Transforming Sport – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Transforming Sport, Sean Heath speaks with Jennifer Amann, a rising force in the academic and not-for-profit worlds connecting football and climate change. They speak at length about Jenny’s work in the field of climate change and football, the intersections of sport fandom and climate action, and the requirements to think, and take action, in a holistic manner to work towards environmental sustainability. Jenny discusses her recent work with Pledgeball, a not-for-profit based in the UK, and some of the lessons she has learned while researching the mobilization of football fans to tackle climate change. She has a forthcoming article on this topic which will be published later this year.

Jenny is currently working with the not-for-profit community interest company Spirit of Football (https://spiritoffootball.com/) on the “The Ball 2022” project (https://theball.tv/2022/). She also works for the not-for-profit group Pledgeball where she is a research and development consultant. In addition, Jenny has worked as a Research Assistant at the Sport and Leisure Cultures Research Group of the University of Brighton.

You can find more information about her research and the critical work she is undertaking transforming football and mobilizing football fans to make positive impacts on climate change on her twitter account @hej_jennifer

Contact us: @SportTransform or @SeanmrHeath

https://anchor.fm/transformingsport

On the third episode in our mini-series on eSport I had the pleasure to speak with Dr. Holly Collison, Lecturer at the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University London, UK. She is an anthropologist in the field of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP). Holly has completed extensive fieldwork in West and East Africa and South East Asia examining post-conflict development interventions and the use of sport. Her research explores youth identity, notions of community, international development, peacebuilding, social inclusion, and grassroots perspectives and experiences of SDP. Recently her work has shifted to focus on eSport as a space for social inclusion and community development on which she has co-published multiple journal articles.

In this episode we discussed the research she has undertaken with eSport stakeholders in the UK and United States, looking at how eSport communities can provide spaces for social inclusion as well as exclusion, including toxicity and tribal mentalities in these digital spaces. Space is indeed an important theoretical concept for Holly, and she has used a tripartite conception of space following Henri Lefebvre to explore questions around eSports potential for incorporation into Sport for Development (SfD) more broadly.

Dr. Holly Collison’s recent publications include Exploring the Contested Notion of Social Inclusion and Gender Inclusivity within eSport Spaces and Landscapes of Tension, Tribalism and Toxicity: Configuring a Spatial Politics of eSport Communities. She has recently been invited to participate in expert meetings for the United Nations on the topics of the “Sustainable Development Goals and the UN System” (New York, 2018), and “The Use of Sport as an Educational Tool to Tackle Radicalisation and Violent Extremism” (Vienna, 2018, 2019). Find out more about her latest research and publications on her Loughborough University staff profile page here.

Contact us: @SportTransform or @SeanmrHeath

https://anchor.fm/transformingsport

In this episode of Transforming Sport, I interview Sport and Leisure Cultures research group member Dr Mark Doidge about his research on refugee’s integration into sports clubs and wider communities.  An expert in the political and social role of football fans, Dr Doidge began volunteering his time with charities who work with refugees in Calais and in Brighton during the refugee ‘crisis’ of 2015. Here he discusses the importance of sport clubs as welcoming sites of sociality and integration of communities, both host and refugee, and how coaches can take an active role as brokers of sociality between sport club members. Dr Doidge has a recently published academic article in the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. He can be found on twitter at @markdoidge, and his other research is accessible via his University of Brighton staff profile page: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/mark-doidge

In this Episode of Transforming Sport, Sport and Leisure Cultures research group member Sean Heath interviews Dr. James Wallis of University of Brighton about his research on athlete centered approaches to coaching, and coaching youth cricketers. An expert in pedagogy of physical education and coaching, Dr. Wallis has had to adapt his coaching techniques in unique ways during the COVID-19 lockdown. Here he discusses the importance of constraints based coaching methods and how these, combined with the knowledge of the individual characteristics of the practitioners, can shape healthier, more enjoyable, and more holistic coaching practices. Dr. Wallis has a forthcoming book on these topics which will be published in September 2020.

The video of Jim’s back garden cricket pitch constraints coaching setup can be found here: http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sasm/2020/05/01/sport-coaching-during-the-lockdown/

You can find more information on Jim’s research via his University of Brighton staff profile page: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/james-wallis

This week I sat down with my fellow PhD Candidate Arthur Gaillard from the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton. His research focuses on the production of knowledge in the Sport for Development sector, trying to understand how the metrics for monitoring and evaluating these disparate developmental programs are created in the field, and how those are then translated and transformed by the various actors involved with these organizations. Our discussion centered around the changing landscape of face-to-face research during the COVID-19 global health pandemic, what effects this has had on his research, and how those within the SDP sector are adapting and innovating in this new pandemic environment.

