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The micro-level enactment of elite sport policy has received little critical coverage in the sociology of sport subdiscipline. This paper provides original insights into how coaches working in professional youth football academies variously interpreted, experienced and engaged with The FA Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). In-depth, cyclical interviews were used to generate data for this study. The transcripts were rigorously analysed using an iterative-phronetic approach, with Ball's critical theorising on policy enactment providing the primary heuristic framework. Our analysis highlighted the challenging nature of coaches' engagement with, and enactment of, this policy. Specifically, the findings address (a) the intensification of the participants' work-based tasks and duties, (b) increased accountability for player outcomes, (c) a loss in their professional autonomy and raised levels of managerial surveillance, (d) their strategic use of fabrications to represent themselves and their respective academies in favourable and policy-compliant ways to those that scrutinised their work. The findings also raise further questions regarding the need to better understand (a) the role of sports coaches in elite sport policy processes, especially when undertaking second-order administrative activities alongside their primary coaching roles and (b) the reasons why sports coaches continue to toil (or not) in workplaces characterised by increasing intensification and performance evaluation. Relatedly, moreover, how and in what ways the products of coaches' work in these situations is understood and utilised by those in authoritative positions in elite sport requires critical consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a pedagogical approach to the sociology of sport and physical education that centers writing. Drawing on student reflections from my first year seminar in academic writing 'Social Inequality and Sports,' I demonstrate that students are more inclined to entertain the imperatives of critical pedagogies in the context of sport – the development of critical consciousness and transformative praxis – when they are empowered to take greater ownership over their own learning through intensive writing that is guided by principles of rhetorical listening. Writing assignments – including reading responses, a literature review paper, and a work of original analysis of an empirical site or text of their own choosing – that require students to listen to the academic literature on sport and social inequality challenge them to reevaluate their preconceived notions about sport, facilitating outcomes sought by critical pedagogies. Responses to an automatic writing prompt at the beginning and end of the semester reveal that this approach can yield a dramatic perspectival shift in students who enter the course with typical investments in normative understandings of sporting cultures, prompting them to leave it with a newfound openness to critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the influence social capital had over parental sports volunteers who are considered to be of paramount importance in the delivery of UK sports initiatives. A review of the relevant literature identifies and discusses the complexities within the debate to define social capital while human and cultural capital emerge as an essential element in the production of parental volunteers’ ability to access opportunities through a process of bonding or bridging social networks. This study used a grounded research focused on the use of semi-structured interviews and research diaries with (n= 8) study participants. The results from this study, which were analysed through a Bourdieuan perspective, suggested the process that recruits parental volunteers is exclusive; furthermore, the results show the insidious presences of the dark side of social capital, which affected the respondents by reinforcing exclusive ties and identities, which was found to exclude outsiders while reproducing a dominant social hierarchy. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the study for future practical and academic applications of social capital production within sports volunteerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connections have been drawn between masculinity, muscularity and physical or social status in sport. Not only are sporting bodies often related to masculinity but also to whiteness, leading to the devaluing of Asian boys' bodies and sporting experiences. This paper draws on three British Asian teenage boys' visual and verbal narratives to enquire how they negotiate these connections in their physical education and recreational sport experiences. Bourdieu's notion of capital is used to make sense of boys' ways of investing in their bodies to manage their status in school. Drawing from focus-group interviews which used participant-driven photography and photo elicitation techniques, the research indicates how three boys invested in their bodies by doing particular types of physical activity that would enable them to develop muscularity, fitness and/or motor competence, to attain or retain physical and social capital in school. Along the way, they add pertinent comments on the intersections of masculinity and ethnicity in constructing and performing a sporting body. