The Esa Research Network 28 ‘Society and Sports’ aims at strengthening the visibility and legitimacy of the sociology of sport within the European sociological community. As such, the Esa conference in Turin 2013 will offer, besides the regular stand alone sessions, a broad range of joint sessions in which the sociologists of sport can discuss and exchange their knowledge with colleagues from different but overlapping sociological fields (such as health, gender, emotions, globalization, consumption, and many others).

RN28 Society and Sports

The Esa Research Network 28 ‘Society and Sports’ aims at strengthening the visibility and legitimacy of the sociology of sport within the European sociological community. As such, the Esa conference in Turin 2013 will offer, besides the regular stand alone sessions, a broad range of joint sessions in which the sociologists of sport can discuss and exchange their knowledge with colleagues from different but overlapping sociological fields (such as health, gender, emotions, globalization, consumption, and many others).

Sports, physical activities and body cultures: Crisis, critique and change

Far from merely having an economical dimension, the crisis which currently affects the European societies poses new political and social challenges, opening the way to many possible transformations. Established practices and institutions may crumble and die and new configurations and alliances may arise.

As highlighted in the conference theme, two processes are at work. On the one hand, a systemic transformation has driven the shift from public to private power and adapted the state to capital markets. On the other hand, there has been a proliferation of vital types of critique too.

• How are these dynamics reflected in the field of sports, physical activities and body cultures?
• How does the sphere of sport face the challenges coming from the financial crisis? What models for sport will be sustainable in the future? Are alternatives for the current sport policies necessary? To what extent are post-crisis developments in the context of sport specific when compared to the spheres of economics and politics? To what extent can be the evidence from sport transposed to other spheres of social and cultural life?

The RN-28 ‘Society and Sports’ invites papers exploring these and other questions from all areas of the sociology of sport. Possible themes include but are not limited to:

• Critical, creative and collaborative sports practices
• Sport, media and new media
• Sociological Theory and Sport: Back to the New Basics?
• Crossing boundaries through sport events: how does it work?
• Society and Sports (open session)

Joint sessions:

• Facets of participation in childhood and youth: Exploring sport participation (with RN4 “Sociology of Children and Childhood” and RN30 “Youth and Generation”)
• The commercialization of sport and fitness practices (with RN5 “Sociology of Consumption”)
• Sports and culture: participation alike? (with RN7 “Sociology of Culture”)
• Sport and religion/spirituality (with RN7 “Sociology of Culture” and RN34 “Sociology of Religion”)
• Sport and emotions (with RN11 “Sociology of Emotions”)
• Processes of Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research (with RN11 “Sociology of Emotions” and RN20 “Qualitative methods”)
• Glocalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Sport (with RN 15 “Global, Transnational and Cosmopolitan Sociology”)
• Gender, health and physical activity (with RN16 “Sociology of Health and Illness”)
• Managing competitiveness in working/professional environments: exploring elite sports (with RN19 “Sociology of Professions”)
• Sport and the Visual: New Developments and Opportunities (with RN20 “Qualitative methods”)
• Doing social research on sports’ bodies. Methodological and empirical challenges (with RN20 “Qualitative methods” and RN21 “Quantitative methods)
• Sports, bodies and sexualities (with RN23 “Sexuality”)
• Gender and sexual harassment at work and in leisure time (sport) (with RN33 “Woman’s and Gender Studies”)
• Being a member of the team. Sports and Gender Relations (with RN33 “Woman’s and Gender Studies”)

(For each session, see the extended call here below)

Notes for authors

Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to the general session (open papers) or any specific session. After abstract evaluation, coordinators will have the chance to transfer papers between sessions where applicable.

Abstracts should not exceed 1750 characters (including spaces, approximately 250 words). Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally sessions will include 4 papers.

Abstracts must be submitted online to the submission platform, see below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation by the Research Network; the letter of notification will be sent by the conference software system in early April 2013.

