The following news about the BSA Sport Study Group has been submitted to the editors of Network (Newsletter of the BSA) for consideration for inclusion in the next edition.

Events

1. Sport Study Group member Jonathan Long (Leeds Beckett University) organised the latest in the Fields of Vision series of events (https://artsinsport.wordpress.com) at St James’ Park Newcastle in May as part of rugby league’s ‘Magic Weekend’ - when all the Super League fixtures are played in the same stadium over the course of the same weekend. The symposium explored the relationship between sport and the arts and brought together a mixture of academics, sport and arts professionals and practitioners.  

2. Also in May a Sport Study Group one-day conference on 'Sport and Social Protest' was held at The British Library in London.

3. The Annual Sport Study Group Postgraduate Forum for doctoral and other postgraduate research students was hosted by Sport Study Group member Melanie Lang at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, in September (also see the attached photograph). Very many thanks to Mel who writes:

Edge Hill University hosted the annual BSA Sport Study Group PG Forum event in September, with 13 speakers and more than 30 delegates in attendance. The event, which aims to develop a PG research community within sport and the social sciences, was organised by BSA member Melanie Lang and featured speakers from across the country.
Joseph Pryle from the University of Central Lancashire spoke first on the benefits of using narrative as a tool of enquiry to study sport. Drawing on his own memories and experiences as a cricketer in the USA, Joseph noted the advantages of using narrative to better understand one’s personal motivations for undertaking research and the insight this approach affords. Graeme Law’s presentation on conspicuous consumption in professional football highlighted the pressure footballers felt to conform to the accepted image of a footballer. Law, from the University of Chester, noted that in a culture where discussions about salary are considered taboo, conspicuous display of designer goods enables players to be accepted by others within the game.
Meanwhile, Sarah Pinder from Edge Hill University provided an overview of her PhD study into the place of adult-child touch in physical education teachers’ pedagogy, identifying a contemporary moral panic surrounding adult-child touch and the impact of this for PE teacher’s practice. The promotion of mental well-being through community-based physical activity programmes was the focus of Stephen Mansfield’s presentation. Drawing on data from mental wellbeing service users and providers, Stephen, from the University of Chester, focused on the role of social aspects, such as the types of physical activity interventions offered, in improving mental health outcomes.
Catherine Phipps from the University of Greenwich presented questionnaire and interview data from university student unions to explore the extent to which university sport is accessible for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual groups, suggesting that inclusive sport remains an aspiration rather than a reality for many university sports teams. In the final presentation before lunch, Adam Talbot from the University of Brighton discussed the personal, professional and academic implications of conducting a year-long ethnography in Rio de Janeiro on social movements protesting in the Olympic Games. 
Seven further presentations took place after lunch. First up was Mark Mierzwinski from York Saint John University. Drawing on ethnographic data from one secondary school, Mark discussed how the interplay between male social bonding, laughter/banter and ‘masculine’ bodies can enable power imbalances between teachers and pupils within male physical education classes. Next, Christopher Faulkner centred on the use of internet and communication technologies (ICTs) in basketball players’ transnational lives. Christopher, from the University of Worcester, argued that ICTs ease the process of athletes maintaining lives spanning multiple borders and time-zones. 
The link between sport and domestic violence (DV) was the focus of Jodie Swallow’s presentation. Jodie, from the University of Chester, discussed how the experiences of female victims of DV can help unpick the factors behind the sport-DV nexus.  Meanwhile, Paul Goad from the University of Teeside highlighted the usefulness of Giddens’ concept of ontological security to explore how regional football rivalry is represented through Sunderland fan Dick Dastard in the Newcastle United fanzine.
Colum Cronin from Liverpool John Moore’s University explored the lifeworld of youth performance coaches, identifying how coaches’ lifeworlds extend beyond the field of play and the tensions and benefits this engenders. Meanwhile, Cardiff Metropolitan University student Martin Longworth outlined his study into the reality of student-coaches’ work-based learning and the benefits of an ethnographic approach to better understand the micro-political realities within which student-coaches develop. The final presentation of the day, from Christopher White from the University of Chester, identified the unintended consequences of the bidding process for Chester to become a Cycling Demonstration Town among key actors involved in the process.

Following the success of the day, the Sport Study Group is looking for institutions to host the PG Forum event in 2016; anyone interested should contact the group’s convenors Professor John Horne (UCLan) or Dr Mark Doidge (Brighton).

Publications

Fletcher, T. Ed. (2015) Cricket, migration and diasporic communities, (London: Routledge) follows C.L.R. James’ now famous metaphor of looking ‘beyond the boundary’ to capture the belief that, to fully understand the significance of cricket, and the sport’s roles in changing and shaping society, one must consider the wider social and political contexts within which the game is played. Cricket acts as the point of departure in each chapter, but the way in which ideas of power, representation and inequality are ‘played out’ is unique in each.

Gruneau, R. and Horne, J. Eds. (2016) Mega-Events and Globalization: Capital and spectacle in a changing world order, (London: Routledge) provides a critical examination of the ambition for spectacle that has emerged across the East and Global South. Twelve chapters explore the theoretical and conceptual issues associated with mega-events and new forms of globalization, from the critical political economy of mega-events in a changing world order to the contested social and economic legacies of mega-events and the widespread opposition that increasingly accompanies these events. It offers a fresh and unique interdisciplinary perspective that synthesizes cutting edge research on mega-events and urban spectacles while simultaneously contributing to a broader understanding of the dynamics of global capitalism and international political power in the early twenty-first century.

Robert Lake (2014), A Social History of Tennis in Britain (Routledge) has won the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History for 2015 awarded by the British Society of Sports History.

Wellard, I. Ed. (2015) Researching Embodied Sport: Exploring movement cultures, (London: Routledge) explores the political, social and cultural significance of embodied approaches to the study of sport, physical activities and dance. It explains how embodied approaches fit with existing theory in studies of sport and movement cultures. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary lens, moving beyond the traditional dualism of body and mind, and incorporating the physical with the social and the psychological. The book also explores the methodological implications of ‘doing’ embodied research, particularly in terms of qualitative approaches to sports research.

John Horne
September 2015