Professor Andrew Sparkes

The sensory revolution in the social sciences is transforming the ways in which the senses and the sensorium are studied and understood in relation to bodies in action. This is the first book to investigate the impact, and challenges, of this revolution for those interested in physical culture. Providing vivid examples of sensory scholarship in action from sport, physical activity, leisure and recreation, this book brings together leading figures to discuss how we go about seeking the senses, how we engage in somatic work, and how we create meanings and come to understand ourselves and others as embodied beings in a variety of social settings over time. Featuring original reflections on athletics, running, cycling, sailing, kayaking, windsurfing, glow sports, jiu jitsu, mixed martial arts and yoga, this ground breaking collection showcases the latest sensory research in physical culture as well as paving the way both conceptually and methodologically for future work in this area. Seeking the Senses in Physical Culture: Sensuous scholarship in action is fascinating reading for all those interested in physical cultural and body studies; the sociology, psychology and philosophy of sport; leisure and recreation studies; and physical education.

Coach development is typically considered to consist of a complex mix of experiences, including formal, informal and non-formal. Elements of the early research in this area led to the production of a model of long-term coach development (LTCD) over a decade ago, consisting of three core categories of experience: athletic, coaching and education, later published in a number of significant coaching documents. Whilst this model has clearly been of benefit in providing a framework to consider long-term coach development, it can also be considered to have its limitations in focusing on a somewhat narrow coaching context (typically Olympic sports in North America) and lacking currency. This study therefore attempted to consider and update this model to a professional team sport context away from North America by investigating the life stories of head coaches in English rugby league. Data collection consisted of a novel life story approach, whilst analysis utilised elements of constructivist grounded theory. Though supporting elements of the original LTCD model, results here provide an additional category of experience occurring prior to athletic experience, childhood, consisting of a number of sub-themes, alongside several other novel elements with implications for both research and practice. This work points towards a need to further understand coaches’ lifelong developmental journeys across a range of sports and contexts.

Through a process of collaborative autoethnography, we explore the experiences of one female athlete named Bella who was groomed and then sexually abused by her male coach. Bella’s story signals how the structural conditions and power relationships embedded in competitive sporting environments, specifically the power invested in the coach, provide a unique sociocultural context that offers a number of potentialities for sexual abuse and exploitation to take place. We offer Bella’s story as a pedagogical resource for those involved in the world of sport to both think about and with as part of a process of encouraging change at the individual and institutional levels.

This article focuses on the influence of early life experiences and sociocultural context on coach learning in the sport of rugby league. It draws on the findings of a study that investigated the influence of cultural context on the development of elite-level rugby league coaches in England and Australia. The article focuses on the influence of experience from early childhood to the end of compulsory schooling on the development of three English and three Australian rugby league coaches who, at the time of the study, were working, or had worked, in the Super League.

This paper explores how trans people who make transitions negotiate their gendered bodies in different moments of this process, and how their narrative storylines are emplotted in physical activity and (non)organized sports (PAS) participation. A qualitative semi-structured interview-based study was developed to analyze the stories of eight trans people (three trans women, two trans men, and three nonbinary persons) who participated in PAS before and during their gender disclosure. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify the patterns in the transition process and the structural analysis of the stories from the interviews. Three transition moments (the closet, opening up, and reassuring) were identified from the thematic analysis. Most participants showed difficulties in achieving their PAS participation during the two earlier moments. The predominance of failure storylines was found particularly in men, while success was more likely to appear in women because their bodies and choices fitted better with their PAS gender ideals. The nonbinary trans persons present alternative storylines in which corporeality has less influence on their PAS experiences. The knowledge provided on the moments and the stories of transition help to explain trans people's (non)involvement in PAS and to guide policymaking and professional action in PAS fields.

In recent years, qualitative researchers have in varied ways conceptualized selves and identities as narratively constructed. In this article, we offer a typology for viewing, the various conceptualizations of narrative identities and selves. Five perspectives are presented for discussion. These are, the psychosocial, the inter-subjective, the storied resource, the dialogic and the performative perspectives. Insights into contrasts between them are also generated by exploring the emphasis given by each perspective to both the social and individual in creating selves and identities. These contrasts are organized along a continuum, with perspectives that adopt a `thick individual' and `thin social relational' view to the self and identity at one end, and those that adopt a `thin individual' and `thick social relational' view at the other. We close by suggesting that each perspective is worthy of consideration in its own right and that coexistence is possible despite their differences.

This article draws on data generated from a 3-year ethnographic study of "jock culture" at one university setting in England to illuminate the ways that specific kinds of bodies are located in social space so as to construct a range of identity positions that facilitate the maintenance of this culture over time. These positions are as follows: the jocks, sport scholars, also-rans, anti-jocks, wannabes, and the non-jocks. The analysis revealed how individuals negotiate an embodied identity within a network of power relations, with the performing jock body occupying the most highly visible, yet taken for granted, central space around which all other bodies are positioned according to their ability to meet the combined sporting and social requirements of this culture. The findings have significance for how we understand the ways in which bodies and space are reciprocally constituted along with the dilemmas this poses for individuals within a cultural setting. © The Author(s) 2010.

In response to the plea by Pelias (2004) for a methodology of the heart, this article presents a story about the embodied struggles of an academic at a university that is permeated by an audit culture. It is based on informal interviews with academics at various universities in England and selected personal experiences. Thus, the constructive process is inspired by partial happenings, fragmented memories, echoes of conversations, whispers in corridors, fleeting glimpses of myriad reflections seen through broken glass, and multiple layers of fiction and narrative imaginings. Methodological issues abound in the telling and showing but, quite rightly, remain dormant on this occasion. In the end, the story simply asks for your consideration.

This article seeks to expand our understanding on narrative and the analysis of stories researchers invite and collect in the domain of aging studies. To do so, we first offer an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be by laying out a theoretical basis for this kind of research, and making a case for the relevance of narrative as an alternative methodology. Painting with broad strokes, narrative analysis as a method is then considered before a typology of different ways in which stories can be analyzed is introduced. Illuminated by the typology are two contrasting standpoints toward narrative analysis-storyteller and story analyst-and three specific methods-structural, performative, and autoethnograpic creative analytic practices-that each standpoint might use to analyse the whats and hows of storytelling. The article closes by suggesting that in order to assist us to understand the complexities of aging researchers might consider using a variety of analyses. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Objectives: This article seeks to expand our understanding on narrative and the analysis of stories within the domain of sport and exercise psychology. Its intention is to describe, and not finalise or prescribe, what narrative analysis can be by illuminating a range of different ways in which sport and exercise psychologists might make sense of stories. Results: Painting with broad strokes, some reasons as to why narrative analysis might be relevant for sport and exercise psychologists is first considered and then a description of narrative analysis is offered. Next, in order to better understand what narrative analysis can mean an original typology of different ways in which stories can be analysed is introduced. Illuminated by the typology are two contrasting standpoints toward narrative analysis-story analyst and storyteller-and three specific methods-structural, performative, and ethnodramatic creative analytic practices-that each standpoint might use to analyse the whats and hows of storytelling. Conclusion: The article closes by suggesting that sport and exercise psychologists might consider using a variety of analyses in order to assist them to understand the complexities of people's lives in diverse ways. Crown Copyright © 2008.

This article seeks to expand our understanding of narrative and the analysis of stories researchers invite and collect in the domain of disability studies. What narrative inquiry is and various reasons why researchers might opt to choose to turn to narratives are highlighted. Painting with broad strokes, narrative analysis is then considered before a typology of different ways in which stories can be analysed is offered. Illuminated by the typology are two contrasting standpoints on narrative analysis (storyteller and story analyst) and three specific methods (structural, performative, and autoethnographic creative analytic practices) that each standpoint might use to analyse the whats and hows of stories. The article closes by suggesting that researchers might consider using a variety of analyses in order to assist us to understand the complexities of the social world in diverse ways.

Drawing on data generated from a two-year ethnographic study of the Rocky Centre (achildhood bereavement organisation in the UK), this article explores the positive changes and themes of posttraumatic growth experienced by parentally bereaved young people. Although the broader study generated data from participant observation, interviews and a documentary analysis, this article focuses specifically on the interviews with 13 young people to identify the themes of posttraumatic growth that emerged from the participants' narratives. Of these, four had been recently bereaved and nine had experienced the death of a parent over 10 years ago. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed for themes that reflected the young people's experiences of growing through grief. Those identified were as follows: positive outlook, gratitude, appreciation of life, living life to the full, and altruism. Each theme isdiscussed in turn, and the implications of the findings for research and practice are addressed. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

In this article, we present a case study analysis of data gathered on the practice of the art of Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) in one UK context. Our interest in looking at this physical culture was in exploring if/how physical cultures of shared embodied experience and practice may help “sow the seeds of environmental awareness”. In so doing, we illustrate certain affinities between this interpretation of the art and Beck’s idea of a “cosmopolitan vision of ecology”. We present an analysis of documentary and interview data of one English Taijiquan organisation and how it currently promotes the idea of interconnectedness, wellbeing and an alternative meta-narrative for living through the practice of Taijiquan. We conclude that, while further research is needed, there is evidence that a cosmopolitan vision for ecology is emerging in physical cultures such as Taijiquan.

ABSTRACT Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is a potentially life-threatening condition unique to individuals with spinal cord injury above the sixth thoracic spinal level. When this condition is induced by spinal cord injured athletes to enhance performance it is known as boosting. Given that little is known about this practice from the perspectives of the athletes themselves, we draw upon interview data with a sample of male, spinal cord injured, wheelchair athletes to explore their experiences of AD and boosting in relation to how they perceive and negotiate the fine line between the latter two conditions; how they experience positive benefits and manage unpredictability; how they conceptualize risk; and their moral justifications for boosting. Our thematic analysis suggests that our participants understand boosting via a process of experiential learn- ing that involves them operating as ethnophysiologists within a boostogenic environment that can foster moral disengagement and encourage athletes to take dangerous health risks. The implications for policy and practice are considered.

Statement of problem: A variety of conceptions of qualitative research exist. This leads to a situation in which there are competing claims as to what counts as good-quality work. These competing claims revolve around the issue of criteria and how they are used to pass judgment on qualitative research. Those involved in sport and exercise sciences need to reflect on this issue with a view to generating further dialogue and a greater understanding of difference within the research community. Method: Two ideal types of researcher, one a criteriologist the other a relativist, are constructed to illustrate how each might judge qualitative studies of different kinds. Results: A comparison of the ways in which the criteriologist and the relativist draw on different assumptions to judge qualitative studies illustrates the constraining nature of the former and the expansive possibilities of the latter. Conclusions: Criteria should be viewed as lists of characterizing traits that are open to reinterpretation as times, conditions, and purposes change. Researchers need to adopt the role of connoisseur in order to pass judgment on different kinds of study in a fair and ethical manner.