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to Bourdieu, habitus is an important, and class-specific, foundation for behaviour. However, he hardly explained how the habitus is acquired. Based on Bernstein's elaboration on the various contexts in which group-specific behavioural principles are acquired, this article demonstrates how young children of two divergent social classes obtain their habitus underlying their sports and exercise behaviour. Although children in both groups acquire a habitus in which sports and exercise play a role, there are striking differences which arise largely out of differences in the impact of socialising agents. Within the higher social class, there is a clearly defined group, namely the nuclear family, which explicitly controls and regulates the children's exercise behaviour. These children learn specific skills at specific places. In the lower social class, the habitus is influenced by the extended family, the physical education teacher and peers, resulting in a broad range of less strictly ordered activities, undertaken at different places. These findings offer a valuable contribution to insight into class-specific socialisation processes, resulting in the acquisition of a specific habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Worldwide, sport and physical activity rates of women generally lag behind those of men. One reason for this could be the way that sport cultures typically frame and value competition. This study provides an examination of the meaning and impact of ‘competition’ on the sport participation experiences of men and women. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, individual and group interviews were conducted with 76 current and former male and female collegiate athletes from both varsity and club sports regarding the impact of competition on their sport experiences. Results revealed that women and men tended to view and interpret competition differently, which strongly impacted their sport experiences. Sport programming that embraces a balance of cooperation and competition may be valuable for attracting and retaining both male and female participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how eight women experience, and are incorporated into, the regulatory regimes and pedagogical practices of a corporate (sporting) university in their first semester of college. Using Foucault's conceptions of power, discipline and subjectivity, we situate women's participation on the soccer team within the context of a corporatized Division-I University. As sport has become increasingly corporatized, low-profile sports have begun to emulate high-profile sports. The corporate university and corporate sport model indicative of high-profile college programs, such as the one involved in this study, use (sporting) bodies as resources, rendering them detached and alienated from many college experiences. As evidenced in the data from this study, the pedagogies of highly structured schedules and authoritative-, peer- and self-disciplining mechanisms functioned to normalize the experiences of stress, tension, isolation, loneliness and little autonomy. Nevertheless, we also discuss a point of rupture, wherein two women, for different reasons, refused their athletic subjectivities at The University after their first semester by discontinuing their athletic participation. The contextualization of such experiences reveals the complex relations of power emerging from young adults’ immersion into an athletic system imbued with corporatist ideologies housed within a simulated aura of education and development. This paper aims not to provide definitive answers but rather, by exploring power relations, to open for discussion critical questions about college athletics and to advocate for a more humanist research agenda that considers athletic subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bourdieu's analytic concept ofhabitushas provided a valuable means of theorising coach development but is yet to be operationalised in empirical research. This article redresses this oversight by drawing on a larger study that inquired into how the ‘coachinghabitus’ of elite-level Australian and New Zealand rugby coaches structured their interpretation and use of theGame Senseapproach to coaching to illustrate howhabituscan be operationalised. It focuses on the identification of characteristics of the individual coachinghabitusof four elite-level Australian rugby coaches and how they shape their interpretation and use of Game Sense. Drawing on suggestions made by Lau, we identify the characteristics of four individual ‘coachinghabitus’ by examining their views on: (1) the characteristics of good coaches; (2) characteristics of great rugby players and how to develop them; and (3) their dispositions towards innovation in coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the talk of older athletes, with particular focus on how the context of sport helps them negotiate the ageing process. It draws on personal stories provided by 44 World Masters Games competitors (23 women; 21 men; aged 56–90 years;M= 72). Four themes emerged: ‘There's no such thing as old’ (a story of avoiding old age); ‘Keep moving’ (a story of fighting the ageing process); ‘Fun, fitness, friendship … [and] competing’ (a story of redefining self and ‘old age’) and; ‘Making the most of your life … with the capabilities that you still have’ (a story of adaptation and acceptance). Together, the four themes show how through sports participation older individuals can simultaneously resist, redefine and accept the ageing process. These stories of a ‘sporting later life’ allow for alternative meanings to the dominant ‘declining body’ narrative of ageing. Therefore, these narratives present the possibility for personal, pedagogical and social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the development and evolution of particular personas adopted by researchers in the quest for rich exchanges within the social field. It analyses my role (the principal author) as a female ethnographer (and the sole female) in the world of elite male rowing. Data are drawn from personal notes, reflections and observations during a five-month-long training camp. My experiences are located within dramaturgical social theory and, in particular, Goffman's