I Am Not a Scientist: Being Honest With Oneself and the Researched in Critical Interventionist Ethnography
in Sociology of Sport JournalClick name to view affiliation
Critical interventionist ethnography has recently come into vogue within the Sociology of Sport. More specifically, many in our field believe that merely studying and writing up studies on physical culture is not enough, and that work within the field needs to be more impactful, meaningful, and exact various forms of social justice. As such, in this paper I will discuss how the turn to social justice has had a profound effect on my research agenda. In so doing, I will outline the difficulties and challenges inherent in such a political project by critically reflecting on my first ethnographic research project on the Little League World Series—an admittedly failed attempt at critical intervention. I hope to help foster better and more successful research projects within the field by looking back at some of the key mistakes I made at this site while simultaneously encouraging others to be public pedagogues.
King-White is with the Department of Kinesiology, Towson University, Towson, MD.
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