Innovation not Invention: A Reply to Peter Swain Regarding the Professionalization of Association Football in England and its Diffusion

This article is a response to the revisionist view of the history of the professionalization of association football in Lancashire as proposed by Peter Swain in a recent article in Sport in History. It expands on some of the arguments first proposed in my PhD thesis and subsequent articles during the 1990s, and suggests that Swain based his arguments on a number of misconceptions and misinterpretations of my original work. Apart from the flaws in Swain's reasoning and analysis, this article also criticizes his use of evidence in his attempted proof of this reinterpretation. It focuses particularly on his confusion of the concepts of ‘invention’ and ‘innovation’, and the idea of business innovation and its diffusion according to Rogers's classic theory. It also attempts to show the errors in Swain's ‘continuity’ concept as a theoretical structure. In conclusion, it is argued that Swain's ‘new direction’ is in fact a dead end, and that subsequent research should avoid these misinterpretations and misdirections.     

A dolphin only looks like a fish: Players’ behaviour analysis is not enough for game understanding in the light of the systems approach – a response to the reply by McGarry and Franks

Abstract

In this article I defend my previously published system approach to game playing in sports (Lebed, 2006). Founded on the main argument of mine about insufficiency of performance analysis only for games study, it is based on an inter-disciplinary comprehension of sporting game events from four different angles: the logical-philosophical, the behavioural (performance), the anthropological, and complexity angles. The paper consists of four parts, corresponding to the four angles. The first three parts offer deconstructive and reconstructive analysis. The three provide criticism of McGarry and Frank's arguments against my view of complex dynamical systems in sports. The logical analysis negates my opponents’ general view of a match (a process) as a dynamical system. The behaviour analysis refutes their claim about couple oscillator dynamics as a universal dynamically interpreted model of game playing. The anthropological panoramic vision of sporting games leads me to conclude that my opponents’ analysis of two exclusively interacting sides in a squash or soccer contest is too narrow and insufficient to explain the broad diversity of games. According to the, classification suggested in Lebed (2004), I offer seven possible models that can systematically reflect different groups of games. In the fourth part, the complexity angle is analysed from a constructive point of view. Here I take one of the above seven models and try to outline a ‘‘soccer-like’’ game perspective modelling founded on the view of play process as a conflict of two four-level self-regulating complex systems, where each one is additionally involved in its own loop of cybernetic regulation.     

Ethics,Money, and Sport: This Sporting Mammon

This article is an examination of the recent contribution in this journal by Kreider. In that publication he argued against formalist and non-formalist positions concerning our understanding of game-player and game-playing, focusing his discussion around game rules and their relationship to the two key concepts. This led him to produce alternative conceptions of game-player and game-playing, and it is these conceptions tied closely to the idea of commitment, and Kreider’s arguments surrounding them, which are the subject of my article. Following an introduction, I summarize and evaluate Kreider's dissatisfaction with earlier accounts. Then I present and examine key aspects of his proposals for a different understanding of game-players and game-playing. While I remain uncertain about some of his claims, overall my conclusions are characterized more by disagreement with him than by a sense that he has overcome problems previously expressed theories contain.     

Care and phronesis in teaching and coaching: dealing with personality disorder

My aim in this article is to contribute to the discussion about how teachers and coaches come to act in appropriate ways given the complex nature of both practices. I focus on two specific dispositions or qualities from the philosophical literature, namely the virtue of care and the Aristotelian concept of phronesis (or practical wisdom), which have been put forward as possible explanations. I argue that care and phronesis are fundamental qualities for both good teachers and coaches. Talk of care and phronesis in the literature is welcome, but these concepts are themselves complex. Care and phronesis, like other virtues are context-specific, difficult to acquire (or teach) and their particular expression depends on a host of complex factors, not least one's character and personal and professional experience. I illustrate my argument with reference to a former professional football player who exhibited symptoms of personality disorder from an early age and who presented challenges to his teachers and coaches through his disruptive behaviour.     

