Figurational Research in Sport, Leisure and Health

Figurational sociology offers an important set of conceptual and methodological tools for helping us to understand sport, leisure and health and their relationship to wider society. This book brings together an international team of scholars working within the figurational tradition to explain the significance of figurational sociology in the development of the sociology of sport and to provide empirical case studies of figurational sociology in action. Covering core concepts such as the civilizing process, and key methods such as interviewing and ethnography, the book presents contemporary research in areas as diverse as sport-related health, mixed martial arts, sports policy, gender relations and cycling. Figurational Research in Sport, Leisure and Health is an important resource for students of sport and social sciences, sociology, figurational sociology and sociology of sport and exercise.

1 Introduction to Figurational Research in Sport, Leisure and Health Philippa Velija and Dominic Malcolm Part I: Key Concepts 2 The Development of Modern Sport: Sportization and Civilizing Processes Dominic Malcolm and Jan Haut 3 Game Models as a framework for understanding power in the Male Football Figuration Graeme Law and Daniel Bloyce 4 ‘Football Fitness’: A quest for excitement or a leisure routinization? Lone Friis Thing and Laila Susanne Ottesen 5 The Theory of Established-Outsider Relations: Understanding Gender Relations in the Cricket Figuration Philippa Velija 6 The Development of Mixed Martial Arts: Using the Quest for Excitement and Informalization to Understand Sportization Raúl Sánchez García Part II: The Research Process 7 Doing Developmental Research as a Figurational Sociologist: A Case Study on the Long-term Sportization of Swimming Steven Cock 8 On (Not) Becoming: Involved–Detachment and Sports ‘Violence’ Christopher R. Matthews 9 Doing (Figurational) Research: Using Semi-Structured Interviews in the Field of Public Health Miranda Thurston Part III: Synthesis and Development 10 Figurational Research and Doping in Professional Cycling John Connolly 11 A figurational understanding of sport organizations: the case of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland Paddy Dolan and John Connolly 12 Sport Policy, Sports Development and Figurational Sociology Andy Smith, Daniel Bloyce and David Haycock 13 Figurational Sociological Approaches to Sport, Exercise and Health Dominic Malcolm and Kass Gibson

Dominic Malcolm is Reader in the Sociology of Sport at Loughborough University, UK, and Editor of International Review for Sociology of Sport. His core research interests draw on and apply the theoretical ideas of Norbert Elias’s figurational sociology to two substantive areas: the social development of cricket; and sport, health and medicine. Philippa Velija is Head of Sport Education and Development and Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport at Solent University, UK. Her research focuses on a sociological analysis of women’s experiences in a range of male-dominated sports, for example cricket, flat and jump jockeys and the martial arts. She has also published on gender and sport policy and women and leadership in sport governance.