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International Review for the Sociology of Sport
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.632
Citation Impact (citeScore): 2
Number of Followers: 24  
 
  Hybrid Journal Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
ISSN (Print) 1012-6902 - ISSN (Online) 1461-7218
Published by Sage Publications Homepage  [1176 journals]
  • “The spectators ask, is it a boy or a girl' What is it'”:
           Cultural cisgenderism and trans men's sporting experiences in Iran

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      Authors: Mohammad Sadegh Afroozeh, Catherine Phipps, Ali Afrouzeh, Ameneh Mehri, Zahra Alipour Asiri
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      In this article, we draw on cultural cisgenderism to analyse the sporting experiences of trans men in Iran. Utilising semi-structured interviews with twelve trans men in different stages of transition, we consider their experiences of women's sport environments, the extent to which cisnormativity is embedded into the culture, and whether their gender identities are accepted. We found that essentialist understandings of sex and gender are evident in sport environments, with gender presentation policed by others, and expectations this should align with ascribed biological sex. While some interviewees’ masculine expressions were valued, others were considered ‘too masculine’ to be eligible to participate in women's sport spaces; this led to restrictions around appearance and clothing, alongside instances of compulsory hormone testing. Finally, for those who were ‘out’ about their gender identity, this often led to hostility from others, including coaches, teammates, and spectators. Overall, this paper provides a critical understanding of trans inclusion in sport spaces in Iran. However, the findings may be useful for anyone working to make sport more accessible, regardless of geographical location.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-03-09T06:09:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231162270
       
  • Book review: A New Agenda For Football Crowd Management: Reforming Legal
           and Policing Responses to Risk by Geoff Pearson and Clifford Stott

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      Authors: Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-03-08T07:07:59Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231158594
       
  • It’s Just About Having Fun’' Interrogating the lived experiences
           of newcomers To Canada in introductory winter sport programmes

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      Authors: Simon Barrick
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This study examined the underexplored relationship between winter sport, newcomer participation, integration, and national identity. Winter sports hold a prominent place within Canadian culture and identity; newcomers recognize this and express a willingness to try winter sports to feel ‘more Canadian’. Using a qualitative intrinsic case study design, I interrogated how newcomers to Canada experienced the significance of participating in one introductory winter sport programme – the WinSport Newcomers Programme – for their integration into Canadian society. Study methods included qualitative in-depth interviews and a photo elicitation focus group with WinSport Newcomers Programme participants, as well as participant observations of the programmes. This research was theoretically informed by social constructionist perspectives on race and ethnicity, as well as critical insights on sport-related integration. Using reflexive thematic analysis, I developed two themes focusing on the relationship between winter sport participation and newcomer integration, and considerations about future winter sport participation. Results illustrate that study participants experienced diverse programme outcomes and drew varied meanings from learning prominent Canadian winter sports. Various program shortcomings were also identified, which weakened the WinSport Newcomers Programme's integrative potential. Acknowledging the programme shortcomings, I argue that the role of introductory winter sport programmes for newcomer integration is worthy of future inquiry.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-03-06T06:58:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231156143
       
  • Adapting to sport and country: Immigrant athletes with disabilities

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      Authors: Michael Cottingham, Hannah Richard, Tiao Hu, Samantha Biskynis, Rashika Sunku, Gabriella Walters, Oluwaferanmi Okanlami
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The benefits of disability sport are numerous and widespread; however, current research on motivations and lived experiences of athletes with disabilities has almost exclusively focused on white males. No studies have focused on the immigrant experience despite the fact that approximately 14% of the United States population are immigrants. Immigrants and people with disabilities face similar barriers, and at the intersection is an unexplored niche group of immigrants with disabilities with unique perspectives yet to be explored. The purpose of this study was to understand the impacts, motivations, and lived experiences of immigrants who participate in disability sports in the United States. Fifteen immigrants with disabilities were interviewed. They originated from 11 countries and have participated in disability sport competitively. Results indicate increased opportunities and accessibility in the United States compared to their home countries, and that participation in disability sport increased athletes’ confidence. Additionally, most participants noted that despite their sociocultural diversity, their shared identity as athletes with disabilities overshadowed any real or perceived prejudices related to race or origin. Finally, in sport participation, intrinsic motivations included physical and mental health, self-reliance, independence, and athletic competition.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-03-03T08:42:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231156275
       
  • Mainland Chinese first-generation immigrants and New Zealanders’ views
           on sport participation, race/ethnicity and the body: Does sport
           participation enhance cultural understandings'

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      Authors: Richard Pringle, Lucen Liu
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This study set within the superdiverse city of Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand examined how mainland Chinese first-generation immigrants and Pākehā (white New Zealanders) discursively understood each other in the context of sport and physical activity. Existing policy within Aotearoa/New Zealand is underpinned by the simplistic notion that social cohesion will be organically improved for culturally and linguistically diverse migrants if sport participation rates are increased for these people. This study contributes to the discussion of whether sporting involvement improves cultural understandings and enhances social integration. Data was collected via interviews with Chinese immigrants and New Zealanders (predominately Pākehā) and analysed through a theoretical framework, incorporating the ideas of Foucault and Derrida. First, from a western-centric perspective, we suggested that the workings of discourse construct Chinese first-generation immigrants and other Asian ethnic groups into ethnic ‘others’ that were subject to various forms of prejudice. Second, Chinese participants were often aware of how they were positioned via the workings of discourse but in response, at times, were ‘wilful’ to reject participation in sports that they thought were overly aggressive. The results illustrated that sport participation does not simplistically enhance ethnic and cultural understandings or produce acceptance of cultural diversity as policymakers hope to achieve. We argue that without specific policy strategies to help migrants participate in sport that affords them recognised benefits (i.e., cultural capital) in the dominant culture, the simplistic strategy of encouraging sport participation can be read as a technology of assimilation.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-02-28T05:57:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231156278
       
  • Sex integration in equestrian sport: Challenging male dominance of
           horseracing in Mexico

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      Authors: Carlos Monterrubio, Katherine Dashper
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Unisex sport – where males and females compete directly against each other with no form of differentiation – offers a radical challenge to the norms of sex segregation that contribute to ongoing gender inequality in sport. This article presents findings from an ethnographic study of horseracing events in rural Mexico as an example of the unisex model operating within a wider sociocultural context still characterised by machismo and traditional gender relations. Findings indicate that although horseracing remains a male-dominated sporting space, the presence of women as jockeys, spectators and veterinary professionals is beginning to challenge this. Women's acceptance is contingent on male support and authorisation, and women are often marginalised symbolically and physically, yet their presence illustrates that the unisex model may be an important way of beginning to challenge the masculinisation of horseracing. The study highlights the importance of considering how the wider sociocultural context influences acceptance and experience of the unisex model and steps towards greater gender equality in horseracing and other unisex sports.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-02-20T06:27:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231156502
       
