In this academic interview, professor Alan Bairner at Loughborough University reviews his experiences of his career as a researcher. He identifies as a sociologist researching the politics of sport. He claims that the politics of sport is an interdisciplinary field, which strongly connects with many of the issues important to the study of the sociology of sport. In this sub-disciplinary field, theories such as Marxism, figurational sociology, as well as the interpretivism paradigm, should be comprehensively and critically applied to vividly explain the issues associated with political studies and sport in our daily lives. However, the politics of sport is facing many internal and external challenges, such as neoliberalism and elitism in our high education environments, double marginalization in the discipline and poor professional knowledge of scholars. Finally, Professor Alan also comments on recent developments and a research agenda for sport in China. He hopes Chinese social scholars of sport will continue to advance their studies and continue achieving in the future
