A field study of high school teacher/coaches was undertaken, guided by the following general questions: What is it like being a high school teacher/coach? What are the main occupational contingencies for high school teacher/coaches? How do teacher/coaches think about themselves and their situations? The larger field study that provided the data base for this paper was conducted over a 5-month period in 1985 during which I observed teacher/coaches in six high schools. The data were drawn from naturally occurring observations and conversations with teacher/coaches, noncoaching teachers, and school administrators. Formal interviews were also conducted with 50 teacher/coaches. Data described in this paper are qualitative and focus on teacher/coaches’ feelings and attitudes about their profession and the meanings about the multiple role demands they are confronted with. The observations and interviews demonstrate quite dramatically the complexity and pervasiveness of role overload and interrole conflict in this occupation and the role strain that results. Coping and resolution strategies used by teacher/coaches are discussed.

This paper focuses on the processes by which people become high school coaches. Occupational choice, professional socialization, and organizational socialization are examined, using qualitative data drawn from naturally occurring observations of coaches and informal discussions and in-depth interviews with them. Over 50% of the coaches had decided that they wanted to become a coach before entrance into college. The decision to become a coach was subjectively warranted by personal characteristics and experiences in sports, a devotion to sport, and a desire to work with young people. Youth sport coaching and student teaching which involved coaching constituted the only formal professional socialization that most of the coaches received. However, because almost all of the coaches participated in organized youth and/or high school athletics, they had a first-hand opportunity to observe their own coaches and acquire some informal images and impressions about the coaching occupation from them. Regardless of whether a neophyte began as an assistant or a head coach, technical aspects of the job and the occupation's culture were acquired by observing and listening to more experienced coaches. Through these experiences, collective understandings began to form, and the shared meanings about the occupational culture took shape. Reality shock for most novice coaches came in the form of understanding the importance the coaching culture assigns to long hours and hard work and to the realization that coaching does take an enormous amount of time. By the end of the first season, a symbolic transformation takes place and internalization of institutional expectations occurs as the neophyte begins to understand what coaching is all about.

The focus of this study is on the organizational dynamics, collective actions, and outcomes of a transnational advocacy network that was formed to protest the labor practices of Nike’s sport shoe factories in Asia. Transnational advocacy networks arise and are sustained with the intent of changing social conditions. The Nike transnational network sought to improve the lives of workers in Nike factories in Asia so that they have jobs that pay a living wage, have good working conditions, can organize on their own behalf, and are treated with dignity and respect. A broad theoretical perspective that emphasizes the determinant and interactive effects of the emergence, development, and accomplishments of the Nike transnational network is employed.

The purpose of this study was to compare the childhood socialization influences of male and female intercollegiate athletes in order to ascertain whether there were differences in the sport socialization process between the sexes. The data indicated that parents of both male and female intercollegiate athletes tend to be involved in sports themselves, with parents of male athletes being more involved in a variety of ways than parents of female athletes. While parents of both groups are supportive of their offsprings' sports involvement, fathers tend to be more supportive of their sons than of their daughters. There is little difference in the support accorded sons and daughters by mothers. There is a weak positive relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and parental expectations, encouragement, and time spent participating with their offspring.

In 1990, the Major League Baseball owners announced that the National League would add two new franchises in 1993. Two issues immediately confronted the various groups attempting to secure a baseball franchise for Denver. One was finding an owner for the franchise, the other was providing a stadium for the team. This study focuses on the events and social processes involved in the baseball stadium issue in Denver's bid to secure a major league baseball franchise. The taxpayers of metropolitan Denver were asked to vote on a sales tax initiative that would finance the construction and operation of a new baseball stadium ifaMajorLeagueBaseballfranchisewasultimatelyawardedtoDenver. This study centers on how various forms of power were used to persuade taxpayers that they should pay the costs of constructing a baseball stadium and how the same forms of power were later used to obtain a stadium lease agreement. Other issues addressed by this study include why citizens were not more active in questioning either the public expenditure of money for the construction of a stadium or the terms of the stadium lease agreement. Analyses and explanations for these questions are grounded in the dynamics of power as it was employed by the various entities whose interest was in securing a Major League Baseball franchise for Denver. n June 1990, the Major League Baseball (MLB) owners' Expansion Committee announced that the National League would add two new franchises in 1993.Denver, Colorado, a city with organizations that had been desperately seeking a MLB franchise for more than a decade, was expected to make a strong bid to acquire one. While awaiting the owners' decision on where the franchises would be awarded, two immediate issues confronted the Denver groups. One was finding an owner for the franchise, the other was providing a stadium for the team. This study focuses on the events and social processes involved in securing a stadium for MLB in Denver.The taxpayers of metropolitan Denver were asked to vote on a sales tax initiative to finance the construction and operation of a new baseball stadium, in the event a franchise was ultimately awarded to Denver. Whether or not voters should have approved the sales tax initiative is not the focus of this study. Instead, it is centered on how various forms of power were used to convince taxpayers that they should build a stadium for the use of a privately owned corporation (the franchise owners) and then extend them an incredibly generous stadium lease agreement. This study also examines why citizens were not more active in questioning the public expenditure of money for stadium construction or the terms of the lease. Analyses and explanations for these questions are grounded in the dynamics of power as it was