  • The Paralympics on YouTube: Alternative content creation and the digital
           consumption of the Paralympics

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      Authors: Renan Petersen-Wagner, Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This article aims to explore the digital consumption of the Paralympic Games on the video-sharing platform YouTube to understand how the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) engages consumers in a digital setting, enabling an ‘alternative’ consumption of the event. Using YouTube Data Tools, we have automatically scraped data from 17,701 YouTube videos from Paralympic Games’ channel. After data manipulation and consolidation, statistical analyses were performed in order to understand how the IPC has adapted to the algorithm logic of platforms. Our findings demonstrate that YouTube should be comprehended as complementing and substituting television as the traditional medium of sport consumption. Thus, the digitalisation of the sport industry adapts and continues, rather than revolutionises, the symbiotic sport/media relationship. Whilst digital revolution allows the IPC to reach wider audiences by bypassing a traditional media editorial logic, it does so within the algorithmic logic of platforms resulting from the unpaid digital labour of users.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-02-10T06:37:58Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231155572
       
  • Can the credibility of global sport organizations be restored' A case
           study of the athletics integrity unit

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      Authors: P. Verschuuren, F. Ohl
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This paper explores how the credibility of global sport organizations can be renegotiated in a post-scandal context. It draws on a dramaturgical interpretation of social performance and frame analysis to analyze how the Athletics Integrity Unit's first years of operation were perceived by its media audience. The results demonstrate that frame consistency, empirical credibility, and the credibility of the frame articulators contributed to the construction of credibility. Besides, transparency and accountability helped to align the athletics authorities’ strategic self-framing with the frames used by external stakeholders. Through the social production of its own performance, the Unit could escape the reputation stigma that has discredited other federations and sport organizations.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-02-07T11:40:15Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231154095
       
  • From the via Crucis to paradise. The experiences of women football players
           in Spain surrounding gender and homosexuality

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      Authors: Daniel Martos-Garcia, Wenceslao Garcia-Puchades, Susanna Soler, Anna Vilanova
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The number of women in football has considerably grown in Spain, which in addition to increasing its media and social visibility is also attracting academic interest. In this regard, the objective of this article is to understand and interpret the experiences of 15 elite female football players regarding their gender and sexual orientation. The semi-structured interviews followed a pattern already used in other related research and dealt with topics such as the stereotypes that accompany women who play football, family reluctance, coexistence in locker rooms, lesbians coming out of the closet, or the need for more and better reference models. The data point to a clear homosociability within the teams and the benefits of supporting one and other when coming out of the closet, offering a counterpoint to family attitudes mostly characterized by rejection or stigmas that mark women as ‘tomboys.’ The conclusions highlight, on the one hand, the discrimination that the female players experience for being women who practice a traditionally masculine sport, and how homonegativity contributes to the control of women and the gendered nature of sport, and on the other hand, the open and inclusive climate that lesbian players have found in the football environment.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-02-07T10:12:32Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231153349
       
  • Enhancing social inclusion in sport: Dynamics of action research in
           super-diverse contexts

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      Authors: Ramon Spaaij, Carla Luguetti, Brent McDonald, Fiona McLachlan
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      There are systemic and longstanding inequalities in sport participation for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) migrants. Drawing on theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy and social justice education, as well as a public sociology perspective, this paper examines the development of an action research (AR) project to support the co-creation of inclusive climates in sports clubs in CALD communities in Melbourne, Australia. We use artefacts from collaborative sessions, interviews, and surveys to analyse the AR's impact on participating community sport leaders’ awareness and practice. The findings indicate how the collaborative process of assessing clubs’ diversity and inclusion climates affected participants’ awareness of inequities and exclusionary practices, and how the co-creation of strategies for change brought together diverse perspectives. We reflect on the implications and limitations of the AR for research practice aimed at promoting equitable social inclusion for CALD migrants in community sport.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-01-24T07:14:08Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221140462
       
  • ‘Do know harm’: Examining the intersecting capabilities of young
           people from refugee backgrounds through community sport and leisure
           programmes

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      Authors: Robyn Smith, Louise Mansfield, Emma Wainwright
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Young people from refugee backgrounds have been repeatedly denied the ability to lead a life that they value. Community sport and leisure has been positioned as a tool to foster positive wellbeing experiences for these young people living in Western resettlement countries. Drawing on qualitative data from a Participatory Action Research project in London, England, we apply Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach to examine how the young people made sense of and negotiated their interconnecting capabilities through the sport and leisure programme. We examine three key interconnections between the capabilities of (a) life, bodily health and play; (b) affiliation and emotion and (c) bodily integrity and control over the environment. The findings are significant in ensuring sport and leisure provides opportunities for young people from refugee backgrounds to engage in positive wellbeing experiences and for enabling them and those supporting them to know and challenge harmful practices that may restrict capabilities.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-01-05T06:38:45Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221150123
       
  • Corrigendum to From the via Crucis to paradise. The experiences of women
           football players in Spain surrounding gender and homosexuality

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      First page: 608
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2023-03-07T07:39:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902231162456
       
  • The Olympics, nationalism, and multiculturalism: News coverage of
           naturalized players in the Korean men’s national ice hockey team

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      Authors: Yeomi Choi
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The naturalization of athletes for the purpose of participating in the Olympics is a noticeable feature of today's superdiverse sporting contexts. Focusing on the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, in this paper, I explore how North American-born male ice hockey players who have become naturalized into South Korea are reproduced in media coverage of Canada and South Korea. Applying insights from critical discourse studies, transnationalism, and critical multiculturalism, I specifically examine how each country re/forms its own imagined community through these transnational sporting migrants and the ways that concepts of immigration, citizenship, whiteness, masculinity, and multiculturalism are linked, fused, and/or conflicted within it. Analysis suggests that in both countries, the hockey migrants have been illuminated as new national symbols enhancing the multicultural national brand of each country, whether as immigrants or emigrants, solidifying in the process the hegemonic position of whiteness as a global phenomenon beyond the West.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-28T05:49:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221147466
       
  • Meanings given to (super-)diversity in the Dutch national team by Dutch
           football commentators: A historical approach

