), mobile society (John Urry), glocalisation theory (Roland Robertson), and McDonaldisation theory (George Ritzer), between many others. In this regard, this call for papers is interested in both empirical and theoretical contributions that look into the role and characteristics of contemporaneous nation-state and nationalism within professional sport. What means to represent and support a country? Whose country to represent and support in case of multiple nationalities? What means to have multiple loyalties? How solidarity and social movements occur across political national borders? How mobility of coaches and athletes challenge the notion of a national team play/spirit? These are examples of questions that could be addressed, but are not an exclusive list. Special attention will be given to papers dealing with sport megaevents, which still confronts nation-states as Olympic Games, World Cups, and more regional events as European and Commonwealth Games.
- 14_04JS28JS30 –
Facets of Participation in Childhood and Youth: Exploring Sport Participation (1)(joined session)
Joint session with RN04 – Sociology of Children and Childhood and RN30 – Youth and Generation
Chair: Leena Haanpää <leena.haanpaa@utu.fi>, University of Turku
Aurelie Mary <aurelie.mary@uta.fi>, University of Tampere
Tom Cockburn <T.D.Cockburn@bradford.ac.uk>, Univertisy of Bradford
Organized sport plays an important role in the development of today’s children and youth. However, drop out in sports is a growing phenomenon and an international cause of worry. This is a multifaceted phenomenon and seldom there is just one reason behind the decision of attrition. One of the major causes is time allocation. Time spent in sports competes with time spent for other daily activities, mainly school, studying/work, friends and other hobbies. Furthermore, the amount of sports trainings and the long trips to the trainings bring chronological pressure.
- 15_04JS28JS30 –
Facets of Participation in Childhood and Youth: Exploring Sport Participation (2)(joined session)
Joint session with RN04 – Sociology of Children and Childhood and RN30 – Youth and Generation
Chair: Aurelie Mary <Aurelie.Mary@uta.fi>, University of Tampere
Tom Cockburn <T.D.Cockburn@bradford.ac.uk>, University of Bradford
Leena Haanpää <lehaan@utu.fi>, University of Turku
Organized sport plays an important role in the development of today’s children and youth. However, drop out in sports is a growing phenomenon and an international cause of worry. This is a multifaceted phenomenon and seldom there is just one reason behind the decision of attrition. One of the major causes is time allocation. Time spent in sports competes with time spent for other daily activities, mainly school, studying/work, friends and other hobbies. Furthermore, the amount of sports trainings and the long trips to the trainings bring chronological pressure.
- 15JS28 –
Glocalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Sport
Joint session with RN15 – Global, transnational and cosmopolitan sociology
Chairs: Renan Petersen-Wagner & Angel Manuel Ahedo Santisteban
‘As more processes show less regard for state boundaries – people shop internationally, love internationally, marry internationally, research internationally, grow up and are educated internationally (that is multi-lingually), live and think transnationally, that is combine multiple loyalties and identities in their lives – the paradigm of societies organized within the framework of the nation-state inevitably loses contact with reality.’ (Beck, 2000, p. 80). With this open statement from Ulrich Beck, it is possible to envision how the idea of nation-state society has been challenged lately in sociology not only through his cosmopolitan theory, but also by a myriad of approaches as network society (Manuel Castells), mobile society (John Urry), glocalisation theory (Roland Robertson), and McDonaldisation theory (George Ritzer), between many others. In this regard, this call for papers is interested in both empirical and theoretical contributions that look into the role and characteristics of contemporaneous nation-state and nationalism within professional sport. What means to represent and support a country? Whose country to represent and support in case of multiple nationalities? What means to have multiple loyalties? How solidarity and social movements occur across political national borders? How mobility of coaches and athletes challenge the notion of a national team play/spirit? These are examples of questions that could be addressed, but are not an exclusive list. Special attention will be given to papers dealing with sport megaevents, which still confronts nation-states as Olympic Games, World Cups, and more regional events as European and Commonwealth Games.
- 16_04JS28JS30 –
Facets of Participation in Childhood and Youth: Exploring Sport Participation (3)(joined session)
Joint session with RN04 – Sociology of Children and Childhood and RN30 – Youth and Generation
Chair: Tom Cockburn <T.D.Cockburn@bradford.ac.uk>, University of Bradford
Leena Haanpää <lehaan@utu.fi>, University of Turku
Aurelie Mary <Aurelie.Mary@uta.fi>, University of Tampere
Organized sport plays an important role in the development of today’s children and youth. However, drop out in sports is a growing phenomenon and an international cause of worry. This is a multifaceted phenomenon and seldom there is just one reason behind the decision of attrition. One of the major causes is time allocation. Time spent in sports competes with time spent for other daily activities, mainly school, studying/work, friends and other hobbies. Furthermore, the amount of sports trainings and the long trips to the trainings bring chronological pressure.