work on face and impression management. The significance of the work is twofold. Firstly, it lies in recognising the strategies we use and the identities we construct as researchers in negotiating the social field towards desired ends. Secondly, it raises awareness of the implications performances have for the nature of the data gathered and the conclusions drawn from them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article sets out to show how physiological knowledge about sex/gender relates to power issues within sport. The sport physiology research at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (Swedish acronym: GIH) during the twentieth century is analysed in relation to the political rationality concerning gender at GIH and within the Swedish Sports Confederation during the same period. The analysis is constituted by Michel Foucault's notion of power–knowledge relations and regimes oftruth. The construction of sex/gender in the physiological research changes over time. Comparative studies on the function of ‘sexual difference’ during strenuous work, which, in hindsight, might be seen to restrict women's sport participation, was gradually displaced by a lack of interest in sexual difference, and later by a growing fascination with sexual difference from a ‘gender perspective’ in terms of women being ‘different but equal’ to men. This displacement goes hand in hand with a displacement of the political rationality concerning gender at GIH and within the Swedish Sports Confederation, where a pre-World War II strategy of excluding women's competitive sport participation, restricting women's physical exercise to gymnastics, was after 1945 followed by a strategy of including women. This was at first in the name of ‘women's right to do sport’—where the physiological research advocated this endeavour—and later in the name of ‘women's right to do sporton their own terms’. However, the research was still being conducted based on the male physiology as the norm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The sport-for-development movement has grown exponentially in the last decade generating increasing academic attention. However, existing research has rarely sought the views of young people despite them being both the main target audience of initiatives and frequently the deliverers. This paper seeks to address young people's absence within research and advocate the importance of engaging them in sport-for-development debates to enhance understanding of current delivery and to improve policy and practice in the future. The paper examines Zambian young people's views of HIV/AIDS peer-led education delivered through sport considering particularly whether young people believe such interventions can encourage empowerment and subsequent behaviour change. The paper outlines the importance of improving understanding of how young people can begin to translate knowledge into agency. The paper concludes with the suggestion that change is more likely if peer-led education through sport programmes are combined with multi-layered interventions directed at all levels of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores how school physical education (PE) can both reinforce stereotyped notions of the brown body as inherently physical while also allowing young people to gain educational success. Drawing on a critical ethnographic study of Māori and Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth in PE in New Zealand, the article explores how the academic status of PE, and its alignment with sport, positions the brown bodies of these youth in problematic and stereotypical ways. While PE may reinforce racialised stereotypes, it is also a space of recognition and achievement for youth. Bourdieu's notions of capital, field and habitus provide insight into how such contradictions potentially offer social transformation while simultaneously reproducing social status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The twin challenges of inactivity and the 2012 Olympics have tightened the focus in UK sport promotion. However, the twin track approach which treats these challenges as distinct concerns may limit the efficacy of interventions in either area. We propose that a continuum between participation, performance sport and elite achievement represents the most efficacious and logical focus for practitioners and researchers alike. We explore the genesis of this, and other problematic features through critical consideration of key theories. Finally, we propose a multidimensional approach to lifelong sport and activity participation as a theoretically justified basis for research and intervention design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sport scholars and public commentators have long held both positive and critical opinions about the influence of athletic involvement on participants and their perceptions of the social world. Yet for all of the strong claims and deeply held assumptions, relatively little empirical data or social scientific analysis have been available. This study begins to address this deficiency using new data from a nationally representative survey of American high school students. We compare sports participants and their peers in terms of concern for social problems, interracial contact and attitudes, views of gender roles and sex-based discrimination and political orientation. We find participants and non-participants differ very little in their social concern and views of gender roles and sex-based discrimination, while significant differences were found in levels of interracial contact, views on race relations and political orientation. In view of these findings, we make some general conclusions about the social influence of sport in the lives of American youth and how this topic may be further explored in subsequent