Laboratory production of health and performance: an ethnographic investigation of an exercise physiology laboratory

Critical scholars of sport and physical culture have devoted significant attention to developing critiques of epistemological hierarchies and the discursive power of biomedical knowledge in sport, exercise and physical activity. However, such work has largely failed to engage in an empirically grounded fashion with the processes of knowledge production. Furthermore, relative to its importance in the creation of knowledge, the laboratory is conspicuous in its absence from both critical discussions and as a site for empirical research. By way of response, this study draws on data collected from over 1000 h of participant observation and 53 semi-structured interviews to explore how underlying political and social values are articulated through relationships between knowledge creation, transfer and claims-making, and specific social frames in exercise physiology, a cornerstone of sports science. Rather than rehearse methodological challenges and critiques, the analysis presented demonstrates, contrary to critical analyses of scientific research that charge biomedical sciences with producing de-contextualised knowledge, laboratory-based sports science is thoroughly contextualised, albeit in specific and nuanced ways. Specifically, exercise physiology knowledge production is characterised by dehumanization and rehumanization processes. The relationship between these processes is not unilinear or sequential, but reciprocal and recursive. Nonetheless, dehumanization is the basis upon which exercise physiology knowledge is made applicable. Rehumanization is how it becomes desirable

What it takes to be an athlete.

In 2012, The Psychologist ran an article entitled 'What does the Olympics mean to you?' Themes of inclusion, (dis)ability, learning, diversity, development, role modelling, legacy, and many more came up. Suffice it to say, the Olympics make us think. A lot. And in very diverse ways. It’s incredible what a sporting event can do to make us reflect on broader society. Given the 2018 Winter Olympics are around the corner, undoubtedly some of us will engage in some form of refection. To jump start the process, I asked myself and a few colleagues, what the Winter Olympics mean to us. Written by Paul Gorczynski, University of Portsmout

Banning the tackle in school rugby: Let's put it into context.

Proponents and critics of tackle rugby agree that the tackle is the most injurious aspect of the game.[1,2] Nonetheless, fierce debate regarding serious injury aetiology, harm minimization and maximizing health benefit in rugby has emerged.[3,4] I write as an academic and former Physical Education (PE) teacher who supports neither banning nor teaching tackle rugby in schools

Theorizing physical activity health promotion: towards an Eliasian framework for the analysis of health and medicine

This article seeks to advance our understanding of the convergence of physical activity and public health through a novel theorization drawing upon, applying and developing figurational sociological principles of Norbert Elias. More specifically, we focus on four core aspects of Elias’ theoretical corpus: interdependencies; forethought (as an aspect of civilizing processes); the interaction of “fact” and emotion in socially determining knowledge; and finally, the hinge. As such, we argue that contemporary interest in physical activity health promotion can be attributed to the amalgamation of distinctive figurations of interdependency ties; an associated development in the internalization of human self-control; conceptions of ‘truth’, which derive from a combination of scientific evidence, ideological desires and the gratification brought from the ‘holding’ of such beliefs; and the intersection of social and biological processes on the human body. This paper advances existing figurationally informed theoretical analyses of health and medicine, in highlighting the essential interconnectivity of Elias’s key ideas. This approach is, in turn, more faithful to Elias’ advocacy of a radically relational sociological perspective. The result is both an original conceptualization of this increasingly significant social phenomenon, and a more explicit elucidation of the distinctive Eliasian framework through which future theoretically informed empirical research into contemporary health and medicine can be developed

More than Murder: Ethics and Hunting in New Zealand

In this article I examine the practice of hunting in New Zealand with particular reference to the ways in which hunters make sense of hunting, the embodied experience of hunting, and the moral status of animals. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data I reflect on how the practice and understanding of hunting is guided by a form of relational ethics. As such, the social and historical development of hunting in New Zealand and meaningful connections made with the environment and animals developed through the practice of hunting work to guide hunter’s ethical perspectives rather than any universalized philosophical principles or rules. I argue that by hunting, hunters recognize and consciously engage with multiple standpoints and interests in the backcountry environment in a manner that presents particular challenges to critical studies of human-animal interactions that are frequently unable to look past hunting as killing. As such, this article works to explicate the “experiential and cultural complexities” (Marvin, 2011 p.123) of hunting with particular emphasis on the development of an ethical perspective that guides hunters in New Zealand without seeking to judge, or defend, hunting and hunters