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      Authors: Gijs van Campenhout, Arne van Lienden, Jacco van Sterkenburg
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      International football can be considered the main site for meaning-making processes related to national and racial/ethnic diversity. Various scholars have argued how international football, with the World Cup as its apex, can be seen as a barometer for understanding dominant attitudes towards societal diversity. A key domain where this diversity is interpreted and given meaning to is mediated football. To provide a wider overview of – often intersecting – meanings given to nationality and race/ethnicity over a longer period of time, this explorative study uses a historical approach to inquire how Dutch-mediated football – especially football commentary on television – has given meaning to a diversifying Dutch national team at three moments in time (the World Cups of 1974, 1998 and 2014). Further, it discusses how mediated football serves as a site for the (re)construction of discourses surrounding nationality and race/ethnicity in the Netherlands. Our findings show that meanings given to nationality and race/ethnicity are fluid, context-dependent and reconstructed in a particular temporal context. Further, it appears that key players have provided a significant role in meanings given to (super-)diversity of the Dutch national football team. Commentary on White Dutch key players was dominated by positive comments (in the World Cups of 1974 and 2014), while comments on Black Surinamese Dutch key players was relatively more negative (in the 1998 World Cup). Moreover, our results contrast with earlier studies in that Dutch commentators did not rely on stereotypical representations of Black Dutch footballers as ‘naturally’ athletic.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-28T05:49:08Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221146032
       
  • Feminine negotiations and patriarchal bargains: Contradictory resistance
           in women's flat track roller derby

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      Authors: Torisha Khonach
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Women in contact sports must negotiate hegemonic gender norms and expectations encoded with sexism and homophobia. Previous research has not fully taken into account the way roller derby athletes resist notions of hegemonic femininity while simultaneously reinforcing gendered hierarchies. Using ethnographic data and 15 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, I seek to make sense of the complex gender negotiations in one roller derby league. I find that skaters offer not only unique resistance by defying gendered expectations of femininity but also risk reaffirming gender hierarchies. Skaters also negotiate and embody characteristics of masculinity and alternative femininities to conform to expectations of sporting legitimacy. This study indicates that, even within progressive spaces, hegemonic expectations of masculinity and femininity can hinder resistance efforts by imposing the competing goals of women's empowerment and masculine norms of athleticism.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-28T05:48:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221142149
       
  • The role of subjective well-being in serious leisure and active aging:
           Evidence from older Chinese Tai Chi participants

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      Authors: Yi Shang, Yajun Qiu, Jiagang Tang
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      As leisure awareness has improved, increasing numbers of older adults have begun to participate seriously in leisure activities to experience greater happiness and enhance their quality of life. This study examined the mediating role of subjective well-being in serious leisure and active aging (AA) among older Tai Chi (TC) participants. We proposed a model mediated by subjective well-being and validated this model using stepwise regression and bootstrapping methods. Data were collected from 286 older adults who engaged seriously in TC in Hangzhou, China. The results showed that (a) subjective well-being partially mediates the relationship between serious leisure and AA; (b) subjective well-being partially mediates the relationships between serious leisure and the four subdimensions of AA; (c) among the four subdimensions, the mediating effect of subjective well-being on the relationship between serious leisure and interpersonal support and the direct effect of serious leisure on body vitality are relatively large. These results help explain the intricate relationship between serious leisure and AA among older TC participants and have theoretical and practical implications for those who are interested in the phenomenon of aging.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-23T07:32:38Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221145483
       
  • Beyond stereotypes: Women and their engagement in football fandom

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      Authors: Radosław Kossakowski, Tomasz Besta
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      In common opinion, football fandom constitutes a male space as men are perceived to be more ‘authentic’ and engaged fans, more attached to the club. This article makes a contribution to the discussion on the differences between female and male fans and their modes of engagement. We aimed to answer the question of whether there are any differences between male and female supporters in: (1) self-stereotyping (agency, communion, independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal), (2) strength of the bond with the fandom and perceived personal gains from attachment to the club (identity fusion with other fans, collective action on behalf of the fan community, self-expansion) and (3) acceptance of aggressive behaviours. We applied a mixed-method approach and conducted both in-depth interviews with female football fans and quantitative analysis based on a survey among Polish football supporters. In contradiction to gender stereotypes, the results of a study conducted among 864 fans show that women saw themselves as more agentic than men did, had a stronger independent self-construal, and declared more self-development and stronger personal gains that can be achieved due to the participation in fandom culture. Moreover, gender differences in the strength of identity fusion and collective action tendency on behalf of the fandom were not significant.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-16T06:53:28Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221145458
       
  • International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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      Authors: Julie E. Brice
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Building upon a rich body of literature around politics and the Olympics, this article explores the role of objects in political activism and protest at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Inspired by new materialist theory, Jane Bennett's vital materialism, and her concept of thing-power (2010), this research thinks about the ways in which objects in the Tokyo 2020 games were lively and agentic players in developing assemblages and discussions around social inequalities at the Games. To accomplish this, the project conducted a thematic analysis of international popular press published during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to explore the thing-power of two objects (unitards and a swimming cap). In so doing, this article explores the ways in which objects were integral actants and helped ignite conversations around gender, the sexualization of female athletes, and the racism and exclusionary practices of elite swimming. The article finishes with a discussion of the thing-power of objects and how a different ontological approach (i.e. one that values nonhuman matter) has implications for athlete protest, policy development, and addressing social inequalities and injustices within sport.
      PubDate: 2022-12-15T05:46:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221144225
       
  • Career transitions from the English Premier League: Cooling out the mark
           with possible selves

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      Authors: Colm Hickey, Martin Roderick
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Achieving and then maintaining a career as a professional athlete is hard. Saturated labour markets and the ever-present risk of deselection or injury means that career transitions are an inevitable feature of all athletes’ biographies. Like many other professional sports organisations, English Premier League (EPL) clubs have been called upon to provide adequate support to players upon their release from their club. This investigation will examine the experiences and attitudes of EPL players during their career transitions and contextualise the support that EPL club Education and Welfare Officers (EWOs) offer players during this process. Vignette interviewing was employed to engage a purposive sample, consisting of ten EPL players and five EWOs. A combination of Goffman's cooling-out metaphor and notions of Possible Selves is used to unpack the experiences of both players and EWOs. This study offers the proposition that players are Cooled Out as part of their career transitions by EWOs encouraging players to engage with Possible Selves both in and away from footballing environments. Such a process contributes to the empowerment of individuals to manage and successfully navigate their career transition from one club to another or away from the professional game entirely.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-12-05T04:02:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221142143
       
  • Youth athlete learning and the dynamics of social performance in Norwegian
           elite handball