work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the concepts of social and cultural capital as analytical tools for investigating the capacity of sport-based intervention programs to contribute to the personal, social and professional development of disadvantaged young people. It draws on survey data (n=129) and qualitative interviews (n=53) with participants of the Vencer program in Rio de Janeiro to examine how the program impacts on participants’ personal and skill development and social connectedness. Surveys (n=28) and interviews (n=36) with stakeholders provide additional perspectives on the program's impact on participants. It is argued that the program's contribution to the development of social and cultural capital is closely associated with its ability to develop linkages with multiple institutional agents and the provision of a facilitating institutional context which enables young people to get to know one another and broaden their social horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Denmark as in other European countries, many girls, and especially Muslim girls, seem to lose interest in physical activities and sport with increasing age. However, in a Danish context, little is known about the reasons why girls drop out of sport and which role physical education (PE) plays in this process. In this article we present results of a qualitative study on gendered discourses and doing gender in a PE class at a Danish high school. Drawing on constructivist and post-structuralist approaches to gender and ethnicity, we explore the different opportunities of girls in PE based on in-depth interviews and video observations. Three case studies of three girls are the focus of this article: Nanna, the Danish ‘athletic girl’ who found a balance between (en)acting femininity and presenting herself as a competent athlete; Iram, the ‘Muslim girl’ whose position as a Muslim causes her to hide her sporting abilities and Ida, the Danish ‘normal girl’ who re-interprets PE and adapts it to her needs. These three girls act in and react to a discourse that emphasises competitive sport and is orientated towards male sport tastes and sport practices. The results of this study indicate that PE, with its focus on games and performances, meets the requirements and expectations of many boys but contributes to the decrease in sporting interests and activities among numerous girls. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the role of digital media and creativity in the processes of learning that occur in groups of urban skateboarders. In particular, it examines how the production and consumption of amateur videos contribute to both skaters’ mastery of the techniques of the sport and their integration into the culture of the sport. The data come from an ethnographic study of skateboarders in Hong Kong, which included in-depth interviews, participant observation and the collection of texts and artifacts like magazines, blog entries and amateur skating videos. Skateboarders use video in a number of ways that significantly impact their learning and integration into their communities. They use it to analyze tricks and techniques, to document the stages of their learning and socialization into the group, to set community standards, to build a sense of belonging with their ‘crews’ and to imagine ‘idealized futures’ for themselves and their communities. Understanding the value and function of such ‘semiotic mediation’ in learning and socialization into sport cultures, I suggest, can contribute to helping physical educators design tasks that integrate training in physical skills with opportunities for students to make meaning around their experiences of sport and physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper reports on key findings of a research project that examined the roles that community-based sporting clubs in the Australian state of Victoria play in shaping young people's understandings and uses of alcohol. Our research imagined clubs as community hubs that are located in complex networks that impact on the ways that clubs understand their locations in communities, and which have unpredictable influences and consequences on club histories, culture and orientations to issues such as young people and alcohol use. The paper focuses on understanding the key roles played by club leaders in facilitating change and transformation in these contexts, particularly in terms of alcohol-related practices and the potential impact of these on young people's uses and understanding of alcohol. We situate these findings in a framework that draws on the literature of complexity science and complex adaptive systems (CAS) to suggest that these practices and changes need to be understood in ways that allow for complexity, uncertainty, emergent behaviours and adaptive change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I discuss how a shift from theories of embodiment to one of emplacement can inform how we understand the performing body in competitive and pedagogical contexts. I argue that recent theoretical advances concerning the senses, human perception and place offer new analytical possibilities for understanding skilled performances and events. In doing so I critically re-think my own analysis of the Spanish bullfight as an embodied performance to demonstrate the benefits of a shift from embodiment to emplacement as a theoretical and methodological approach; and propose that there are wider implications of such a theoretical shift for interpreting performances in other cultural and social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My purpose in this paper is to consider the relationship between, on the one hand, critical social science and, on the other hand, existing and emerging sciences of the body. Taking my lead from the sociologist, Steve Fuller, I discuss the ways in