Drawing on data from a life history study of a small group of men who have suffered spinal cord injury and become disabled through playing sport, this article explores the meanings of hope in their lives. It focuses upon the life stories of 14, white, predominantly working-class men, aged 26-51. The most common kinds of hope used by the men were shaped by three powerful narrative types that circulate in Western cultures. These were 'concrete hope' (the most common form), shaped by the restitution narrative; 'transcendent hope', shaped by the quest narrative; and 'despair' or loss of any kind of hope, shaped by the chaos narrative. The implications of this dynamic process for their identity reconstruction as disabled men are considered. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Objectives: To stimulate debate in sport and exercise psychology about the nature of mixed methods research as currently practiced and how this approach might develop in the future. Design: An exploration of five points of controversy relating to mixed methods research. Method: A presentation of critical reflections on the following. (1) Mixing methods as a non-debate, (2) Purists, pragmatists and mixing paradigms, (3) Integrating findings and representational forms, (4) Judgment criteria and mixed methods research, and (5) Power, politics and what counts in mixed methods research. Results: The examples provided of mixed methods research in action indicate that a number of problematic issues regarding both process and product have been neglected. Conclusions: Mixed methods research offers a number of conceptual, practical and pedagogical challenges that need to be addressed if this form of inquiry is to develop its full potential in sport and exercise psychology.

Interdisciplinary work involves researchers from a variety of disciplines collaborating to solve a common problem. Multidisciplinary work involves researchers from various disciplines working separately on different aspects of a broad problem. Accordingly, as Sparkes and Smith (2014) and Stock and Burton (2011) note, the former is different from the latter in the level of integration and cooperation it requires to meet the aims of bridging disciplinary viewpoints. Interdisciplinary research enables the examination of existing accumulated knowledge from the perspective of a neighboring discipline and, most importantly, crossing boundaries to create new knowledge.

This article explores a key issue that was left mostly unsaid in a recent special edition of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health that invited predominantly quantitative researchers to share their views on qualitative research with a view to stimulating dialogue. This key issue is that of power. To explore this unsaid, I offer some reflections on the wider social and political climate that is shaping the lived realities of both quantitative and qualitative researchers. I begin by noting the neoconservative backlash to qualitative research in recent years and the rise of methodological fundamentalism. Next, I consider how the work of all researchers in sport, exercise and health, whatever their paradigmatic persuasions is framed within a climate produced by an audit culture, New Public Management practices, and a neoliberal agenda. From this, I move on to argue that the shared somatic crisis faced by scholars in universities provides an opportunity for a coming together across difference and the possible emergence of a new paradigms dialogue based on a collective response to the powerful forces that shape contemporary academic life.

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to outline what narrative inquiry entails, why it is relevant for the study of sport and physical culture and how researchers might engage in its analytical methods. Design/methodology/approach - Narrative inquiry as an approach, not simply a method, is delineated in this chapter. The design of a project is outlined. Three types of narrative analysis - holistic-content, holistic-form and meta-autoethnography - are the focus. The chapter also attends to the benefits of using multiple forms of analysis and representation as part of engaging with the methodology of crystallisation. Findings - Key findings of narrative research on sport and physical culture are illuminated throughout. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of narrative analysis are highlighted, including how in many narrative studies the interactional dynamics of storytelling are often neglected. Originality/value - The chapter provides a succinct introduction to why narratives matter, how narrative analysis as a craft might be practised and what theoretical assumptions underpin it. The authors also highlight innovative practices for deepening understandings of sport and physical culture. These include time-lining, mobile interviewing, analytical bracketing, crystallisation, meta-autoethnography and analysis as movement of thought. © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A follow-up of the 1990s review of qualitative research articles published in three North American sport psychology journals (Culver, Gilbert, & Trudel, 2003) was conducted for the years 2000–2009. Of the 1,324 articles published, 631 were data-based and 183 of these used qualitative data collection techniques; an increase from 17.3% for the 1990s to 29.0% for this last decade. Of these, 31.1% employed mixed methods compared with 38.1% in the 1990s. Interviews were used in 143 of the 183 qualitative studies and reliability test reporting increased from 45.2% to 82.2%. Authors using exclusively quotations to present their results doubled from 17.9% to 39.9%. Only 13.7% of the authors took an epistemological stance, while 26.2% stated their methodological approach. We conclude that positivist/postpositivist approaches appear to maintain a predominant position in sport psychology research. Awareness of the importance of being clear about epistemology and methodology should be a goal for all researchers.

This article draws on data generated from a 31/2-year ethnographic study of the interface between Gypsy culture and the educational system in England. The evidence suggests that Gypsy children have distinctive spatial orientations that are embedded in their own culture and life experience. These relate to issues revolving around degrees of nomadic and sedentary lifestyles, and also around spatial awareness deriving from the site environment. In combination, these features have the potential to make the transition between home and school problematic. Moreover, the utilization of space by Gypsy children is often misinterpreted within schools, being at odds with, and constituting a challenge to, the structured social space of the school environment. In view of the multiple meanings of space, this raises issues about the lack of flexible responses in institutional contexts. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.

Drawing upon interviews with 22 young athletes aged on average 20 years, this article examines the ways in which they used observations of the ageing and old age of their family members to shape the ways in which they anticipated the ageing of their own bodies. The representations of the bodies, roles and lifestyles of their parents and grandparents provided ‘narrative maps’ that held pre-presentations of the young athletes' possible futures. They included both preferred and feared scenarios about middle age and old age, particularly the opportunities they would have for maintaining physical activity and the appearance of their bodies. The young men's and the young women's narrative maps differed: the women's accounts of old age gave more prominence to the loss of appearance, while the men's focused more on the loss of control and independence. The informants were highly sensitised to the biological dimensions of ageing which, for them, meant the inevitable decline of the material body, especially in performance terms, and both genders recognised social dimensions, particularly that responsibilities to jobs and family would constrain the time available for exercise. To understand more fully young athletes' experiences of self-ageing, and the family as a key arena for the embodied projection and inscription of ageing narratives, further research is required.

Drawing on data generated by a 3-year study, informed by ethnographic principles, of the interface between Gypsy culture and the educational system in the South West of England, this article focuses specifically on the experiences of young Gypsy males [1]. The manner in which they perform specific forms of masculine identity though business skills and dealing, fighting, and sex talk are considered. Tensions are highlighted regarding the ways in which these performances are valued in different communities of practice, and how this operates to maintain an atmosphere of suspicion regarding the educational system.

As part of a growing interest throughout the social sciences in narrative forms of inquiry, the issue of data analysis has come to the fore. Various scholars have illustrated that there are multiple ways to conduct a narrative analysis depending on the theoretical and political positioning of the researcher and the purposes of the inquiry (Andrew, Squire, and Tamboukou, 2008; Clandinin, 2007; Gubrium and Holstein, 2009; Holstein and Gubrium, 2012; Riessman, 2008). From the range of possibilities now available, this chapter focuses predominantly on one type, dialogical narrative analysis. For me, this form of analysis allows us to take seriously Frank's (2012) claim that storytelling is a dialogue of imaginations which is real in its consequences for how people act. This is particularly so in relation to how people act towards their own bodies and the bodies of others in ways that, as Frank notes, can sometimes be brutally real and sometimes heroically real depending on the circumstances that people find themselves in over time.

Designed to fill the space of a course book for BA, PGCE and ITT courses in PE. This book brings together for the first time current thinking in Physical Education, together with research findings and examples of best practice. It caters for the growing pedagogical component of the many new PE and Sports Science courses, and will benefit students and teachers alike, providing content, structure and direction to their studies.

Researchers in sport have claimed that reflective practice is important for competent practice. Evidence supporting this claim is sparse, highly theoretical and located within a variety of domains. The aim of this study was to assimilate and analyse the last 12 years of reflective practice literature within the sport domain in order to identify new areas of inquiry, emerging trends with regard to findings or methodology, and to identify implications for future research and practice. A sample of 68 papers published between 2001 and 2012 was examined, and investigated for the research locations, data collection methods utilised, and the professions and communities involved. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research.

Qualitative research has its own particular strengths and therefore is able to grasp the multi-dimensionality of meanings, contexts, unanticipated phenomena, processes and explanations which can be found in the world of sport, games and physical activity. The article gives an overview over the different subject fields and articles covered by this special issue of the Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research on sport science(s). © 2003 FQS.

This article draws upon life history data from a small group of men who have experienced spinal cord injury (SCI) through playing the sport of rugby union football and now define themselves as disabled. The salient and most common metaphors used by the men in telling their stories post SCI, and the manner in which this is shaped by three narrative types, is focused upon in detail. The implications of this dynamic process for their identity reconstruction as disabled men are considered.

A crescente preocupação pela pesquisa narrativa em ciências sociais tem tido pouco impacto sobre a educação física e ciências do esporte. Neste artigo, vamos tentar compensar esta situação questionando o significado desta pesquisa e sua utilidade para o nosso campo. Para compreender esta nova e complexa forma de pesquisa, o que primeiro tentamos definir que é "narrativa". Posteriormente, apresentamos as premissas básicas e características principais da investigação narrativa. Por fim, apresentamos algumas razões pelas quais ela pode ser benéfica para o estudo das narrativas em áreas específicas da educação física e esporte. Em conclusão, acreditamos que a investigação narrativa pode ser uma ferramenta útil, mas problemática, para a teorização e pesquisa em nosso campo. No entanto, chamamos a atenção para o risco de fazer investigação narrativa, simplesmente porque ela seja nova ou esteja na moda. Os pesquisadores e profissionais que queramos fazer pesquisa narrativa devemos informar-nos sobre os seus prós e contras e fazer escolhas responsáveis e sensatas sobre por que e quando fazer.

Abstract

This article explores the life story of a young man who experienced a spinal cord injury (SCI) and became disabled though playing the sport of rugby union football. His experiences post SCI illuminate the ways in which movement from one form of embodiment to another connects him to a dominant cultural narrative regarding recovery from SCI that is both tellable and acceptable in terms of plot and structure to those around him. Over time, the obdurate facts of his impaired and disabled body lead him to reject this dominant narrative and move into a story line that is located on Norrick's (2005) upper‐bounding side of tellability. This makes it transgressive, frightening, difficult to hear, and invokes the twin processes of deprivation of opportunity and infiltrated consciousness as described by Nelson (2001). These, and the effects of impairment, are seen to have direct consequences for the tellability of embodied experiences along with identity construction and narrative repair over time. Finally, some reflections are offered on how the conditions that negate the telling of his story might be challenged.

