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The aim of the paper is to present the phenomenon of the division of sociology into subdisciplines, using the sociology of the body and the sociology of sport as examples, and to show the possibility of mutual inspirations between the achievements of the two subdisciplines. The starting point of the analyses is the critique of the major theoretical projects of Robert Merton and his postulate of building a middle-range theory. The analyses refer also to Talcott Parsons’ idea of specialisation. The analytical concepts referred to include Nicolas Mullins’ notion of four stages of the formation of new scientific disciplines (the normal stage, the network stage, the cluster stage and the stage of the formation of a new speciality/subdiscipline or discipline) and the typology of sociological subdisciplines proposed by Jakub Ryszard Stempień. The text also presents the characteristics of the two subdisciplines in question, the institutional context in which they operate, the preferred theoretical approaches, the peculiarities of the methodology used and the ethical issues involved in practising each subdiscipline. An example of this cooperation is the national scientific conference “Sociology of the Body and Sociology of Sport. The state of research and mutual inspiration”. The article presents the conclusions of this event, including the possibility of going beyond the framework of subdisciplines, as well as the advantages of adopting a non-subdisciplinary and general sociological perspective.

The main objectives of this article are: to discuss the problem of retirement among professional athletes and to develop recommendations for a pension system dedicated to athletes. The issue of retirement in sport is complex because of the specific nature of professional sports persons’ occupation and its multi-layer ramifications for life after the sports career. The retirement process differs for athletes versus other members of society because they have to finish careers when their bodies do not allow them to perform at the expected level, at a relatively young age in comparison to other occupations. As a result, they face multiple challenges, such as embarking on a new career path. The article includes a description of the athletic career, touching upon issues such as the necessity for early and narrow specialization. Subsequently, challenges connected with athletes’ retirement are presented in the light of both the sociological and psychological perspective. Institutional solutions designed to make a post-career transition are also discussed. This article is based on the existing literature from the field and review of programmes established to facilitate athletes’ retirement process. The paper may be considered a contribution to a discussion oneffective ways to facilitate athletes’ retirement process.

This article adopts methodology from digital qualitative studies in order to discuss issues specific to e-sport research in the sociology of sport. The applied concepts are built on a critical discussion of the existing theories and cases from the author’s fieldwork on e-sports among hackers. The employed theories and methods are taken from virtual ethnography, netnography, and digital ethnography. These approaches are discussed critically, especially regarding their relations with Science and Technology Studies and Communication and Media Studies. The paper advocates acknowledging the cognitive approach from virtual ethnography, while dropping the approach to virtuality in favor of other theories of spatiality, with the theory of infrastructure as the backbone. It discusses the usability of Kozinets’ netnographical genres and their potential differences, but proposes a more practical solution to autonetnography. Finally, it shows how different frameworks in digital ethnography can be used in the context of e-sport research. The last part of the article is devoted to some practical advice based on discussions and practice.

Various areas of social and economic life and their changes during the political transformation after 1989 have been studied and analyzed by Polish sociologists. It seems that one of the areas that has been left out and which constitutes a terra incognita is the world of sport. As in other areas, individual and collective social actors who organized, managed or participated in the world of sport had to come to terms with the new social, economic and political order. That is why the transformation seen through their eyes and what they did, their motivations and ways of coping with changes are interesting and broaden our knowledge about the transformation period. In the article, I present a fragment of my own research on the course and effects of political transformation, based on the example of a multi-sectional Workers’ Sports Club Stoczniowiec Gdańsk (currently GKS Stoczniowiec Gdańsk). I was interested in the struggles of people who organized sport, which they had to face in the period of transformation. I was interested in how they experienced the clash with the emerging new social order. What strategies they adopted in their organizational activities and their practices during the transformation. The case study is treated as a field study and a conceptual pilot study which is a starting point for further exploration. I used two methods: desk research (among others, press articles, club information, official data, statistical data were collected) and in-depth interviews (IDI) with social actors operating in the sports club. The analytical framework for the study consists of three dimensions of transformation, namely the economic, political and legal, and social ones. The theoretical foundations, on the other hand, are the perspectives of new institutionalism, especially the theory of fields by Fligstein and McAdam and the concept of deinstitutionalization by Christine Oliver.

Electronic sports is a new phenomenon in scientific research. Many issues within it have not been systematically analyzed. The use of artificial substances to improve human physical abilities is most often addressed in the context of deviation in sports. E-sports partially reflects sporting functionality, but in the area of doping and anti-doping control in video game competitions, it is difficult to delineate the boundary between what is allowed and what is forbidden. The aim of this work is to reconstruct the social assessment of doping in e-sports based on the attitudes and experience of fans and players. Most players accept the use of stimulants, such as energy drinks. Some of them also observe the use of prohibited substances during games. E-sports enthusiasts usually support anti-doping controls modeled on traditional sports and emphasize the importance of structural determinants of the issue, such as allowing the use of prohibited means.

The article deals with the sociological paradox of chess. On the one hand, this game gives people who belong to its social world a kind of desirable distinction, but on the other hand this distinction is not connected with the class position. In Pierre Bourdieu’s terms, if we treat chess as part of the sports field, then class distinction should be interconnected with it. Why is chess extremely popular and widespread, and therefore egalitarian, although it seems to be an excellent instrument for increasing class advantage? What makes so many people play chess, and how does chess confer the transclass distinction upon them? In answering these questions I will focus on the accessibility and openness of chess, its social nature, the totality of chess experience and the impossibility of defining it within one field: sport, science or art, and – last but not least – on the possibility of manipulating chess’s illusio.