which some social scientists, both within and outside physical education and sport, have engaged with the idea of an 'obesity epidemic', generally falling between the distant poles of naive acceptance and ideological rejection. Using new and emerging forms of biological determinism as a second example, I describe the colonising tendencies of particular medical and biological sciences, such that robustly social understandings of the body and less instrumental approaches to physical education are, in some senses, at risk. A future social science of the body needs to be more scientifically literate in order for the excesses of science to be managed or tamed. In other words, the job of the social scientist is to be able to speak more than one language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to shed light on the possibilities for using sport as a vehicle for the realization of social goods-understood as sport having a wider social role-this paper scrutinizes Norwegian sport clubs. The study is guided by the concept of convention, which refers to individuals' cognitive structures, and to social structure. Three sport clubs were investigated and three qualitative methods, including document analysis, observation and interviews, were employed. First, in the results section, the main sport convention is identified as being competitiveness. Secondly, it is argued that as a consequence of the main convention for sport there are limited possibilities for the realization of social goods such as health. The possibilities of sports clubs combining the convention of competitiveness with others is discussed, considering the former as substantial for practice and discussing whether the latter is mere rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to studies on sociology and the body by exploring my bodily experiences as an Australian elite swimmer in an autoethnographic framework. More specifically, it focuses on the relationship between the regulatory practices of others on my body and my development of self-regulatory practices. The stories in this paper reveal evidence of regulatory practices occurring from four different domains within the Australian elite swimming culture-the coach, the mother, the peers and the self. I have named the regulatory physiological practices as 'ethnophysiological' as they were triggered in the social context of Australian swimming and were legitimated through 'values packaged in a scientific wrapping'. Autoethnography, an 'autobiographical genre of writing' has been utilised as it enables the reader to vicariously share my bodily experiences, bestowing a voice of authority to my body to reveal personal experiences, voices and feelings. Within this paper, I will re-tell my stories of being an elite swimmer. I will detail stories of enaction, coach and peer regulation and self-regulation occurring within the elite culture persisting my career over a nine-year period. I use Sparkes' question in regard to embodiment to reflexively shape my analysis; 'what do my memories reveal about the socialisation of my body' and draw on literature relevant to sociology and the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the case for phronetic social science as an appropriate lens through which to view sports coaching. In doing so, we firstly define and then elaborate upon the principal concepts contained within phronetic social science as related to complex action, flexibility, moral reflection and power. By locating them within recent coaching research, the case is further made how such concepts can help coaching scholars and coaches to better understand the activity of coaching. Finally, a conclusion draws together the main points made, particularly in terms of how using such a perspective and conceptualisation of coaching could benefit future coach education programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activity is an important public health issue and the benefits of an active lifestyle in relation to well-being and health have been strongly emphasised in recent years in Europe, as well as in most parts of the world. However, previous research has shown that physical activity within Europe and its member states is stratified. The present article gains insight into: (1) the geographical stratification; and (2) the social stratification of physical activity in the 27 European Union member states in 2005. Special attention is given to sporting activity in comparison to other forms of physical activity (transport, occupation and household). By doing this we intend to develop a picture of physical activity, in particular sporting activity, within the European Union. In addition, we want to verify whether low sporting activity levels are counterbalanced by other pieces of the total 'menu of physical activities'. Based on Eurobarometer data from 2005 (N=26,688), bivariate analyses show that 4 out of 10 Europeans are not exposed to sporting activity. Moreover, particular subgroups of non-sportive citizens could be distinguished: South and East Europeans, and women, the elderly, individuals with a lower educational level and rural citizens. Our hypothesis that these groups would compensate for their non-sporting activity by being physically active in other domains could only be confirmed for women and rural citizens, in particular with regard to household physical activity. To understand the underlying structure of these possible compensation mechanisms, additional quantitative and qualitative research is needed. Nevertheless, because of societal trends towards an inactive society, the role of sporting activity will be increasingly important in the future for all inactive subgroups. For this purpose, not only should necessary resources and key stakeholders be identified, but also more importantly the social and environmental barriers for sporting activity