No abstract available.

The fourth edition of a classic, leading resource for the field of sport, exercise, and performance psychology Now expanded to two volumes, and featuring a wealth of new chapters from highly respected scholars in the field, this all-new ...

Ron Pelias (2011) describes himself trying to contemplate what qualitative work he wants to applaud and what efforts seem lacking. He’s curious as to why he is seduced by some work but not others, why the best work seems to engage and the weaker work seems to fall flat and leave him cold. Sitting at his desk, he is ready to consider other readings, but then he continues, putting an evaluative self forward that lists 12 contrasts between a flat piece and an engaging piece. One of these is as follows: The flat piece, a cold dinner, is forced down, taken in with little pleasure. It lacks the heat of the chef’s passions, the chef’s sensuous self who knows, without spice, all is bland. The engaging piece makes each mouthful worthy of comment, encourages lingering, savoring, remembering. In its presence, I want to invite my colleagues and students to enjoy its flavors.

Through a process of collaborative autoethnography, we explore the experiences of one female athlete named Bella who was groomed and then sexually abused by her male coach. Bella’s story signals how the structural conditions and power relationships embedded in competitive sporting environments, specifically the power invested in the coach, provide a unique sociocultural context that offers a number of potentialities for sexual abuse and exploitation to take place. We offer Bella’s story as a pedagogical resource for those involved in the world of sport to both think about and with as part of a process of encouraging change at the individual and institutional levels.

This study explores the reasons given by five elite athletes for choosing to seek psychiatric support and treatment outside, rather than inside, their own sport environments. Life story interviews were conducted with these athletes, who were recruited from an open psychiatric clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. The interviews were then subjected to a structural and a thematic narrative analysis. The former revealed the power of the performance narrative to frame the lives of the athletes by producing a single-minded focus on performance outcomes that justifies, and even demands, the exclusion of any form of psychological weakness or vulnerability. The latter revealed the relationship between the performance narrative and the process of stigmatization associated with psychiatric disorders in elite sport and how this pressures athletes to adopt specific Goffmanesque impression management strategies to protect themselves within their own sport environments. These strategies were as follows: wearing a mask (to hide their psychological suffering), adhering to a vow of silence (making stories of psychological suffering untellable in elite sport), and finding an alibi (a way of portraying suffering in an “acceptable” form). Finally, we reflect on implications for practice, including the potential of narrative care, to help elite athletes explore alternative narratives that might be supportive rather than dangerous companions when suffering from psychiatric disorders. Lay summary: Five elite athletes were interviewed about their experiences of living with psychiatric disorders, focusing on their choice to seek psychiatric treatment outside, rather than inside, their own sport environments. Stigma and adhering to a single-minded focus on performance forced the athletes to adopt different strategies to hide their psychological suffering.

Gaining access to formal institutions can be problematic for ethnographers. This is especially so when it comes to prisons where people are incarcerated by the state against their will for various crimes committed by them. Here, in such highly controlled environments, some authors have pointed out the lack of openness of correctional facilities to inquiry and the limited cooperation forthcoming from the various authorities that oversee them. Accordingly, this article examines the difficult processes undertaken to negotiate access to a high-security prison in Spain, and then maintain his role there for a 2-year period as a volunteer sports educator in order to explore the multiple meanings given to sport and physical activity in the prison setting by the prisoners, educational staff and the guards. The emotional costs and ethical dilemmas of sustaining working relationships with these different groups over time in order to achieve specific research goals are highlighted and reflections for future studies of prison life are offered.

This article examines how stories as actors can cause trouble in lives by focusing on the reactions of a competitive cyclist, named David, to the public confession by Lance Armstrong of being a drug cheat and a bully. We begin by providing a context for this trouble by considering the affective dynamics of fandom and the part this plays in the social construction of sporting heroes by self and others as part of an interactive process. Next, we examine the ways in which David’s narrative habitus draws him towards Armstrong’s heroic story as a gift that leads him to develop a strong athletic identity as a competitive cyclist and also become a committed fan that continually denies evidence regarding the behaviours of his hero. Following this, we focus on David’s emotional reactions to Armstrong’s betrayal and the identity management strategies he uses to disassociate himself from his disgraced hero. The role that material biographical objects perform in this process and the affective dilemmas they pose for David over time are highlighted. Attention is then given to issues of tellability and narrative silence regarding Armstrong’s story and their impact on David’s family and the wider cycling community. In closing, we offer some reflections on the ways that David’s story is shaped by the performative demands of specific kinds of masculinities prior to considering the narrative consequences of demonising Armstrong and making him the finalised villain of the piece.

Little is known about why disabled athletes choose to modify their bodies and the meanings that these modifications have for them. Drawing on data from a larger 4-year ethnographic study, we focus on the motivations and meanings of five athletes who had become disabled due to spinal cord injury (SCI) for tattooing their bodies in specific ways. Our analysis illuminates the following key themes as being significant in the body modification choices of those involved: re-inscribing identity, subverting the ableist stare and embodying disability pride, articulating gendered sexuality, and enabling the process of narrative mapping between pre- and post-spinal cord injury periods. In considering these themes we reveal some important contrasts between ablebodied and disabled forms of engagement with body modification practices.

Objectives: Narrative inquiry is one form of qualitative research that is burgeoning within the human sciences. However, in sport and exercise psychology little attention has been given to this approach. In this article, we seek to rectify this situation by offering an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be. Results: In order to begin to better understand what narrative inquiry as a methodology can be, and gain some theoretical purchase on a difficult field without aiming for a final answer, we first define narrative. Next, a distillation of guiding assumptions and characteristics are offered. Finally, some reasons as to why narratives may be of benefit for the field of sport and exercise psychology are highlighted. Conclusion: Narrative inquiry is a useful and important way of theorising and doing research in the domain of sport and exercise psychology. It should not, however, be taken up or practised simply because it is new or fashionable. Informed, principled, and responsible choices must be made by researchers and applied professionals about why and when they might engage with narrative inquiry should they wish to do so. Crown Copyright © 2008.

This paper considers the scope of poetic representation for exploring notions of health and wellbeing in the testimony of Holocaust survivors. The paper is based on the representation, through poetic form, of testimony derived from multiple in-depth interviews with a Holocaust survivor, Anka, in south-east Wales. This paper concentrates on two of those interviews, the first a life story and the second an interview focusing on health, illness and wellbeing. Two poetic representations, one derived from each interview, provide examples of the principal investigator’s response to the oral testimony, and the authors explore how these forms can present authentic and rigorous data distillates without detracting from the emotive, contextualised and powerful messages of the original text. The poetic representations offer an analysis of the survivor’s life experiences, especially in Auschwitz concentration camp, and her personal perspective on her health and wellbeing. The authors discuss the value of poetic representation as a methodological approach, consider the poetic form for working with survivor stories and suggest how others might judge these pieces, to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these alternative forms of data representation. They also consider the role of the researcher and Anka in creating the final product and the effect of Anka’s voice on the researchers’ work.

Qualitative forms of inquiry are a dynamic and exciting area within contemporary research in sport, exercise and health. Students and researchers at all levels are now expected to understand qualitative approaches and be able to employ them in their work. In this comprehensive and in-depth introductory text, Andrew C. Sparkes and Brett Smith take the reader on a journey through the entire qualitative research process that begins with the conceptualization of ideas and the planning of a study, moves through the phases of data collection and analysis, and then explains how findings might be represented in various ways to different audiences. Ethical issues are also explored in detail, as well as the ways that the goodness of qualitative research might be judged by its consumers. The book is based on the view that researchers need to make principled, informed and strategic decisions about what, why, when, and how to use qualitative forms of inquiry. The nature of qualitative research is explained in terms of both its core assumptions and what practitioners actually do in the field when they collect data and subject it to analysis. Each chapter is vividly illustrated with cases and examples from published research, to demonstrate different qualitative approaches in action and their relative strengths and weaknesses. The book also extends the boundaries of qualitative research by exploring innovative contemporary methodologies and novel ways to report research findings. Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health is essential reading for any student, researcher or professional who wishes to understand this form of inquiry and to engage in a research project within a sport, exercise or health context.

This paper offers insights into the increasing dichotomy that exists between official forms of opportunity and access and the actual 'lived experience' of young peoples' trajectories towards careers in the UK's market-orientated Sport-Fitness and Physical Education employment sectors. It does so by drawing on data generated by an 18-month ethnographic study to provide a case study of two students who chose to make the transition from a Foundation Degree in Sport Coaching (FdSc) onto a 'Top Up' Bachelor of Science (BSc) Sports Science and Coaching qualification. The paper illustrates their experiences of this transition in relation to the following phases of their trajectory (1) facilitators of transition (2) managing expectations (3) transformation and (4) isolation. The findings highlight how, for some individuals, current transitions facilitate a critical distance between individual dispositions towards education and the positions and practices of higher education. We suggest that education and employers must further listen to the voices and experiences of students that transcend the rhetorics of official policy discourse to facilitate a process in which the conditions of transition may begin to be reimagined. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis This article makes the case for taking sporting autobiographies seriously as both an analytical and pedagogical resource. First, the nature of autobiography is clarified and the interest shown by other disciplines in this genre is discussed. Next, the prevailing negative view of sporting autobiographies and the assumptions underlying them are outlined. These are then countered by the presentation of a more positive view that challenges a number of alleged ‘problems’ associated with sporting autobiographies that include being tainted by commercial commitments, the presence of the ghostwriter, and not being able to guarantee unmediated authenticity and ‘truth’. Various forms of narrative analysis (thematic, structural, performative/dialogical) are then described and examples of each of these being applied to sporting autobiographies are provided. Finally, attention is given to the use of sporting autobiographies as a pedagogical resource and the ways in which they might be productively used with students are discussed.

Hypnosis has long been recognized as an effective tool for producing behavioral change in the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. Despite many studies from the latter half of the last century suggesting that hypnosis might also be of value in managing obesity situations, the efficacy of hypnotherapy for weight reduction has received surprisingly little formal research attention since 2000. This review presents a brief history of early clinical studies using hypnosis for weight reduction and describes a hypnotherapeutic approach within which a combination of instructional/pedagogic and exploratory therapeutic sessions can work together synergistically to maximize the potential for sustained weight loss. Hypnotic modulation of appetite- and satiation-associated peptides and hormone levels may yield additional physiological benefits in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

SUMMARY

Introduction  Maturity‐onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is characterized by autosomal dominant inheritance of young‐onset non‐insulin‐dependent diabetes. It accounts for approximately 1% of Type 2 diabetes (approximately 20 000 people in the UK). Diagnostic and predictive genetic tests are now possible for 80% of MODY families. Diagnostic tests can be helpful as the diagnosis can be confirmed and the subtype defined which has implications for treatment and prognosis. However predictive genetic testing, particularly in children, raises many scientific, ethical and practical questions.

