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Abstract: Abstract Football matches are deeply emotional, recreational, cultural and political events for footballers and supporters in Anglophone Africa. Substantial literature demonstrates intricate connections of football fandom, nationalism and political resistance in Africa. This paper is based on a qualitative meta-analysis of extant literature on football fandom, nationalism and political resistance in Anglophone Africa. We argue that literature on football fandom, nationalism and political resistance in Africa is divided into two phases of intellectual production-pre-independence and post-independence. This body of literature largely demonstrates that football fandom is a crucial space where subaltern groups express various forms of nationalism. Moreover, studies also show that football fandom creates a sophisticated system of cultural and political codes which critique and subvert authoritarian political establishments. The paper brings into conversation literature on football, nationalism and resistance literature from seemingly divorced epochs and geographical regions, in order to demonstrate how football was central in fighting for rights of the under-privileged during and after British colonial rule in Africa. We also explore the nuanced arguments that connect this literature, illuminating on how stadium environment allows the downtrodden to freely associate, assemble and associate in authoritarian African contexts. We also examine the extent to which these arguments have metamorphosed over time. Finally, we suggest a possible trajectory future research can focus on especially in this digital age. PubDate: 2023-08-19
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Abstract: Abstract This conceptual paper explores the gendered framing of women as sports fans in literature and pop culture and the surveillance of their fandom in the stands. By investigating what it feels like to be watched while watching, and the complex ways in which gendered practices complicate the position of women as spectators of sport, we can see how some women are actively challenging the stereotypes of sports fandom in popular culture. Through using the method of reflexive autoethnography, (see Delamont, 2009; Ellis et al., 2010 and Holman Jones, 2016) this paper will re/address how women are framed as fans in the sports fan space and the activism they demonstrate in these presentations that has gone unnoticed and under-researched in the sports fan space. Through autoethnography I intend to also add personal reflections to connect to, challenge and re-position some representations of women as sports fans through this framework in order to explore different ways of engaging with the existing research. This method builds on innovative approaches to exploring fandom through mixed method and ethnographical investigations that have been developed in studies by key researchers in the field such as Hoeber & Kerwin’s (2013), McParland (2012) and Richards (2015 &, 2018). Applying the lens of reflexive autoethnography as the primary methodology will further allow me, an engaged participant myself, to re-explore my previous experiences to give gendered perceptions of sports fandom further nuanced consideration. This approach aims to offer alternative ways to consider how women show activism in challenging their surveillance and presenting their multi-layered and complicated experiences of fandom by re-viewing how women as fans are represented in popular culture. This paper will move through an examination of the existing research on gender and sports fandom, and touch on concepts of surveillance and present examples of women as fans in several text that perform elements of activism to challenge the ‘female fan’ stereotype to connect key ideas to the reflective autoethnographical entries, bringing a different way to understand the gendered experience of being watched while watching sport in a stadium. PubDate: 2023-08-11
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Abstract: Abstract Women are underrepresented in martial arts participation compared to men. The aim of this scoping review was to understand how gender dynamics influence women’s experiences of martial arts, in order to inform future interventions and policies which could increase the participation of women in martial arts. Fifty-three studies were eligible for inclusion and thematic analysis was used to identify they key themes across the literature. The seven themes identified included: martial arts as a tool for improving gender relations, use of martial arts to challenge societal gender norms, women’s empowerment through martial arts training, problematic mixed-gender contact, expectation for women to conform to gender norms, martial arts as men’s space, and patriarchy in martial arts. Overall whilst there was evidence some women had positive experiences of gender dynamics in martial arts, and that women’s experiences are improving over time, the review highlighted that women can be excluded from martial arts as a result of traditional hierarchies, gender norms and problems associated with mixed-gender contact. PubDate: 2023-08-01
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Abstract: Abstract There have been significant recent developments in media produced by football fans, from social media and online magazines to podcasts, YouTube channels and live events. 21st century technologies have facilitated new types of supporter-produced media, rendering the means of production more accessible to fans. In Liverpool, fan channels have emerged, influenced by the city’s musical heritage and political and cultural identity. For instance, modern events such as Boss Night and podcasts produced by The Anfield Wrap (TAW) have helped provide an authentic voice for the city’s contemporary football culture, political identity and connected social activism. Due to globalised media networks, they can also offer an educational mobilising hub for those interested in Liverpool’s current idiosyncratic cultural and political civic context. This research is informed by literature on fan media and activism and draws on collective identity theory and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus. In-depth interviews were conducted with experienced supporters and various individuals closely associated with the production of fan media. Structurally, the paper outlines Liverpool’s historical, cultural, sporting and fan media context. It then analyses data detailing the evolution of Boss Mag to Boss Night events and examining The Anfield Wrap as an innovative site of content creation. Contextually, the paper explores fan activism through the mediatised protest of Liverpool’s ownership and collective expressions of political identity. Finally, it draws on the experiences of supporters at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris and the use of technology and fan media in capturing and responding to the mistreatment of supporters. PubDate: 2023-07-24