need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe and illustrate an approach that facilitates a study of power and governing processes in teachers' and students' interactive actions and dealings. This approach is inspired by Foucault's work on power and the research field emanating from the concept of governmentality. The approach is illustrated through an analysis of texts of teacher and student interactions derived from video-recorded physical education lessons conducted in Swedish nine-year compulsory schools. This analysis is used to demonstrate how governing processes appear in Physical Education practices, and the socialisation content of this governance. Here the term socialisation content refers to the direction of governance, which constitutes a discursive resource for the constitution of particular forms of subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges that faces nation-builders in postcolonial societies is the incorporation of subaltern groups, particularly aboriginal peoples, into a collective national project. One vehicle for addressing this challenge is sport with schools being amongst the most important venues. This article offers an empirical study of the role of aboriginal players in Taiwanese baseball. By examining the schooling and historic achievements of aboriginal players in the Nenggao and Hongye teams and the role of aboriginal players during the more recent post-martial law period, the study challenges some commonly held views concerning the relationship between baseball and Taiwanese national identity. In particular, the article analyzes the role of the state in its use of baseball to support the co-option of aboriginal players for the nation-building project. The study concludes that the state, regardless of which ruling elite is in power, has consistently manipulated Taiwan's indigenous peoples, not least through the education system, in order to achieve certain political objectives, specifically in relation to nation-building. Furthermore, although baseball remains an important avenue for the social and economic advancement of individual aborigines, recurrent scandals linked to exploitation have been consistent characteristics of state policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Japanese schools are generally considered to be one of the most gender-equitable social institutions in Japan, they play an important role in helping to reproduce and naturalize the notion of sex-based separate spheres, through endorsing the maintenance of such separate spheres in extracurricular sports clubs, such as baseball, where female student 'managers' act as surrogate mothers to the male team members: cooking, cleaning and engaging in other support work. Furthermore, the Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF)'s rule prohibiting female teammates from participating in official games (due to the 'danger' of injury to smaller, weaker females) discourages more athletically capable females from joining baseball teams in the first place, so that female students who do join high school baseball teams as players tend to be less likely to be athletically competitive. This both reinforces the image of smaller, weaker females and justifies the JHBF's policy, further strengthening the notion of the appropriateness of separate spheres. Moreover, the mass media encourage this, both by applauding the efforts of the female managers, and by giving details on the physiques of female teammates, thus subtly supporting the argument that females cannot and should not compete with males in baseball (or, by implication, in other male-dominated fields). Thus, these practices help to normalize the idea of sex-based separate spheres at a very real experiential level for high school students, as well as at a symbolic/ideological level for society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine how power is given, acquired and used by athletes in the elite sporting context. It focuses on a top-level athlete's reactions to the behaviors of his coaches and how such actions contribute to the creation of a coaching climate, which both influences and 'houses' coaching. The paper centers on Sean (a pseudonym), a top-level rower and his preparation for crew selection to the upcoming international regatta season. Specifically, it illustrates Sean's interaction with those responsible for a national rowing program following his decision not to participate in an aspect of that program. Sean's story, from both his own and the perspectives of his coaches, is presented using a variation of realist tales which draw upon excerpts from fieldnotes and interview transcripts. Bourdieu's notion of capital is primarily utilized to analyze the data. Findings demonstrate how the various aspects of capital are defined, used and negotiated by social actors within the context of elite sport. The significance of the work lies in generating a greater understanding of power dynamics within the coaching context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the teaching of games via a tactical approach (also known as teaching games for understanding) from the theoretical perspective of social constructivism. A pilot study (of student teachers (STs) and pupils) informed the 'main' study which included collecting data on 49 STs, 58 cooperating teachers (CTs) and 1177 pupils. ST data were collected through videotaping (lessons), interviews and questionnaires; CT data through interviews and questionnaires; and pupil data through questionnaires. Data analysis techniques included systematic coding of teaching behaviours through computer software, using constant comparison to code open-ended question responses, and computing frequencies of Likert-scale question responses. T-tests were used to compare pre- and post-CT workshop data. Findings suggest that STs' teaching of the