Methods  This is a case report of a family with diabetes resulting from an hepatic nuclear factor (HNF)1α mutation, who request a predictive test in their 5‐year‐old daughter. The scientific issues arising from molecular genetic testing in MODY are discussed, along with the process of genetic counselling. The views of the family and the clinical genetics team involved are presented.

Results  The implications of positive and negative predictive test results and the possibility of postponing the test were among many issues discussed during genetic counselling. The family remained convinced the test was appropriate for their daughter and the clinical genetics team fully supported this decision. The family, motivated by their family history of diabetes and personal experiences of the disease, wished to reduce uncertainty about their daughter's future irrespective of the result.

Conclusions  This case emphasizes that decisions on predictive testing are very personal and require appropriate counselling.

This paper explores the layered transitional experiences of a semi-professional athlete named Jack (a pseudonym) between the fields of professional sport and further and higher education. Our analysis is framed by the quadripartite framework of structuration and focuses on Jack's 'in-situ' practices at his college and university in order to illustrate how these can operate to reproduce, transform, and challenge the habitual discourses and rituals that circulate within these institutions by generating forms of corporeal empowerment for young athletes who have valued conjunctural knowledge. The findings highlight the fragility of the transition process and raise questions regarding how the experiences of young people are shaped by the relationships between employment and post-16 education. Jack's experiences have implications for both policy and practice within further education and higher education. © 2012 © 2012 Taylor & Francis.

Background and purpose: Given the dominance of negative cultural stereotypes focusing on the decline of the physical body in later life, growing old may be particularly significant for those who assign great importance to their able, functioning bodies. This study explored young athletes' perceptions of growing old by examining the relationships among physical self-perceptions, strength of athletic identity, quality of intergenerational relationships, and general attitude towards self-ageing. Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, 179 undergraduates enrolled on a Sport and Exercise Science degree programme completed the Physical Self-Perception Profile, Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, and the General Attitude towards Self-Ageing Scale. The sample included a range of individuals from both individual and team sports. The majority of participants competed with university teams, although county, regional and national levels were also represented. Results and conclusions: The analysis suggested that for this population, (a) a strong, exclusive athletic identity might act as an Achilles heel when imagining the future ageing body-self, (b) that this may be further reinforced by an absence of fulfilling relationships with older adults who are considered by the individual as positive role models for later life. Finally (c), that young athletes with a strong sense of physical self-worth displayed positive attitudes towards self-ageing. This may be because such individuals consider their physical selves to act as a protective mechanism in terms of maintaining functional ability in the future. The implications of these findings are considered in relation to narrative maps of ageing and for future research into athletes, bodies, identities and the process of growing up and growing old. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper draws on data generated by life history interviews with 22, university based, young athletes to explore their narrative maps of aging. Three key resources were seen to provide information that shaped individual stories of self-aging. These were as follows: family members, older team members, and the undergraduate curriculum. Each of these is considered in turn and the manner in which they are consequential in constructing a feared self that is associated with bodily decline in the future is highlighted. It is suggested that these young athletes constitute a vulnerable group in relation to the aging process. The issue of narrative foreclosure is then discussed prior to suggestions being made as to how these prevailing narrative maps might be challenged and changed. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This article utilizes data provided by 12 published autobiographies to explore the role of metaphor in shaping the illness experience of elite athletes. First, a case is made for the use of published autobiographies as a resource in sports-related studies for examining vocabularies of self, and the centrality of metaphor in the performance of significant personal and social narrative work is highlighted. Following this, the selected autobiographies are analysed to reveal the manner in which three narrative types frame the use of specific metaphors, and attention is given to their impact on the ways in which illness is described and understood by elite athletes and others. Finally, the limitations and possibilities of the autobiographical stories are considered along with the need for future research in this area. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

During recent years, research in health geography has engaged with peoples' health as well as diseases, an interest reflected by therapeutic geographies and geographies of public health. At the same time, studies have focused on micro-contexts such as the body, reflected in geographies of diseased and disadvantaged bodies. However, little research has combined elements of the two approaches and engaged in research on active healthy bodies and fitness. Equally the sub-discipline of sports geography provides little insight into fitness activities because this research has tended to focus on elite sports, their fans and facilities. Given these contexts, a detailed case study is presented to demonstrate the potential for geographical research on fitness. Through an observational study of a specialist gym facility, the study investigates how bodybuilding culture and place are co-produced. Indeed, the gym provides a narrative resource and a crucial setting for individual body projects and collective body culture which involve social conflicts, cohesions and hierarchies, illegal and potentially health harming activities, as well as personal comfort and therapeutic attachments. It is argued that beyond this case study, many activities crosscut health maintenance, or conversely risks to health, and the enjoyment of sports and fitness. A greater emphasis therefore at the sub-disciplinary interface of sports and health geography on hybrid 'fitness geographies' may help researchers towards a more comprehensive understanding, and coverage, of health issues in society. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. The processes involved in the transition from crime to desistance, in relation to how those involved in criminal activity give meaning to their experiences of aging over time, has received little empirical scrutiny in the criminological literature. In this article, we unpack and flesh out the multiple meanings of age by drawing on a life story study of desistance from crime. Our analysis foregrounds the following key themes and the interactive parts they play in the process of desistence: general perceptions of aging (critical ages and the ambiguity of age); the significance of the aging body (crime as a young person's game, tiredness, and slowing down); age and risk assessment; and feelings of missing out and lost time with age. We conclude by suggesting that researchers into the phenomenon of desistance with an interest in maturation theory might benefit from integrating work undertaken in the sociology of embodiment and critical gerontology. A brief example of how this integration might operate is provided.

There has been a significant increase in interest in qualitative methodologies since the turn of the century. One reason for this increased interest is a desire to understand the different ways which can inform how we understand social reality and, as researchers, describe and represent the social reality of those we work with. Creative analytical practices (CAPs) are one novel way in which researchers have worked to analyze and (re-)present knowledge developed through stories shared by those they have engaged in the research process. This scoping review provides a descriptive overview of the extent, range, and nature of the use of CAPs in sport, exercise, and performance psychology by reviewing research using a form of CAP to represent research findings published over the past 20 years in six high-profile sport, exercise, and performance psychology journals. Based on the analysis of 43 published articles, four descriptive themes are presented: “the ascent of creative nonfiction and composite stories,” “centralizing marginalized voices,” “researchers as storytellers,” and “judging the quality of CAPs.” Critical thoughts, developed from a connoisseurship position, are then shared in the form of three questions posed to current and potential authors of CAPs: “Is there a hesitancy to push the boundaries?” “Why choose to engage with CAPs as a form of representation?” and “Who are we writing our stories with?” The review ends with the authors’ thoughts on how sport, exercise, and performance psychology researchers can begin to use CAPs to move from describing “what is” to imagining “what could be.”

Eating disorders are highly prevalent in elite athletes but the lived experience of these has not been investigated extensively. In this article, we draw on life story data generated from four hours of interviews with a young (20 years plus), Swedish, elite, female athlete in an individual sport, named Lisa (a pseudonym) to explore her experiences of living with, seeking treatment, and attempting to recover from a diagnosed eating disorder. This exploration is accomplished by the use of poetic representations. Having made the methodological case for their use we then present the poems for consideration by the reader. The three poems are entitled All the little pointers, The voice inside my head, and Turning it around. Following this, we offer some reflections on how each poem might act as a pedagogical resource to assist those involved with elite athletes to better understand the nature of eating disorders, how the sporting environment can play a role in initiating and sustaining them, and how athletes might be supported and guided on the road to recovery.

This article is informed by recent trends in narrative research that focus on the meaning-making actions of those involved in describing the life course. Drawing upon data generated during a series of interactive interviews with a 70-year-old physically active man named Fred, his story is presented to illustrate a strategic model of narrative activity. In particular, using the concepts of 'big stories' and 'small stories' as an analytical framework, we trace Fred's use of two specific identities; being fit and healthy, and being leisurely to analyse the ways that he accomplishes an ontological narrative where the plot line reads; 'Life is what you make it'. The ways in which this narrative enables Fred to perform a narrative of positive self-ageing in his everyday life is illustrated. Finally, the analytical possibilities of being attentive to both big and small stories in narrative analysis are discussed. © 2009 SAGE Publications.

Drawing on data generated from a six-year ethnographic study of one Wing Chun Kung Fu Association in England, this article explores the ways in which this martial art is constructed as a form of religion and functions as a secular religious practice for core members of this association. Two key features of this process are identified. The first involves the ways in which Wing Chun evolves from an everyday secular practice into something that takes on sacralized meanings for participants while the second focuses on the development of a Wing Chun habitus over time. The article closes with a discussion of how the findings relate to broader discussions of martial arts practices, religion and spirituality in Western cultures.

In this article the author seeks to explore the dynamics of father–son relationships by calling upon bits and pieces of memory and representing them through poetic forms and vignettes. Issues of embodiment, ageing, social class, masculinity, sport, and vulnerability as multilayered and interrelated phenomena pervade the text. The constraining and enabling influence each of these can have on emerging senses of body-self and how they are transmitted across generations is hinted at throughout. It is hoped that readers might add their own bits and pieces in the full acknowledgment that memories are tricksters and shape shifters.

In this article, we explore how biographical time is storied by a particular group of young athletes in relation to their experiences and expectations of embodied ageing. The data suggests that at present, as able and sporting bodies, their everyday experiences are framed by the cyclical, maximizing, and disciplined notions of time associated with the social organization of sport. In their middle years, however, it was perceived that time would be pressured. In contrast, when talking about old age, empty time and static time were expected. The ways in which three different narratives of self operate to shape the projected experiences of time for these individuals are highlighted, and the implications of this process for their ability to access diverse narrative resources of ageing is discussed.

Drawing on life history data generated from interviews with young athletes at an English university, this paper explores the narrative maps provided to them by older team members and the ways in which these influence perceptions of self-ageing. Three possible selves associated with mid-life emerged from the analysis for detailed focus. These are the preferred self (Almost past it), the feared self (Hanging on) and the reluctant self (Stepping aside). The implications of each of these selves for the ageing experience are considered. Finally, some suggestions are made as to how the narrative resources of young athletes might be expanded. © 2007 Taylor & Francis.

