Surveillance, Disciplinary Power and Athletic Identity: A Sociological Investigation into the Culture of Elite Sports Academies

With the exception of work conducted by Parker (1996a) research concerning identity construction, surveillance practices and power relations within the context of a professional sports academy institution appears limited. Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews with staff and athletes at two Premiership academies (one rugby, one football), a Foucauldian framework is utilised to provide a sociological analysis of disciplinary power and its impact upon the experiences and development of elite athletes. Foucault’s (1979) concept of panopticism is employed to explore the impact of surveillance as a disciplinary tool within the academies. The concept of surveillance as a disciplinary mechanism is furthered with the application of Latour’s (2005) ‘oligopticon’ and Deleuze and Guttari’s (2003) ‘rhizomatic' notion of surveillance networks. Foucault’s (1979; 1994b) normalising judgment and the concept of self and ‘lateral’ surveillance are employed to understand how the athletes internalise the values, attitudes and behaviours witnessed within the academies. An analysis of the regulation of the social space and time is accompanied by an application of Weber’s (1978) ‘domination by authority’ to explore the authoritative role of the coaches and their relationships with the players. The Foucauldian approach is accompanied by the work of Erving Goffman (1959; 1961a; 1961b) to understand how the role of ‘elite athlete’, bound by the notion of ‘professionalism’, is constructed and managed by the players on a daily basis. By adopting both a Foucauldian and interactionist perspective the thesis explores how the structure of the academies impacts upon the development and socialisation of those housed within them, whilst also maintaining focus upon the construction and management of identity and the presentation of ‘self’ in an institutional setting

If Reflections Could Talk

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

PALMsiever: a tool to turn raw data into results for single-molecule localization microscopy

During the past decade, localization microscopy (LM) has transformed into an accessible, commercially available technique for life sciences. However, data processing can be challenging to the non-specialist and care is still needed to produce meaningful results. PALMsiever has been developed to provide a user-friendly means of visualizing, filtering and analyzing LM data. It includes drift correction, clustering, intelligent line profiles, many rendering algorithms and 3D data visualization. It incorporates the main analysis and data processing modalities used by experts in the field, as well as several new features we developed, and makes them broadly accessible. It can easily be extended via plugins and is provided as free of charge open-source software. Contact: [email protected]

A3_2 If a Tree Falls...

In this paper we are investigating the distances a person can be away from a tree to still be ableto hear it fall. We have calculated that the furthest away a listener can be, with no noise fromthe surrounding area, to still be able to hear a tree fall is approximately 1000km and the furthestdistance they can stand and still hear the noise in a city with traffic is 100m

A3_5 1.21 Jigawatts!?!

In this paper we are investigating how much power it would take for the DeLorean from Back tothe Future to reach the 88mph speed required to travel in time. We calculated that when theDeLorean is flying it requires less power than when it is driving on a road to reach the targetvelocity, and in both cases it requires far less power than the 1.21GW that the flux capacitor canprovide

A3_6 Could it really be cheese?

This paper investigated the material properties of the moon in the film ”Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out”. We conclude that it is possible for the moon to be comprised of cheese, demonstrated by a kinetic friction coefficient of 0.16 which is comparable to a lightly lubricated metal-rough surface boundary much like skis against a crumbly cheese

A3_4 Fly High, Gyroid!

In this paper, we investigated whether a small rocket in the game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would be viable, based on whether it could hold the amount of fuel required to reach its maximum altitude. We found that the volume of liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel required is less than the volume of the rocket booster, so the rocket would be viable in this sense

A3_9 All I Want Thaw Christmas Is You

In this paper, we investigate if it would be possible to defrost Mariah Carey from an ice cube of length 2 m in time for the 1st of December if you began defrosting her on the 1st of November. It was found that it would take a total of 12.6 days for Mariah to return to normal body temperature, leaving her plenty of time to prepare for the Christmas season before it arrives