tactical approach was in line with a social constructivist perspective, in part because lessons were student-centred. Overall student activity was 53% of all lessons taught, and STs facilitated pupil learning through several question and answer scenarios. Pupils wrote that they enjoyed playing games in what amounted to 'authentic' settings. Their responses also suggest that learning took place through 'legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice' and this facilitated pupil movement through the 'zone of proximal development'. There were indications that pupil experiences were mediated by ST competence. CTs reported that an in-service workshop on the tactical approach and mentoring was beneficial and subsequent pairings with STs elicited positive feelings from both parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data generated by a two-year ethnographic study in a high security Spanish prison, this article explores the multiple meanings given to the social practices of sport and physical activity. We provide details of the following key themes that emerged from the analysis: (a) escaping time; (b) perceived therapeutic benefits; (c) social control; (d) gendered dimensions; and (e) performing masculinity. The findings suggest that a diverse and contradictory set of meanings are associated with sport and physical activity within this particular prison culture, and that the performance of specific kinds of masculinity is both a process and product that shapes the construction of experience in powerful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the capacity of youth sport volunteering to contribute to the development of social capital. Following a review of the emergence of social capital as a key theme in UK sport policy, the paper focuses on the ability of a structured sports volunteering programme to equip young people with skills for effective volunteering, and provide opportunities for 'social connectedness' through sports volunteer placements. The study uses survey data (n=160) and qualitative interviews (n=10) with young people to examine how the national Step into Sport programme impacts on participants' personal and skill development, and on their commitment to community involvement. Interviews with education and sport professionals (n=33) provide additional expert perspectives on the programme's impact on participants. Both sets of respondents report strong individual benefits to participants from their involvement, and increased social connectedness in a range of contexts. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the study for claims about the potential contribution of sport to social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Taking exercise', whether it be recreational walking, participating in club sport, or joining in a physical education (PE) lesson, is a culturally loaded behaviour. We all see, do and talk about physical activity differently, yet, there has been relatively little research or theorising around difference in race, ethnicity, cultural diversity and physical activity from an educational perspective. This paper presents snapshots of data from three research projects with Indigenous and Muslim young people to illuminate how they and their families think about PE, physical activity and health. We will draw on 'post' discussions around biopolitics, colonisation, governmentality and citizenship to argue that PE needs to better account for 'others' and 'othering' in its research, planning and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the commercialised and professionalised world of elite sport, issues associated with career pathways and post sporting career options have a particular resonance. In various football codes, an unexpected knock, twist, bend or break can profoundly impact a player's career. In this high risk and high consequence environment, a number of sports entertainment industries have instituted player development and education programmes to educate and prepare elite level performers for life after football. Drawing on Foucault's later work on governmentality and the care of the self, this paper will discuss findings from a research project funded by the Australian Football League (AFL). The paper presents data that suggests that, elite performers are so focused on establishing and prolonging a career as an elite performer, that other aspects of identity are seen as something to be complied with as a consequence of industry expectations. An industry emphasis on higher education raises issues for the sports industries that promote player enrolment in higher education and for the higher education institutions that must manage this lack of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Raewyn Connell on sports and the education of boys and another by Chris Hickey on the culture of Australian football.

The value assigned to friluftsliv (activities similar to outdoor education) in physical education teacher education (PETE) and in the physical education (PE) syllabus in Sweden does not seem to result in the implementation of friluftsliv in the practice of teaching in Swedish schools. This study investigates how the identified values of friluftsliv, expressed in interviews with 17 PE teacher educators in Sweden, reflect struggles for legitimate and privileged knowledge in PETE. The exploration of friluftsliv within PETE reveals positions that appear to be an effect of the dominating logic of sport within Swedish PETE and the limited influence of the academic field. The educational consequences of the identified values are analysed and discussed from a socio-cultural perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport has long been considered by policy makers to contribute to a wide range of ideals associated with Putnam's notion of social capital, such as voluntarism, citizenship, democracy, community