Just as those who suffer a disabling spinal cord injury (SCI) through sport become wounded storytellers so do their spouses/partners. Little however is known about the experiences of such spouses/partners and even less is known about how time operates to shape these experiences. This article, therefore, draws on life story data to explore the experiences of three women whose male spouses/partners have become disabled due to a SCI received whilst playing rugby. A thematic narrative analysis revealed how this event instigates a temporal-relational disruption that catapults these women into living in, by and through different types of time that operate in a multi-dimensional manner to shape how they construct their identities and come to understand themselves and others with a past, and a present, that has consequences for their future. The implications of this process for health care professionals in supporting those who face similar sets of circumstance are considered.

This article explores a number of insights generated from a three-year ethnographic study of one university setting in England in which a 'jock culture' is seen to dominate a student campus. Drawing on core concepts from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture, it illustrates the unique function of the body in sustaining jock culture through the hierarchical ordering of bodies in institutional space. First, the development of this culture over time and the key dispositions that come to embody it are outlined. Next, the authors identify and illustrate the enactment of what they call the 'Twelve Commandments'. These operate as a series of structured and structuring practices to condition the bodies of group members by appropriating an idealized and internalized jock habitus that is not gender neutral. Rather, it can be seen as a practical and symbolic manifestation of a dominant, heterosexual, masculine orientation to the world. The authors suggest that in spite of seemingly significant processes of accommodation over the years, the 'illusio' of this jock culture remains substantially intact and maintained through a combination of the following: (a) symbolic violence and (b) a systematic embodied complicity on the part of many of the actors who have something to gain by avoiding active subordination to, and exclusion from, the dominant group.

This paper seeks to extend the analytical scope of qualitative inquiry and our understanding on the analysis of stories we elicit and collect in the domains of sport and physical activity. Painting with broad strokes, we consider fi ve ways in which narratives can be analyzed to incorporate the hows and the whats of their telling. These are an analysis of conversation, an analysis of discourse, an analysis of how narratives are performed, an analysis of content, and an analysis of structure. In all sections, various strengths and weaknesses of each approach are identifi ed and exemplars are provided. The paper closes by suggesting that researchers might consider using a variety of analyses in order to assist them to understand the complexities of the social world in different ways. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Narratives are actors that do things in terms of shaping experience. They perform the work of subjectification informing people who they ought to be, who they might like to be, and who they can be (Frank, Health 10(4):421–440, 2006, Letting stories breathe: a socio-narratology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010). In this chapter, we explore the ways in which the restitution and quest narratives as described by Frank (The wounded storyteller: body, illness, and ethics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995) work to give different meanings to the experiences of a small group of amateur sportsmen who have suffered catastrophic spinal cord injury (SCI) through playing the sport of rugby football union. As an actor, each narrative provides contrasting sets of metaphor, time tenses, and senses of hope for the narrative reconstruction of body-self relationships over time. While the restitution narrative is useful for certain purposes and sets of circumstance, our analysis suggests that the quest narrative holds the greater possibility of achieving the key features of posttraumatic growth.

There has been limited research focusing upon experiences and expectations of the self in relation to the anticipated passing of time and subsequent process of self-aging. Accordingly, this article aims to examine the narrative construction of selves in time in a population of young athletes (mean age 20 years). A number of anticipated changes to the self are considered, including the ways in which the self relates to notions of embodiment and social context over time. Aging into the sporting self in the present, and the settled and reflective self in the future are highlighted. The consequences of these selves in relation to Western notions of an idealized life curve are problematized. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This article draws upon data generated from life history interviews with a small group of men who had experienced spinal cord injury (SCI) through playing sport and defined themselves as disabled. By focusing on the initial acute phase of rehabilitation following SCI their autobiographical memories of pain are explored in relation to the narratives constructed by the participants some years after the event had taken place. Attention is given to the themes of unspeakable pain, naming pain, welcomed pain, hidden pain and locked in pain. The analysis highlights the contextual nature of this phenomenon and the narrative resources that are drawn upon by individuals to give meaning to pain over time.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the meanings of outdoor physical activity in the natural environment for parentally-bereaved young people. It draws on data generated from a two-year ethnographic study that focused on the experiences of those involved with the Rocky Centre, a childhood bereavement service in the UK. Data was collected via extended periods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with both staff and service users. One of the key themes to emerge from the analysis was that of physical activity in different environments. The meanings that the parentally-bereaved young people attributed to outdoor physical activity clustered around four sub-themes. These were: sense of freedom; distraction/escapism; retaining memories; and family cohesion. Each of these are considered in detail and their implications for future practice and research are discussed. © 2011 Copyright 2011 Institute for Outdoor Learning.

In a recent editorial, Morse warned against qualitative health researchers turning their backs on fundamental concepts such as validity and called on them to think, reconsider, and undo. With a view to stimulating further dialogue, in this article the author explores where this thinking, reconsidering, and undoing might take us in relation to the concept of validity. Four perspectives on this issue are presented for discussion: the replication, parallel, diversification, and letting-go perspectives. Each is seen as worthy of consideration in its own right, and it is suggested that coexistence of the perspectives is possible despite their differences. The implications of various forms of coexistence are discussed in relation to the problem of criteria. It is recommended that qualitative health researchers learn to judge a variety of approaches in different but appropriate ways.

Contemporary aspects of research methods in sport and exercise psychology are discussed in this wide-ranging review. After an introduction centred on trends in sport and exercise psychology methods, the review is organized around the major themes of quantitative and qualitative research. Our aim is to highlight areas that may be problematic or controversial (e.g. stepwise statistical procedures), underused (e.g. discriminant analysis), increasingly used (e.g. meta-analysis, structural equation modelling, qualitative content analysis) and emergent (e.g. realist tales of writing). Perspectives range from the technical and speculative to the controversial and critical. While deliberately not providing a 'cookbook' approach to research methods, we hope to provide enough material to help researchers to appreciate the diversity of potential methods and to adopt a more critical perspective in their own research consumption and production.

This ethnographic study examined how a group of high altitude climbers (N = 6) drew on ethnomethodological principles (the documentary method of interpretation, reflexivity, indexicality, and membership) to interpret their experiences of cognitive dissonance during an attempt to scale Mt. Everest. Data were collected via participant observation, interviews, and a field diary. Each data source was subjected to a content mode of analysis. Results revealed how cognitive dissonance reduction is accomplished from within the interaction between a pattern of self-justification and self-inconsistencies; how the reflexive nature of cognitive dissonance is experienced; how specific features of the setting are inextricably linked to the cognitive dissonance experience; and how climbers draw upon a shared stock of knowledge in their experiences with cognitive dissonance.

In recent years, qualitative researchers in psychology have become increasingly interested in narrative inquiry. With a view to stimulating dialogue, in this article, we seek to make better sense of this field by exploring a range of theoretical tensions and differences embedded within it. Organized around three overall themes, eight contrasting perspectives are presented for discussion. Theme one, termed 'narrative and the self, is comprised of tensions surrounding: the relation between narrative and self; the unity of self; and the coherence of self. Theme two, 'ontology or nature of narrative', covers: (neo)realism/relativism; interiority or externality; and constructionism. The final theme, labelled 'approaches to narrative research', consists of tensions entailing: the whats and/or the hows, and an analysis of narrative and storytelling. We close by suggesting that each contrasting perspective is worthy of consideration in its own right and that co-existence is possible despite some differences. © 2006 SAGE Publications.

This introductory chapter highlights some of the central features of the complex and shifting landscape in which each are embedded. It considers how the relationship between the fleshy, material, biological body and that of culture has been played out and debated in recent years within the social sciences. The chapter examines the impact of the sensory revolution in a range of disciplines and its implications for how we re-conceptualise body-self-society relationships over time in different settings and cultures. It explores the work of scholars who have actively engaged with the senses and the sensorium in their studies and have added to the understanding of the multi- and inter-sensoriality of embodied experience in physical cultures. This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book.

This chapter expresses that seeking the senses in physical culture and producing sensuous scholarship is not easy and that it is hard work. Sensuous scholarship cannot easily tune into the sensuality of everyday life. It can bring our experiences of the sensual world to life in their multiple shapes, colors, tonalities, textures, patterns, sonic reverberations and pulses, in their tastes and odors, movements and imbalances, fragrances and painful sensations. The rethinking and reinterpretation and expanding of the traditional interview to incorporate a sensory awareness that draws on an expanded repertoire of interview elicitation strategies to use the senses as access points, is evident in the work of a number of physical culture researchers. Professional, methodological, pedagogical and representational risks will need to be taken if sensory forms of inquiry are to fulfill their rich potential for advancing our understanding of how and why people, both individually and collectively, engage with and give meaning to physical culture activities and settings.

In this article, I select items from various lists of published ethical guidelines for autoethnographers and use them as starting points prior to subjecting each to interrogation. This interrogation takes place via the following six thinking points: The (im)possibility of anonymity and confidentiality, the ownership of stories, informed consent, member checking, do no harm to others, and do no harm to self. Each of these reveals a contested and messy terrain as opposed to the neatness implied in the recommendations of ethical guidelines about how such research should be conducted. Throughout, I seek to demonstrate that autoethnography, like any other qualitative research approach, poses difficult, but not insurmountable ethical challenges. These need to be addressed in a principled and informed manner that necessarily rejects rigid assertions of ‘should do’ in favour of a more fluid notion of ‘it depends’ on time, context, culture and purpose.

This chapter considers the three major texts on autoethnography, including Handbook of Autoethnography, Contemporary British Autoethnography, Turner, and Grant; and Autoethnography. Such texts represent a coming of age for autoethnography. They provide a wonderful resource to guide and support both seasoned autoethnographers and newcomers alike. Consequently, the chapter argues that it is a good time to be an autoethnographer and a good time to think about becoming one. The chapter explores some of the consequences and comforts of autoethnography's coming of age. Autoethnography remains one of the most difficult and challenging qualitative approaches for the foreseeable future and that those who choose this approach need do so with a full awareness of what they are taking on and the risks involved. The chapter further considers some of these risks in more detail as they warrant the concerns of all qualitative researchers, and autoethnographers in particular.

In this article, we seek to expand our understanding of the micropolitics of school life by drawing on data generated from a one-year ethnographic study of a physical education (PE) department at a high school in the North of England. Specific attention is given to the structured demands placed upon the Departmental Head in the face of an imminent Ofsted inspection where the school is determined to maintain their ‘Outstanding’ grading. The manner in which these demands coupled with her own teaching perspective, lead her to use power through, with, and over as part of a micropolitical strategy to achieve her desired aims are considered in detail. Likewise, attention is also given to the micropolitical strategies used by the members of the department to challenge her aims and protect their own self and career interests. The superordinate goal of status enhancement is seen to gloss over internal departmental tensions and conflicts leading to a situation of contrived as opposed to authentic collegiality.