Abstract submission deadline: 1st February 2013

Abstract submission platform: http://www.esa11thconference.eu/abstract-submission 

• Early Bird registration: 1 May
• Registration for paper givers: 1 June

If you have further questions on the conference, please visit the conference website.

For further information on the Research Network, please visit http://www.europeansociology.org/research-networks/rn28-society-and-sport.html or email the network coordinator at davide.sterchele@unipd.it

Sessions’ detailed call for papers

Critical, Creative and Collaborative Sports Practices

This session explores shared interests and productive tensions at the intersection of sociologies of sport and social movements. Papers are welcomed especially, but not exclusively, that discuss research with radical, queer, resistant, self-organized, subcultural, DIY, non-profit, marginalized, liminal, or ‘other’ sports practices and identities. Over the past three decades sports sociologists have focused prolific attention on dynamics of; gender; class; ethnicity; sexuality; embodiment; age; nationality and nation-hood; consumption; subculture; globalization; militarization; risk; subversion and resistance; environmentalism; representation; and international development in a wide variety of sports contexts.

Papers in this session will build on these rich precedents by centering sociological issues with sports contexts that overlap with activist practices of decolonization, queer politics and prefigurative social movements. Such sports practices respond to questions of increasing organizational size and complexity, media production and engagement, access to material resources, and self-representation, as well as internal issues of inclusion and exclusion, privilege and power; issues that are familiar to those in the field of social movements. The session is an opportunity for participants to share theoretical and empirical work broadly concerned with the critical and creative potential of sports practices and with the relationships between ‘sport’ and organization for social justice in the current crisis.

• Convenor: Maddie Breeze

Sports, Media and New Media

Sports and media are in a relationship of interdependence. Research in sociology and communication has focused on the analysis of this interdependence, but also on the information produced. Some authors have also examined the conditions of production of this specialized information. The evolution of technologies and practices, together with the arrival of new actors, has profoundly changed the relationship between sports and media, which become more complex over time.

In order to analyze these recent evolutions, the ESA research networks ‘Sociology of Communication and Media Research’ and ‘Society and Sports’ invite scholars to submit abstracts to the joint session on ‘Sport, Media and New Media’. All papers exploring the multifaceted intersections between media and sport will be considered. Particularly welcome are contributions which focus on new media (e.g., Internet) and social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook). Topics might consider any of the following (but not limited to this list):

• Sports journalism and gender equality
• National/local identities
• Media representations of race in sport
• Journalistic discourses
• Sports stars and sporting heroes
• Communication strategies through media and social networks
• Media and globalization
• Sports advertising
• Ethical issues
• Research methodologies
• Audience for media sports
• Sports broadcasting/reporting
• Sport in the age of the Internet

Convenor: Nicolas Delorme

Sociological Theory and Sport: Back to the New Basics?

What counts as sociological theory differs widely (Abend 2008). For several years, sociology of sport has been dominated by what we could call grand theories (Bairner 2012), while the focus on various forms of what pace Merton has been termed middle range theories and more micro-oriented approaches has been neglected.

This can be considered as a limitation, both in general because what seems to be among the most interesting challenges and fruitful approaches within general sociology (Boudon 2003; Elster 2007; Fligstein and McAdam 2012; Hedström 2005; Prell 2012) is not taken up in sport studies, and because several sport phenomena have a character that fits the format of these types of theories very well.

In this session we welcome (i) papers on phenomena related to sports applying the types of theories we indicated above, (ii)  papers on what theory in the sociology of sport should look like (also disagreeing with the claim made here), and, if possible: (iii) studies of the application of theoretical perspectives within the sociology of sport.

• Abend, Gabriel. 2008. "The Meaning of ‘Theory’." Sociological Theory 26:173-199.
• Bairner, Alan. 2012. "For a Sociology of Sport." Sociology of Sport Journal 29:102-117.
• Boudon, Raymond. 2003. "Beyond Rational Choice Theory." Annual Review of Sociology 29:1-21.
• Elster, Jon. 2007. Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Fligstein, Neil, and Doug McAdam. 2012. A Theory of Fields. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hedström, Peter. 2005. Dissecting the Social: On the Principles of Analytical Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Prell, Christina. 2012. Social Network Analysis. History, Theory & Methodology. London: Sage.

