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Despite the prevalence of professional sport in contemporary societies, there is little known by academics about professional sports consumers. We know much more about other cultural domains, such as music and the arts. This study examines consumption and sport in Canada to further understand how patterns of sports consumption fit into broader leisure lifestyles. Through investigation of how five professional sports leagues in Canada are consumed, this paper draws conclusions about the lifestyle of these consumers to assess which prevailing theories of cultural consumption are most useful for this segment. By utilising latent class analysis and regression modelling, this paper finds that cultural omnivores are the most likely consumers of these leagues. This group also maps onto theorisations of omnivores as high-status persons. Additionally, this paper suggests that theories of cosmopolitanism in omnivorous consumption may have particular salience for the Canadian case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of the cultural omnivore has been applied to many cultural domains. However, given the pervasiveness of professional sport in contemporary societies, less is known about omnivorous behaviour when it comes to consuming this cultural form. This study sets out to find if indeed there is an omnivorous consumption profile for professional sport. Using a latent class and regression analysis of survey data on five major professional sports leagues from Canada, this paper seeks to determine if this professional sport omnivore exists, how prevalent it might be, and if it maps onto wider socio-economic differentiations. The latent class analysis does show that there is an omnivorous consumption profile. However, it is the second smallest professional sport profile and does not map onto wider socio-economic differentiations, even as other patterns of professional sports' consumption do display such distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has examined the composition of sport media and those charged with constructing it, namely sport journalists and editors, far less has explored an essential set of actors in the construction of news: sources. This study aimed to explore the construction of the sport media agenda from arguably the most important sport news sources: sport media relations managers. In particular, this paper asked: how do media staff in sports organisations influence the production of news? To answer this question, this paper is based on a qualitative, observational study of a professional Australian Rules football club in Australia, involving interviews, observations and document analysis. Research within a professional Australian Rules football club found that the club delivered high-quality information subsidies that met sports journalists’ newswork requirements. However, media access was almost solely limited to these information subsidies, which are highly subjective and negotiated, which in turn allowed the professional football club to significantly control the subsequent media agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional sport is a central element of our daily entertainment that contributes to shaping us individually and bonding us collectively: it provides us with shared 'historic' moments. This article is interested in these moments, and how the field of sports generates them, by asking the following questions: (1) has the frequency of 'historic moments' changed over time, and (2) is the way we make sports history consistent throughout the years? We conducted a temporal analysis of newspaper and magazine articles (n = 1062) published in France (Le Monde, l'Équipe) and in the United States (USA Today, Sports Illustrated) during three time periods in the 21st century (2003, 2010, 2019). Our results show that: (1) as time passes, 'historic' moments occur more frequently; (2) sporting history is increasingly linked to social dimensions; and (3) statistical performances continue to mark history above all else. Although performance-based achievements are consistently celebrated, sporting history cannot be separated from our collective social existence, and the currents therein. We show that the act of making sports history is also bound to the normative, social, and cultural history of a society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Achieving and then maintaining a career as a professional athlete is hard. Saturated labour markets and the ever-present risk of deselection or injury means that career transitions are an inevitable feature of all athletes' biographies. Like many other professional sports organisations, English Premier League (EPL) clubs have been called upon to provide adequate support to players upon their release from their club. This investigation will examine the experiences and attitudes of EPL players during their career transitions and contextualise the support that EPL club Education and Welfare Officers (EWOs) offer players during this process. Vignette interviewing was employed to engage a purposive sample, consisting of ten EPL players and five EWOs. A combination of Goffman's cooling-out metaphor and notions of Possible Selves is used to unpack the experiences of both players and EWOs. This study offers the proposition that players are Cooled Out as part of their career transitions by EWOs encouraging players to engage with Possible Selves both in and away from footballing environments. Such a process contributes to the empowerment of individuals to manage and successfully navigate their career transition from one club to another or away from the professional game entirely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With this article we present findings from the research on professional MMA fighters and their perception of health and injury. The frequency and types of injuries they have sustained while practicing MMA were analysed alongside self-assessment of health conditions and attitudes towards health problems. We also analyze fighters' risk culture of neglecting pain and underestimating injuries, and the organization of health care in the event of an injury. A mixed methodology was applied. We administered a questionnaire to 88 male professional MMA athletes. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 athletes from the surveyed group. Respondents' mean age was 27.5. They had sound MMA experience, with the most experienced competing in over 20 professional fights. Investigated athletes reported numerous health problems, high injury rate and frequent occurrence of pain. The MMA risk culture seemed to shape specific competitors' perceptions and responses to injury and health problems and specific hierarchy of injury severity. MMA athletes showed a high level of risk acceptance regarding their health and the social and economic terms of their professional MMA involvement. They also reported inadequate medical care and oversight, and independently organised and financed medical and rehabilitation treatments. Nevertheless, for investigated athletes this risk culture seems to be internalized and considered an acceptable cost of their professional sport involvement and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women sports fans have been substantially understudied compared to their male counterparts. While a growing number of studies seek to redress this, there remains a stark absence of quantitative approaches that would allow investigations regarding patterns of women's sporting consumption and historical trends in the potential growth of this fandom. Using large-scale survey data from Canada from 1990 through to 2015, and employing quantitative methods of latent class and regression analysis, this study seeks to redress these issues by testing the 'feminization' thesis of increased women's sporting fandom over the past three decades. In addition, we consider whether women's fandom has become increasingly 'omnivorous' over this time period and the nature of this consumption today. Results show support for the feminization thesis. These findings are significant as through the use of quantitative methodologies we evidence the narrowing gender gaps in professional sports following between men and women, and women's increasingly omnivorous consumption of sports. However, we find substantial gender gaps and inequalities in omnivorism by which the evidence suggests increased socio-economic and cultural barriers to omnivorous consumption of sport for women. We suggest that these women omnivores may be able to utilize their sporting knowledge in an instrumental way for benefits in various social settings, especially workplaces. It is hoped that this article will pave the way for further quantitative studies on women sports fans across different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western success at the Olympics in soccer, and in tennis is closely correlated with aggregate income in the country under consideration. Socialist performance does not fit into this explanation because the public-good aspect of international sporting success bears more forcefully on centrally planned allocative decisions than on results produced by the market. This explains why Socialist countries overachieve at the Olympics but perform poorly in professional sports with high marketability such as tennis. Those Socialist countries, however, which successfully support their athletes competing in Western pro sports pay the price of a rather mediocre national performance at the Olympiads. This article investigates the particular determinants behind the success of Socialist athletes in the international arena. In doing so, one moves beyond established research in three major respects: (i) an attempt is made to separate the economic factors of Socialist performance from the effects of the particular Socialist decision mechanisms dominating society, (ii) the analysis is not limited to Olympic success, but covers the performance in other sports categories as well, and (iii) the particular relationship between success in very different areas is analyzed in some detail.