This article offers autoethnographic insights into the consequences of making a spectacle of oneself in the audit culture of the academy. Spectacle 1 explores my experiences of using the h-index as part of an annual salary review and how this made me feel like an artificial person. Spectacle 2 shows how, at a conference, I used laughter to expose some absurdities of the h-index and felt better for doing so. Stories that tell different truths about ourselves in combination with the corporeality of laughter, I suggest, can assist us to re-attune ourselves and resist the process of becoming artificial persons.

In this article I offer some reflections of how my evaluative self goes about passing judgement on different kinds of autoethnography. I begin by making distinctions between the autobiographical and the autoethnographic before raising questions about whether or not self-reflexive accounts of the field- work process can claim the title of autoethnography. Following this, I consider the lists of criteria others have made available to my evaluative self for judging analytic, evocative and performance autoethnographies. Having acknowledged the dangers and possibilities of such lists attention then turns to how my evaluative self might go about judging a selection of autoethnographies published in Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health using multiple criteria from a variety of sources. Rather than being purely a cognitive, linear and rational act the process described is messy, tentative, contingent, and deeply embodied as my evaluative self feels its way towards making certain kinds of judgement calls over others.

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.

Las actividades deportivas forman parte del paisaje de las prisiones. Sin embargo, escasea el conocimiento sobre el papel que desempeñan en la vida cotidiana de las cárceles. Por ello realizamos un estudio etnográfico, principalmente en el polideportivo de una prisión española, dirigido a comprender los significados que el ejercicio físico y el deporte tenían para los presos, funcionarios, educadores y monitores. Los resultados indican que la reinserción mediante estas prácticas es una ilusión, a pesar de ser la finalidad oficial de la reclusión. Aun así, les asignan diversos beneficios, especialmente los presos y presas. Entre ellos se encuentra el potencial educativo ligado al autocontrol y, sobre todo, el entretenimiento y la compensación para ocupar el tiempo, huir del hastío y sobrellevar los problemas del encierro. El artículo concluye que el ejercicio y el deporte pueden tener un papel de “evasión” simbólica y liberación personal, aunque los presos viven atenazados por un contexto en el que prima el orden y el control por encima de todo.

El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en indagar en la construcción de la identidad profesional de Alex (pseudónimo), el educador físico responsable de la actividad física y el deporte de una prisión española. Para ello hemos utilizado una perspectiva biográfico-dialéctica basada, fundamentalmente, en entrevistas, que atiende especialmente a las experiencias previas, las fuentes contextuales y las estrategias micropolíticas utilizadas por Alex en su lugar de trabajo. La búsqueda de unas mejores condiciones de trabajo y reconocimiento profesional mediatizan las estrategias utilizadas en la negociación diaria de su identidad profesional. Pero dicha identidad también se ha construido en un diálogo entre su experiencia deportiva y el discurso del rendimiento que se encuentra presente a nivel macrosocial. Este estudio ejemplifica un caso particular, aunque no único, de socialización profesional que contribuye a iluminar la (re)construcción de la identidad de los profesionales de la actividad física y el deporte que trabajan en contextos marginales.

Over the life course our ‘real’ bodies change and we come to inhabit them and know them and ourselves in different ways. Of course, just how we learn to inhabit different bodies in the flesh and give meaning to them over time is a complex relational process that has consequences for our being in the world. Central to this process is the role of narrative. Culture provides people with a menu of narrative forms and content from which they selectively draw in an effort to line up their lived experience with the kinds of stories available to organize and express it to themselves and others. This narrative menu operates as a key resource in linking the sensorial materiality of the body to wider social structures that shape the meaning making process at the individual and group level. As such, narrative resources can be both enabling and constraining when the individual confronts bodily change. In this article, we explore the ways in which narratives as an embodied act infuse the flesh and help give meaning to dramatic bodily change for a small group of amateur sportsmen who have suffered catastrophic spinal cord injuries and become disabled through playing the sport of rugby football union. We close by offering some reflections on the dilemmas that bodily change instigates for those who operate with limited narrative resources and the pedagogical challenges this provides for those involved with them. Keywords: Bodies; Identities; Spinal cord injury; Narrative; Pedagogy

In much research dealing with sport technologies and the process of cyborgification there is a significant lack of attention given to the experiences of athletes themselves. This is particularly so for disabled athletes. Against this backdrop of neglect, we draw on data generated from a 4-year ethnographic study that explored the experiences and meanings of disability sport for those who became involved in it following a spinal cord injury, and here we focus specifically on the process of becoming a disabled sporting cyborg. Our analysis reveals the following phases in this process: from taken-forgranted to techno-survival cyborgs; rehabilitation centres and becoming a technically competent cyborg; everyday life as an embodied cyborg; becoming a disabled sporting cyborg. The dynamics of each phase, how they relate to each other, and how they shape body-self-technology relationships over time are considered in detail. In closing we offer some reflections on the consequences of cyborgification and the implications of this process for constructions of ability and disability. We also raise questions regarding the structural and ethical implications of cyborgification, particularly in terms of the validation of certain kinds of bodies at the expense of others and therole of technology in reproducing social inequalities.

This article explores the impact of the binary configuration of disabled bodies as opposite and unequal to able bodies, and whether or not contemporary bodybuilding provides a space where this dualism can be overcome. Drawing on life history interviews with Dan, a professional wheelchair bodybuilder, we consider how his hyper-muscular upper body may position him as a supercrip and thereby reinforce bodily and gender norms. Simultaneously, Dan’s powerful, disabled body and a competitive context that applies standard judgement criteria across all bodies potentially subverts this normative configuration. We reflect on the contradictions engendered by Dan’s corporeality by drawing on notions of the bodybuilder as body-garde involved in a process of enfreakment that disrupts and transcends contemporary bodily ideals. Here, variable self reflexive bodybuilding projects can accommodate contingent conceptualisations of perfection, including disability, with implications for disabled bodies and identities more broadly.

Narrative practice is an approach that enables researchers to alternately focus on the whats and hows of meaningful social interaction. The potential benefits of utilizing this approach in sport psychology are highlighted by focusing on the area of flow as an exemplar. It is suggested that the majority of work on flow has focused on the whats rather than on the equally important hows of this phenomenon. To illustrate the ways in which a concern for the hows of narrative practice can provide different insights into flow, data are provided from an interview-based study of a white water canoeing club. The findings suggest that describing flow is a relational performance, which is shaped by a number of narrative resources and auspices that operate differently according to gender.

The purpose of this two-year ethnographic study was to explore the experiences of parentally bereaved young people who sought support from the Rocky Centre (a pseudonym), a childhood bereavement service in the United Kingdom. Data were generated from extended periods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with both staff and service users. In this article we focus specifically on the interviews with 13 young people to elucidate the factors that helped them to live with parental bereavement. Of these participants, four had been recently bereaved and nine had experienced the death of a parent over ten years ago. Seven key themes emerged from the analysis of the interview data: expressing emotion, physical activity, positive adult relationship(s), area of competence, friendships/social support, having fun/humour and transcendence. These themes are discussed in turn, and implications for research and practice are addressed.

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to differentiate between a sociology of the body and an embodied sociology, prior to considering what this might mean in methodological terms for those wishing to conduct research into the senses and the sensorium in sport and physical culture. Design/methodology/ approach - The approach taken involves reviewing the work of those who have already engaged with the senses in sport and physical culture in order to highlight an important methodological challenge. This revolves around how researchers might seek to gain access to the senses of others and explore the sensorium in action. To illustrate how this challenge can be addressed, a number of studies that have utilised visual technologies in combination with interviews are examined and the potential this approach has in seeking the senses is considered. Findings - The findings confirm the interview as a multi-sensory event and the potential of visual technologies to provide access to the range of senses involved in sport and physical culture activities. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of traditional forms of inquiry and representational genres for both seeking the senses and communicating these to a range of different audiences are highlighted and alternatives are suggested. Originality/value - The chapter's originality lies in its portrayal of unacknowledged potentialities for seeking the senses using standard methodologies, and how these might be developed further, in creative combination with more novel approaches, as part of a future shift towards more sensuous forms of scholarship in sport and physical culture. © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Experiencing a spinal cord injury (SCI) and becoming disabled through sport is a major disruptive life event that instigates a multiplicity of difficult and complex issues that the person has to deal with. One of these problems is how to restory a life and construct new body/self relationships and identities over time. To explore this process, we focus on the life stories of a small group of men (n = 14) who have suffered SCI and become disabled through playing rugby football. We illustrate the ways in which certain metaphors, notions of time, and kinds of hope, congregate and coalesce within three specific narrative types and how these operate to shape the individual experiences of these men following SCI. The implications of this dynamic process for the storied body/self and identity construction are highlighted throughout.

Motivation of physical educators at work was investigated within the perspective of Rusbult and Farrell'S (1983) Investment Model. This involved the development of theory-driven instrumentation to assess elements of motivation hypothesised to underpin job commitment-the degree of psychological attachment to the job. Two separate data collections were undertaken involving 60 and 183 British physical education teachers. Through item analyses, factor analyses, and estimates of internal reliability, the Motivation Profile for Physical Educators (MPPE) was developed. This profile includes scales to assess levels of (a) job satisfaction, (b) job dissatisfaction, (c) personal investments in the job, and (d) perceived career alternatives. The first three scales incorporate intrinsic and extrinsic subscales established through factor analysis. Internal reliability was acceptable for all scales although marginal for perceived career alternatives and the intrinsic job satisfaction subscale. Preliminary validity for the MPPE was indicated by its capacity to differentiate late career from early and mid-career male but not female teachers, to explain significant variance in job commitment, and in logical relationships with job seeking behaviour, job seeking intentions, and also life satisfaction. The MPPE provides the first attempt at theoretically driven and systematic documentation of the complex nature of the attachment of physical educators to their work. Further research is required to replicate current findings, assess the generalisability of the MPPE to other cultures, and to more closely investigate the role that motivation plays in teacher performance. Furthermore, the theory and instrumentation may be useful for the investigation of work motivation of teachers in general.