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      Authors: Marie Loka Øydna, Christian Thue Bjørndal
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This study examines how the social interactions of youth handball players are entangled with the ideals, beliefs and norms associated with youth athlete learning in Norwegian handball and communicated through coaching practice. This qualitative study uses Goffman's interactional sociological lens to explore how players strategically manage their interactions with peers and coaches by balancing the risks of overuse and injury with the need to be seen as promising, committed players. Our data collection was based on four focus group interviews and five individual interviews with 24 female youth handball players. The athletes reported that they conformed with the social rules and expectations of acceptable behaviour in handball because they wished to avoid being discredited in the eyes of their peers and coaches. Additionally, they engaged with these expectations through self-censorship and behavioural caution, because doing so allowed them to sustain their identity as promising athletes within the current framework of athlete development. They also feared being perceived as less committed to their development. The findings highlight how the normative expectations of youth athletes affect their sense of agency and control, the behaviours they engage in, and their understandings of what it means to be a good athlete. An understanding of how athletes perform socially in ways that facilitate opportunities for ongoing development will help to facilitate more productive, ethical and meaningful practice and pedagogies.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-28T07:22:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221140844
       
  • New Zealand's princess of the pool: Post-ableism and the media
           narrativisation of Sophie Pascoe

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      Authors: Mark Falcous, Georgia Scott
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Recent research has highlighted the shifting media representation of para-athletes some of whom have been increasingly visible as national sporting figures. Their mediation entangles themes of disability, nationalism, gender and technology. In this light, we explore New Zealand print media narrativisation of the nation's most prolific disability athlete, para swimmer Sophie Pascoe. First, we contextualise Pascoe's emergence as a national sporting icon characterised by plaudits and awards. Second, we explore the press narrativisation of Pascoe between 2005 and 2020 which entangled intersecting tropes of disability, athleticism, femininity and ‘kiwi’ nationalism. Pascoe is narrated as a national hero who overcomes both competitors and her disability, which is made ‘hypervisible’. There are contradictions and tensions in this narration. Her gendering reflects a ‘post-feminist’ sensibility; poised between individualistic strength and overcoming, yet simultaneously emotional fragility, dependence and dimunition as a ‘babe’ and ‘princess’. Her celebration contradictorily affirms hierarchies of disability, centring the ‘able-disabled’. The mediation of Pascoe is symptomatic of an ableist rehabilitation supercrip narrative that frames New Zealand sport (and the nation writ large) as progressive and inclusive, yet selectively celebrates an idealised type of disabled athlete.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-24T10:08:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221135031
       
  • Reduce, re-use, re-ride: Bike waste and moving towards a circular economy
           for sporting goods

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      Authors: Courtney Szto, Brian Wilson
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      What happens to our sporting goods when we are done with them' Even though Sustainable Development Goal 12 focuses on responsible consumption and production, very few in the sports industry (and academy) have asked this question. With environmental degradation now a daily concern around the world, we can no longer produce and consume sporting goods without considering the end-of-use stage for these products. This study focuses on the bike and its role in global waste accumulation through various forms of planned obsolescence. Through interviews with experts in and around the bike industry and waste management, we provide insight into the environmental barriers that are structural and specific to the bike industry. We then advocate for extended producer responsibility and the circular economy as an imperfect but radical alternative future.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-17T06:22:59Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221138033
       
  • The “Boys’ Club”, sexual harassment, and discriminatory resourcing:
           An exploration of the barriers faced by women sport officials in
           Australian basketball

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      Authors: Samantha Marshall, Nicola McNeil, Emma-Louise Seal, Matthew Nicholson
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Sport official's experience of abuse in their role is well documented, but the additional gendered barriers that women officials face are not. This study used Concept Mapping to explore the most important and frequent barriers that women referees and officials in Australian basketball face. Results were analyzed according to the Socio-Ecological Framework with a feminist lens, which demonstrated the complexity and interconnectedness of barriers between different levels. While participants were not specifically asked about gendered experiences, the results indicated that barriers were overwhelmingly gendered at every level, including discriminatory resourcing, lack of senior women, and concerningly, incidents of sexual harassment. This research sheds new light on the experience of women officials and the organizational and societal barriers that limit their careers and make their workplace unsafe. Finally, it discusses where the locus of responsibility lies in addressing these issues for women sport officials, placing emphasis on the role of organizations.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-17T06:22:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221137802
       
  • Gendering strategic action fields in sports governance

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      Authors: Madeleine Pape, Lucie Schoch
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      How do meso-level field relations shape the ways that sports organizations act on gender equality' In this paper, we approach international sports governance as comprised of meso-level fields of strategic action in which male dominance and relations of masculinity are centrally at stake. We focus on the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), showing how the organization's efforts to address gender inequality are shaped by its relations with adjacent actors in the field. These actors jockey to form strategic coalitions as they struggle over the influence and resources to define the field configuration of international cycling, with challenges to the gendered status quo requiring careful management. Based on semi-structured interviews with individuals who held an elected or staff position within the UCI between 2005 and 2020, we show how field relations shaped the work of the UCI Women's Committee during this period as well as the experiences of women who succeeded in accessing decision-making roles. The UCI emerges in our analysis as a central governance unit via which the historical accumulation of advantage to men is preserved. We suggest that studying meso-level fields of strategic action can advance sociological research more broadly on how sports organizations are shaped by their contingent, dynamic, and (gender) unequal context.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-15T07:10:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221136084
       
  • Sportswashing: Media headline or analytic concept'

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      Authors: Michael Skey
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Sportswashing is a neologism that has begun to appear with increasing regularity in the English-language media over the past few years. However, there has been limited academic discussion of the term and certainly no sustained analysis of what it might or might not offer to sports scholars. This lacuna is particularly curious given the rapid rise in interest in related issues, such as the links between sport and soft power, sporting mega events and place branding and sports diplomacy. Therefore, this paper has three main objectives. First to trace the links between sport and other forms of ‘washing’ (whitewashing, greenwashing etc) and to identify similarities and differences in these approaches. Second, to situate sportswashing within the wider literature on sports and state relations so as to better assess what, if anything, makes it different from cognate terms, including propaganda, public diplomacy, soft power and place branding. Third, to reflect on the utility of the concept, in both analytical and practical terms, in the contemporary era.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-04T07:27:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221136086
       
  • Ticking the right boxes: A critical examination of the perceptions and
           attitudes towards the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) acronym in
           the UK

