Autonomous Authorization of Deception in Sport

Two recent articles in this journal – one by Morris, the other by Pfleegor & Rosenberg – have revived the philosophical discussion of the ethics of deception in sport which had largely laid dormant since the 1973 publication of Pearson’s ‘Deception, Sportsmanship, and Ethics’. Morris and Pfleegor & Rosenberg both share with Pearson the view that ethical deceptive sport acts are those that relate to sport-specific skills. However, whereas Pearson ultimately grounds this view in the agreement she takes to obtain amongst sport participants, both recent treatments overlook this fundamental aspect of her account and offer alternative justifications for that view. I argue, though, that in both cases the arguments offered are incomplete precisely because they require an appeal to the agreement amongst participants that lies at the foundation of Pearson’s account. On all three treatments, I argue, what ultimately determines an action’s ethical status is not its relation to sport-specific skills, but its conformity to, or violation of, that agreement. I conclude with a discussion of what this implies for future work on deception in sport.     

Review of Essays About Philosophical Analyses of Sport (Physical Culture) in Central Europe

Herein I address and extend the sparse literature on deception in sports, specifically, Kathleen Pearson’s Deception, Sportsmanship, and Ethics and Mark J. Hamilton’s There’s No Lying in Baseball (Wink, Wink). On a Kantian foundation, I argue that attempts to deceive officials, such as framing pitches in baseball, are morally unacceptable because they necessarily regard others (e.g., the umpire) as incompetent and as a mere means to one’s own self-interested ends. More dramatically I argue, contrary to Pearson and Hamilton, that some forms of competitor-to-competitor deception (which Pearson labels ‘strategic deception’) are similarly unacceptable. Specifically, I offer a ‘principle of caustic deceit’ according to which any strategic deception that divorces a game from its constitutive skills is morally untoward and ought to be met with negative social pressure at least, and/or legislated out of existence. The problem with these forms of strategic deception is that they treat one’s opponents, again in the Kantian sense, as a mere means to one’s own self-interested ends.     

Moving into and out of high-performance sport: the cultural learning of an artistic gymnast

Background: High-performance sport has been described as a formative environment through which athletes learn sporting skills but also develop athletic selves. Within this process, career movements related to selection for and de-selection from representative teams constitute critical moments. Further, retirement from sport can be problematic as the athletic self becomes ‘obsolete’. This dilemma is acute in sports that demand an early entry, extreme time investments and a high risk of retirement before adulthood. Women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) is such a sport.

Purpose and scope: This article considers an artistic gymnast's (Marie) experiences of movement into and out of this sport. Marie's construction and reconstruction of her athletic self when she entered gymnastics at the age of six, relocated to a different city in order to train with the national team at the age of 15, and retired from the sport one year later receives particular attention.

Method and theoretical perspective: An in-depth biographical interview was conducted with Marie. Further, the first author's personal knowledge of this gymnast's career experiences was used for contextualisation. The analysis of data involved the identification of learning outcomes during her time in high-performance WAG and post-retirement. Storied accounts surrounding the key learning experiences were compiled. In order to understand Marie's learning, cultural perspective of learning developed by education scholars and the respective metaphors of ‘learning as becoming’ and ‘horizons for action’ and ‘horizons of learning’ are employed.

Findings: Marie's choice of relocating to train with the national team involved her assuming a temporary orientation towards the requirements of the high-performance WAG context she entered. To achieve this, Marie suppressed the dispositions she had brought to this setting and adjusted her training philosophy, relationship with her coach, diet and socialising. Further, despite Marie intending to only momentarily adjust to the practices of the high-performance context, her learning was deep. Upon retiring from gymnastics, she could not leave the high-performance gymnastics self behind. The subsequent process to adjust to life without gymnastics was difficult and testing, and could only be realised with professional treatment.

Conclusion: Learning in sport is not limited to athletic skills. Athletes’ selves are formed in interaction with sporting contexts and actors. This embodiment can become durable and cause significant conflict when moving out of sport. To handle life without sport, adjustment may be challenging and lengthy.

Recommendations: Sporting cultures should allow for more interactive learning and athlete diversity. Coaching practices that allow athletes to voice difficulties should be provided. Athletes should be encouraged to reflect upon their sporting experiences and upon leaving high-performance sport, should be (professionally) supported.     

