Sport, fiction and sociology: novels as data sources

This paper is primarily concerned with the types of data that are of value to sociologists - in this instance, particularly to sociologists of sport. It is argued here that we can and should add works of fiction to the more commonly accepted data sources. Whilst most academic writers may be cautious about the excessive use of invention even in personal narratives, others are less diffident. The paper examines representations of sport in fiction with specific reference to three novels, their central characters, and the insights provided by their fictional beings into the relationship between sport, individuals and society. The novels selected as evidence are Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, inc. J. Henry Waugh PROP (UBA), Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter (TS) and Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding (TAF). Based on the identification of emerging themes in the novels, and the application of relevant sociological concepts – anomie, alienation and figurations - it is argued that, although the novels’ authors are not sociologists, they could be and although the stories which they tell are not true, they too could be. It is these ‘facts’ that makes them valuable sources of data

Memories of a Celtic-minded par

Memories of a Celtic-minded pa

'My first victim was a hurling player...': sport in the lives of Northern Ireland's political prisoners

Much of the recent literature on sport, political violence, and terrorism has been focused on security issues and, more critically, their potentially damaging implications for civil liberties. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the place of sport in the lives of the so-called terrorists themselves. This article draws heavily on personal experience of interaction with loyalist and republican prisoners in the Maze between March 1996 and October 1999. The main focus of the article is on the ways in which these prisoners talked about and related to sport and the insights that discussions with them offered in terms of their wider political views. Sport was never dismissed by any of the prisoners I met as being of secondary importance to other matters—a diversion from the real world of politics. In fact, as our discussions revealed, politics was often presented as being intimately bound up with and embodied in sport cultures. On the other hand, their interest in sport also highlighted the fact that these were rather ordinary men, some of whom had shown themselves to be capable of committing seemingly extraordinary crimes

Baseball and Cuban national identity in Leonardo Padura's Havana quartet

Baseball and Cuban national identity in Leonardo Padura's Havana quarte

Ordinary men in an abnormal society: men and masculinity in David Park's fiction

Ordinary men in an abnormal society: men and masculinity in David Park's fictio

Sport as a critique of politics: Everest climbing, nationalism and the failure of politics in Bangladesh [Reply]

This is a reply to: Hasan, Mubashar. 2015. “Sport as a critique of politics: Everest climbing, nationalism and the failure of politics in Bangladesh.” Global Discourse 5 (4): 540–552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2015.1004255

Flawed heroes: exploring biographies of Scottish footballers

Flawed heroes: exploring biographies of Scottish footballer

Sports mega-events – what are they good for?

Sports mega-events – what are they good for

Walking the streets. The flaneur and the sociology of sport

Walking the streets. The flaneur and the sociology of spor

An enjoyable, well written and very Canadian tome on sport, politics and society

An enjoyable, well written and very Canadian tome on sport, politics and societ