Convenor: Ørnulf Seippel

Crossing boundaries through sport events. How does it work?

Sport festivals and other community sport events are often organized to promote intercultural relations, gender equality, and social inclusion. These goals are not automatically achieved by sport itself, rather they depend on the way sport practice is organized, displayed, and integrated into a broader range of performative and expressive activities. While scholars are usually asked to evaluate (e.g. to measure) the events’ impact, there is still a relative scarcity of theoretically underpinned research into the processes by which this impact can be generated.

This session invites papers that – besides evaluating to what extent sport events actually do promote inclusive social change – primarily examine how they (seek to) achieve this goal.

How do these events engender a liminal space which temporary de-structures and/or subverts the usual social categorisations, hierarchies, and representations? How does sport make a difference? Why are sport games often placed within a wider range of leisure and cultural activities? How does such an organizational feature contribute to foster sociability? Why is social mixing often encouraged by ‘de-sportizing’ the sport activities, for instance by partly downplaying their competitive dimension, fluidifying sporting categorizations (through gender- and generation-mixed activities), and breaking the separation between protagonists and spectators? How do these organizational strategies enhance participants’ reflexivity? Which are their limits and failures? Ethnographic accounts, analytical frameworks and theoretical explanations of relevant exemplary cases will be welcome.

Convenor: Davide Sterchele

Joint session : Facets of participation in childhood and youth: Exploring sport participation

• RN 4 – Sociology of Children and Childhood
• RN 28 – Society and Sports
• RN30 – Youth and Generation

Organized sport plays an important role in the development of today’s children and youth. However, drop out in sports is a growing phenomenon and an international cause of worry. This is a multifaceted phenomenon and seldom there is just one reason behind the decision of attrition. One of the major causes is time allocation. Time spent in sports competes with time spent for other daily activities, mainly school, studying/work, friends and other hobbies. Furthermore, the amount of sports trainings and the long trips to the trainings bring chronological pressure.

Particularly high is the withdrawal rate of adolescents. The existing literature suggests that the major reason for drop out lies in the fact that organized – both community, school, and privately run – sports actors cannot respond to the needs of adolescents. The early puberty is a critical turning point concerning the physical activity.

Drop out session welcomes all researchers interested in sports participation to join the session. Both empirical and theoretical papers focusing on issues such as:

• The relationship between sports/ physical activity participation and time allocation
• Sports/physical activity and youth drop out -phenomenon
• Reasons for sports/physical activity participation and non-participation

Convenors:

• Leena Haanpää
• Aurelie Mary
• Tom Cockburn

Joint session : The Commercialization of Sport and Fitness

• RN 5 – Sociology of Consumption
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

Understood as a suggestive manifestation of consumer culture, the fitness boom is larger than fitness activites and has tapped into sport in innovative ways. The mixing of physical, sportive activities and popular culture has been envisioned through extreme rhetorical cliché, either celebration or comdenation. This often corresponds to disciplinary specialisations: physical education and medical practice have typically played the celebratory tune in contrast to sociology, history and gender studies. This session aims at going beyond such readings to take a proper sociological look at the sport, fitness and physical activities practices which are organized through commercial institutions and relations (of various sorts).

Marrying the sociology of sport and leisure with the sociology of consumption, the session will address critical questions such as: which institutional settings favour participation in sport and fitness activities? What are the advantages and shortcomings of commercial provision vis a vis public provision in the case of physical activities? Which kind of relations are favoured in commercial fitness premises? Which values are promoted through sport and fitness practices as organized by commercial premises? How do trainers and trainees perceive and cope with commercialism? Which varieties of commercial relations can we discover in the field of fitness and sport activities, how do they differ and how do they compare with other commercial services? How does differentiation within the field respond to social boundaries (gender, class, ethnicity) without it? To what extent the “law of the market” explains the cultural dynamic in the fitness and sport activities?  Papers should ideally address key relevant theoretical issues through empirical research.