Sport management student as producer: embedding critical management studies in sport through contemporary pedagogy

In recent years there has been growing interest over the role of major sport events and the sports industry. The aftermath of 2008 global crisis exposed the myth of ‘end of history’ and raised several questions over the role of management and organisational practices and theories in all aspects of human activity, including sport. This article reviews the emergence of critical management studies (CMS) as a field within management and organisational studies. We focus on critical performativity theory (CPT) as a key concept of re-configuring managerial practices. We add our voices to those asking for more critical output in sport management and point out the potential contribution of CMS in sport and especially of CPT. Finally, we propose ‘student as producer’ as a pedagogical framework to act as a possible basis for incorporating critical theories into higher education teaching. We argue that this framework can contribute significantly towards providing future graduates with the skills and knowledge to enable them to deal with the contemporary challenges of modern sport’s industry and wider society.     

Anxious identification in ‘The Sopranos’ and sport: psychoanalytic and queer theories of embodiment

The article uses an episode from the television series ‘The Sopranos’ to illustrate how embodied experiences of sporting practices such as high-school football involve both conscious and unconscious dynamics. It outlines how cultural practices such as masculinist sport are psychically incorporated into the body through the process of identification. The article uses Freud's concept of identification to explain how fantasy and representation are involved in the formation of embodied subjectivity. Contemporary queer theories about identification provide insights into how psychic dynamics both reinforce and undermine the illusory cultural promise of heteronormative whiteness offered by high-school sport and physical education.     

Corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability: Why professional sport is greening the playing field

In this study, we explore institutional forces affecting environmental sustainability in professional sport teams and leagues in North America. Interviews with sport executives and executives from partner groups, 122 websites and organizational documents, and 56 media reports were examined. Data revealed how environmental management practices are being diffused in professional sport organizations. Evidence indicated associative behavior among sport organizations with respect to environmental management. Data also illustrated that media played a role in driving and defining the type and extent of involvement in professional sport teams’ environmental sustainability efforts. We discuss environmental sustainability as it affects a team's or league's CSR related initiatives (i.e., averting legal recourse, saving money, as well as building stronger relationships with stakeholders (e.g., customers, fans, local communities, federal governments and corporate partners)), and speculate how these efforts might evolve and inform the development of environmental sustainability in organizations in the sport, service and entertainment sectors.     

Football,sport and the development of young people’s life skills

The development of life skills has been associated with participation in sport, football and other physical activities. A factor in enabling this ambition to be realized is the actions and behaviours of sports coaches. Drawing on the concept of positive youth development through sport, the first part of this paper considers the types of environments coaches need to create in order for players to develop life skills. The second part of this paper discusses formal coach education and its role in developing coaches’ knowledge of life skills development. The third and final section of this paper offers an alternative explanation of how people’s exposure to certain social contexts results in the development of life skills. A review of literature in these areas reveals that the role sport and football has played in players’ development of life skills is unclear and in need of future research attention.     

If sport's the solution then what's the problem? The social significance of sport in the moral governing of ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ citizens in Sweden, 1922–1998

All over the westernised world, sport has been promoted as a ‘solution’ to many of the social ‘problems’ and challenges that face modern societies. This study draw on Foucault's concept of governmentality to examine the ways in which Swedish Government Official Reports on sport, from 1922 to 1998, define social problems and legitimate governing, and sport as a solution, in the name of benefiting Swedish society. The analysis shows that citizens' ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ behaviour and bodies are in focus of problematisation throughout the studied period. In relation to this, sport is seen as an important tool and solution. Parallel with increased critique of sport in contemporary times, a neo-liberal governmentality is embraced which in turn affect how ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ are thought of in individualistic and rational ways.     

What counts as part of a game? Reconsidering skills

The first goal of this paper is to reply to a number of criticisms levied by Gunnar Breivik and Robert L. Simon against an account of sporting skills I published almost 20 years ago in which I distinguished between constitutive and restorative skills and examined their normative significance. To accomplish this goal, I first summarize my characterization and classification of skills and then detail the criticisms. After responding to the latter, and thus reconsidering and hopefully strengthening my account of skill in sport, I turn my attention to Scott Kretchmar and Tim Elcombe’s inquiry into the skills involved in competitive sport. These authors claim that contesting skills demand the same respect usually accorded to testing skills. The second goal of this paper is then to explore Kretchmar and Elcombe’s inquiry under the light of my reconsidered analysis of skill. I specifically advocate a plausible relationship, both in terms of their distinctive character and relative import, between testing and contesting skills and constitutive and restorative skills. In doing so, I seek to present a more comprehensive account of skill in non-competitive and competitive sport.     