Empiricist Versus Sociological History: Some Comments on the ‘Civilizing Process’

This article offers a critique of the use of historical evidence by one of the sociologist proponents of the civilizing process in British sport. It argues that, in using cricket to illustrate how sport became less violent, he failed to define violence in a manner conducive to meaningful historical examination and, further, made historical errors of fact, relied too much on unchecked secondary sources, misinterpreted evidence, and argued by limited example.     

Football Hooliganism Revisited: A Belated Reply to Patrick Murphy,Eric Dunning and Joseph Maguire

In the light of the republication of my original article on ‘Football hooliganism in England before 1914’ in the volume Sports History: Critical Concepts, edited by Wray Vamplew and published by Routledge in 2014, I offer here a belated reply to the counter-critique of my arguments given by Patrick Murphy, Eric Dunning and Joseph Maguire in their article in the International Journal of the History of Sport in 1998. I regard this debate as still relevant to the academic discussion of the history of association football, particularly the concern about the social and historical origins of football hooliganism within an English context, despite the topic being rather less fashionable than it once was. I believe that my original article, and this reply to Murphy, Dunning and Maguire, make a contribution to the ongoing debate within sports history over the relevance of using particular forms of sociological theory (in this case, Norbert Elias' concept of a ‘civilising process’ operating in European history from the middle ages) to explain historical phenomenon. This paradigm, it is argued, distorts the historical interpretation of sport by the use of such a priori sociological arguments.     

Sport as a (mere) hobby: in defense of ‘the gentle pursuit of a modest competence’

In this essay, I defend sport as a (mere) hobby in contrast to sport as a ‘mutual quest for excellence through challenge’. With the assistance of ideas found in the novel Don Quixote, I raise questions about the clarity, merit, and sufficiency of the quest-for-excellence apologetic. I employ arguments made by James and Dewey to support my alternate defense of sporting activity as a hobby, that is, as ‘the gentle pursuit of a modest competence’. Based on the work of Wu, my defense stands as both a philosophic argument and a cultural critique.     

Opportunities to interpret: a methodological discussion of insider research,perceptions of the researcher,and knowledge production

Abstract

Insider research is increasingly common in sociocultural studies of sport. Less common is insider research in socio-historical work. As a women’s lacrosse umpire and a lacrosse scholar, I maintain multiple investments in the sport; this insider perspective and role fosters unique considerations during the research process. In this article, I assess my position as an insider in women’s lacrosse and the manners in which relationships – both actual and perceived – impact knowledge production. My experiences and this article exemplify the importance of consistent reflexivity throughout the research process; my role as an umpire was ever-present, even when I was unaware in the moment. Reflexivity enabled my recognition and analysis of this status. A researcher’s multiple group and professional affiliations, whether consciously employed or tacitly assumed, impact the knowledge that is shared and produced.     

Developing school students' identity and engagement through lifestyle sports: a case study of unicycling

This article emerges from a background of UK policy concerns about young people's participation in physical activity. It rehearses the arguments for lifestyle sports as a rich ground for enhancing students' engagement with physical education (PE). A review of the still limited literature suggests that lifestyle sports may have an under-exploited potential to develop skills, confidence and personal identity in learners that transfer to other areas of learning and life. To illustrate the argument, the article takes unicycling as an instructive case of lifestyle sport, and draws on survey data from a study of unicyclists carried out in several countries. A discussion of these data explores the beneficial characteristics of this unusual sport as participants in the study perceive them. A conclusion suggests a need for greater flexibility in PE curricula which might ‘mainstream’ lifestyle sports for both inherent achievement and exponential personal development of students.     

Moving bodies beyond the social/biological divide: toward theoretical and transdisciplinary adventures

In this paper I call for ‘new forms of thinking and new ways of theorizing’ the complex relations between the biological and social in sport and physical culture. I illustrate the inseparability of our biological and social bodies in sport and physical culture via the case of exercise and female reproductive hormones. Inspired by feminist biologists and philosophers of science such as Lynda Birke and Elizabeth Grosz, I describe my current research project in which I am seeking to create space for female exercisers' (as distinct from female athletes) voices about their embodied experiences of exercise-associated amenorrhea. I offer reflections from my ongoing study and reveal a number of dilemmas that emerge as I consider how we might bring biology—and particularly hormones—back into conversations about women's moving bodies in non-reductionist and non-determinist terms. I conclude by advocating the need for more transdisciplinary approaches to help us move toward more multidimensional understandings of the body in sport and physical culture.     

