Reflexivity and bracketing in sociological phenomenological research: researching the competitive swimming lifeworld

Sociology of Sport Journal

2020

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Pain has long been associated with sports participation, being analyzed variously as a physical phenomenon, as well as a sociocultural construct in sport sociological literature. In this article, the authors employ a sociological–phenomenological approach to generate novel insights into the underresearched domain of “lived” pain in competitive swimming. Analytic attention is paid to specific aspects of pain, including “discomfort” and “good pain,” and how these sensations can be positively experienced and understood by the swimmers, as well as forming an integral part of the everyday routines of competitive swimming. Here, training is seen as “work” in the pursuit of athletic improvement. Discomfort and good pain thus become perceived as by-products of training, providing swimmers with important embodied information on pace, energy levels, and other bodily indicators of performance.

Section: Sociological Phenomenologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He therefore engaged in sustained reflexive work (McNarry et al, 2019) in an attempt to sustain bracketing, and to regain what Dwyer and Buckle (2009, p. 60) refer to as the "space between", allowing him to continue to question the events and practices observed.…”

Section: Researching Competitive Swimmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Always Wanna Be Sore, Because Then You Are Seeing Results”: Exploring Positive Pain in Competitive Swimming

McNarry

Allen‐Collinson

Sociology of Sport Journal

2020

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“…The university has a long history of producing senior performance swimmers who have represented their country internationally and been awarded numerous honours. As we have noted elsewhere (McNarry et al, 2019), phenomenology is not a method in the traditional sense of a research technique, but an approach that embraces a whole way of thinking and reflecting, characterized by an attitude of openness, curiosity and ceaseless questioning of that which has always been taken for granted (Allen-Collinson, 2009, 2016). Indeed, Merleau-Ponty (2002: xv) highlights the fact that to see the world phenomenologically we must ‘break with our familiar acceptance of it’, temporarily bracketing our existing presuppositions and assumptions via the process of epochē (see also Allen-Collinson, 2011).…”

Section: The Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Doing’ competitive swimming: Exploring the skilled practices of the competitive swimming lifeworld

McNarry

Allen‐Collinson

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

2020

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Despite a developing literature on various facets of sporting embodiment, there is currently a research lacuna with regard to in-depth analyses of actually ‘doing’ sporting activities within specific physical cultures. In this article, we address that gap by drawing on a developing theoretical literature in sociological phenomenology to investigate a particular physical–cultural domain. Here, we present and analyse data from an ethnographic study of competitive swimmers undertaken in the UK. Responding to calls to explore the domain of ‘body pedagogics’, we investigate the embodied work involved in the skilled practice of ‘doing’ and learning how to ‘do’ competitive swimming. This embodied work plays a key part in the swimmers’ ability to inhabit the competitive swimming lifeworld. In the analysis, we highlight how the acquisition and ‘habituation’ of these body techniques and skilled behaviours are not achieved simply through the repetitive rehearsal of coherent movements over time. These processes are complex, demanding practical experimentation, discovery and the ability to adapt constantly to changes in the environment and the swimmer’s own corporeality.

“…Often associated with part of the research process, we would argue that reflexive practice also extends to the process of writing. Reflexive practice is a way to think about how we are situated within structural, political, and cultural environments, both in terms of our position as academics, our positionality to a specific study context, and also in relation to readers in other contexts (Mcnarry, Allen-Collinson, & Evans, 2019;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2012). Let us be clear.…”

Section: Moving Beyond the Regional Or Nationalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speaking beyond borders in the sociology of sport: some points for consideration

European Journal for Sport and Society

Thiel

2019

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As outlined in a recent paper in this publication by Seippel (2018, p. 288), over the previous three decades the discipline of sociology of sport has become 'a voluminous scientific field with seminal books, journals, conferences, celebrities and jubilees.' Multiple reviews of the state of play of the field, using multiple methodologies and approaches (e.g. Seippel, 2018; Dart, 2014; Malcolm, 2012) have highlighted the dynamism and diversity of sociological research on sport. In the most recent review of foci within the field, Seippel highlights a list of 20 'topics' around which scholars have written extensively over the past three decades which illustrate this diversity. Seippel's list of topics includes subjects such as nationalism, urban development, sports organization and politics, the media, the body and gender. Such observations speak to the diversity, adaptability and longevity of the discipline. One additional topic stands out, however, which Seippel entitles 'European.' This category relates to research conducted in a list of non-British European nations in which sport and nationality (or national context) is uncritically linked, although not always for obvious reasons (Seippel, 2018, p. 298). Put differently, Seippel's study recognises a tendency for some authors in Europe to use 'national' indicators in relation to sport (e.g. 'French Handball', 'Danish Football'), without necessarily expressing why such sports are 'Danish' or 'French'. Whilst Seippel does not have the space to unpack the specifics of this 'topic' in detail, nor explain what makes it distinct from other topics, he does highlight how such 'national' indicators appear most commonly in journals hosted outside North America. This tendency can also be observed in journals outside the North American sphere in fields outside the sociology of sport. For example, it is increasingly expected that the regions in which the studies are carried out is reported in fields such as public health. Yet a browse of recent public health journals suggests that this requirement is perhaps less requisite for researchers from the North American or British sphere, who tend to place national context at the centre of their analysis less frequently. Hence, the fact that 'national' indicators are mostly emphasized in articles from authors from non-English speaking countries could stem from a distinction between a scientific 'core' and a 'periphery' that is also valid for the sociology of sport. This distinction hints not only at a specific geographical division, but also at language-related particularities of the scientific system. A similar observation has been made by Malcolm (2018) in his recent editorial essay in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport (IRSS). Here, Malcolm (2018) highlights an over-representation in the sociology of sport of work and scholarship from the 'Anglosphere'. The Anglosphere has been defined in multiple ways, including linguistically and geopolitically. For example, Bennett (2004) situates the Anglosphere around British ...