Convenors:

• Roberta Sassatelli
• Fabio Lo Verde

Joint session: Sports and culture: participation alike?

• RN7 – Sociology of Culture
• RN28 – Society and Sports

Sports and culture may at first appear to be quite different practices, yet a closer look reveals that they actually have great deal in common. Both are free time activities that are heavily supported by governments (as merit goods, and because of their acclaimed external effects), both are increasingly commercialized, both correlate heavily with social status (education, income), and both experience difficulties in reaching out to new groups (youngsters, ethnic minorities, low SES). In fact, analyses show that participation in sports and culture are often correlated, and that non-participation clusters among the same groups.

In this session, we bring research on participation in sport and in culture together. By comparing theoretical perspectives, methodologies and research outcomes, we aim to improve our understanding of differences in participation and of the underlying causes (motives, structures) and to contribute to the discourse and research on participation in sports as well as in culture.

The session is open to all researchers, both quantitative and qualitative, drawing on large scale surveys as well as on smaller case-studies (in depth interviews, best practices). The aim is to discuss  papers that are based on sound empirical research, and that are guided by clear theoretical perspectives.

Convenors:

• Koen Breedveld
• Gerbert Kraaykamp
• Koen van Eijck

Joint session: Sport and religion/spirituality

• RN 7 – Sociology of Culture’
• RN 28 – Society and Sports’
• RN 34 – Sociology of Religion’

Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement. At the same time, the study of the analogies between traditional sports and institutionalized religions still generates relevant sociological insights.

In order to contribute to these streams of analysis and to open new horizons for further studies, the ESA research networks ‘Sociology of Culture’, ‘Society and Sports’, and ‘Sociology of Religion’, invite potential contributors to submit abstracts to the joint session on ‘Sport and religion/spirituality’. The session will thus provide a forum for exchange and sharing among sociologists of culture, sport and religion, who deal with these themes from different but overlapping perspectives.

Convenors:

• Davide Sterchele
• Stef Aupers
• Hubert Knoblauch

Joint session : Sport and emotions

• RN 11 – Sociology of Emotions
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

Research within the sociology of sport has attempted to draw out the significance of emotional sensations. While researchers whom explore the emotions have often highlighted the place sports and physical cultures occupy within our lives. This joint session proposes to draw together colleagues who, although sharing many conceptual and theoretical linkages, may not have previously made explicit links to each others substantive areas. We anticipant colleagues presenting papers which draw on sociological theories of the emotions to make sense of physical activity, health, fitness, sport, risk and physical cultures. However, we also welcome papers which explore the emotions and sport more broadly in theoretical, conceptual and empirical sense. The aim here is to enable colleagues whom research in different substantive areas to bring their various experiences and knowledges together in order contribute to the advancement of both sub-disciplines.

Convenors:

• Christopher R. Matthews
• Lone Friis Thing
• Sven Ismer

Joint session: Emotions, objectification and reflexivity in qualitative body and sport research

• RN 11 – Sociology of Emotions
• RN 20 – Qualitative Methods
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field.

Three perspectives will be favoured.

• Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of "axiological neutrality" required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
• Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
• The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher's affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.

Ultimately, we invite the presenters  to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).