- 16JS28 –
Gender, Health and Physical Activity
Joint session with RN16 – Sociology of Health and Illness
Chairs: Oli Williams & Ellen Annandale
The recent ‘obesity epidemic’ currently afflicting affluent societies around the world has prompted a focus on ‘healthy citizenship’. This has stimulated a lifestyle-focused approach to reducing the collective waistline of societies across the globe as seen in the focus on diets, behaviours considered to be unhealthy (e.g. smoking and alcohol consumption) and raising physical activity levels. This session will focus on how, and in what ways, gender both influences, and is influenced by, physical activity and what is understood as being ‘healthy’. Therefore, it offers an opportunity to consider the ways in which the gendered body is implicated in this most modern of crises.
We invite empirical and theoretical papers addressing such issues as:
- The gendering of exercise and health behaviours.
- The gendered construction of the healthy and active body.
- The perception of ‘healthy lifestyles’ and the performance of gender.
- The relationship between health, physicality and the construction of gendered identities.
- 17_11JS20JS28 –
Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research (1)
Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN20 – Qualitative Methods
Chair: Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg
Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University
Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University
We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured.
•Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
•Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
•The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.
Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).
- 18_11JS20JS28 –
Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research (2)
Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN20 – Qualitative Methods
Chair: Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University
Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University
Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg
We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured.
•Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
•Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
•The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.
Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).
- 19_28JS33 –
Gender and Sexual Harassment at Work and in Leisure Time (Sport)
Joint session with RN33 – Women’s and Gender Studies
Chair:Kari Fasting <kari.fasting@nih.no>, Norwegian School of Sport and Physical Education
Maria Carmela Agodi <agodi@unina.it>, University of Naples “Federico II”
Violence against women is a worldwide problem. It occurs in all regions, countries, societies and cultures. It affects women irrespective of income, class, race or ethnicity. According to the UN General Assembly the many forms of violence to which women are subject include: sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work and in educational institutions, and today we can also add sport to this list. UN documents define gender-based violence as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society, and fulfilling their potentials as human beings.
Research on sexual harassment was first undertaken in the workplace and in the educational system where it seems to be very widespread. Different European studies place the proportion of women experiencing workplace sexual harassment at between 45 and 81 per cent. Prevalence figures from sport vary between 17 and 56%.
The studies on gender and sexual harassment in sport have drawn upon definitions, theories and methods used in workplace studies. It would therefore be interesting to gather researchers from both of these environments to present and discuss the latest empirical and/or theoretical and methodological scientific work in these areas. Depending on the people interested in contributing to the symposium, it could be narrowed down to such areas as: prevalence, types of impacts, prevention, theories, as well as methodological and ethical challenges.
- 19JS28 –
Managing competitiveness in working/professional environments: exploring elite sports
Joint session with RN19 – Sociology of Professions
Chairs: Patrick Mignon & Ruth McDonald
Elite sport is a paradigmatic example of those very competitive arenas where positions at the summit are limited to a small number of actors, which accumulate prizes and reputation. Access to these positions goes through selections and trials which suppose the mobilization of different kind of resources to face pressure of competition, uncertainty of sporting results and career achievement, rivalry between peers and secure social promotion. Division of labor between specialists, team work, technologies of transformation (physical or psychological) are means which are set up by coaches and performance directors but athletes build their own support system through psychological techniques, religious exercises and beliefs or social networks.
Through this research of success, elite sport shows tension between functional division of labor and claims for authority on professional fields or sharing of outcomes, individual achievement and necessity of collective organization.
This session takes the study of elite sport as a basis to enable scientific exchange with other domains of sociology which analyse working/professional environments and actors – like for instance artists, elite scientists or medical specialists – in areas dominated by high competiveness and impressive inequalities.
- 20JS21JS28 –
Doing social research on sports. Methodological and empirical challenges
Joint session with RN21 – Quantitative Methods and RN20 – Qualitative Methods
Chairs: Alessandro Porrovecchio, Ajit Singh & Henning Best
Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.
- 28JS33A –
Gender and sexual harassment at work and in leisure time (sport)
Joint session with RN33 – Women’s and Gender Studies
Chairs: Kari Fasting & Elina Oinas
Violence against women is a worldwide problem. It occurs in all regions, countries, societies and cultures. It affects women irrespective of income, class, race or ethnicity. According to the UN General Assembly the many forms of violence to which women are subject include: sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work and in educational institutions, and today we can also add sport to this list. UN documents define gender-based violence as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society, and fulfilling their potentials as human beings.
