Reading Sport Critically: A Methodology for Interrogating Power

McDonald, Mary G.; Birrell, Susan

doi:10.1123/ssj.16.4.283

Cited by 169 publications

(112 citation statements)

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“…I turn to Gramsci's theory of hegemony for its acknowledgement of human agency within historically created determinant social structures and Connell's (1987) application of this to power relations and gender to understand women's minority status as coaches (McDonald & Birrell, 1999). Cultural leaderships and power is secured through the naturalisation and articulation of ruling ideas in popular cultures and the willing consent of those disenfranchised by such ideologies (Bennett, 2006).…”

Section: The Need For An Alternative Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A crisis of confidence: women coaches' responses to their engagement in resistance

Norman

2012

Sport, Education and Society

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This study centres upon the accounts of master women coaches based in the UK, exploring how they have individually experienced such acts of resistance as reaching the top of such a male dominated profession. By going beyond previous positivist feminist approaches to this focus of inquiry, I employ a feminist cultural studies framework to understand how the social construction of what it means to be a woman impacts women coaches' individual sense of self and confidence to lead.The discussions are based upon semi-structured in-depth interviews with six senior national women coaches of team sports in the UK. The data highlights the success of masculine hegemony of coaching through documenting women's reluctance to advance their coaching career through a lack of self-belief and motivation as a consequence of their culturally and historically marginal position. The findings illustrate a pressing need for a revision of the dominant values inherent in professional sport in order to engage and retain potential women leaders.

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Section: The Need For An Alternative Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A crisis of confidence: women coaches' responses to their engagement in resistance

Norman

2012

Sport, Education and Society

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“…Critical cultural studies of sport emphasize the symbiotic relationship between sporting institutions and sport media in constructing ideologies of sex and race difference [45]. Speaking of race, Hoberman describes sport as "racial theatre" [11].…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jackie Robinson`s Legacy and Women “Cross-over Athletes”: A Comparison of The New York Times' Coverage

Travers¹

2009

TOSOCIJ

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This article compares coverage by The New York Times of Jackie Robinson's groundbreaking entry into Major League Baseball with the participation of four women athletes in male-only sporting spaces. This comparison and analysis reveals the role of this specific print media in naturalizing sex differences that justify sex segregation and gender injustice; in contrast to media discourse that correlates racial segregation with racial injustice. This contrast illuminates the role of sport as cultural theatre to model and support social hierarchy while drawing attention to the malleability of essentialist notions of identity.

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“…Critical scholarship that examines intersecting racialised and gendered experiences related to organisational practices in sport is sparse (Birrell, 1989;Bruening, 2005;Bruening and Borland, 2010;Carter-Francique and Olushola, 2016; CarterFrancique, in press;McDonald and Birrell, 1999;Ratna, 2011Ratna, , 2013. Studies focusing on the UK sporting context examining the interconnections of 'race', ethnicity and gender in sport have tended to focus on the experiences of participants, rather than coaches (Burdsey, 2007(Burdsey, , 2009Ratna, 2011Ratna, , 2013 The emerging interest in the marginalisation of Black experiences within sport coaching research and practice highlights the imminent need for further critical studies that explain the intersecting dynamics of 'race' from the perspective of Black men and women coaches.…”

Section: Sport Coaching In the Uk: Locating The Experiences Of Black mentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating the coaching landscape: Experiences of Black men and women coaches in the United Kingdom

Rankin-Wright

Hylton

Norman

2017

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThe current article provides a critical examination of the racialised and gendered processes that reinforce disparities in sport coaching by exploring the experiences of Black men and women coaches in the United Kingdom. The findings are based on in-depth qualitative interviews with coaches from two national sporting governing bodies. Using a Critical Race Theory approach and Black feminist lens, the coaches' narratives illuminate the complex, multifaceted and dynamic ways in which 'race', ethnicity and gender are experienced and negotiated by sport coaches. The coaches' reflections are discussed under three themes: negotiating identities, privilege and blind spots, and systemic discrimination. The narratives from the coaches' experiences emphasise the need for key stakeholders in sport to recognise the intersectional, structural and relational experiences that facilitate, as well as 2 constrain, the progression of Black coaches in order to challenge racialised and gendered inequalities.Contrary to the popular belief that sport represents a meritocratic and egalitarian space, we have previously noted that sport coaching remains an arena in which interconnecting disparities of 'race', ethnicity, gender (as well as other social categories) create structured power relations that serve to reinforce patterns of inclusion/exclusion (Rankin-Wright et al., 2016). In particular, Black 1 coaches are underrepresented in sport leadership and sport coaching in the United Kingdom (UK), and we know little about their lived experiences (Bradbury et al., 2014(Bradbury et al., , 2016North, 2009;Norman et al., 2014;Sporting Equals, 2011). Research on racial equality in sport organisations lacks insight on the institutional discourses and power relations that embed racialised and gendered disparities. The purpose of the current paper was to explore the experiences of Black men and women sport coaches in two national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) in the UK. Specifically, we consider the complex, multifaceted and dynamic ways in which intersecting racialised and gendered processes are experienced and negotiated by coaches on entry to, and progression through, their sport. In doing so, the paper augments the sociology of coaching literature that focuses on the social dynamics of the sport coaching context, while also centralising the experiences of Black coaches.It is important to note that whilst acknowledging critiques of the term 'Black', and recognising the multiplicity of experiences within ...

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Reading Sport Critically: A Methodology for Interrogating Power

Cited by 169 publications

References 0 publications

A crisis of confidence: women coaches' responses to their engagement in resistance

A crisis of confidence: women coaches' responses to their engagement in resistance

Jackie Robinson`s Legacy and Women “Cross-over Athletes”: A Comparison of The New York Times' Coverage

Negotiating the coaching landscape: Experiences of Black men and women coaches in the United Kingdom

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