Cultural Pedagogies—Action Sports

Social Justice Through Sport and Exercise Studies: A Manifesto

“…Sport in its communication of excellence, movement, the human condition, and sacrifice of energy may be what is important to the core of what it is to be human (Sartre, 1956;Caillois, 1958Caillois, /2001Roberts et al, 1958;James, 1963;Loy, 1968;Bernard, 1972;Geertz, 1972;Ingham & Loy, 1974;Morford & Clark, 1976;Guttmann, 1978;Suits, 1978;Birrell, 1981;Turner, 1982;Blanchard & Cheska, 1984;Loy & Hesketh, 1984;Hanna, 1987;Sutton-Smith, 1997;Eichberg, 1998;Wertz, 1999;Ingham, 2000;Szymanski, 2006;Barthes, 2007;Hardy & Loy, 2009;Besnier & Brownell 2012;Sansone, 1988;Sydnor, 2010Sydnor, , 2015Sydnor, , 2017. For example, the delivery of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics games despite record numbers of Japanese citizens testing positive for COVID-19, and the outspoken disapproval by citizens that a sporting event take priority over people.…”

“…Sport in its communication of excellence, movement, the human condition, and sacrifice of energy may be what is important to the core of what it is to be human (Barthes, 2007;Bernard, 1972;Besnier & Brownell 2012;Birrell, 1981;Blanchard & Cheska, 1984;Caillois, 1958Caillois, /2001Eichberg, 1998;Geertz, 1972;Guttmann, 1978;Hanna, 1987;Hardy & Loy, 2009;Ingham, 2000;Ingham & Loy, 1974;James, 1963;Loy, 1968;Loy & Hesketh, 1984;Morford & Clark, 1976;Roberts et al, 1959;Sansone, 1988;Sartre, 1956;Suits, 1978;Sutton-Smith, 1997;Sydnor, 2010Sydnor, , 2015Sydnor, , 2017Szymanski, 2006;Turner, 1982;Wertz, 1999). For example, the delivery of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics games despite record numbers of Japanese citizens testing positive for COVID-19, and the outspoken disapproval by citizens that a sporting event take priority over people.…”

Online instruction in large scale sport sociology courses: A collective autoethnography

“…We think of Marcel Mauss ' (1934) techniques of the body: the university professor's body that presumes to teach about sports… is always bound by societal ideas and prevailing orientations about physical and intellectual acumen. (Sydnor, 2017a) When it comes to sports courses, sports sociologist Jay Coakley also explains that sport seems to be a cultural form that many people don't believe warrants deep analysis, for it is done in leisure time, outside the realm of 'real life.' Coakley labels this difficulty to critically think about sport (such as to see sport as 'political or harmful') as part of a 'myth' which comprehends sport to be 'pure and good.'…”

Somewhere Between a Stopwatch and a Recording Device: Ethnographic Reflections From the Pool

“…It can also be used to describe a temporary, in-between condition where organizational structures and systems are “suspended” (Bamber et al 2017; Sturdy et al 2006), and has also been applied to liminal spaces, such as changing rooms, where individuals transition from, for example, their everyday selves (and clothing) into a sporting or leisure role (Evans and Allen-Collinson 2023). Rarely, however, has it been used in relation to sports and/or physical-cultural contexts (Sydnor 2000), and particularly to ethnographic research in formal, institutional sports settings. Here, we use the concept of liminality to theorize Gareth’s state of uncertainty regarding employment post-completion of his doctorate, including the uncertainty about whether he would return to a former status of swimming coach or, after successfully negotiating the rite de passage of gaining a PhD, decide to seek entry into academia.…”