well-being, trust, inter-cultural knowledge and social networks. However, sport research that confirms such assumptions is scarce. This article focuses on the social network dimension of social capital, and whether participation in sport leads to the accumulation of social capital for young women with an immigrant background. This article is based on interviews with 15 female athletes living in Norway, aged 16-25 years. The young women belong to the so-called second generation of immigrants. The article makes an analytical distinction between bridging social capital within sports clubs (the process of getting to know people who might be different from oneself, for example, people belonging to another ethnic group) and bonding social capital within sports clubs (activities where maintaining existing relationships with people who are similar to one's self is the goal). The findings indicate that young women with an immigrant background both bridge and bond social capital within sports clubs, though there seem to be some barriers. The sports clubs are found to be well-suited arenas for bridging social capital among immigrants from various ethnic minority backgrounds. However, the sports clubs in this study play a limited role as an arena for bridging social capital across social class and the immigrant-non-immigrant divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a general belief in society about the good outcome of sport, this article critically examines the meaning- that is both the personal experience of participation and the potential educational outcome- which is derived from participation in two sport contexts under the umbrella of the Sports City Program (SCP) in Norway. With a theoretical framework based on the field theory of Bourdieu, and a qualitative methodological approach, the article indicates that there are differences within the SCP, with one pole of the SCP close to conventional sport, and the other pole more distinctly different from conventional sport. In short, there are different meanings derived from pursuing different contexts of the subfield of the SCP. Different sport contexts attract different adolescents, produce different experiences, and facilitate different educational opportunities. Out of the two SCP contexts investigated, the context most similar to conventional sport is based on family socialization and facilitates reproduction, while the context most distinct from conventional sport attracts other adolescents and clears the ground for self governance and an 'adolescent lifestyle'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on Bourdieu's analogy of a fish in water, to provide a four-stage self-reflexive account of one Health and Physical Education (HPE) teacher's acquisition of a Foucaldian analytic lens, one with which to explore the moral and governing practices of HPE. Drawing on this research journey, the author seeks to demonstrate her growing capacity to 'feel the weight of her water' and to subsequently critique the resilience of care within Australian HPE contexts and the role these care discourses play in the constitution of healthy, active citizens. This narrative is used to illustrate the complex, contingent trajectory of research endeavours and the value of reflexive strategies for those undertaking the journey from teacher to researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this article is that national sport and recreation policies constitute a pedagogical problematic, as they are texts bound to specific meaning and learning, with potential to impact on roles and subjectivities. As such, it is crucially important for physical education scholars to adopt a critical stance towards them, opening up the assumptions, intentions and social relations they embody to a profound and sensitive engagement. Ultimately, such a stance has broader implications for intelligible formulation and translation of polices into culturally sensitive practice. Using discourse analysis, a methodology grounded in poststructuralism, the National Sport and Recreation Policy for Botswana is examined for its ideological and epistemological rationale. The analysis presented in this article underscores the need for a reflective and reflexive attitude towards recreation policies, which seem to be taken for granted in postcolonial societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three issues are put forward with respect to the active participation of young people in leisure-time sports styles. It is considered (a) whether sports participation styles can be detected over the last three decades, (b) whether they have changed in this period of time, and (c) whether traditional parameters understood as structuring and positioning young people's lifestyles are still relevant with respect to their sports participation preferences. Youth sports participation data were retrieved from four large-scale surveys in 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999 (N total =22,424 high school boys and girls). These data allow for a time trend analysis of youth sports participation styles. Results from component and regression analyses indicate that different participation styles can be distinguished for each period of time and that these styles have been developing and differentiating through a growing responsiveness to wider social trends. Structural and positioning variables such as age, sex and education remain significant determinants for young people's active participation in leisure-time sports styles over the observed period of time. Although these social structures continue to shape youth sports participation styles, it is suggested that there is more variety within social groups than among social groups partially due to processes of individualisation and homogenisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]