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Discussing Homosexuality on Association Football Fan Message Boards: A Changing Cultural Context

This article presents the findings of a discourse analysis carried out on 48 association football (soccer) message boards from across the United Kingdom concerning fans’ views towards the presence of gay footballers. It draws on over 3000 anonymous posts to…

Read OnDiscussing Homosexuality on Association Football Fan Message Boards: A Changing Cultural Context

Discrimination Inward and Upward: Lessons on Law and Social Inequality From the Troubling Case of Women Coaches

In the Title IX success story, women’s opportunities in coaching jobs have not kept pace with the striking gains made by female athletes. Women’s share of jobs coaching female athletes has declined substantially in the years since the law was…

Read OnDiscrimination Inward and Upward: Lessons on Law and Social Inequality From the Troubling Case of Women Coaches

Discipline, Sport, and the Religion of Winners: Paul on Running to Win the Prize, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In 1 Cor. 9:25 Paul exhorts the Corinthian believers to strive like athletes for an eternal prize. This paper elucidates the communal horizon of the self-disciplining he enjoins, which overturns popular modern conceptions of individual fitness and performance training. Paul…

Read OnDiscipline, Sport, and the Religion of Winners: Paul on Running to Win the Prize, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Disability Rights’ or ‘Wrongs?: The Claims of the International Paralympic Committee, the London 2012 Paralympics and Disability Rights in the UK

A central aspect of the vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is that the Paralympic Movement is a vehicle for achieving ‘a more equitable society’ (IPC 2012a). Building upon the findings of an online survey conducted with disabled activists…

Read OnDisability Rights’ or ‘Wrongs?: The Claims of the International Paralympic Committee, the London 2012 Paralympics and Disability Rights in the UK

Differences in Behavior, Psychological Factors, and Environmental Factors Associated with Participation in School Sports and Other Activities in Adolescence

This study examined whether participation in school team sports, exclusively or in combination with other extracurricular activities, is associated with higher levels of psychosocial functioning and healthy behavior than participation in other extracurricular activities alone or nonparticipation. The study sample…

Read OnDifferences in Behavior, Psychological Factors, and Environmental Factors Associated with Participation in School Sports and Other Activities in Adolescence

Differences in Adolescent Relationship Abuse Perpetration and Gender-Inequitable Attitudes by Sport Among Male High School Athletes

Abstract Purpose School-based athletic programs remain an important context for violence prevention efforts although a better understanding of how gender attitudes and abuse perpetration differ among athletes is needed. Methods We analyzed baseline survey data from the “Coaching Boys into…

Read OnDifferences in Adolescent Relationship Abuse Perpetration and Gender-Inequitable Attitudes by Sport Among Male High School Athletes

Deuce or Advantage? Examining Gender Bias in Online Coverage of Professional Tennis

Despite the increasing popularity of women’s sports, it has generally been found that female athletes receive less media coverage and are portrayed negatively with myriad gender-specific descriptors. Such biased representations warrant attention as they construct and reinforce traditional gender beliefs.…

Read OnDeuce or Advantage? Examining Gender Bias in Online Coverage of Professional Tennis

Determinants of Business Engagement With Regional Sport Events

Research question: Small-scale sports events provide commercial opportunities for regional communities, and yet research suggests that local commercial organisations are sometimes reticent to engage with sport event organisations to leverage benefits. This paper examines variation in business engagement with sport…

Read OnDeterminants of Business Engagement With Regional Sport Events

Designing the Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls Church-Based Diabetes Prevention Program Through a Participatory Process

Background: The Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls (HBHS) program aims to reduce diabetes risk among urban African Americans by creating healthy food and physical activity environments within churches. Participant engagement supports the development of applicable intervention strategies by identifying priority concerns,…

Read OnDesigning the Healthy Bodies, Healthy Souls Church-Based Diabetes Prevention Program Through a Participatory Process

Descriptive Characteristics of Concussions in National Football League games, 2010-2011 to 2013-2014

Background: Despite a high reported incidence rate of concussion, little is known about the on-field characteristics of injurious head impacts in National Football League (NFL) games. Purpose: To characterize on-field features (location, player position, and time during game) and biomechanical…

Read OnDescriptive Characteristics of Concussions in National Football League games, 2010-2011 to 2013-2014

Debunking Early Single Sport Specialisation and Reshaping the Youth Sport Experience: An NBA Perspective