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Abstract: Abstract During the last decade, football fans in Germany and Ukraine have become increasingly active in the struggle for their interests. This article compares their respective activism based on reasons, tactics and spaces of activism over a span of eight years. The comparison shows that national politics are a dominant motive for Ukrainian fan activism, especially after the so-called Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan) in 2014, including the Russian invasion. Politics is so important that activism is politically framed in this context even if non-political players like club management or the football association are addressed. In Germany, football’s governance is the major reason for fan activism, as fans strive to preserve or extend their influence on clubs’ and associations’ decisions. This difference emphasises the influence of national settings on fan activism. Concerning space and tactics, the samples show similarities, as in both countries ultras are the dominant type of fan group, an intersection of global ultra culture and activism tactics exists and activism mainly takes place in football stadiums. Therefore, fan activism can be understood as a globally connected movement that is nonetheless highly determined by the respective local context. PubDate: 2023-06-24 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00137-x
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Abstract: Abstract Despite substantial recent activism on the part of U.S. women footballers and their fans, little scholarly attention has focused on fan activism in women’s football. Drawing on an ethnographic study of U.S. fans at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, this analysis considers fan activism as the construction of leisure identities. In the acutely politicized context of this tournament, activist messages displayed by fans sparked both in-person and mediated social interactions that solidified constructions of fans as politically liberal and committed to gender equality and communicated individuals’ alignments with these constructions. Ultimately, fans drew on liberal feminist conceptions of equality as women’s sameness to men to call for change and to build and signal their own belonging as legitimate members of the women’s football community. PubDate: 2023-06-06 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00138-w
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Abstract: Abstract This article takes as its point of departure the impact of Covid 19 on leisure and work and uses the London arts venue the Soho Poly as a lens through which to explore the profound disruption the pandemic represented. Beginning with a survey of the Soho Poly’s origins in the early 1970s, the authors demonstrate how these laid the groundwork for the venue’s current artistic policy of ‘disrupting the everyday’ with arts and culture. The authors then examine the Soho Poly’s output during 2020 and 2021 and suggest that key philosophies of temporal and spatial disruption in some senses found their moment in the particular circumstances of lockdown. Drawing on this observation, the authors consider how some of the discoveries prompted by the pandemic might be used by arts providers to rethink the ways in which arts and culture can continue to deconstruct, and disrupt, outmoded divisions between work and leisure. PubDate: 2023-06-03 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00135-z
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Abstract: Abstract In this conceptual paper, I tried to articulate that in leisure and tourism studies “we still live in a wholly racialized world” (Morrison, 1992). Few leisure and tourism scholars cared to follow the clues to map the contours of the racial predicament of scholars of color as a way of their lives surviving in the academia. As a scholar of color, my everlasting quest has always been to feel at home without becoming “White”. The dilemmas and rejections in this journey created an omnipresent tension in my life which shaped the content of this paper. I understand that this study will certainly not set the Thames on fire but I seek to open new avenues of discussion to break this silence. While doing that, I tried to follow the philosophy of Hegel’s “master/slave dialectic: the search for self-consciousness” within the Bakhtinian (multiaccentuality of racial meaning) and Levinasian (his close equivalence between structuralist anthropology and genetics) context equipped with the wisdom of Stuart Hall, Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Michel Foucault, Karl Marx, Jacques Derrida and Amartya Sen. PubDate: 2023-06-01 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-022-00124-8
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Abstract: Abstract We report on research that found joining activities within community leisure and fitness centres (Centres) enabled people living with dementia to create meaning about everyday life and foster identity. Focusing on three Centres in England, the study was informed by the experiences and accounts of four people living with dementia, their life-partner (if applicable) and the sports professional most closely associated with the person as each participated within a range of leisure opportunities. The methodology was underpinned by phenomenological philosophy and utilised participative methods. Theoretically, the paper draws upon considerations of serious leisure that provide ways in which the participants’ experiences could be understood and wider implications considered. Conceptual themes we derived from the data analysis were place, citizenship, and belonging (where the Centre acting as a physical space was important); identity and interaction (where the focus was upon space making and embodiment); safe spaces and care (i.e., how wellbeing was sustained and how participation and meaningful engagement occurred within the space); and, the value of Centres as opportunity structures (where all of these themes coalesced). Amid current public health debates over resourcing and care, this research provides timely insights and continued needed debates on the relationship between adequate social, economic and political support/resourcing, and the ability of Centres to facilitate and sustain meaningful and safe spaces. Beyond, we suggest our findings offer learning that might extend to wider contexts; for example, through including Centres within social care and health initiatives, where emphasis will be upon participation as a citizen rather than as a patient. PubDate: 2023-06-01 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-022-00121-x