This article explores what it means to be there in ethnographic research within sport, exercise and health contexts. Drawing upon an eighteen-month ethnography of a bouldering community, we conceptualise being there not merely as physical presence, but as a skilled and intentional approach to conducting ethnography. Through a somatic layered account centred on climbing shoes, we illuminate how corporeal immersion facilitates nuanced, reflexive understandings of subcultural practices, identities and sensory codes. In arguing for an embodied, sensuous and apprenticeship-based approach to fieldwork, we contrast our notion of being there with others forms of ethnography highlighting the epistemic depth offered by sensuous participation over more detached modalities. We caution against the increasing institutional and methodological drift towards convenience-driven approaches and instead advocate for purposeful, context-sensitive engagements with the field. In doing so, we reposition being there as a dynamic mode of knowing: active, emplaced and pedagogical. Ultimately, we call on qualitative researchers to prioritise the how rather than the how long of ethnographic presence and to revalue the sweaty, sticky and, at times, painful pursuit of becoming-with others in this form of inquiry.

his study examined university gym use by staff and students using mixed methods: participant observation and an e-survey. Research in three UK universities entailed 16 observation sessions and an e-survey that reached 3396 students and staff. The research focused on gym use, the gym environment, the presentation of the self, and social interaction within gym spaces. The gyms were found to have a difficult role to play in providing functionality for some, while helping others to be active and minimize feelings of isolation and lack of control. This led to these gyms developing spaces of exercise rather than therapeutic spaces, and divisions in use of space, with some areas rarely used and often highly gendered, resulting in contested meanings produced within Healthy University discourses and physical activities.

Drawing on data generated by life history interviews and fieldwork observations we illuminate the ways in which a young elite athlete named David (a pseudonym) gave meaning to his experiences of cancer that eventually led to his death. Central to this process were the ways in which David utilized both social comparisons and a narrative map provided by the published autobiography of Lance Armstrong (2000). Our analysis reveals the selective manner in which social comparison processes operated around the following key dimensions: mental attitude to treatment; the sporting body; the ageing body; and physical appearance. The manner in which different comparison targets were chosen, the ways in which these were framed by Armstrong's autobiography, and the work that the restitution narrative as an actor did in this process are also examined. Some reflections are offered regarding the experiential consequences of the social comparison processes utilized by David when these are shaped by specific forms of embodiment and selective narrative maps of cancer survival.

This article is intended to stimulate debate regarding recent calls for fictional representations to be used within the sociology of sport. Based on the notion of “being there,” it differentiates between ethnographic fiction and creative fiction. Examples of the former are provided, and their grounding in the tradition of creative nonfiction is established. Moves toward the use of creative fiction are then considered in relation to the willingness of authors to invent people, places, and events in the service of producing an illuminative and evocative story. The issue of purpose is highlighted and various reasons why researchers might opt to craft an ethnographic fiction or creative fiction are discussed. Next, some risks associated with choosing fictional forms of representation are considered. Finally, the issue of passing judgment on new writing practices is briefly discussed.

This article focuses on Lance Armstrong’s autobiography titled It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. From a perspective informed by autobiographical studies and the sociology of the body and illness, insights are provided into a variety of bodies, selves, and narratives that circulate within the text. The case is made that early in his sporting career, Armstrong develops a disciplined and dominating body that has an elective affinity for the cyborg narrative. On being diagnosed with cancer, these ideal body types lead him toward a restitution narrative. The illness experience, however, provides an opportunity for a communicative body to emerge that links him to a quest narrative. On returning to elite sport, former body-self relationships are restored and foregrounded. Issues are raised regarding the cultural shaping of Armstrong’s autobiography, and its form and content are problematized.

This study draws upon life history data to investigate the influence of social support on the lives of 6 men who had acquired a spinal cord injury and become disabled through playing sport. Interviews were analyzed utilizing categorical-content analysis (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). The participants experienced emotional, esteem, informational, and tangible support (Rees & Hardy, 2000) from various sources. Alongside the positive influence of social support, examples are shown of inappropriate or negatively-experienced support and where participants considered sport to be lacking. The spinal cord injured person is encouraged to be proactive in resourcing social support, but providers might also be taught to recognize the impact, either positively or negatively, that their giving support can have.

Drawing on data from a three-year ethnographic study of Gypsy life in England, this article explores Gypsy orientations toward space. The tensions that exist at the interface between sedentarism and nomadism are considered against a background of changing lifestyles due to shifting socioeconomic factors and recent government legislation. Attention is given to the dilemmas confronting participants subsequent to moving into houses and also to notions of space as expressed by those living on sites. The manner in which spatcial organization frames social relationships is highlighted. Throughout, there is reflection upon the ways in which Gypsy identity is actively constructed in relation to space.

Based on an ethnographic study of a collegiate soccer team over an eight-month season, the purpose of this paper is to identify and examine the factors that contributed to team cohesion. Data were collected via participant observation, formal and informal interviews, documentary sources, a field diary, and a reflexive journal. The description-analysis-interpretation approach recommended by Wolcott (1994) framed the data analysis. Four key themes that influenced cohesion were clear and meaningful roles, selfishness/personal sacrifices, communication, and team goals. The fluctuating nature of these themes are discussed in relation to the multidimensional heuristic for cohesion presented by Cota, Evans, Dion, Kilik, and Longman (1995).

Narratives do things. This performative aspect of narrative includes calling on people for a response. This article explores the responses we have witnessed to a chaos narrative told to us by a disabled man that we then shared with different audiences over time. The following four types of response were identified: depression-therapy restitution stories; breakthrough restitution stories; social model stories; and solace stories. Each kind of response is focused on in detail, and their potentials and limitations are considered. The article does not promote one response over another, or seek the last word on the four responses, as the intention is to generate dialogue rather than to finalize. Future possibilities regarding narrative research and responding to stories are also considered.

Biographical Methods are gaining ground in contemporary social research impacted by the various ‘turns’ in sociology including the ‘narrative’, ‘visual and sensory’, ‘performative’ as well as being connected to a long and deeply embedded set of histories of doing life stories, biographies and oral histories linked to Chicago sociologists, historians, reformers and working-class politics. As Miller (2003: 15) makes clear, biographical methodologies place emphasis upon ‘the collection and analysis of an intensive account of a whole life or portion of a life … the biographical approach emphasises the placement of the individual within a nexus of social connections, historical events and life experiences (the life history).’ The biographical researcher focuses upon the ways in which narratives are constructed and reconstructed in response to social contexts as well as psycho-social ‘matterings’ and internal dialogues.

Objectives: Although a considerable amount of research has explored the effects of physical activity on mental health, the voices of people with mental illness have been largely excluded from published reports. Through this study we aim to foreground service users' voices in order to shed light on the personal and subjective nature of the relationship between physical activity and serious mental illness (SMI). Methods: An interpretive case study approach was used to explore in depth the physical activity experiences of three men with SMI. Creative analytic practice was used to write three creative non-fictions which, as first-person narratives, foreground the participants' voices. Results: We present three short stories in an effort to communicate participants' personal and subjective experiences of physical activity in an accessible, engaging, and evocative manner. We hope to: (i) provide potentially motivating physical activity success stories for others who live with SMI; (ii) increase awareness among mental health professionals of the possibilities of physical activity; and (iii) provide an empathetic understanding of possibilities and problems of living with SMI which may help challenge the stigma surrounding mental illness. Conclusions: For us, the stories communicate the diversity and difference inherent in the ways men with SMI experience physical activity. We reflect on how the short story form allows these differences to be preserved and respected. We resist making further interpretations of the stories preferring instead to encourage the reader to form her or his own conclusions. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

As part of the emergence of new writing practices in the social sciences, qualitative researchers have begun to harness the potential of poetic representations as a means of analyzing social worlds and communicating their findings to others. To date, however, this genre has received little attention in sport psychology. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to raise awareness and generate discussion about poetic representations. First, the potential benefits of using this genre are outlined. Next, based on interview data from a study that explored the motivations of elite female golfers, the process of constructing a poetic representation about the experiences of one of the participants is described. The products of this endeavor and the reactions of various audiences to it are then presented. Finally, the issue of judging poetic representations is discussed.

The spinal cord injured population is ageing; medical advances and improvements in the availability of health and social care are enabling increasing longevity for people who experience the onset of spinal cord injury (SCI) in early or mid-life. Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) is vital for the maintenance of physical and psychological health and wellbeing, but people with SCI are largely inactive. Additionally, there is a paucity of research concerning the intersection of ageing and SCI generally, but also specifically regarding experiences of LTPA.In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants over the age of 50 who had lived with SCI for between 19 and 56 years. Narrative thematic analysis of the interview data revealed four overarching themes which formed the basis of the four empirical chapters presented in this thesis. The first theme related to the impact of SCI on participants’ experiences of LTPA, specifically regarding the dominant ableistnarratives which shaped their engagement in LTPA. The second theme was concerned with the impact of ageing with SCI on experiences of LTPA; the influence of the problematic concept of successful ageing, changing relationships with family and friends and the absence of narrative resources regarding living into old age with SCI. The third theme covered both the conceptualisation of LTPA as health work influenced by the dominant ‘exercise is medicine’ narrative, and the embodied action problems associated with SCI which affected participants’ experiences of LTPA. The final theme was pleasure and participants’ experiences of social, sensual, and intellectual pleasure through engagement in LTPA. There are several implications of this work; firstly, that the normative concept of successful ageing should be viewed with caution for those living with SCI, including dominant messages around ‘exercise is medicine’. Also, pleasure, and in particular social pleasure, should be a focus of LTPA discussions, narratives, and recommendations for older adults with SCI.This research demonstrates a novel exploration into the meanings of LTPA in the lives of individuals ageing with SCI and contributes to the existing literature by exploring the influence of social and cultural narratives on the experiences of a population that have so far been largely overlooked.

The last two decades have witnessed a proliferation of qualitative research in sport and exercise. The Routledge Handbook of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise is the first book to offer an in-depth survey of established and emerging qualitative methods, from conceptual first principles to practice and process. Written and edited by a team of world-leading researchers, and some of the best emerging talents, the book introduces a range of research traditions within which qualitative researchers work. It explores the different methods used to collect and analyse data, offering rationales for why each method might be chosen and guidance on how to employ each technique successfully. It also introduces important contemporary debates and goes further than any other book in exploring new methods, concepts, and future directions, such as sensory research, digital research, visual methods, and how qualitative research can generate impact. Cutting-edge, timely and comprehensive, the Routledge Handbook of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise is an essential reference for any student or scholar using qualitative methods in sport and exercise-related research.

