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“Futures—Past,” A Reflection of 40 Years of the Sociology of Sport Journal: An Introduction
Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, Chen Chen, Tomika Ferguson, Courtney Szto, Anthony Jean Weems, and Natalie Welch
Volume 16 (2023): Issue 4 (Dec 2023)
Volume 40 (2023): Issue 4 (Dec 2023): SPECIAL ISSUE “Futures—Past,”: Liberation, Futurity, Intersectionality, and Interdisciplinarity: Reading Sport, Physical Culture, and the (Physically Active) Body
The Digital NBA: How the World’s Savviest League Brings the Court to Our Couch
Jiho Kim and Braden Norris
“What Have I Learned . . . ” and How Did I Get There? Reflection on a Research Journey
Marijke Taks
Receiving a lifetime award allows one to pause and reflect on one’s research journey. In the spirit of Earle Zeigler himself, I reflect on: “What I have learned . . . ” on my research journey, and more specifically on how I got there. My research has always focused on the interaction between sport, economics, and society and evolved: “From socio-economic impacts on sport participation to socio-economic outcomes of sport events.” To cover 40 years of research, I am highlighting how: (a) “triggers,” (b) “influencers,” and (c) “lessons learned” intermingled to push my research agenda forward. This reflection proved to be a very gratifying exercise. I can highly recommend it to all researchers. Perhaps, this can become a stepping stone to be promoted to the rank of Prof. Emeritus or Emerita. Either way, sharing our experiences may trigger, inspire, and advance the learning of future generations of sport management scholars.
Sports Reforms and Coaches’ Spoiled Identities: An Analysis of Structural Stigma
Yoon Jin Kim and Marcelle C. Dawson
This article explores how sports coaches’ identity and social relations are shaped within the context of new policy initiatives in sport. It focuses particularly on South Korea’s ongoing sports reforms wherein sports coaches feel stigmatized and disgraced. Informed by classic and contemporary sociological understandings of stigma and relying both on documents and narratives from 29 individuals, our qualitative analysis reveals that Korean coaches’ stigma is discrediting, prior-known, and power-laden. By viewing stigmatization as a social process constructed both “symbolically” and “structurally,” this article extends Goffman’s analysis to argue that coaches’ stigmatization is rooted in the social, institutional, and political power around sports reforms that forge stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs across society by offering ready-made scripts for both the stigmatized and the “normals.”
Erratum. Are Preference and Tolerance Measured With the PRETIE-Q (Preference for and Tolerance of the Intensity of Exercise Questionaire) Relevant Constructs for Understanding Exercise Intensity in Physical Activity? A Scoping Review
Kinesiology Review
Sports Attitudes in Childhood and Income in Adulthood
Adam Vanzella-Yang, Pascale Domond, Frank Vitaro, Richard E. Tremblay, Vincent Bégin, and Sylvana Côté
Research shows that sports participation in youth is associated with earnings in adulthood. However, studies have often relied on self-reported earnings and on single indicators of sports participation. Using large-scale data linked to administrative records, we investigate: (a) whether sports attitudes at age 13 are uniquely related to income at ages 30–36 and (b) whether educational attainment and mental health in early adulthood mediate this association. We find that a one SD increase in sports attitudes is related to a 10% increase in income. This association is not entirely confounded by preexisting and co-occurring risk factors. Educational attainment mediates 22% of the association between sports attitudes and income. Sports attitudes are potentially a form of capital deployed in the pursuit of socioeconomic advantages.
Brittney Griner, Intersectionality, and “Woke Politics”: A Critical Examination of Brittney Griner’s Return to the United States
Ajhanai C.I. Keaton, Evan Frederick, Keisha Branch, and Ann Pegoraro
In February of 2022, professional women’s basketball player Brittney Griner was detained in Russia on drug possession charges. Her detainment was a trending Twitter topic demonstrating the cultural, political, and social state of the United States, specifically pertaining to race, gender, nationality, and LGBTQ matters. The purpose of this study was to analyze what Brittney Griner’s release from Russia tells us about social power relations and contemporary social political matters on the axis of race, gender, and sexual orientation. We organized the data to determine three distinct, yet interconnected themes: (a) Woke Politics at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Queerness; (b) Preferential Treatment at the Expense of Whiteness Informed Patriotism; and (c) Intersectionality as Political Pandering.
Examining How High School Athletic Directors Leverage Communication With Key Stakeholder Groups to Inform Performance Appraisals of Head Coaches
Tyler Ratts
To ensure that head coaches are effective in leading athletic programs, interscholastic athletic directors engage in a performance appraisal process that reviews coaching efforts. Given the demands of the athletic director role, these leaders are reliant on stakeholders to provide insight that informs the coaching evaluation. Therefore, using the tenets of stakeholder theory, the purpose of this study was to analyze the role that stakeholder feedback plays as athletic directors develop the full picture of coaching performance during an evaluation. Participants (N = 25) featured high school athletic directors represented across school classification (i.e., 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A) and school type (i.e., public and private). Through semistructured interviews and a subsequent thematic analysis, saturation was achieved at this sample size. Two main themes (i.e., main stakeholder groups and leveraging stakeholder feedback) emerged and demonstrate how key stakeholders should be considered as important sources of information guiding interscholastic athletic directors when leading coaching evaluations.