Convenors:

• Monica Aceti
• Haifa Tlili
• Sven Ismer
• Katarina Jacobsson

Joint session : Glocalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and Sport

• RN 15 – Global, Transnational and Cosmopolitan Sociology
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

‘As more processes show less regard for state boundaries – people shop internationally, love internationally, marry internationally, research internationally, grow up and are educated internationally (that is multi-lingually), live and think transnationally, that is combine multiple loyalties and identities in their lives – the paradigm of societies organized within the framework of the nation-state inevitably loses contact with reality.’ (Beck, 2000, p. 80). With this open statement from Ulrich Beck, it is possible to envision how the idea of nation-state society has been challenged lately in sociology not only through his cosmopolitan theory, but also by a myriad of approaches as network society (Manuel Castells), mobile society (John Urry), glocalisation theory (Roland Robertson), and McDonaldisation theory (George Ritzer), between many others. In this regard, this call for papers is interested in both empirical and theoretical contributions that look into the role and characteristics of contemporaneous nation-state and nationalism within professional sport. What means to represent and support a country? Whose country to represent and support in case of multiple nationalities? What means to have multiple loyalties? How solidarity and social movements occur across political national borders? How mobility of coaches and athletes challenge the notion of a national team play/spirit? These are examples of questions that could be addressed, but are not an exclusive list. Special attention will be given to papers dealing with sport megaevents which still confronts nation-states as Olympic Games, World Cups, and more regional events as European and Commonwealth Games.

Convenors:

• Renan Petersen-Wagner
• Angel Manuel Ahedo Santisteban

Joint session: Gender, health and physical activity

• RN 16 – Sociology of Health and Illness
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

The recent ‘obesity epidemic’ currently afflicting affluent societies around the world has prompted a focus on ‘healthy citizenship’. This has stimulated a lifestyle-focused approach to reducing the collective waistline of societies across the globe as seen in the focus on diets, behaviours considered to be unhealthy (e.g. smoking and alcohol consumption) and raising physical activity levels. This session will focus on how, and in what ways, gender both influences, and is influenced by, physical activity and what is understood as being ‘healthy’. Therefore, it offers an opportunity to consider the ways in which the gendered body is implicated in this most modern of crises.

We invite empirical and theoretical papers addressing such issues as:

• The gendering of exercise and health behaviours
• The gendered construction of the healthy and active body
• The perception of ‘healthy lifestyles’ and the performance of gender
• The relationship between health, physicality and the construction of gendered identities

Convenors:

• Oliver S. Williams
• Ellen Annandale

Joint session: Managing competitiveness in working/professional environments: exploring elite sports

• RN19 – Sociology of Professions
• RN28 – Society and Sports

Elite sport is a paradigmatic example of those very competitive arenas where positions at the summit are limited to a small number of actors which accumulate prizes and reputation. Access to these positions goes through selections and trials which suppose the mobilization of different kind of resources to face pressure of competition, uncertainty of sporting results and career achievement, rivalry between peers and secure social promotion. Division of labor between specialists, team work, technologies of transformation (physical or psychological) are means which are set up by coaches and performance directors but athletes build their own support system through psychological techniques, religious exercises and beliefs or social networks.

Through this research of success, elite sport shows tension between functional division of labor and claims for authority on professional fields or sharing of outcomes, individual achievement and necessity of collective organization.

This session takes the study of elite sport as a basis to enable scientific exchange with other domains of sociology which analyse working/professional environments and actors – like for instance artists, elite scientists or medical specialists – in areas dominated by high competiveness and impressive inequalities.

Convenors:

• Patrick Mignon
• Ruth McDonald

Joint session: Sport and the visual: New developments and opportunities

• RN 20 – Qualitative Methods
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

In recent years there has been an enormous increase in the use of visual data within sociology. This has taken broadly two paths. The first has involved the development of analyses of visual data that have been constructed externally in the form of photographs, video text, film, television and graffiti. The second involves the production of visual data by sociologists themselves as part of their research activity. This has become much easier with the advent of digital cameras and camcorders.

This ‘visual turn’ has raised a wide range of interesting questions, both of a methodological nature and from a broad theoretical angle. It also raises important ethical questions concerning the legality or appropriateness of such visual imagery.

Since sport generates social interactions which are largely based on physical expressions and bodily movements, it constitutes a privileged field for the development of visual sociology. Hence, this session will aim to bring together sociologists who work in this area in relation to sport. Themes of interest will include substantive analyses, as well as methodological issues (particularly how to break out of the ‘quantitative-qualitative’ divide) and theoretical contributions.