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      Authors: Keith D Parry, Beth G Clarkson, Emma J Kavanagh, Rebecca Sawiuk, Laura Grubb
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The Black Lives Matter movement and coronavirus pandemic have raised awareness of society's categorisation of non-white people and institutional language used. We add to contemporary debate on the BAME acronym (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) by providing a critical examination of the perceptions and attitudes towards it in the UK. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women from these communities who were working in the hyper-masculinised and white-dominated sporting industry, we privilege the voices of those who traditionally have been omitted. Adopting a Critical Race Theory approach and an intersectional lens three overarching themes were identified: rejection and indifference towards the BAME acronym; filling in the form – inadequacies of the system; and, making up the quota – perpetuating (work-related) insecurity(ies). The findings provide analytical insight into institutional language and highlight the potential for the BAME acronym to cause distress and alienation while preserving the concept of Whiteness.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-11-03T07:26:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221132802
       
  • Reflexivity of discomfort: Two women outsiders doing sport research in
           prison

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      Authors: Nagore Martinez-Merino, Nerian Martín-González, Oidui Usabiaga-Arruabarrena, Daniel Martos-García
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      When analyzing social relationships the idea of ​​intersectionality allows for multiple dimensions to be brought forth. In this regard, discomfort becomes the core element of a reflective exercise surrounding the ethnographic fieldwork carried out by two young, white, female researchers as volunteers of sports and physical activities for imprisoned women. Through the analysis of our field notes, we complete a retrospective journey to analyze our presence in the field and bring forth the consequences of our decisions and emotions; all with the help of our adult, white, male PhD supervisors. In our analysis, gender, age, race and, in this particular context, the position of freedom and our condition as volunteers have been revealed to be fundamental. As researchers, we opted for using different strategies such as adapting our language or repressing our feminist ideas, in a complicated game of balance between the need to establish rapport and the necessary prudence in prison. All in all, this study highlights the richness of team research and its help in facing and understanding the various difficulties that arise from the prison context, its emotional implications, and the ethical dilemmas that appear during the research process. On the other hand, it constitutes a methodological and reflective contribution to feminist research in the field of sport and physical activity.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-09-23T06:22:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221127191
       
  • Integrity governance: A new reform agenda for sport'

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      Authors: Michael Sam, Cecilia Stenling, Minhyeok Tak
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Globally, “integrity” has emerged as a critical concept for sport, with scholars, government agencies and NGOs proposing the establishment of “integrity systems”, comprising measures such as new policy units, ombudsmen and mediation services. The purpose of this study is to assess the coherence of this reform agenda, to determine its core features and gauge whether it constitutes a new governing paradigm and departure from “professionalisation”. Drawing on case material from Australia and New Zealand, we trace the sport integrity agenda and its adoption into each country's government policies and programmes. The emerging agenda focuses on diverse risks at the periphery of “old” professionalised management, while demanding a sector-wide response and universal adherence. Coordination and regulation are emphasised (at national, state/regional and local levels), supported by central government policy frameworks and grievance detection regimes. While the integrity agenda has distinctive elements of a reform movement, preliminary evidence suggests it may become integrated under the existing logics of performance, audits and risk management. It nevertheless signals substantive changes to the conduct of sport organisations at multiple levels of the system.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-09-19T04:55:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221125600
       
  • Linking sports-related and socio-economic resources of retiring Olympic
           athletes to their subsequent vocational career

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      Authors: Michael J. Schmid, Merlin Örencik, Jürg Schmid, Achim Conzelmann
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The aim of this study was to examine patterns of sports-related and socio-economic resources at the time of athletic retirement and their relation to the subsequent vocational career. We surveyed 341 former Olympic athletes representing Switzerland about their athletic, educational, and vocational careers. In order to adequately depict the heterogeneous situations of athletes during and after their athletic career, we applied a person-oriented approach. This involves adopting a holistic perspective and using nonlinear methods of analysis to allow for interactions between different aspects of an athlete’s career. Using cluster analytic techniques, we found different patterns of sports-related and socio-economic resources at the time of athletic retirement which were related with specific vocational career paths. In particular, clusters disposing of manifold resources had various opportunities in working life, whereas clusters with few resources fared less well. However, a lack of educational certificates could be compensated for by success in sports and popularity, provided that the vocational activity was pursued in sport. These findings may help career counsellors to better understand athletes’ career development options and provide services of ever-improving quality.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-09-08T08:25:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221123881
       
  • Performative nationalism in Polish football stadiums and fans’ views and
           attitudes: Evidence from quantitative research

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      Authors: Mateusz Grodecki
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Football stadiums are one of the places where nationalistic views are presented. This is done by means of displays held by organised supporters – ultras. This study aims to examine (1) to what extent the postulates of performative national ideology presented by ultras in Polish stadiums are shared by fans of Polish football clubs; and (2) whether they translate into corresponding attitudes at the individual level. The study is based on a survey conducted on a sample representative for Polish citizens (N = 4030) from which football fans were extracted (N = 643). The results show that being a fan of a Polish football club accounts for significantly higher scores on postulates referring to ethnic and racial criteria of national identity, belief in permanent struggle of nations, small nation type of collective memory and glorification of past war heroes. They also indicate that a higher level of acceptance of these postulates by fans predicts higher levels of prejudice against minorities and other nations, and higher levels of national pride.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-08-26T06:30:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221121499
       
  • Muscle moves mass: Deconstructing the culture of weight loss in American
           Olympic Weightlifting

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      Authors: Monica Nelson, Shannon Jette
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Sport scholars have argued that to protect athlete health, competitive sport cultures must begin to de-emphasize the importance of leanness for athletic performance. However, there is a notable lack of analyses of the pressures towards leanness experienced by athletes in sports that are not considered most ‘at-risk’ for the development of disordered bodily practices, such as Olympic Weightlifting. Based on interviews with sixteen competitive American Olympic Weightlifters, this study uses Foucauldian insights about the inseparability of culture, language, and the body to examine how weightlifters come to understand—and rationalize—their weight classes, body compositions, and avoidance of body fat. We find that while weightlifters characterized a wide range of body compositions as being functional for the sport, their own weight class choices were informed by a sport-specific narrative that condemned body fat. We critically interrogate this preference for leanness-focused bodily practices in a ‘non-lean’ sport, looking to the ‘Sport Ethic’ and other dominant bodily discourses as possible sources of influence.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-08-16T05:10:45Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221120183
       
  • “That's where you start to think like, does anyone actually listen to or
           watch women's sport'” Gender Regimes and Students Experiences on
           Higher Education Sport Courses

