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This article focuses on the intersection of gender, dis/ability and other social forces in the life course of a young man who has had physical impairments from an early age. Drawing on interactionist theories and applying an ethnographic approach, we analyze the life experiences taking place in multiple social spheres throughout the life phases of Simon, a Swiss powerchair hockey player with cerebral palsy. During his childhood and adolescence, Simon was not in a position to embody the familial ways of performing hegemonic masculinity, and he was functionally dependent on women. Through his ongoing transition to adulthood, his commitment to sport and the process of technologizing his body enabled him doing gender differently and emancipate himself from the familial masculine figure, while remaining reliant on the care provided by women. Thus, we show how the body, context, and life phases contribute to the performances of gender and dis/ability.

This paper aims at initiating scholars to consider dis/ability as a category of analysis when doing intersectionality in sociology of sport. First, it introduces a conceptual framework that allows researchers to engage with the issue of the body and its physical and cognitive functions, as well as to address how the ability–disability system intersects with various other salient systems of oppression and privilege. I call this concept the intersectional co-conditioning of dis/ability, whereby experiences of dis/ability are fundamentally conditioned by (and also condition in return) other systems of difference and inequality. The framework provides scholars with theoretical tools that will help them to investigate body-related issues while avoiding the pitfall of essentializing dis/abilities. Second, this work offers an application of the abovementioned conceptual framework, focusing on the co-conditioning of dis/ability and gender. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of Powerchair Hockey in Switzerland, I investigate different aspects of this sport practiced by people living with so-called “severe” physical dis/abilities. The results highlight the tensions, contradictions and paradoxes that both male and female players face as they (re)negotiate their positions within the matrix of domination. This application demonstrates the explanatory power of considering the intersectional co-conditioning of dis/ability.

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Cet article se donne comme enjeu de retracer le développement du E-hockey, un des rares sports collectifs pratiqué en fauteuil électrique, afin de comprendre qui sont les personnes qui y ont (ou y ont eu) accès, et comment cette pratique devient un espace de la construction des identités individuelles et collectives. Ce texte propose une vision diachronique des débats internes relatifs à la démarche d’intégration de ce sport au sein du mouvement paralympique. La recherche met au jour les effets du processus de sportivisation du E-hockey sur l’inclusion/exclusion des joueurs aux compétions sportives. D’une part, la pratique du E-hockey semble participer à l’empowerment des personnes ayant des incapacités motrices sévères, leur permettant de se réinventer en minorité active. D’autre part, le processus d’institutionnalisation de la pratique produit l’exclusion de joueurs dont les limitations de capacité ne correspondent pas aux critères d’éligibilité retenus dans les règlements internationaux de ce sport.

L’Europe doit changer son approche et repenser sa défense en améliorant tous les mécanismes, y compris avec l’Otan. De nouvelles initiatives prometteuses se mettent en place afin de favoriser des engagements communs, de faciliter des projets et de trouver des financements permettant de répondre avec plus d’efficacité aux défis sécuritaires.

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Introduction Powerchair Hockey (PCH) is one of the few team sports available for electric wheelchair users. In Switzerland, the majority of PCH players are living with degenerative diseases (neuromuscular diseases). Their life expectancy is usually no more than 30 years. Nevertheless, although their physical impairments gradually worsen, most players keep on playing sport until they die. Thus, while death is usually a taboo in our society (Elias, 1987), it is an inherent dimension of PCH. Players’ deaths are collectively organized through rituals. Aims In this presentation, I investigate how the social organization of death in PCH shapes the “status passage” (Glaser & Strauss, 1971) that represent the experience of death. More specifically, what does the players' deaths reveal about the value of their sports commitment, and, more broadly, their life? Methods The study is based on a 4 years multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) of Powerchair Hockey in French- and German-speaking Switzerland. Different tools have been used to collect data: participant observation, life narrative interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, and archival research and consultation. A thematic analysis was performed on the data set (Paillé & Mucchielli, 2012). Results and discussion The analyses show that, in the daily lives of people living with neuromuscular diseases, death is a taboo. PCH proves to be one of the few social arenas where players have the opportunity to talk about it. The collective management of death by those involved in PCH has two main outcomes: (1) the celebration of the live, accomplishments and legacy of the player who died, (2) the preparation of other players to their own death, which may be approaching. For PCH players, carrying on with their sport commitment until the very end of their lives shapes their “transition to death” (Glaser & Strauss, 1971) significantly. Indeed, being part of a sport that outlasts them and being memorialized during and after death, they become part of the history of the community. This contrasts with the fact that, in other areas of their lives (the specialized institutions, the social insurances, the medical world), their lives may be considered to have little value. Thus, the mortuary rituals and the legacy that players leave are performative of the value of their lives. This contributes to their “grievability” (Butler, 2009; i.e., the recognition of the worthiness of their lives). References Butler, J. (2009). Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? Verso. Elias, N. (1987). La solitude des mourants [The loneliness of the dying].Bourgois. Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1971). Status passage: A formal theory. Aldine. Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24(1), 95-117. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.000523 Paillé, P., & Mucchielli, A. (2012). L’analyse qualitative en sciences humaines et sociales [Qualitative analysis in the humanities and social sciences]. Armand Colin.