Underrepresentation of women in sport leadership: A review of research

Despite increased participation opportunities for girls and women in sport, they are underrepresented in leadership positions at all levels of sport. The objective of this review is to provide a multilevel examination of available scholarship that contributes to understanding why there are so few women in leadership positions within sport. From a macro-level perspective, scholarship regarding the institutionalized practices of gender in sport is examined. The meso-level review includes stereotyping of leaders, issues of discrimination, and gendered organizational cultures. Finally research reviewed at the micro-level explores women's expectations in leadership positions, occupational turnover intentions, and the influence of symbolic interactionism on women's career advancement. In addition, the author identifies new research areas and additional recommendations for how best to increase the number of women in leadership positions in sport.     

‘It just makes you feel invincible’: a Foucauldian analysis of children's experiences of organised team sports

The childhood years are highlighted as a crucial time when ongoing participation in physical activity can be nurtured and maintained. The nurturing of a child's proclivity to participate in organised sport normally falls into the domain of adults. While both parents and coaches have been identified as key influences on children's enjoyment of sport, some negative perceptions exist about their roles. Although children's perspectives are increasingly being acknowledged as valuable, it would appear that young children are still marginalised as active participants in areas of health-related research. The primary objective of this study was to give space to children's views of organised sport and to examine how adult behaviours affected these children's enjoyment of sport. This qualitative study utilised eight focus group interviews with a total of 30 children (aged 6–11 years) in the Greater Auckland area of New Zealand. This paper presents a Foucauldian discourse analysis of children's views relating to their sporting experiences. Children articulated three discursive constructions of sport: sport as competition, sport as fun and sport as fair play. The dominance of sport as competition would appear to serve the needs of coaches and parents more than those of children. Coaches who appear to be firmly positioned within a competitive discourse of sport use their power to support coaching practices that clash with the guidelines provided for them by their sporting bodies. Our analysis shows that many children may be exposed to discursive practices that are not conducive to a child-centred sporting environment. Through the exercise of disciplinary measures, there is pressure on children to conform to the normative behaviours associated with a dominant competitive sport discourse.     

Predisposed to participate? The influence of family socio-economic background on children's sports participation and daily amount of physical activity

From a Bourdieu-inspired understanding of how personal resources (‘capitals’) enable certain practices in certain contexts, the links between families' cultural, social and economic capitals, and children's daily physical activity were investigated in 500 suburban Danish schoolchildren using questionnaire data and accelerometer measures. Family socio-economic position (SEP) was found to be positively associated with children's participation in organized sport, which could be explained by differences in family capitals. By contrast, this study found no relationship between families' SEP and the amounts of general physical activity in children. This reflected the tendencies for club-organized sport to contribute a relatively small amount to the overall amount of physical activity in children, and for children of low SEP to be equally active in other settings such as school-breaks, day care and neighbourhood playgrounds.     

Performance Enhancement and Politicisation of High-Performance Sport: The West German ‘air clyster’ Affair of 1976

While the politicisation of high-performance sport is perceived to represent one of the driving forces behind doping, we know not much how exactly the cold war in sports has affected sporting misconduct in western societies. Therefore, we propose here to distinguish between ideological and institutional politicisation and explicit and implicit acceptance of dubious practices. We apply our framework to analyse the West German ‘air clyster’ affair of 1976 in order to examine to what extent the politicisation of high-performance sport during the cold war affected the search for innovation in performance enhancement. We find that political pressure for improved competitiveness in West German sport had served to create a semi-autonomous high-performance sport sector in West Germany where blurred lines of accountability allowed questionable practices to prosper. While the public despised the use of questionable methods, sportive nationalism served to eclipse dubious practices. West German sport leaders adopted insofar a permissive attitude towards questionable practices as sporting misconduct was not sanctioned. Thus, our results strongly suggest that sport's politicisation during the cold war facilitated the search for performance-increasing methods in western societies.     