Research on sexual harassment was first undertaken in the workplace and in the educational system where it seems to be very widespread. Different European studies place the proportion of women experiencing workplace sexual harassment at between 45 and 81 per cent. Prevalence figures from sport vary between 17 and 56%.
The studies on gender and sexual harassment in sport have drawn upon definitions, theories and methods used in workplace studies. It would therefore be interesting to gather researchers from both of these environments to present and discuss the latest empirical and/or theoretical and methodological scientific work in these areas. Depending on the people interested in contributing to the symposium, it could be narrowed down to such areas as: prevalence, types of impacts, prevention, theories, as well as methodological and ethical challenges.
- 99_04JS28JS30 –
Facets of Participation in Childhood and Youth: sport’s drop out(joined session)
Joint session with RN04 – Sociology of Children and Childhood and RN30 – Youth and Generation
- 99_28JS33 –
Gender and Sexual Harassment at Work and in Leisure Time (Sport) – II
Joint session with RN33 – Women’s and Gender Studies
Kari Fasting <kari.fasting@nih.no>, Norwegian School of Sport and Physical Education
Elina Oinas <elina.oinas@helsinki.fi> University of Helsinki
Maria Carmela Agodi <agodi@unina.it> University Federico II in Naples
Violence against women is a worldwide problem. It occurs in all regions, countries, societies and cultures. It affects women irrespective of income, class, race or ethnicity. According to the UN General Assembly the many forms of violence to which women are subject include: sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work and in educational institutions, and today we can also add sport to this list. UN documents define gender-based violence as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society, and fulfilling their potentials as human beings.
Research on sexual harassment was first undertaken in the workplace and in the educational system where it seems to be very widespread. Different European studies place the proportion of women experiencing workplace sexual harassment at between 45 and 81 per cent. Prevalence figures from sport vary between 17 and 56%.
The studies on gender and sexual harassment in sport have drawn upon definitions, theories and methods used in workplace studies. It would therefore be interesting to gather researchers from both of these environments to present and discuss the latest empirical and/or theoretical and methodological scientific work in these areas. Depending on the people interested in contributing to the symposium, it could be narrowed down to such areas as: prevalence, types of impacts, prevention, theories, as well as methodological and ethical challenges.
- 99_b11JS20JS28 –
Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research – II
Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN20 – Qualitative Methods
Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg
Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University
Sven Ismer <Sven.Ismer@fu-berlin.de>, Free University Berlin
Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University
We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured.
•Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
•Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
•The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.
Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).
- 99_ex04JS28JS30 –
Facets of Participation in Childhood and Youth: Exploring Sport Participation
Joint session with RN30 – Youth and Generation and RN04 – Sociology of Children and Childhood
Chairs: Leena Haanpää; Aurelie Mary & Tom Cockburn
Organized sport plays an important role in the development of today’s children and youth. However, drop out in sports is a growing phenomenon and an international cause of worry. This is a multifaceted phenomenon and seldom there is just one reason behind the decision of attrition. One of the major causes is time allocation. Time spent in sports competes with time spent for other daily activities, mainly school, studying/work, friends and other hobbies. Furthermore, the amount of sports trainings and the long trips to the trainings bring chronological pressure.
Particularly high is the withdrawal rate of adolescents. The existing literature suggests that the major reason for drop out lies in the fact that organized – both community, school, and privately run – sports actors cannot respond to the needs of adolescents. The early puberty is a critical turning point concerning the physical activity.
Drop out session welcomes all researchers interested in sports participation to join the session. Both empirical and theoretical papers focusing on issues such as:
- The relationship between sports/ physical activity participation and time allocation
- Sports/physical activity and youth drop out -phenomenon
- Reasons for sports/physical activity participation and non-participation
- 99ex11JS28 –
Sport and Emotions
Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions
Chairs: Christopher R. Matthews; Lone Friis Thing & Sven Ismer Sven
Researchers who explore sport and emotions have often highlighted the place sports, physical cultures, and accompanying emotions occupy within our lives. This joint session proposes to draw together colleagues who, although sharing many conceptual and theoretical linkages, may not have previously made explicit links to each other’s substantive areas. We anticipate papers, which draw on sociological theories of emotions to make sense of physical activity, health, fitness, sport, risk and physical cultures. We also welcome papers, which explore emotions and sport more broadly in theoretical, conceptual and empirical sense. The aim is to enable researchers from different substantive areas to bring their various experiences and knowledge together in order contribute to the advancement of both sub-disciplines.
