Exploring Repeated Sport Event Volunteering Through Longitudinal Field-Based Research

This case provides a commentary of the key methodological procedures implemented to qualitatively explore consecutive volunteering across a series of major events showcasing competitive international hockey. Throughout, we attend to the central tenets of the research design, longitudinal field-based research, by describing the approaches taken to access, build, and maintain a growing sample of participants, while concurrently collecting and analyzing rich qualitative data from this peer group. In doing this, we provide a commentary of the decision-making processes underpinning such strategies, and present an academic rationale for their selection. Central to this case study is a focus upon the implementation of what is a predominantly field-based research project. Of principal concern within this case study is therefore the reporting of the lived experience of the researcher "in the field" as he sought to recruit participants to the study, and subsequently elicit rich qualitative data from them. Communicated within such accounts are the thought processes and problem-solving strategies of the field-based researcher as he sought to navigate the novel social milieu that he had immersed himself within to glean an in-depth insight into the world of the hockey event-volunteer. In addition, we discuss the steps that we took to enhance the quality and rigor of the findings alongside the theoretical basis for doing so

Exploring the relationship between social class and sport event volunteering

There is a dearth of research that examines the relationship between sport event volunteering and social class. This article contributes to this gap by exploring the social class of volunteers involved in the running of a series of major international field hockey events held between 2015 and 2017 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The authors draw upon longitudinal research that utilises demographic information and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 46 event volunteers. To gauge the social composition of this volunteer pool, the authors first discern the social class categories of the study’s participants. Following analysis of the qualitative data, the authors then examine how the interplay between social class and Pierre Bourdieu’s principal forms of cultural, economic and social capital shapes the volunteer workforce, and how they might operate to inhibit under-represented groups from volunteering. In parallel to the class analysis of the participants, the authors provide novel insights into the organisational amassing of an event volunteer workforce. The article concludes by considering the implications of the nexus between social class, capitals, and inclusion within event volunteering and its management