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the problems of doping in sport becoming more serious, the World Anti-Doping Code was drafted by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2003 and became effective one year later. Since its passage, the Code has been renewed four times, with the fourth and latest version promulgated in January 2015. The Code was intended to tackle the problems of doping in sports through cooperation with governments to ensure fair competition as well as the health of athletes. To understand China's strategies for managing compliance with the Code and also the implications behind those strategies, this study borrows ideas from theories of compliance. China's high levels of performance in sport, judged by medal success, have undoubtedly placed the country near the top of the global sports field. Therefore, how China acts in relation to international organizations, and especially how it responds to the World Anti-Doping Agency, is highly significant for the future of elite sport and for the world anti-doping regime. Through painstaking efforts, the researchers visited Beijing to conduct field research four times and interviewed a total of 22 key sports personnel, including officials at the General Administration of Sports of China, the China Anti-Doping Agency, and individual sport associations, as well as sport scholars and leading officials of China's professional sports leagues. In response to the World Anti-Doping Agency, China developed strategies related to seven institutional factors: 'monitoring', 'verification', 'horizontal linkages', 'nesting', 'capacity building', 'national concern' and 'institutional profile'. As for the implications, the Chinese government is willing and able to comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency Code. In other words, the Chinese government is willing to pay a high price in terms of money, manpower and material resources so that it can recover from the disgrace suffered as a result of doping scandals in the 1990s. The government wants to ensure that China's prospects as a participant, bidder and host of mega sporting events are not compromised, especially as the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the International Review for the Sociology of Sport (IRSS) from Munich. Editors of this journal are happy to realize that IRSS has not only survived, but could be revitalized and filled with new strength and impetus. The number of subscribers is again on the increase. For all this, the editors would like to thank both authors and readers. Editors have made many mistakes, for which Editor in Chief must apologize, but are glad to see that IRSS is now back on schedule. In 1985 it will once again appear on a regular quarterly basis. Among many others, two main themes are addressed in this issue. First, Heinemann, Seifart and Olin deal with the impact of economic problems in the papers. Olin's study on social change and the use of professional foreign players, of course, should be repeated some day on a larger scale, in the framework of international football (soccer). Dunning, Nogawa/Suttie and Cheska deal with the second major topic in the papers. They address the question of the extent to which participation in sport and identification with a sports club reflect and promote one's own local and ethnic solidarity and serve to maintain social and cultural boundaries rather than to foster integration and assimilation.

This article documents the intended and unintended outcomes of recent organizational change in UK elite sport. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 14 doctors and 14 physiotherapists who are current members of the British Olympic Association medical and physiotherapy committees, it argues that attempts by managers in sports medicine to create a highly specialized area of practice have created more immediate tensions within and between both professional groups. The first half of the article argues that on the one hand, the introduction of formal qualifications in sports medicine has created opportunities for clinicians to work full-time in sport, created a clearer distinction between specialized and non-specialized practitioners, provided greater access to and involvement in supportive networks and created more formal pathways for those wishing to enter or progress within the field. At the same time, however, an examination of the working relations between current members of the British Olympic Association’s medical and physiotherapy committees highlights, in microcosm, the social organization of sports medicine post organizational change. Thus, this article highlights that attempts by higher managerial sports medicine clinicians to achieve professional status have created a fragmented and internally divided sports medicine speciality made up of a diverse set of practitioners at different stages of sports medicine’s professional project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article concerns the role of mediated sport in local reconfigurations associated with globalization. The increasing worldwide transmission of sport raises questions regarding the cultural presence of 'global' sports. We combine elements of figurational sociology, cultural studies and critical political economy to examine the production and textual presence of the North American National Basketball Association (NBA) on United Kingdom television. Interviews with two media personnel were used to provide insights into the dynamics of production. Subsequent textual analysis revealed the dominant interpretive framework presented to viewers. This included the establishment of local-global hierarchy, education of local consumers, indigenous referencing, and caricatured representations of US culture. Observations regarding the nuanced complexity of the televisual discourse, and the scope for contradictory readings are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)