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Abstract: Abstract This paper synthesizes Gramscian and Habermasian perspectives on new conditions of life and hegemonic struggle that the postmodern initiated in the closing decades of the 20th Century (Jameson, 1984). Drawing from Habermas, it discusses the decline of the public sphere and the colonization of lifeworlds in advanced capitalism, and, focusing on leisure as a bundle of practices (Spracklen, 2009, 2015), explores the implications of these developments for the organization of bourgeois hegemony and the prospects for transformative alternatives. PubDate: 2023-05-18 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00136-y
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Abstract: Abstract A substantial body of theory exists on the concept of everyday life, including the sociology of everyday life, but it has barely featured in the mainstream of the sociological study of leisure or leisure studies more broadly. This paper explores this theoretical work and considers the place of leisure in it, and how it might inform the further development of the study of leisure. It is argued that the time is right to broaden the scope of leisure research to incorporate consideration of the way in which all forms of everyday time-use interact. PubDate: 2023-04-04 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00134-0
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Abstract: Abstract Background: This think-piece explores the question of how we might go about instilling the potential for personal/communal transcendence in our classroom lessons and our communitywide offerings. What role does charisma play in the field of leisure studies and in the concept of leisure more broadly' We build on the early work of Rolf Meyersohn in attempting to address this issue. Conclusion: If leisure studies, and public recreation agencies in general, are about building up individuals into their best selves, then there must be people and agencies in place that can inspire opportunities for improving people’s lives, and this should be done at a societal level for greatest impact. PubDate: 2023-02-21 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-023-00132-2
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract Recreationists differ in their engagement, specialization and involvement in their leisure activity. Recreation specialization can be seen as a continuum from the novice to the highly advanced (or as a career process), sometimes grouped into three or four categories. Within the highest category of advanced recreationists, a specific hard-core, elite or devotee segment was identified. In this study, the highly specialized or elite segment of birdwatchers was addressed. Therefore, members of the Club 300 (in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland), were studied in comparison to non-members. Members of the Club 300 are required to have observed about 300 bird species in their respective country. Scales on recreation specialization, motivations and involvement were applied. A general linear multivariate model revealed a significant influence of Club 300 membership on the total set of the different dimensions with an eta-squared of 0.315, representing a high effect size. Subsequent uni-variate analyses showed that members differed from non-members significantly in all dimensions. Thus, Club 300 members fulfil the requirements of an elite segment because they differ in knowledge and behavior, as well as in their motivations from other birdwatchers. PubDate: 2022-12-21 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-022-00129-3
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Abstract: Abstract The fourth wave of leisure studies challenges researchers to investigate the social construction of race through leisure, in contrast to understanding race as a variable. Floyd (2007) challenged us to think about the future challenges and trends around race and ethnicity in leisure studies. Though significant progress has been made since the 1970s, we still have far to go in assessment of race and ethnicity in leisure. The objective of this manuscript is to answer the call made by Floyd for an anticipated fourth wave task of “understand[ing] how leisure practices create, reinforce, and perpetuate racist practices in contemporary America” (2007, 249). We apply a theoretical framework that centers racism and whiteness, drawn from race scholarship across fields: the sociology of race, Critical Race Theory (CRT), whiteness studies, settler colonialism studies, and Black and Native Studies. We apply this framework to investigate the storytelling at two National Park Service (NPS) monuments which we provide as case studies to analyze how spatialized historical storytelling consolidates structural white supremacy in the parks, despite a rhetoric of inclusivity. Only once we understand how racism and white supremacy are embedded in NPS narratives can we begin to make changes to reduce white supremacist storytelling in leisure practice. PubDate: 2022-12-14 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-022-00126-6
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Abstract: Abstract Leisure among university students can take place on campus or out-of-campus. It can be spontaneous or organized under the umbrella of a fraternity, a sorority, or a club. While there is an important body of literature on fraternities and sororities, less is known about recreational activities occurring in a sports club. To deepen our understanding of leisure in universities, this article seeks to answer the question: how is the practice of surfing made possible by students within a university sports club' Within the positive sociology of leisure framework, this work uses Durkheim’s theoretical contribution to sociology and posits that partaking in lifestyle sports may promote solidarity, social bonding, and acceptance of norms and traditions. In demonstrating that social laws and rules do structure lifestyle sports, this research challenges the idea that surfers tend to be individualistic and condemn institutions. Based on a 20-month fieldwork conducted between 2009 and 2013 at two public universities in Southern California, this analysis indicates that university surfers enrolled in a sports club are community-based, tied by social facts, and show solidarity. PubDate: 2022-12-03 DOI: 10.1007/s41978-022-00125-7
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