Contacts for Arthur Gaillard:

Email: a.gaillard1@uni.brighton.ac.uk

Twitter: @mc_argailla

Research Profile: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/arthur-gaillard

In this episode of Transforming Sport, Sport and Leisure Cultures research group member Dr Alex Channon interviews Dr Jack Sugden of Edge Hill University about his research on mixed martial arts (MMA) and men’s mental health.  An expert in sport development and management, Dr Sugden started training in MMA as part of a research project exploring the sport’s appeal to its practitioners.  Here he discusses the importance it holds in the lives of those who practice it, focusing specifically on the stories told by men about its value in helping them cope with various troubles of modern life.  Dr Sugden has recently written about this project on the academic blog site, The Conversation, and also has an academic article on the topic forthcoming for publication in the Sociology of Sport Journal.  

Jack Sugden can be found on twitter at @j_sugden, and his other research is accessible via his Edge Hill University staff profile page: https://research.edgehill.ac.uk/en/persons/jack-sugden.

In this inaugural episode of Transforming Sport, Sean Heath speaks with Sport and Leisure Cultures research group members, Dr. Thomas Carter, Dr. Dan Burdsey, and Dr. Mark Doidge about the broad field of social science research into sport. Drawing from their collectively edited book Transforming Sport: Knowledges, Practices, Structures our discussion centred around why sport matters and what transforming sport means in today’s volatile world. If we are the type of games we play, then we need to be looking at sport as a social catalyst while peeling back the veneer of sport as “inherently good” and looking at the social injustices that sport hides.

Thomas Carter

On Running and Becoming Human: An Anthropological Perspective

t.f.carter@brighton.ac.uk

Daniel Burdsey

Racism and English Football: For Club and Country

d.c.burdsey@brighton.ac.uk

Mark Doidge

Ultras: European Football Fandom in the Twenty First Century

m.doidge@brighton.ac.uk

@markdoidge

Although the Transforming Sport podcast is run by and features discussions with academic researchers, our intention is to discuss these kinds of issues in ways which appeal to listeners outside of academia. For listeners who want to engage with deeper theoretical questions, think critically about research methods and so on, we will provide links in each podcast to academic literature to help keep the conversation going. Thank you for listening to this introduction; we hope that your interest has been piqued, and invite you to continue listening.

This week we have our second instalment on the topic of eSports. In March of 2021 Jamie Kiff, Co-founder of Gscience delivered aa virtual guest lecture to Sport Management degree students at the University of Brighton. There he spoke about his experiences working outside of academia in the start-up industry, working with professional eSports athletes to develop healthier practices in the professional gaming industry. With a background in sport science and human kinetics, and a Master’s degree in Strength and Conditioning from Loughborough University, he has been applying notions of bodily health and wellbeing to Gamers, who are often stereotyped as the antithesis of high performance athletes in other sports. Through outlining his own educational journey, he highlights some of the practical industry skills he developed as a strength and conditioning student, skills he now applies to working with professional eSports athletes and coaches.

Gscience - eSport Health and Performance: https://www.gscience.io/

Sport and Leisure Cultures Research Group: 

https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/sport-and-leisure-cultures-research-and-enterprise-group

Sean Heath: @SeanmrHeath; s.m.heath@brighton.ac.uk

Dr. Anne Tjønndal is Associate Professor of Sport Sociology at Nord University, Norway, and has held the title of Norwegian National Champion in Women’s Boxing. She has a prolific publishing record in academia on a variety of topics from gender equity issues in boxing, eSports, coaching policy in sport, and social innovation in sport. She recently published an article “Youth Sport 2.0” which reviews the growth of eSports in Norway between 2016 and 2019. In this episode we discussed the stereotypes of the “gamer” and how her research has shed light on this false portrayal. We discussed the ability for eSport to provide spaces for forms of social inclusion and community, which more traditional “physical” sport clubs have recognized and have begun to incorporate into their club structure. We also discussed the difficulties facing the recognition and incorporation of eSports into national sporting frameworks and policy.

Dr. Anne Tjønndal’s recent publications include Social Innovation in Sport and Gender Equity and Sports Coaching in Norway: Political Discourses and Developmental Trajectories from 1970 to 2020. Her larger research interests include social inequality, gender and sport, eSports, innovation and entrepreneurship in sports, and sports policy. Find out more about her latest research and publications on her Nord University staff profile page here.