‘Sport qua science’: Michel Serres’ ball as an asset of knowledge

Abstract

This article concerns the use of sport as an asset of knowledge in academia. The background to this is sport’s neglected role and isolation in academia, save for in sundry sports sciences. By mapping the academic use of philosopher Michel Serres’ sport metaphors, a new perspective of the relationship between sport and science is explored. A mixed-methods approach was chosen to review the literature using Serres’ concept of the ‘quasi-object’. The findings show that the concept appeals to a wide array of disciplines within the social sciences and the humanities. The article suggests that there exists a parallel sport science in academia that flies under the radar of regular sport disciplines, a sort of ‘sport AS humanities’. This proposed ‘sportive science’ focuses on other aspects of sport than its already existing sport study counterparts. Thus, sport qua science acknowledges its topic as an asset of knowledge, not as a mirror of society.     

About inclusive participation in sport: cultural desirability and technical obstacles

Abstract

What does it mean full participation of people with disabilities in ‘sports for all’? Beyond the right of access, the right of sharing can enrich the quality of participation in sport, overcoming segregation. But how can be guaranteed an ‘inclusive participation’ that avoids the double risk of ‘normalizing’ integration or ‘charitable’ integration? Beyond 'being among the others' or even 'doing with the others', people with disabilities should also have the possibility to ‘be valued by the others’ through the real recognition of their participation in this shared sport experience. This is not only a cultural shift, but also a technical challenge, especially to fill the persistent gap between the inclusive rhetoric and the inclusive practices really available to the people. We will explore then the key issue of the technicality of inclusive participation in sport, showing the interest of applying the principles of design for all to the architecture of sports rules.     

Physical education teacher education in Norway: the perceptions of student teachers

A feature of academic literature on physical education teacher education (PETE) is the expectation that it can and should impact upon student teachers' beliefs and prospective practices in some significant ways. This is despite research over the last 20 years or more alluding to the apparent failure of PETE to ‘shake or stir’ (Evans et al., 1996) what might be termed the (typically conservative and conventional) pre-dispositions of student and early career PE teachers. In this article, we examine the perceptions of PE student teachers in Norway in order to ascertain just what it is that makes them so resistant to change and, for that matter, such infertile ground for sowing the seeds of reflexivity. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 41 PE student teachers from the three routes through teacher education available at Nord University College (Nord UC). Among the main themes identified in the data were the PE students' perceptions of: the purposes (and ostensible benefits) of school PE and PETE as well as the nature of PETE itself (including subsidiary themes of sporting and teaching skills, other ‘competencies’, school placements, mentoring and mentors, PETEs' (physical education teacher educators) teaching styles and the students teachers' relationships with the PETEs). The article concludes that, as far as the students at Nord UC were concerned, the significance of PETE revolved around the programme's efficacy in developing the sporting skills and teaching techniques they viewed as central to their preparation for teaching. The minimal impact of the more theoretical aspects of PETE appeared to be partly attributable to the students' perceptions of PE as synonymous with sport in schools and partly to their particularly pragmatic orientations towards PETE. In this vein, the students viewed experience as the most important, most legitimate ‘evidence’ on which to base their beliefs and practices and were resistant to the ‘theory’ of teacher education, rationalising their tendencies to select the evidence that suited them.     

Crossing Boundaries and Changing Identities: Empowering South Asian Women through Sport and Physical Activities

The participation of women in sport is significant to socio-economic empowerment in any country. Evidence reveal that although South Asian female athletes are capable of winning medals in the Olympics, a very low percentage of the South Asian female population ever participate actively in sport. The status and circumstances to participate in sport are restricted for many female athletes in South Asia. This paper examined the main factors that influence women's sporting participation in South Asian countries. Data were analysed by using documentary analysis method. This paper analysed a combination of concepts addressing women and sport in South Asia in two ways. Firstly, it emphasises the issues and patterns of women's participation in sport in South Asian countries after the independence from the British Empire. Secondly, it highlights the benefits to South Asian societies of women's participation in sport, but argues why South Asian women are trivialised in sports participation. Results revealed the inequalities and discrimination that constrain women from participating in the South Asian sports sector as personal, social and cultural barriers. Possible solutions are provided to reduce these factors to encourage South Asian women's participation in sport. Success and the implications of South Asian governments’ interventions on women and sport are also discussed. Results of this study revealed the inequalities and discrimination that constrain women from participating in the South Asian sports sector is continuing.     

