Sport Studies

"Dr Alex Channon, University of Greenwich
Dr George Jennings, Universidad YMCA

Since the late 1970s, social scientists have turned considerable attention to investigating martial arts and combat sports (MACS). In particular, this broad range of fighting disciplines has been shown to offer numerous avenues for scholarly enquiry into social change and personal transformation via processes of embodiment. Adopting a thematic structure, we assess the empirical literature in this area via four interconnecting categories pertaining to MACS and embodiment: (1) body cultures; (2) body pedagogies; (3) the embodiment of gender; and (4) bodily harm. Following this review, we identify several gaps in the existing literature, suggesting potential new topics and strategies for research connecting to the social world of physical culture more generally."

This book sets out a new critical perspective on our understanding of the society and history of the Arab World through the study of sport - an area rarely referred to in literature on the region. The book examines sport in relation to cultural, political and economic changes, including nation-state building, the formation of national identity and international relations in post-colonial context. It also analyzes the commercialization of sport and the growth of sport media broadcasting in the Arab World. The author explores how sport in the Arab World has been the site of political agitation and social contestation, arguing that the sports arena can still offer the possibility of Arab nations to compete at international level and the Arab people a chance to claim some symbolic victory against their hard socio-economic and political realities.

" Programme now available at http://www.sportpolitics.net/25.html. We have 42 research-packed papers over a day and a half and keynotes from Andy Burnham MP and Prof Maurice Roche (Sheffield University). Make sure you sign up for the Sport Politics event of the year!

Online registration is now open and available at: https://buyonline.ljmu.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=61&catid=9&prodid=114  or, of course, you can register and pay ‘offline’ too. You can do this by pre-payment cheques made out to 'PSA Sport and Politics Group' and sent to Dr Russell Holden, 5 Berthwin Street, Pontcanna, Cardiff, CF11 9JH or in cash on the day.

Non-presenting delegates very welcome to register."

"A new interest in various forms of spirituality and religiosity is emerging in some subcultures of contemporary society. This tendency can be seen as an indicator of an Orientalization process that affects everyday life and lifestyles, and it can be read as a symptom of a crisis in the paradigm of Western Modernity, which is changing the relationship between culture and nature, the central role played by the rational positivist paradigm, and ideas of body, space and time.

Oriental disciplines and martial arts are a significant case study for the purpose of analyzing the on-going Orientalization process. These highly ritualized practices have become part of many people’s daily life and have affected their way of dressing, as well as the way they arrange furniture at home and the way they make decisions that involve their diet and body care. These practices may also affect people’s identities by changing their values, ethics and morality.

To explore the Orientalization process, I first introduce some features of the diffusion of the “mythical Orients” in the Western imaginary since the sixties. In particular, I focus on some media products (for example, mangas and wuxia movies) that played an important role in arousing interest in Other cultures. In this stage I will refer to some media theories, in particular to Gerbner’s cultivation theory and to the medial socialization effect.

In a second step I focus on the imaginary embodied in some Oriental disciplines and martial arts.

I refer to some results of a research that I am conducting in some martial arts gyms, starting from my experience as an instructor. In that context I performed an ethnographic study, gathering several in-depth interviews with masters, beginners, fighters, experts and therapists, and analysing the interactions within some online communities (virtual ethnography). This last method allowed me to come back to the first step, and to focus on how some features of the media imaginary are mediated through the interactions within the virtual communities."

""This paper will examine early tours of Denmark by British football clubs, with most of the focus on organisations based in the central belt of Scotland: specifically, Celtic, Rangers, Queen’s Park, Heart of Midlothian, and Edinburgh Civil Service.

These were some of the first forays onto the continent by British clubs, and they presage an era of competitive European football (although some journalists believed that it was inevitable at some point). Queen’s Park's first visit to Copenhagen, to meet up with a representative club of the Dansk Boldspil Union (Danish FA) in 1898, and their subsequent visits in 1900 and 1903, were seen as exercises in solidifying the bonds of amateurism. Nevertheless, even amateurs needed coaching and tougher competition to become better; and, in 1904, the invitation of Newcastle United and Southampton to Copenhagen heralded an era where professional British clubs toured Denmark, and became a part of the capital’s lucrative summer football programme.