Violence and masculinity amongst left-wing ultras in post-Yugoslav space

In this article, I discuss confrontations involving violence and discourses of masculinity in a left-wing ultras group – White Angels Zagreb – on the basis of observations made as a group member involved in a number of overlapping antifascist activist engagements in Serbia and Croatia. Building my argument up from an ethnographic vignette, I discuss the historical context underlying the production of masculinities and heteropatriarchy in the post-Yugoslav context. I then examine material concerning violence and masculinities gained through participant observation. I argue that whilst not initiating violence against other groups, talk about violent incidents with other groups plays a similar role to that documented in right wing groups in cementing collective identifications, and that group concepts of masculinity are embedded within dominant discursive hegemonies established in post-Yugoslav space, whilst simultaneously rejecting enforced ‘hard’ masculinity, an important observation which differentiates them from many right-wing ultras in the region.     

‘A Potent and Pervasive Ideology’: Athleticism and the English Elementary School

This article demonstrates that the ideology of athleticism was an important feature of life in elementary schools throughout the country in the late Victorian and Edwardian era. It argues that the ideology which originated in the Victorian public school spread firstly to ‘Oxbridge’ and then to grammar schools before being adopted increasingly by elementary schools after the Cross Commission of 1888. It offers a detailed consideration of the arguments put forward in Colm Kerrigan's article ‘“Missing Men” and missing evidence’ (Soccer and Society 10, no. 6 [2009]: 897–902) and demonstrates using a variety of primary and secondary sources that athleticism was widespread in elementary schools. It draws on the views expressed by Professor G.T.P. Finn (‘Athleticism, football and schooling: “missing men”, misunderstanding evidence and own goals’. Soccer and Society 11, no. 3 [2010]: 897–902) that Kerrigan has a limited understanding of athleticism. It concludes that athleticism in the elementary school was an even more widespread ideology than previously thought and points to the need for further research in this area.     

Betterness,injustice and failed athletic contests

In this paper, I provide an account of failed athletic contests which consists of two ideals, the Athletic Superiority Ideal and the Just Results Ideal. Related to this, I argue that a sports contest can fail in terms of the Athletic Superiority Ideal without failing in terms of the Just Results Ideal and vice versa. In the process of doing the former, I argue that besides adjudicating errors, cheating, gamesmanship and (bad) luck, there are two other types of reasons because of which a sports contest can fail in terms of the Athletic Superiority Ideal. Finally, I argue that my account of failed athletic contests is more plausible than Mika Hämäläinen’s three-standard model of athletic superiority.     

有氧运动的历史——历经50年，仍在前进中

《有氧运动》出版至今已有50年,追溯过去,我从未想过医生对于运动在医学实践中价值的态度会发生翻天覆地的变化。在我的一生中,我从未想到能见证平板测试成为完整检查的必要组成部分,没想到缺乏身体活动的重要性影响可与高血压和高胆固醇齐平,也没想到吸烟会被认为是影响冠状动脉的危险因素。本文介绍了在我和本领域许多同事的工作以及库珀研究中心（The Cooper Institute）的重要工作的影响下,这种缓慢但渐进的转变是如何发生的。1970年6月,我租用了一个研究所,也就是后来的库珀诊所（Cooper Clinic）,半年之后,我在那里见到了我的第一个病人,现在库珀中心纵向研究作为世界上最大的比较测量健康水平的数据库,我们不再需要依赖问卷调查和从发表的700多篇学术文献中找寻健身与健康的关联,我们已经证明并且可以有把握地说,“运动是良医”,更具体地说,我希望本文能够展示我们和其他人在这项科学研究中所做的工作,此外,即使是最严厉的批评者现在也在说,“这些结果令人印象深刻,不容忽视。”     

In Praise of Harmony: The Kantian Imperative and Hegelian Sittlichkeit As the Principle and Substance of Moral Conduct in Sport

My argument will proceed as follows. I will first sketch out the broad internalist case for pitching its normative account of sport in the abstract manner that following Dworkin’s lead in the philosophy of law its adherents insist upon. I will next show that the normative deficiencies in social conventions broad internalists uncover are indeed telling but misplaced since they hold only for what David Lewis famously called ‘coordinating’ conventions. I will then distinguish coordinating conventions from deep ones and make my case not only for the normative salience of deep conventions but for their normative superiority over the abstract normative principles broad internalists champion.     