The ‘common wisdom’ Among many parents and coaches, it is believed that early single sport specialisation is essential for future competitive sport success and, further, that a high level of achievement in youth sports predicts future success. Owing to these…

Read OnDebunking Early Single Sport Specialisation and Reshaping the Youth Sport Experience: An NBA Perspective

Dancing With Derrida: Deconstructing Sports Women’s Performances on Dancing with the Stars and Mira Quien Baila

Feminists have long wrestled with the binary of gender difference in sport, employing diverse theoretical and empirical approaches to understand how difference is constructed, maintained and challenged. In this article, we engage with Jacques Derrida’s work on deconstruction and différance…

Read OnDancing With Derrida: Deconstructing Sports Women’s Performances on Dancing with the Stars and Mira Quien Baila

Cutting Through the Mindfulness Muddle: A Book Review of Three Popular Mindfulness Interventions

Research shows numerous positive psychological benefits from mindful- ness-based interventions, including psychological flexibility, acute aware- ness, cognitive diffusion, and attentional control (Jekauc, Kittler, & Schlagheck, 2016). Mental skills consultants, coaches, and athletes face the dilemma of making sense of the…

Read OnCutting Through the Mindfulness Muddle: A Book Review of Three Popular Mindfulness Interventions

Current Health-Related Quality of Life is Lower in Former Division I Collegiate Athletes Than in Non-Collegiate Athletes

Background: College athletes participate in physical activity that may increase chronic stress and injury and induce overtraining. However, there is little known about how previous injuries that have occurred during college may limit current physical activity and/or decrease their subsequent…

Read OnCurrent Health-Related Quality of Life is Lower in Former Division I Collegiate Athletes Than in Non-Collegiate Athletes

Cultures of Play During Middle Childhood: Interpretive Perspectives From Two Distinct Marginalized Communities

This article offers interpretive perspectives on play as a cultural activity during middle childhood by contrasting two communities targeted for aid by external sport and play programs: a Chicago public housing community and a community of Angolan refugee camps. Ethnographic…

Read OnCultures of Play During Middle Childhood: Interpretive Perspectives From Two Distinct Marginalized Communities

Cultural vs Economic Capital: Symbolic Boundaries Within the Middle Class

This article concerns an insufficiently studied link in cultural class analysis, namely that between class-structured lifestyle differences and social closure. It employs a modified version of Michèle Lamont’s promising, yet under-theorised approach to the study of symbolic boundaries – the…

Read OnCultural vs Economic Capital: Symbolic Boundaries Within the Middle Class

Cultural Differences, Assimilation, and Behavior: Player Nationality and Penalties in Football

We examine the impact of a different cultural background on individual behavior, focusing on penalties in football matches of southern European and northern European football players in the English Premier League. Southern European football players collect on average more football…

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Cultural Consumption Through the Epistemologies of the South: ‘Humanization’ in Transnational Football Fan Solidarities

In 2014, Boaventura de Sousa Santos awoke the global sociological community to the need to privilege ‘humanization’ in the exploration of transnational solidarities. This article presents the cultural consumption of a football club – Liverpool FC – to understand the…

Read OnCultural Consumption Through the Epistemologies of the South: ‘Humanization’ in Transnational Football Fan Solidarities

Cuddling and Spooning: Heteromasculinity and Homosocial Tactility Among Student-Athletes

This article examines the prevalence of homosocial tactility and the contemporary status and meaning of heteromasculinity among British male youth. Drawing on in-depth interviews with forty student-athletes at a British university, we find that thirty-seven participants have cuddled with another…

Read OnCuddling and Spooning: Heteromasculinity and Homosocial Tactility Among Student-Athletes

Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Religion as “Character”: Football and Soccer in the United States and Germany

This study compares sports media coverage of American football (“football”) in the United States and association football (“soccer”) in Germany, with a specific focus on the portrayal of Christian athletes. Specifically, we contend that media coverage of Christian football players…

Read OnCross-Cultural Comparisons of Religion as “Character”: Football and Soccer in the United States and Germany

Critical Discourse Analysis of Motivational Content in Commercially Available Exercise DVDs: Body Capital on Display or Psychological Capital Being Developed?