ANIMALS, SPORT, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Purpose – To outline the multiple ways in which animals are inserted into sporting practices, outline historical and contemporary approaches to studying human-animal sporting practices, and advocate for the centring of sociological problems in human animal research in sporting contexts and cultures and for considering such problems in relation to environmental issues. Design/methodology/approach -- In the first part of the chapter, conceptual differentiation of animals in the animal-sport complex is presented. Subsequently, studies of interspecies sport are reviewed with reference to the ‘animal turn’ in the literature. In the second part, a critique is presented relating to: i) the privileging of companion animals, especially dogs and horses, which overlooks the multiple ways animals are integrated into (multispecies) sport; ii) micro-sociological and insider ethnographies of companionship displacing of sociological problems in favour of relationship perspectives; and iii) the environment as absent from analysis. The conclusion offers implications for understanding multispecies sport and the environment. Findings -- I chart a general shift in emphasis and focus from animals as an ‘absent presence’ in pursuit of sociological knowledge towards a clearly defined focus on interspecies sport as a field of research characterised by investigations of relationships with companion animals through the ‘animal turn.’ Research limitations/implications – The focus on companion species means other animals (i.e., non-companions) are understudied, big picture sociological questions are often side-lined, environmental concerns marginalised, and sociological understanding of the environment more generally is either ignored or reduced to a conduit of human-animal interactions

Depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes and non-athletes: a comparative meta-analysis

Objective To assess whether a difference exists in the prevalence of mild or more severe depressive symptoms between high-performance athletes and non-athletes. Design Comparative OR meta-analysis. Data sources We searched PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus and Google Scholar, as well as the reference lists of reviews of mental health issues in high-performance athletes. Eligibility We included studies that compared highperformance athletes and non-athletes, included a validated measure of depressive symptoms and included the prevalence of individuals who indicated at least mild depressive symptoms. Results Five articles reporting data from 1545 highperformance athletes and 1811 non-athletes were examined. A comparative OR meta-analysis found high-performance athletes were no more likely than non-athletes to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.15, 95% CI=0.954 to 1.383, p=0.145). Male high-performance athletes (n=940) were no more likely than male non-athletes (n=605) to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.17, 95% CI=0.839 to 1.616, p=0.362). For females, high-performance athletes (n=948) were no more likely than non-athletes (n=605) to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.11, 95% CI=0.846 to 1.442, p=0.464). Overall, male high-performance athletes (n=874) were 52% less likely to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms than female highperformance athletes (n=705) (OR=0.48, 95% CI=0.369 to 0.621, p<0.001). Summary/conclusions High-performance athletes were just as likely as non-athletes to report depressive symptoms. Researchers need to move beyond self-report measures of depressive symptoms and examine the prevalence of clinically diagnosed depressive disorders in athletes

Theorizing physical activity health promotion: towards an Eliasian framework for the analysis of health and medicine

This article seeks to advance our understanding of the convergence of physical activity and public health through a novel theorization drawing upon, applying and developing figurational sociological principles of Norbert Elias. More specifically, we focus on four core aspects of Elias’ theoretical corpus: interdependencies; forethought (as an aspect of civilizing processes); the interaction of “fact” and emotion in socially determining knowledge; and finally, the hinge. As such, we argue that contemporary interest in physical activity health promotion can be attributed to the amalgamation of distinctive figurations of interdependency ties; an associated development in the internalization of human self-control; conceptions of ‘truth’, which derive from a combination of scientific evidence, ideological desires and the gratification brought from the ‘holding’ of such beliefs; and the intersection of social and biological processes on the human body. This paper advances existing figurationally informed theoretical analyses of health and medicine, in highlighting the essential interconnectivity of Elias’s key ideas. This approach is, in turn, more faithful to Elias’ advocacy of a radically relational sociological perspective. The result is both an original conceptualization of this increasingly significant social phenomenon, and a more explicit elucidation of the distinctive Eliasian framework through which future theoretically informed empirical research into contemporary health and medicine can be developed