Women Boxers: Actresses to Athletes – The Role of Vaudeville in Early Women's Boxing in the USA

This article fills a gap in the very limited literature on women's boxing by examining the gendered space in which women engaged in the sport as participants in saloons, vaudeville theatres and the prize ring. In doing so, they challenged the contemporary gender order and disputed the notion of women as the weak sex. Vaudeville provided women with an opportunity to present physical performances that surpassed the restrictions placed on women within the mainstream middle-class society. This article includes biographical sketches of some of the outstanding female boxers of the era by drawing upon new primary sources and embedding the findings within various gender theories.     

Conventionalism defended: a reply to Moore

In a recent article in this Journal, Eric Moore criticized an earlier essay of mine published in this same Journal on two fronts. On the first, he criticized my criticisms of broad internalism for relying on abstract moral principles too far removed from the practice of sport to adjudicate normative conflicts in which disputants cannot agree on what is the purpose of sport. On the second front, he criticized my reliance on what he called Rorty’s “controversial” views of truth and rationality to back up my criticisms of broad internalism. I find both criticisms forceful but not persuasive. In my reply, therefore, I defend both use of Rorty’s and other similar historicist takes on rational justification and my criticisms of broad internalism principles-based approach to normative inquiry in sport.     

Soccer’s Small Worlds

Abstract

In this autobiographical article about my academic career I explain how I developed my approach to sport and soccer in particular, drawing on sociology, linguistics, and cultural history. This career has been and continues to be characterized by interdisciplinary work and intercultural perspectives and by a variety of working relationships that they generate. In a way I turned into a sports scholar by accident. I am convinced, however, that sport, and soccer most of all, lends itself ideally to a comparative analysis of cultural practices which suggests case studies – both on and off the field – that are open to interpretation from historical, sociological, or linguistic perspectives.     

eHPE: a history of the future

A grand convergence looms. It seems at least plausible that health and physical education may soon be lived by students in ways that are radically different from the past and sharply at odds with the imaginings of its founders and generations of academic aficionados. Perhaps in some respects, the differences will be superficial and less important than the continuities. Nonetheless, I draw connections between some recent futurist literature, developments in social theory and trends in health education, physical education and school-based health intervention—fields that I collectively call ‘HPE’—in order to imagine their digital futures. I contend that there is much for these fields to consider as developments in digital technology, the commercialisation of education, the spread of surveillance culture and medicalisation reshape how people think about HPE and its reason for being. But rather than an apocalyptic warning, this is an invitation to others to engage with some important questions that, although already urgent, have gone largely unnoticed. For example, what kind of thing will eHPE be if/when it exists primarily to generate profits and monitor and measure the minutiae of everyday life? At the very least, my argument here is that if it is not already the case, questions of pedagogical process and effectiveness may soon struggle for relevance in HPE's digital future.     

The meaning of pain during the process of embodiment: a case study of trainee modern dancers' experiences of pain

A large number of sociologists have adopted the notion of the embodied subject to escape the trappings of the rational choice theory in sociological analysis. From a phenomenological perspective, the notion of an embodied subject refers to a subject who is in unity with the world. In this paper, I will present my ethnographic study of a group of trainee dancers preparing to embody the world of modern dance. I will present my study of their training experiences as a case of subjects striving to embody a world other than the one they already embody. I observed that pain formed the core part of trainee dancers’ daily experiences. Following Leder's theory of the ‘absent body’ and Bourdieu's conception of the ‘modern social world’, I interpreted trainee dancers’ experiences of pain with respect to the historically shaped collective expectations of the world of modern dance. I argue that their experiences of pain indicate how far along they are in the process of their embodiment of the world of modern dance. As they experience a decrease in the intensity of pain during their training, trainees become closer to embodying the world of modern dance.