Guided by critical discourse analysis, commercially available exercise DVDs are described in terms of the instructor and model characteristics, and the motivational content being verbally conveyed by the instructors on the DVDs. Ten commercially available, contemporary, single instructor lead exercise…

Read OnCritical Discourse Analysis of Motivational Content in Commercially Available Exercise DVDs: Body Capital on Display or Psychological Capital Being Developed?

Creating Our Own Lineup: Identities and Shared Cultural Norms of Surfing Women in a U.S. East Coast Community

Women’s participation in surfing has grown significantly in the past decade, yet few surfing studies include women’s perspectives. Using the communication theory of identity (CTI), I examine how surfing women in one community develop, enact, and negotiate their identities in…

Read OnCreating Our Own Lineup: Identities and Shared Cultural Norms of Surfing Women in a U.S. East Coast Community

Creating or Awakening National Pride Through Sporting Success: A Longitudinal Study on Macro Effects in the Netherlands

Like many other countries, the Dutch government increased investments in elite sports in the last decennium, partly driven by the ambition to organise the Olympic Games in 2028 in the Netherlands. One of the most important legitimations for this ambition…

Read OnCreating or Awakening National Pride Through Sporting Success: A Longitudinal Study on Macro Effects in the Netherlands

Creating Opportunities for Social Change in Women’s Sport Through Academic and Industry Collaborations: An Interview with Kate Fagan

A number of scholars have articulated the real and perceived benefits of engaging in collaborations with practitioners and have urged researchers to establish industry partnerships. Much of the discussion, however, stems from a researcher-perceptive and focuses on developing theory and…

Read OnCreating Opportunities for Social Change in Women’s Sport Through Academic and Industry Collaborations: An Interview with Kate Fagan

Counting Young People is Not Youth Work’: The Tensions Between Values, Targets and Positive Activities in Neighbourhood-Based Work

The UK New Labour Government’s ideological preoccupations included tackling deprivation, addressing anti-social behaviour and persuading young people to engage in ‘positive activities’. In 2007, the report ‘Aiming High for Young People’ outlined policies intended to contribute to the achievement of…

Read OnCounting Young People is Not Youth Work’: The Tensions Between Values, Targets and Positive Activities in Neighbourhood-Based Work

Correlates of Pride in the Performance Success of United States Athletes Competing on an International Stage

Grounded in social-identity and self-categorization theories and drawing on data gathered in the US General Social Survey (N = 2528), this research examines how demographic and media-use measures associate with national pride, as experienced through the success of US athletes…

Read OnCorrelates of Pride in the Performance Success of United States Athletes Competing on an International Stage

Corporatization Activism Through Sport-Focused Social Justice? Investigating Nike’s Corporate Responsibility Initiatives in Sport for Development and Peace

Inspired by assertions of “creeping commercialization” in issues of social justice, this article seeks to address the entanglement of privatization with sport for development and peace initiatives. We look specifically at Nike’s history of “social responsibility” to situate the N7…

Read OnCorporatization Activism Through Sport-Focused Social Justice? Investigating Nike’s Corporate Responsibility Initiatives in Sport for Development and Peace

Contested Terrain and Terrain That Contests: Donald Trump Golf’s Environmental Politics and a Challenge to Anthropocentrism in Physical Cultural Studies

This article focuses on the case of Trump International Golf Links, Scotland (TIGLS), a golf course in Aberdeenshire that opened in 2012 after a lengthy and contentious application and development phase. Herein, we draw from a larger study of golf…

Read OnContested Terrain and Terrain That Contests: Donald Trump Golf’s Environmental Politics and a Challenge to Anthropocentrism in Physical Cultural Studies

Constructing Masculinity Through Penetration Discourse: The Intersection of Misogyny and Homophobia in High School Wrestling

Drawing from ethnographic data, this article analyzes how the ‘‘fag’’ identity and the epithet ‘‘pussy’’ relate to high school wrestlers’ constructions of masculinity. Empirically, this research illuminates two dynamics: (1) how wrestlers achieve normative masculinity by symbolically framing sexual relations…

Read OnConstructing Masculinity Through Penetration Discourse: The Intersection of Misogyny and Homophobia in High School Wrestling

Constructing and Contesting the Olympics Online: The Internet, Rio 2016 and the Politics of Brazilian Development

The awarding of the 2016 Summer Olympics to the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil continues the trend of international sports mega-events being hosted in the global South and constructed and promoted as part of long-term development plans and policies.…