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      Authors: Philippa Velija, Catherine Phipps
      First page: 233
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      In this article we apply theoretical tools from the work of Elias and Connell to critically discuss the ways in which gender relations on Higher Education sport courses are manifested and experienced by students. Drawing on data from an analysis of curriculum, as well as interviews, surveys and workshops with students across a range of sport courses at one university, we explore curriculum design and the ways in which knowledge is presented which both marginalises and compartmentalises issues of gender, as well as presenting knowledge as gender neutral. This article provides a critical understanding of how knowledge about gender and women's sport features and is taught in UK Higher Education sport courses, alongside how students experiences in the classroom to provide an understanding which reinforces existing gender regimes and gender relations.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-05-16T07:06:33Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221097824
       
  • How gender affects the newsworthiness of sports news on German TV: An
           application of the news-factors approach to understanding gender-biased
           sports news presentation

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      Authors: Holger Ihle
      First page: 253
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Gender inequalities in sports media are well-documented. This study focuses on sports news composition and how gender influences the prominence of sports news stories. The news-factors approach offers a causal explanation for the lower prominence (i.e. newsworthiness) of women's sports in TV sports reporting. Following this theory's perspective, athletes’ gender is supposed to work as a moderating variable on news values of news factors in sports reports. The content analysis of seven German sports news programs reveals whether the same news factors are treated unequally with regard to women's and men's sports in TV news coverage. The results show that women's sports are presented as less newsworthy than men's sports, although news factors do not differ significantly by gender. However, the moderation effect of gender does not cause lower newsworthiness. That means, e.g., sports women's successes are equally emphasized as the success of male athletes in sports news on TV, and gender does not lower the credits female athlete's success receive in any given news stories. Instead, the results suggest that gender works as a news factor of its own, reducing not the news value of certain news factors but the overall newsworthiness of women's sports in TV coverage. Thus, the results demonstrate that gender inequality in sports media does not necessarily come from journalists perceiving female athletes’ performance as inferior but from presenting women's sports less often and in a far less prominent way than men's sports.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-07T05:25:22Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221103106
       
  • Momentum lost or creating new constellations' Insights from an
           exercise-at-work project during the COVID-19 pandemic – a mixed methods
           approach

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      Authors: Marie Overbye, Ulrik Wagner
      First page: 278
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Exercise-at-work programmes have been identified as venues to decrease inequalities in physical activity and exercise between socioeconomic groups and to improve employees' health and wellbeing. Drawing on a multiple institutional logics perspective and adopting a mixed-methods approach, this paper investigates how employees, exercise-ambassadors and managers at five Danish workplaces experience Covid-19 induced changes to a 1-year exercise-at-work project, and how these changes impacted upon the workplace. Our results suggest that Covid-19 and the altered format of exercise and delivery polarized employees' opportunities for exercise at work. However, the generally positive experiences of exercise-at-work activities and their influence on social environment and collaboration (identified prior to Covid-19 lockdown) remained among those employees who continued with activities. Self-organized adaptions and models of employee exercise which emerged suggest that community logic endured despite the crisis. We show how Covid-19 induced organizational changes led to interplays between institutional logics, with family and state logics becoming more prominent. Specifically, the exercise-at-work programme changed from an aligned model, with complementary logics and minimal conflict, to a model where logics of profession and corporation became dominant at the expense of community logic (exercise-ambassadors activities), but constrained by a state and a family logic.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-13T06:27:53Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221101154
       
  • Responder or promoter' investigating the role of nation-state in
           globalization: The case of China’s strategies in the global wushu
           movement

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      Authors: Chien-Chun Tzeng, Tien-Chin Tan, Alan Bairner
      First page: 308
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This study examines how wushu, as a folk sport in China, has been promoted globally by a nation-state. Identifying the Global Wushu Movement (GWM) as an East-to-West diffusion and a political and cultural phenomenon, our analytical framework is based on that of globalization as proposed by Houlihan (1994, ) and Held et al. (1999). Our particular focus is on the ‘nation-state’, notably its role in activating the GWM and whether it is a responder to or a promoter of global sporting culture. Data was collected from both documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews involving a total of twenty key stakeholders. Findings reveal that some of China's strategies prove that it is a responder to the Olympic Movement. Other strategies demonstrate that China, as the promoter of the GWM, has its own agenda to influence the international sporting realm. More specifically, the state is indeed affected by globalization which can also be managed by the state. This is because, to some extent, while China accepted the Olympic value, it has also transformed a part of its own traditional culture (wushu) and exported it via the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) as the façade. Conceptually, the duality of China's strategies in the case of GWM implies the emergence of reverse globalization.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-05-17T03:22:45Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221096947
       
  • How natural environments influence traditional sports and games: A mixed
           methods study from China

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      Authors: Yifan Zuo, Qihang Qiu, Tianlong Hu, Jie Zhang
      First page: 328
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This study explores complex relationships between the formation and development of traditional sports and games (TSGs) and the natural environment by adopting a mixed method of two studies. First, taking 1356 TSGs as cases, Study 1 uses spatial analysis to explore the representation, connotation, and source of the relationship between TSGs and natural environment factors. Second, Study 2 uses grounded theory to analyze 149 official declaration documents of TSGs and extracts 36 initial concepts, 12 subcategories, and 4 core categories, from which a theoretical framework of the formation process model of TSGs is constructed. The findings illustrate that the formation and development of TSGs are not completely determined by the natural environment but are derived from a combination of factors such as survival values, beliefs, attitudes, and the natural environment. On one hand, when the natural environment is considered an external factor of society, TSGs are directly affected by it. On the other hand, when the natural environment is considered an internal factor of society, it can only interact with people's beliefs and attitudes and indirectly accelerate or delay TSG formation and development. Research results provide both theoretical and practice implications in the safeguarding of TSGs.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-05-10T06:26:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221096233
       
  • Governing Olympic education: Technologies of policy announcements and
           outsourcing

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      Authors: Honglu Zhang, Darren Powell
      First page: 349
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The Chinese government views the Olympic Games as a critical platform to present national pride on a global scale. Olympic education also has an important role to play for China, as it is a requirement for any Olympic host country. In the context or preparations for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, this original ethnographic research examines the governance of Olympic education, with a focus on how relationships between China's government and a range of stakeholders (e.g. private sectors, academics, and individual teachers) ‘worked’ to shape the implementation of Olympic education in two Beijing primary schools. Utilising Foucault's notion of governmentality, we demonstrate that Olympic education was a significant tactic for Chinese government to realise their ambition of the great rejuvenation of China. Here, the state employed two technologies of government: policy announcements and outsourcing. In tension with common assumptions about China – and Chinese education – being purely authoritarian, our research illuminates how hybrid socialist-neoliberal rationalities worked to shape Olympic education in schools.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-05-23T05:43:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221101993
       
  • When sport is taken to extremes: A sociohistorical analysis of sport
           addiction

