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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have made notable social, cultural, and economic contributions to the African Diaspora, particularly since their inception in the United States. Being that HBCU athletic programs account for a small proportion of the intercollegiate athletic industry, these unique entities are often examined in the same vein as their Historically White Institution counterparts without a full account of the intergenerational adverse impacts of systemic racism. Since HBCUs are situated within the distinct context of Blackness, the researchers offer a reconceptualization through the theoretical lens of Black Critical Theory. This manuscript illuminates linkages across extant literature, while also presenting a budding theoretical framework in the study of sport, and sport organizations, that have deeply embedded relationships with communities, for example, HBCUs and the Black community, stickball and lacrosse within Indigenous communities, and the relationship between women and womens’ sports leagues. Implications of this work are centered on promoting more critical reconceptualizations of sporting spaces that reflect the full diversity of the societies in which they exist.

Medical discourse regarding impairment and (dis)ability dominate assumptions of Paralympic sport. This research examined the lived experience of the first author, a sport physiotherapist and veteran of many Paralympic Games, to consider the experience of sport medicine with Para sport athletes. Self-ethnography and a theoretical lens informed by a human rights approach to disability were used. Structural violence was utilized to explore the social structure of medical professions and the impact on Paralympic sport. Data involved a retrospective journal of the first author. Thematic analysis was conducted and these themes are presented; social potential of sport medicine, medical authority, aversive ableism. The research draws attention to structural violence in Paralympic sport and the potential of sport medicine to be an agent of change.

Much of the research on Indigenous youth’s sport has focused on the barriers that they experience in accessing opportunities for participation. What remains underexplored is the idea that nonparticipation might actually reflect Indigenous youth’s deliberate refusal of Euro-Canadian sport. In making this argument, first, we connect Indigenous theories of refusal to Indigenous youth sport participation in Canada. Second, we examine the researcher’s role in reproducing colonialism in sport studies. Third, we apply examples of Indigenous refusal of sport. We conclude by discerning the central tensions of the topic and areas for future study. This paper is a call for researchers to study refusal, not only as an act by Indigenous youth, but also as a method that researchers can use in refusing to reproduce colonial representations of Indigenous youth.

This study explores the process of social capital development and the influence of space that leads to the formation of different types of social capital among mega sport event volunteers. A qualitative approach was utilized to ensure the collection of in-depth data on participants’ subjective volunteering experience and its relation to the creation of social capital. Findings revealed the development of social capital by the volunteers both in and out of event venues, which are defined as event related and peripheral spaces. The process of developing network through bridging was attributed to the proclivity of peripheral spaces to provide proximity and composition necessary to build and enrich interactions, while bonding was the primary mechanism to associate with others on event-related places.

This article uses a feminist cultural studies of sport framework to explore dominant storytelling about sleep in the Women’s National Basketball Association. In a historical moment when rest is understood as a vital component in athlete performance, being denied full access to the conditions and resources that are imagined to be conducive to sleep is problematic. However, the Women’s National Basketball Association’s embrace of a commercial, technoscientific promotional sleep culture often comes at the expense of understanding the impact of structural forces on recovery. By exploring a variety of stories about sleep and performance, it is possible to understand the limitations and possibilities of using sleep enhancement frameworks to foster healthier and more humane sport settings and societies.

Drawing on an extensive archive of media texts collected between 2014 and 2019, we trace shifting representations of the National Football League in discourse on painkiller use among its players. We argue that in contrast to earlier eras, an image of the league as an exploitative and corrupt institution has come to the fore. Clustered around the announcement of a series of player lawsuits, these discourses are tempered by the persistence of narratives of personal responsibility and the elision of racial logics that predetermine athletes’ subjection to pain and injury. Situating our analysis in the context of the drug wars and the profit motive of the National Football League, we argue that these discourses both reflect and contribute to the workings of racial capitalism across the professional football and pharmaceutical industries.

Despite French policies promoting sports for girls in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, gender inequalities in practice persist in these areas. Based on the sociology of socialization and Connell’s concept of gender regimes, this article proposes to analyze the effects of sports contexts on the (dis)engagement of girls going through the process of joining a club. The data stem from a number of ethnographic investigations (observations; interviews with athletes [girls and boys] aged 11–17, trainers, and parents, n = 42) conducted in three French disadvantaged urban neighborhoods in three different cities over a total of 5 years of field work. All the sports clubs of the neighborhoods studied were investigated. The results reveal that the forms of socialization favored by the club and the trainers of teenagers might structure feminine interrelationships either favorable to girls’ practice (as in gymnastics) or unfavorable, indeed conflictual (as in soccer).