Read OnConstructing and Contesting the Olympics Online: The Internet, Rio 2016 and the Politics of Brazilian Development

Consequences of Repeated Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in Football Players

The acknowledgement of risks for traumatic brain injury in American football players has prompted studies for sideline concussion diagnosis and testing for neurological deficits. While concussions are recognized etiological factors for a spectrum of neurological sequelae, the consequences of sub-concussive…

Read OnConsequences of Repeated Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in Football Players

Connecting Social Psychology and Sociology of Sport: Using Goffman as a Framework for Sociological Sports Research

Research on the sociology of sports has much to contribute to public discourse on sports and is well positioned to do so through the connection between sociology of sports and social psychology. This article uses the work of Erving Goffman…

Read OnConnecting Social Psychology and Sociology of Sport: Using Goffman as a Framework for Sociological Sports Research

Conducting Commissioned Research in Neoliberal Academia: The Conditions Evaluations Impose on Research Practice

The article deals with the unease we experience during various commissioned research projects. On the one hand, as social scientists, we feel committed to conducting ‘good research’ that acknowledges quality criteria such as flexibility and transparency and in particular allows…

Read OnConducting Commissioned Research in Neoliberal Academia: The Conditions Evaluations Impose on Research Practice

Concussion Increases Odds of Sustaining a Lower Extremity Musculoskeletal Injury After Return to Play Among Collegiate Athletes

Background: Previous studies have identified abnormalities in brain and motor functioning after concussion that persist well beyond observed clinical recovery. Recent work suggests subtle deficits in neurocognition may impair neuromuscular control and thus potentially increase risk of lower extremity musculoskeletal…

Read OnConcussion Increases Odds of Sustaining a Lower Extremity Musculoskeletal Injury After Return to Play Among Collegiate Athletes

Concussion Incidence and Return-To-Play Time in National Basketball Association Players. Results from 2006 to 2014

Background: Various research efforts have studied concussions in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League. However, no study has investigated the incidence and return-to-play trends in the National Basketball Association (NBA), which this study aims…

Read OnConcussion Incidence and Return-To-Play Time in National Basketball Association Players. Results from 2006 to 2014

Complicating the Relationship Between Sport and National Identity: The Case of Post-Socialist Slovenia

Sociology of sport knowledge on national identity is grounded in research that focuses primarily on long established nation-states with widely known histories. The relationship between sport and national identity in postsocialist/Soviet/colonial nations that have gained independence or sovereignty since 1990…

Read OnComplicating the Relationship Between Sport and National Identity: The Case of Post-Socialist Slovenia

Complex Interaction of Religiousness With Other Factors in Relation to Substance Use and Misuse Among Female Athletes

Strength of religious faith (SRF) is rarely studied as a protective factor against substance use and misuse in sports. Herein, we studied the potential buffering effect of the complex socio-educational, sports, and religiousness factors in the protection against substance use…

Read OnComplex Interaction of Religiousness With Other Factors in Relation to Substance Use and Misuse Among Female Athletes

Competitiveness and Health: The Work of Sport Clubs as Seen by Sport Clubs Representatives – a Norwegian Case Study

This article is study of sport club representatives’ considerations about the work of sport clubs. Sport clubs are first and foremost providers of sport activity. However, when it came to the work of sport clubs, it is discovered that the…

Read OnCompetitiveness and Health: The Work of Sport Clubs as Seen by Sport Clubs Representatives – a Norwegian Case Study

Competitive Sports Participation in High School and Subsequent Substance Use in Young Adulthood: Assessing Differences Based on Level of Contact

The objective of this study is to examine how participation in different types of competitive sports (based on level of contact) during high school is associated with substance use 1 to 4 years after the 12th grade. The analysis uses…

Read OnCompetitive Sports Participation in High School and Subsequent Substance Use in Young Adulthood: Assessing Differences Based on Level of Contact

Competing With Her Mother-in-Law: The Intersection of Control Management and Emotion Management in Sport Families

Extensive ethnographic research with wives of professional athletes revealed that in certain sport families, the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship is among the numerous unique marital and occupational stressors these wives confront in their everyday life. Many wives believe they must compete with…

Read OnCompeting With Her Mother-in-Law: The Intersection of Control Management and Emotion Management in Sport Families

Competing Loyalties in Sports Medicine: Threats to Medical Professionalism in Elite, Commercial Sport