This paper will examine the press perceptions of these first tours, and common discourses surrounding these trips; specifically, tourism, cultural exchange and incomprehension, and musings on the future of continental football. Furthermore, however, this paper will also use imagery, in the form of photography and illustrations, to get a feel for how both British and Danish newspapers viewed their respective ‘others’ from across the North Sea. This paper hints at future directions in the early transnational history of association football and other sports, particularly between the UK’s constituent nations, Ireland and Scandinavia.""

"This article examines indigenous women wrestlers (luchadoras) in La Paz, Bolivia, and the ways in which they creatively use tourists’ assumptions that they are “traditional” peoples performing in “exotic” events. Since 2001, indigenous women have participated in lucha libre—a form of wrestling that draws its lineage from wrestling in Mexico and the United States. Travelers often assume it represents a traditional form, however, because the luchadoras base their wrestling personas and costuming on chola market women. I explore how the luchadoras utilize these perceptions and the resulting media attention to claim cosmopolitan identities. Not only do they gain social status and mobility, but they also see themselves as positive representatives of Bolivian women for a global audience.

Este artículo examina las mujeres luchadoras en La Paz, Bolivia, y cómo éstas usan creativamente los supuestos por parte de los turistas de ser “tradicionales” y de que están actuando en eventos “exóticos.” Desde 2001, mujeres indígenas participan en la lucha libre —una forma de lucha procedente de México y los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, los viajeros, a menudo, asumen que es una tradición porque las luchadoras se presentan con los trajes de las cholas vendedoras. En este artículo exploro cómo las luchadoras utilizan esas percepciones y la atención resultante de los medios de comunicación para reclamar identidades cosmopolitas. Con ello no solo mejoran su posición y ganan movilidad social, sino también se ven a sí mismas como representantes de las mujeres bolivianas ante un público global."

Salary caps, drunken escapades, sponsorship deals, and teams enjoying victory and surviving defeat dominate coverage of football. Meanwhile fans agonise over line-ups, sweat over results, and look forward to the weekly football ritual. With each new season, having hibernated over the long, hot summer, the team emerges as if revived and raises hopes anew. The keen supporter is hooked back into a revived ritual of precarious pleasures that is played out within quasi-tribal cheer squads, intense friendship networks and, at least momentarily, united nuclear families. What hooks fans back in and why do they care so much? In this riveting and moving book, AFL fans talk about the emotions associated with the game and how it gives meaning to their lives, showing that football is more than just a game. Psychoanalytic theory and social theory, while left implicit, are critical features of the manner in which the study of passionate supporters is addressed.

Event greening of major spectacles such as the Olympics, World Cups and large international conferences are increasingly common. The 2010 South African World Cup sought to develop a ‘Green Goal 2010’ programme that would mitigate some of the environmental impacts of the event, as well as secure a positive social, economic and environmental legacy. While the content of the Green Goal programmes varied between host cities, some innovative and significant projects were implemented, ranging from waste management and recycling, to biodiversity protection and city beautification, to public transport upgrades and energy efficiency measures at the stadiums. In the broader context of the most carbon-intensive World Cup ever, however, such mitigation efforts were relatively piecemeal. The greatest opportunity the World Cup provided was for its visibility, branding and communication potential to catalyse greater environmental awareness and a stronger commitment to ecological modernization. Due to lack of coordination and national leadership, this opportunity was largely missed. The article concludes by recommending a number of core lessons, as well as some further opportunities, that can be taken from the South African 2010 experience.

Playing on the Periphery is an exploration of the edges of the modern sports experience. The book examines how the cultural content of sports that were once the embodiment of Englishness have been reinterpreted by the former empire and re-presented in new media environments.