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      Authors: Emmanuelle Larocque, Nicolas Moreau
      First page: 368
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      In the 1970s, the concept of sport addiction appeared in scientific literature, warning of the addictive properties of exercise when taken to extremes. Appearing in over 6500 peer-reviewed articles in Google Scholar from 1979 to 2017, this construct is of interest to the fields of mental health and sport sociology as it provides a heuristic case to consider the conditions which allow for a category-in-the-making to gain meaning despite its absence from leading classification systems. Using Hacking's framework of ecological niches, this review of literature provides a critical examination of “sport addiction” and aims to investigate the driving forces and the means by which social actors from the scientific community negotiate the landscape and boundaries of this emerging disorder. The results highlight the prominence of psychology in the diffusion of the construct and the reticence of the medical world to legitimize it as a mental health category.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-06T04:59:56Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221104956
       
  • Homophobia in Brazilian football: A critical discourse analysis of fans’
           comments in online football forums

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      Authors: Juliana Nabono Martins
      First page: 392
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Football is one of the many fields where the display of orthodox masculinity, often related to sexism and homophobia, reaches its peak. Studies indicate that such behaviors negatively affect athletes who do not fit heteronormative standards and closeted gay players, who fear coming out due to an intimidating and toxic environment. Fans have been central to some empirical studies investigating homophobia in football; however, most research to date focuses on western countries. Through the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper examines how Brazilian football fans see the presence of openly gay players on a men's team. One hundred and fifty comments were collected from thirteen online football forums. The results indicate similarities in the responses provided by Brazilian fans compared to western studies. Although fans’ positive views towards the presence of openly gay players were expressed, homophobic opinions were also identified in this environment. Several fans also demonstrated no objection to the use of homophobic language. The present study is relevant to the existing literature as it aids in clarifying previous notions of homophobia in Brazilian football. At the same time, it problematizes and officially places Brazil on the map of studies on the topic.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-27T06:54:35Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221107323
       
  • FIFA’s utopia: An analysis of FIFA’s football for hope
           movement

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      Authors: Shawn D. Forde
      First page: 411
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      This article offers an analysis of FIFA’s Football for Hope (FFH) movement with a particular focus on the 20 Centres for 2010 Campaign that was connected to the 2010 World Cup, and the FFH Festivals held during the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Using document analysis and observations made during the FFH Festival at the 2014 World Cup and drawing on Levitas’ ( ) Utopia as Method, this article analyzes claims made by FIFA that football can bring hope and build a better future. Ultimately, the hope that FIFA promotes, and their imagined future is one that is essentially predetermined and is based on the current status quo. However, FFH through their documents and their festival, also present glimpses of potentially transformative alternatives.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-16T06:04:01Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221107322
       
  • ‘Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that
           counts can be counted’: Searching for the value of metrics and
           altmetrics in sociology of sport journals

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      Authors: Rebecca Olive, Stephen Townsend, Murray G. Phillips
      First page: 431
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Metrics, and increasingly altmetrics, are a pervasive aspect of academic life. A proliferation of digital tools available have seen greater emphasis on the quantification of the ‘performance’ of individual journals. Although metrics and altmetrics are justified in terms of increased accountability and transparency, there are significant inequities in the ways they are deployed. Key among these is the unsuitability of many popular metrics for assessing publications in the humanities and social sciences, as the data, algorithms and systems which support them cater to authorship and citation practices of the various science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. These issues are amplified for journals in the sociology of sport, which publish research by humanities and social science scholars whose work is quantified according to the standards of the health science departments in which they frequently work. In this discussion, we critically examine how common forms of metrics and altmetrics, including those produced by Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Altmetric.com, are applied to available sociology of sport journals. We analyse and critique how different metric algorithms produce variable measures of performance for each of the journals in the field and reveal how other information available on these databases can augment our understanding of the sociology of sport publishing ecology. Far from advocating the value of metrics and altmetrics, our analysis is intended to arm scholars and journals with the information required to critically navigate the entanglement of metrics and altmetrics with neoliberalism, audit culture and digital technologies in universities.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-27T06:54:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221107467
       
  • What’s in a game' A dialectic of competition and cooperation in
           Squid Game

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      Authors: Soo Yeon Kim, Sungjoo Park
      First page: 455
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Squid Game, a Netflix original series about children's games turned into deathmatches, has become a phenomenal global success and has captivated the latest cultural and media scenes. This article examines the representation of games in Squid Game to argue that their unprecedented appeal to the masses derives from a paradoxical human desire for ruthless competition and moral cooperation. That is, while Squid Game presents a superb allegory of the degree to which contemporary game playing is driven by consumer capitalism, it simultaneously unfolds a moving drama in the midst of competition where unanticipated team spirit is kindled and underdogs win against all odds. Focusing on a dialectic between result-oriented competition and utopian cooperation, the article concludes that the huge popularity of Squid Game demonstrates the contemporary spectator's need for a hybrid entertainment when watching games.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-06-17T06:04:53Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221107468
       
  • Tokyo 2020 Olympics sustainability: An elusive concept or reality'

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      Authors: Sylvia Trendafilova, Walker J. Ross, Stavros Triantafyllidis, Jamee Pelcher
      First page: 469
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The Olympic Games continue to be a creator of adverse environmental impacts for host communities. Given the role that the Olympic Games play in sustainability due to their size, the number of people attending, new construction and infrastructure, and the extensive exposure by the media, this study investigated the Tokyo 2020 Games by evaluating the efficacy of their ecological sustainability efforts. Methods for this study were framed by the conceptual model of Müller et al. Specifically, the model is grounded on the three general aspects of sustainability: ecological, social, and economic. Compared to all Olympic events from 1992 through 2020, results from the present research indicated that Tokyo 2020 Olympics may have been the most ecologically friendly Games. This ecological record is significant, but it may be an unrealistic benchmark, given that the lack of attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced much of the ecological sustainability scores.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-07-12T06:57:07Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221110157
       
  • ‘We now have Catholics and Blacks’: Whiteness in a Northern
           Irish rugby club

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      Authors: Thomas Kavanagh
      First page: 491
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Northern Ireland is often considered in terms of the two majority communities, Catholics and Protestants, and the inter-communal conflict which structured, and continues to structure, much of Northern Irish society. However, situated within often volatile situations, the small ethnic minority communities of Northern Ireland have often been overlooked. This article investigates a Northern Irish rugby club, and examines the way in which whiteness is normalised, racist discourses are dismissed, and the sectarian boundaries, which are normally so strongly maintained, are overlooked in the presence of ‘others.’ As such, this research offers a contemporary perspective of the way whiteness, racism and sectarianism intersect in Northern Irish society, and starts a conversation about the provision of sport for ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-07-12T06:57:33Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221112776
       