Disability simulations have developed as a popular profes- sional development tool to help increase knowledge and awareness of disability and facilitate pedagogical learning among prospective and pre-service teachers. The aim of this research is to explore the ethics of sighted people simulating visual impairment from the perspective of visually impaired people. Participants were nine visually impaired adults who read vignettes narrating simulation experiences of prospective physical education teachers in a university setting before being interviewed about their perceptions of what they had read. Interviews were conducted via telephone, and were recorded, transcribed, and subjected to thematic analysis. The themes constructed and discussed in this article from an ethical perspective are: (1) involving visually impaired people in simulated experiences; (2) reinforcing negative attitudes about visually impaired people; (3) tensions involvng touch for pedagogical purposes; and (4) adapting activities and grouping pupils in relation to ‘ability’.

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In an attempt to better prepare prospective PE teachers for teaching pupils with disabilities, our research takes up the call of Sparkes, A., Martos-Garcia, D., & Maher, A. (2019). Me, Imperfect Osteogenesis and my classmates in physical education lessons: A case study of embodied pedagogy in action. Sport, Education and Society, 24(4), 338–348 [for an accumulation of ‘case studies involving teacher educators attempting to put embodied pedagogy into action’ (p. 10). We used snapshot vignettes to reflect on our experiences of delivering learning activities that endeavoured to enable 90 prospective PE teachers to (1) simulate visual impairment (VI); and (2) plan and deliver learning activities to peers who were simulating VI. Our discussion centres on the authenticity of simulations and the pedagogical development of prospective PE teachers. From our observations, we remain sceptical about the extent to which the non-disabled Self can empathise with the disabled Other through embodied simulation because of the ease at which the Self could and would step out of the shoes of the Other by removing blindfolds. This disrupted attempts to blur the lines between the prospective PE teachers’ Self and the disabled Other, and thus the extent to which knowledge of the disabled Other in PE was embodied. We did observe, however, some positive pedagogical developments during simulations. These included increased: clarity and precision of verbal instructions; use of pedagogical touch; knowledge of how to adapt learning activities; and critical thought about the concept of educational inclusion. To finish, we argue that the simulation of VI appears to impact positively of the inclusive pedagogies of our prospective teachers, but we call for future research that explores the ethics of these simulations.

Disability simulations have been advocated as a tool to facilitate pedagogical learning among prospective physical education (PE) teachers. However, much of the research currently available neglect the views of people with disabilities about the development and use of such simulations. To address this omission, this study used vignettes and telephone interviews to elicit the views of nine people with visual impairments (VI) regarding the value (or not) of simulating this impairment with prospective PE teachers. Data were analysed thematically and the following themes were constructed in the process: (1) Involving people with VI in simulations; (2) Diversity and complexity of VI; (3) Adapting learning activities; (4) Grouping pupils in relation to ‘ability’; and (5) Seeking the senses and touch as a pedagogical tool. Our findings suggest that simulating VI can (a) facilitate learning about how to plan and teach activities that are tailored to the needs and capabilities of pupils with VI thereby responding creatively to the challenges of inclusion in PE lessons, (b) broaden prospective teachers’ beliefs about ability beyond the physical to include the social, affective and cognitive domains, (c) act as a potential avenue for prospective PE teachers to develop more complex and nuanced views about VI and their own sightedness, and (d) contribute towards disrupting ocular centric, ableist notions of pedagogy in PE as a way of enhancing the meaningful experiences of pupils with VI in lessons. In closing, we reflect on the need for research into the ethics of constructing and delivering VI simulations without involvement from people living with this impairment.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to critically examine the qualitative research on experiences of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Meta-study methodology was used as a diagnostic tool to assess the theory, methods and findings of the current literature contributing to the literature by considering both the process and product of this body of research. This meta-study therefore provides a fresh perspective on research in this field. Methods: A comprehensive search of 6 sport and exercise electronic databases and manual journal searches yielded an initial total of 675 peer reviewed articles once duplicates were removed, reduced to 57 papers read in full after analysis of titles and key words. Of these 57 papers, 25 papers were identified as suitable for full based on the inclusion criteria. Studies were reviewed using meta-study methods, comprising analysis of theoretical perspectives, methodologies and findings. Results: Research guided by occupational theory is common in this field, and has contributed by identification of numerous barriers, benefits and facilitators of LTPA for individuals with SCI. More recently, narrative inquiry has revealed health narratives that are associated with SCI, narratives existing in the LTPA environment (chaos, restitution and quest) and exercise narratives restitution, exercise is medicine and exercise is progressive redemption. Conclusion: Theoretical and methodological opportunities were identified for future research that suggest a need for greater attention to be paid to the structural and contextual conditions that shape and influence the physical activity experience.

Objectives: Pleasure is a concept that is often over-looked in health-related research, particularly in relation to physical activity and disability. The purpose of this presentation is to fill that gap using data from a wider project exploring the leisure time physical activity (LTPA) experiences of older adults who have sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) through sport. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine spinal cord injured men over the age of 50. All participants were injured through playing rugby union and the length of time since injury ranged from 19 to 56 years. Interview data was subject to a thematic analysis. Findings and Discussion: Experiences of LTPA are changed dramatically by SCI and this presentation reports in depth on specific themes identified within interview data relating to pleasure. An original typology of pleasure following SCI and relating to LTPA is proposed which details three different experiences of pleasure: loss of pleasure, rediscovered pleasure, and renegotiated pleasure. The implications of this typology for our understanding of LTPA for individuals with SCI are discussed in relation to narratives of disability, PA promotion and participation. Conclusions: This research suggests that drivers of engagement in PA go beyond the maintenance of health and improvements in functionality and assert that pleasure can still be an integral part of LTPA for individuals with SCI. Due to low levels of PA participation in this population, it may be beneficial to contemplate pleasure as a motivating factor when considering PA promotion and participation for individuals with SCI.

Physical activity (PA) is vital for physical and psychological health and wellbeing. For individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) engagement in PA can alleviate or reduce many of the associated health and well-being complications. For example, PA can reduce the risk of secondary health problems (Buchholz et al., 2009), improve fitness and cardio-vascular health (van der Scheer et al., 2017) and enhance well-being (Williams et al., 2014). However, despite this, disabled people are twice as likely to be inactive as non-disabled people (Sport England, 2018) and individuals with SCI have particularly high levels of inactivity. For these reasons the purpose of this article is to consider how we communicate the need for, and benefits of, PA to the SCI population

Objectives: To generate insights into the personal meaning and value of an inclusive adventurous training and adapted sport course for military personnel who have experienced physical disability as a result of injuries sustained during active service. Design: Narrative storytelling approach based on collaboratively written creative nonfictions. Method: First-person stories were constructed with two male soldiers on the basis of informal interviews and conversations across five days of a residential adventure training and sport course. Results: The stories portray the personal benefits, meaning, and value of adventurous training and sport by illuminating each individual's experiences since injury/trauma, his experiences while on the course, and how these interact to shape psychological wellbeing and future life horizons. They reveal a complex interplay between physical, psychological, and social disability among some military personnel. Conclusions: The story as analysis expands current understanding of the psychological effects of physical activity for injured military personnel through: (i) providing an alternative analytical approach; (ii) revealing subjectivities, personal meaning, and biographical connections to generate a holistic understanding of the individual; (iii) preserving the complexity and ambiguity that characterize lived experience to support plural understandings; (iv) sharing an embodied representation as an ethical act of witnessing another's life. We suggest these kinds of understandings are necessary for physical activity practitioners who wish to support military personnel who have sustained a disability.

This study examines how elite track and field athletes who advocate for clean sport understand the role of sponsorship in shaping integrity within a commercialised sport context. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative approach, we conducted a secondary analysis of 12 publicly available episodes from the Clean Sport Collective podcast, in which athletes reflect on sponsorship, professionalisation, and ethical challenges in elite sport. Using reflexive thematic analysis, four themes were generated: (1) the impact of commercial pressures on athletes’ lived experiences, (2) how sponsorship structures shape perceived performance expectations and doping vulnerabilities, (3) the perceived risks and constraints associated with speaking publicly about doping and other integrity-related concerns, and (4) alternative sponsorship models that prioritise athlete wellbeing. Athletes frequently referenced doping as one salient integrity concern, positioning it as a moral and economic injustice that undermines sporting competition, while also expressing concern about reputational and contractual consequences of addressing integrity issues in public forums. Athletes did not describe personal intentions to use prohibited substances; rather, they articulated how commercial and sponsorship environments can create ethical tensions that disproportionately disadvantage those committed to clean sport. Collectively, the findings highlight the vulnerabilities of athletes within elite sport as they navigate sponsorship systems and point to the potential for sponsors to play a more active role in fostering ethical practice and clean sport cultures.

Abstract

A retrospective survey was carried out in patients with type 2 diabetes who had secondary failure with oral hypoglycaemic agents. Data were collected from the case notes of 100 patients converted to insulin treatment attending the Diabetes Centre at Broadgreen Hospital. Ten patients died within the first year of conversion to insulin; four patients were lost to follow‐up. Outcomes were assessed in 86 patients, who completed at least 1 year on insulin after conversion, at 6 months and 12 months. 20 of these patients were studied at 24 months. There were 39 males and 47 females, aged from 34 to 87 years (mean 67 years). The duration of diabetes was from 6 months to 40 years (mean 11 years). At 6 months their mean HbA1c improved from 10.8 to 8.3%, and at 12 months it was 8.0% (p<0.01). BMI increased from (mean) 24.3 to 26.9 at 6 months and 27.3 at 12 months (p<0.01). 64% of the patients gained weight, and in 27% BMI increased to more than 30.

This effect persisted at 24 months in 20 patients. Where HbA1c improved from (mean) 10.5% at 0 months to 8.1% at 24 months (p<0.01), the BMI increased from 25.1 (mean) to 28.6 (mean) (p<0.01).

95% of patients felt better on insulin, even though most of these patients were reluctant to start insulin at first. One patient asked to stop insulin on social grounds. 20% patients experienced mild hypoglycaemia; only 3% had severe hypoglycaemia. The final total daily insulin dose varied between 14 and 112 units (mean 40 units), and could not be predicted. Insulin treatment is well tolerated, achieves better metabolic control and gives a feeling of well‐being but results in weight gain. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study explores men’s experiences of weight stigma with a sample of men attending a weight management programme. Men’s understanding of stigma, including its sources, their responses to it, and its impact, were discussed using focus groups. Findings from a thematic analysis indicate that weight stigma undermines men’s masculine sense of self. Weight stigma becomes a social threat – real or imagined - that entails negative psychosocial outcomes, impeding men’s participation in social activities, including weight loss. With adequate social support, a men-only weight management programme is perceived as a safe environment where the men recovered their impaired self-concept. We suggest that weight stigma should be considered in the design of men’s weight management interventions, to generate a more compassionate approach to weight loss.