Convenors:

• Roger Penn
• Ajit Singh

Joint session: Doing social research on sports. Methodological and empirical challenges

• RN 20 – Qualitative Methods
• RN 21 – Quantitative Methods
• RN 28 – Society and Sports

Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture.

In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.

Convenors:

• Alessandro Porrovecchio
• Ajit Singh
• Henning Best

Joint Session: Sports, bodies and sexualities

• RN23 – Sexuality
• RN28 – Society and Sports

Being expressions of cultural embodiment, both sexuality and sports can be analyzed as a mirror of societies’ transformations. For this reason the analysis of sports and sexuality can be a key to analyze changes in social interaction and collective representations.

In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite papers aimed at both understanding the relationships between sports and sexualities, and using them as a tool to analyse broader social transformations. For example: how have sports and physical cultures built their specificities, in particular with relation to genders and sexual differences and consequently to body-related social norms?  How have sports’ institutions managed to include gender and sexual diversities (e.g. cases of intersexed and/or transgender athletes)? Which innovations can be observed in sport practices (techniques, dressing-codes, aesthetics, etc.) with relation to sexuality? To what extent have issues of sexual violence and homophobia amongst sport fans been successfully addressed? What are the contemporary challenges and opportunities when we consider the relationship between sports and sexuality? We encourage contributors to address questions of this sort, thus exploring the importance of gender and sexuality in sports’ research, and vice versa, examining how sports matters in sexuality research.

Convenors:

• Alessandro Porrovecchio
• Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto

Joint session: Gender and sexual harassment at work and in leisure time (sport)

• RN 28 – Society and Sports
• RN 33 – Women’s and Gender Studies

Violence against women is a worldwide problem. It occurs in all regions, countries, societies and cultures. It affects women irrespective of income, class, race or ethnicity. According to the UN General Assembly the many forms of violence to which women are subject include: sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work and in educational institutions, and today we can also add sport to this list. UN documents define gender-based violence as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society, and fulfilling their potentials as human beings.

Research on sexual harassment was first undertaken in the workplace and in the educational system where it seems to be very widespread. Different European studies place the proportion of women experiencing workplace sexual harassment at between 45 and 81 per cent. Prevalence figures from sport vary between 17 and 56%. 

The studies on gender and sexual harassment in sport have drawn upon definitions, theories and methods used in workplace studies. It would therefore be interesting to gather researchers from both of these environments to present and discuss the latest empirical and/or theoretical and methodological scientific work in these areas. Depending on the people interested in contributing to the symposium, it could be narrowed down to such areas as: prevalence, types of impacts, prevention, theories, as well as methodological and ethical challenges.   

Convenors:

• Kari Fasting
• Elina Oinas

Joint session: Being a member of the team. Sports and gender relations

• RN 28 – Society and Sports
• RN 33 – Women’s and Gender Studies

In team sports, the selection of a player for a team is not merely a technical decision. The player who can cope and harmonize with the collective team identity is chosen by the coach. Being suitable or to fit into the team is also a question of gender. In a homo-social dimension, especially among men, there is the question of how the process of choosing or to be chosen (re)produce a hierarchy of masculinities. In a hetero-social dimension the gender segregation is established from the beginning of the organized sport competitions which harshly distinguishes the male and female teams and championships from each other. On the other hand, the formation of a team i.e. the constitution of collectivity for instance in amateur leisure sports and/or sports in schools can/may turn out to be a question of negotiation.

With this in mind, we intend to organize a network session between sport and gender studies, to discuss the reflections of both intra- and inter-gender relations in sports on the progressive re-constellation of “gender” perception in society. The current social scientific approach of intersectionality including other dimensions of social inequality, such as ethnicity, milieu, religion etc. will also be of particular interest in our session.

Convenors:

• Oktay Aktan
• Diana Lengersdorf
• Elina Oinas