  • How do Hong Kong fans choose their favourite overseas football club'
           Origins of transnational fandom in late modernity

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      Authors: Chun Wing Lee
      First page: 511
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Despite the importance of transnational fans to the globalisation of European football, there have not been many studies that aim to understand why they support specific overseas clubs. On the basis of qualitative interviews with transnational fans in Hong Kong and supplemented by findings from an online fan survey, I argue that most of them lack genuine choices when choosing their favourite overseas clubs. Even when all English Premier League matches are shown live in Hong Kong and with information about many European clubs available on the Internet, transnational fans tend to support teams that they were familiar with when they were still young, and clubs that star players play for. Such clubs are usually the richest ones that can help them achieve success on the pitch. Also, family members and peers can be influential to the origin of football fandom, but there is little pressure to support the same overseas club as their family members or peers. The choices of transnational fans based in Hong Kong should also be understood by taking the historical context of the city into account. Such findings suggest that globalisation has freed Hong Kong football fans from geographical constraints, but the individualisation thesis in the late modern era needs to be qualified since the wealth of European clubs and fans’ immediate social context do often have important impacts on their decision to support an overseas club.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-07-12T06:57:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221112779
       
  • Boxing, myths and reality building in sport for development programmes

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      Authors: Christopher R Matthews, Ashleigh Hurrell, Thomas B Oliver, Alex Channon
      First page: 531
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The training regimes which are associated with boxing are thought to impart lessons in discipline that are particularly valuable for social groups often associated with the sport. This leads to a variety of sport for development programmes that seek to leverage this potential in one way or another. Research which is conducted on such programmes is often produced internally without academic support. We argue it is possible, and perhaps likely, for such research to evidence, justify and recreate sporting myths. To this end, we explore the allure and apparent utility of boxing as a sport for social development. We then consider how people involved in such programmes attempted to evidence their passionate beliefs in boxing's positive potentials. Rather than considering myths as being completely unfettered from objective reality, we have explored how they are part of an interactional process that can produce stubbornly persistent accounts of the world. We present this analysis as evidence of the ways that myths can become embedded in people’s lives and, as such, must be conceptualised accurately, accounted for empirically and explored using considered research strategies. Our observations paint an awkward picture of the validity of the evidence-base upon which boxing programmes boasted of their success. That is, embracing personal biases and avoiding rigorous, critical research methods were being financially incentivised, with no external accountability for challenging pre-conceived ideas and a priori conclusions. Our concluding remarks situate these claims within ongoing ontological, epistemological and axiological debates which sport development scholars have developed.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-07-27T04:54:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221112878
       
  • Antisemitism as a football specific problem' The situation of Jewish
           clubs in German amateur sport

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      Authors: Lasse Müller, Jan Haut, Christopher Heim
      First page: 550
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      Despite the undisputed existence of antisemitic incidents in sport, little is known about their exact prevalence and forms of manifestation. Also in Germany, physical and verbal attacks against Jewish sports clubs have repeatedly come to light. To estimate the prevalence of antisemitic incidents in German grassroot sports, a standardised online survey was conducted among members of Jewish sports clubs in Germany (N = 309, data collection 3 November 2020 to 24 January 2021). Results show an accumulation of cases in football: more than two-thirds (68%) of the football players have experienced an antisemitic incident at least once, while the share in other sports is only 14%. The results indicate that football offers a particularly large number of constellations that lead to the expression of antisemitic patterns. At its core, football is shaped by a clash of group identities. It is widely accepted that opponents and their supporters are devalued through aggressive and emotionalized behaviour. A tendency towards underreporting can furthermore be observed in dealing with the incidents, among other reasons due to a significant proportion of those surveyed do not trust the sanction mechanisms of the sports associations – this in turn applies to footballers and non-footballers.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-07-27T06:29:19Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221114057
       
  • Promoting the Chinese martial arts internationally: Is it ‘Kung Fu’ or
           ‘Wushu’'

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      Authors: Qing-song Han, Marc Theeboom, Dong Zhu, Inge Derom
      First page: 570
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      The term ‘Kung Fu’ is used internationally more often than its official name ‘Wushu’ to depict the Chinese martial arts. Yet the latter term has been promoted by the Chinese government for nearly 50 years and also used by the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) during the past three decades. This paper examines the distinction in the meaning between both terms through Stuart Hall's Representation Theory, based on 20 in-depth interviews with international expert witnesses. Findings suggest that the term ‘Kung Fu’ is mostly associated with traditional Chinese martial arts, Kung Fu cinema, Oriental imagination, and fighting practicability. For expert witnesses, Kung Fu represents an identity of traditional Chinese martial arts and a way to experience ‘Chineseness’. By contrast, although the IWUF has made efforts to package Wushu as the term representing Chinese martial arts, ‘Wushu’ is regarded as a competitive sport, shaped significantly by IWUF's Olympic ambition. Also, three key aspects regarding the representation of the Chinese martial arts in relation to both terms are discussed.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-08-08T07:05:35Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221117973
       
  • ‘Let's face it, it's not a healthy sport’: Perceived health status and
           experience of injury among Polish professional mixed martial arts athletes
           

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      Authors: Michał Lenartowicz, A Dobrzycki, M Jasny
      First page: 589
      Abstract: International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
      With this article we present findings from the research on professional MMA fighters and their perception of health and injury. The frequency and types of injuries they have sustained while practicing MMA were analysed alongside self-assessment of health conditions and attitudes towards health problems. We also analyze fighters’ risk culture of neglecting pain and underestimating injuries, and the organization of health care in the event of an injury. A mixed methodology was applied. We administered a questionnaire to 88 male professional MMA athletes. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 athletes from the surveyed group. Respondents’ mean age was 27.5. They had sound MMA experience, with the most experienced competing in over 20 professional fights. Investigated athletes reported numerous health problems, high injury rate and frequent occurrence of pain. The MMA risk culture seemed to shape specific competitors’ perceptions and responses to injury and health problems and specific hierarchy of injury severity. MMA athletes showed a high level of risk acceptance regarding their health and the social and economic terms of their professional MMA involvement. They also reported inadequate medical care and oversight, and independently organised and financed medical and rehabilitation treatments. Nevertheless, for investigated athletes this risk culture seems to be internalized and considered an acceptable cost of their professional sport involvement and recognition.
      Citation: International Review for the Sociology of Sport
      PubDate: 2022-08-05T06:58:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/10126902221119041
       
 
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