Why ‘the best way of learning to coach the game is playing the game’: conceptualising ‘fast-tracked’ high-performance coaching pathways

At the beginning of the 2013/2014 season in England and Wales, 90 head coaches of the 92 men's national professional football league clubs and 20 of the 22 men's professional rugby union clubs had tenure as a professional elite player in their respective sports. Moreover, Rynne [(2014). ‘Fast track’ and ‘traditional path’ coaches: Affordances, agency and social capital. Sport, Education and Society, 19, 299–313] has claimed that many former elite athletes are ‘fast-tracked’ through formal accreditation structures into these high-performance coaching roles. The reasons why former elite athletes dominate head coaching roles in professional sports clubs and why a ‘fast-track’ pathway from elite athlete to high-performance coach is supported remain unclear. Thereby the present study sought to address this issue by investigating the basis for ‘fast-tracked’ head coaching appointments. Eight male directors of men's professional football and rugby union clubs in England were interviewed to examine how particular coaching skills and sources of knowledge were valorised. Drawing upon Bourdieu's conceptual framework, the results suggested that head coaching appointments were often based upon the perceived ability of head coaches gaining player ‘respect’. Experiences gained during earlier athletic careers were assumed to provide head coaches with the ability to develop practical sense and an elite sporting habitus commensurate with the requirements of the field of elite sports coaching. This included leadership and practical coaching skills to develop technical and tactical astuteness, from which, ‘respect’ could be quickly gained and maintained. The development of coaching skills was rarely associated with only formal coaching qualifications. The ‘fast-tracking’ of former athletes for high-performance coaching roles was promoted by directors to ensure the perpetuation of specific playing and coaching philosophies. Consequently, this may exclude groups from coaching roles in elite men's sport. The paper concludes by outlining how these findings might imply a disjuncture between the skills promoted during formal coaching qualifications and the expectations club directors have of elite coaches in these sports.     

Parents in youth sport: what happens after the game?

Characteristic issues surrounding parents in youth sport include examples of negative verbal and non-verbal behaviour demonstrated during competition. Numerous studies have done well to highlight while parents possess a great potential for positively influencing the sport experience, they can also exert a considerable negative influence by engaging in a range of non-preferred and inappropriate behaviours. There is certainly a need to further understand the nature of the sport-parenting paradigm given that encouraging and supportive parental involvement is a critical factor in promoting enjoyment and intrinsic motivation among participants. This is particularly important given that children's preferred parental behaviours are temporally dependent. That is, different types of parental involvement are preferred before, during and after competitive sport. However, one aspect of parental involvement in youth sport which has been largely overlooked is the post-game setting. Drawing on qualitative data derived from focus groups and individual interviews with 86 parents and children involved in junior Australian football, this paper reveals an aspect of the sport-parenting role which can further enhance or undermine the youth sport experience. Specifically, it reveals an intriguing insight into the way that parents engage in ‘debriefing’ children's performances—representing a challenge for parents who strive to engender a positive and supportive influence in youth sport. While the concept of sport-parenting receives much attention within the competitive setting, this paper argues that in order to enhance the quality of parental involvement in youth sport, much can be learnt from exploring ‘what happens after the game’.     

The role of sport in community capacity building: An examination of sport for development research and practice

Population health promotion and preventing disease remain important global policy goals. Because of the complex nature of health, and the recognition of the limits of individual-oriented health promotion strategies, recent decades have seen increased interest by public health researchers and practitioners in community-level approaches to health promotion. Increasingly, community-level approaches have been based upon the theoretical concept of community capacity. Community capacity is seen as a critical mechanism for supporting and promoting community-level health and through the sport for development (SFD) model, there is evidence of sport being an important practice for community development. However, little is known about the potential role of sport as a mechanism for building community capacity. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to examine the efficacy of sport to contribute to the process of community capacity building. Using seven established dimensions of community capacity, there is evidence that many SFD practices can effectively facilitate dimensions of community capacity when conducted in intentional, culturally relevant ways. Specifically, sport has demonstrated efficacy in building local skills, knowledge, and resources, increasing social cohesion, facilitating structures and mechanisms for community dialog, leadership development, and encouraging civic participation. More research is needed to understand sport's ability to promote capacity building through collective action, developing value systems that support democracy and inclusion, and encouraging critical reflection. To increase the usefulness of sport to support community health development, SFD principles should be included as part of sport management university curricula. Additionally, practitioners need grounding in community and human development research to support non-sport components of programs. Finally, participatory action research techniques should be used by researchers and practitioners. Sport-based development often generates high interest from residents, funders, and policy makers. By applying principles of community capacity building, sport may be uniquely positioned to enhance sustainable community health development initiatives.