The article addresses the issue of the unique position of football among sports, which supports Bromberger’s thesis on the footballisation of society. As an overview of publications shows, football has occupied a special place in the international sociology of sport over the last 30 years; studies of football have been among the twenty most popular topics within the sub-discipline. However, it would be unjustified to speak of the footballisation of the international sociology of sport, understood as the overrepresentation of football in this sub-discipline. The situation is different when it comes to the Polish sociology of sport, where up to 50% of publications in the first fifteen years of the 21st century tackled various football-related issues. In conclusion, theses concerning possible consequences of the footballisation of the Polish sociology of sport are presented, including the type I and type II errors.

This article discusses the empirical data obtained from the study on the sport shooters in the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodship. The authors describe this sports discipline and the community of shooters in West Pomerania, including the procedures of acquiring sports qualifications, and the activity of the sports clubs and their associations. The discussed results include the socio-demographic characteristics of a sport shooter, the sports events, the expenditures incurred for sports, and motivation to go in for sports. The authors consider the activity of the sport shooters in the context of repeatedly diagnosed unsatisfactory condition of the civic society, and the discussion, recurring in the public sphere, on the access to firearms.

This issue consists of nine articles, followed by two books reviews. The contributions reveal that the issues of inclusion and exclusion can be analysed in very different contexts of the sports field, with relation to different sports disciplines, and different groups and countries. The authors provide analysis of their own research, analysis of secondary data, as well as theoretical frameworks and a large number of references. The topics raised and case studies analysed are predominantly very recent.

Sport leisure and social justice is an important and essential book central to its theme. Editors present a collection of research analysis presented on a variety of different cases. Readers are introduced to a diversity of experiences of marginalized categories of people, theoretical approaches and contexts (e.g. physical education, musical events) that can be used in regards to inequality in this field.

Sine Agergaard, the author of “Rethinking sports and integration. Developing a Transnational Perspective on Migrants and Descendants in Sports”, is well known for her work in researches of migration, integration and social participation, especially in and by sport. In her previous researches she had used sport-based perspective to examine how migrants had integrated within hosting society, in what ways relations between newcomers, local communities and state institutions were established, and what were the social processes of migration with special focus on professionals as an actors and objects of these phenomena (Agergaard and Tiesler 2014; Agergaard et al. 2018; Agergaard 2017; Agergaard and Botelho 2014; Agergaard and la Cour 2012). She is also the co-founder and currently head of the International Network for research in Sport and Migration Issues. (spomi-net) In the mentioned works, Agergaard used different approaches and methods to examine both particular cases (like a problem of women professionals’ integration, ethnic minority into the field of Danish football) and transnational relations. Problems researched by the author refer to broader mosaic of interests tied up by the question: “How one can establish perspective on locally occurring but internationally connected migration-related phenomena in field of sport?” Summary of work (books and articles) establish Agergaard’s position as an expert in the field of migration and sport.

Copyright of Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej is the property of Redakcja Przegladu Socjologii Jakosciowej 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 Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne 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.)

Polish football players born in 1970s is an unique group. Theirs careers were affected by social transformation which started in 1989. Thus the macrostructural changes remained the background for their life choices. This paper is the analysis of these footballers’ (auto)biography books. The key topic is the private experience of the mentioned historical moment. Therefore, the text is focused on the confidential plots – social bonds, family situation, friendship, love relation. In effect, it gives the „intimate portrait” of the Polish football „1970s generation”.

Copyright of Autobiografia is the property of University of Szczecin Press / Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecinskiego 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.)

The author analyzes the segmentation and institutionalization of the social world of soccer fans in the context of global economic and cultural changes. He refers to the literature on the subject to present the genesis of this sport and the descriptions that have been made of its fans. In the empirical part, he views the fan phenomenon in Poland on the basis of press and internet materials, casual interviews with fans of the Łódź Sports Club, and fan behavior in stadiums (the ‘framework'). Institutionalization and structurization in the social setting of Polish soccer fans are considered in connection with the economic and institutional changes after 1989 and global changes in the world of culture and the media. He proposes a typology of fans—the participants in the social world of soccer. He claims that the institutionalization of this world is underway but that organizing fans into associations is having a different impact on fan culture and the social world beyond than was earlier expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a growth in the number of woman at soccer stadiums. These women are supporters not only of the national teams but also of local clubs. Although the stadium socialization of women, in which their identity is shaped through their connection with a club and integration in the fan community, is not a new phenomenon, particularly in western European countries, it has not yet been thoroughly studied, including in terms of women's separate social roles. The authors' aim is to present the broader context for the appearance of women in stadiums, with selected aspects of women's fandom as described by western scholars. The authors also discuss what is known at present on the subject in Poland. This is not an exhaustive and multidimensional analysis, but only a signaling of certain interesting analytical categories; thus the ideas contained in the article are primarily of an exploratory nature, though based on empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne 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 Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej is the property of Redakcja Przegladu Socjologii Jakosciowej 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 Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej is the property of Redakcja Przegladu Socjologii Jakosciowej 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 Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne 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.)

Although volleyball is a very popular team sport in Poland, it has not been a subject of regular social studies, yet. Mass media discussion analysis (supported by fan talks on the Poland man's and women's national volleyball team members) showed some principles regarding an unwritten code of morality and categories in which players are perceived. It all refers to their behaviour, speeches and appearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]