This paper explores the ways in which the environment of elite-level and, in particular, commercial sport produces expectations and pressures on sports doctors that may compromise their professional standards. Specifically, this paper addresses the pressures and demands that emerge from…

Read OnCompeting Loyalties in Sports Medicine: Threats to Medical Professionalism in Elite, Commercial Sport

Competing Constructions of British National Identity: British Newspaper Comment on the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

This study used newspaper comment on the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London as an avenue to discuss and contemplate British national identity. Through analysis of 91 editorials and opinion columns in the British national press, we…

Read OnCompeting Constructions of British National Identity: British Newspaper Comment on the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Comparison of Concussion Rates Between NCAA Division I and Division III Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Players

Background: Examinations related to divisional differences in the incidence of sports-related concussions (SRC) in collegiate ice hockey are limited. Purpose: To compare the epidemiologic patterns of concussion in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ice hockey by sex and division. Study…

Read OnComparison of Concussion Rates Between NCAA Division I and Division III Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Players

Community Sport Events and CSR Sponsorship: Examining the Impacts of a Public Health Agenda

Tobacco and alcohol companies have long faced criticism regarding the unhealthy nature of their products and decisions to sponsor community sport events (CSEs). Recent public health concerns have led to additional CSE sponsor products facing similar criticism, including soft drinks,…

Read OnCommunity Sport Events and CSR Sponsorship: Examining the Impacts of a Public Health Agenda

Communism, Capitalism, and Images of Class. Effects of Reference Groups, Reality, and Regime in 43 Nations and 110,000 Individuals, 1987-2009

People differ vastly in perceptions of inequality, some seeing a small elite at the top of their society with a vast impoverished mass at the bottom, others a prosperous society with most people in the middle. This was found first…

Read OnCommunism, Capitalism, and Images of Class. Effects of Reference Groups, Reality, and Regime in 43 Nations and 110,000 Individuals, 1987-2009

Comment on Hanssen and Meehan, ‘‘Who Integrated Major League Baseball Faster Winning Teams or Losing Teams?’

In this short note, the authors contrast their own recent work on racial integration in Major League Baseball with that of two other groups: Hanssen and Meehan (2009) and Goff, McCormick, and Tollison (2002). While reaching dissimilar conclusions, both groups…

Read OnComment on Hanssen and Meehan, ‘‘Who Integrated Major League Baseball Faster Winning Teams or Losing Teams?’

Comment on “Investigating Allegations of Point-Shaving in NCAA Basketball Using Actual Sportsbook Betting Percentages”

A recent article by Paul and Weinbach has two objectives. The first is to reject the conventional wisdom that sports books operate by balancing the action on the games. The second objective of Paul and Weinbach is to investigate point-shaving.…

Read OnComment on “Investigating Allegations of Point-Shaving in NCAA Basketball Using Actual Sportsbook Betting Percentages”

Commemorating 9/11 NFL-Style: Insights Into America’s Culture of Militarism

This article explores how the National Football League’s (NFL’s) commemoration ceremonies on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 present a unique instance of sports–media-military convergence through their meticulous implementation across multiple games, broadcasting channels, and geographic locations. Expanding on themes of…

Read OnCommemorating 9/11 NFL-Style: Insights Into America’s Culture of Militarism

Collecting Visual Voices: Understanding Identity, Community, and the Meaning of Participation Within Gay Rodeos

Rodeos have been an integral part of American cowboy culture since the 1800s, however, it wasn’t until the 1970s when gay rodeos began to form and challenge some of the assumptions about ‘cowboys,’ ‘sexuality,’ and ‘masculinity.’ The purpose of this…

Read OnCollecting Visual Voices: Understanding Identity, Community, and the Meaning of Participation Within Gay Rodeos

Clarifying the Mindfulness Muddle: A Response to Wilson and Gearity’s Book review of Three Popular Mindfulness Interventions

We were all initially thrilled to see the book review by Wilson and Gearity (2020) comparing our approaches (the Mindfulness-Acceptance- Commitment [MAC] approach – Gardner & Moore, 2007; Mindfulness Meditation Training in Sport [MMTS] – Baltzell & Summers, 2018; Mindful…

Read OnClarifying the Mindfulness Muddle: A Response to Wilson and Gearity’s Book review of Three Popular Mindfulness Interventions