Inventive Pathways: Fresh Visions of Sport Management Research

Abstract

Although qualitative research approaches such as ethnography have been applied to the field of sport (e.g., Bricknell, 2001; Hughson and Hallinan, 2001) Sparkes (2003) has suggested that it was not until the late 1990s that sport researchers began to embrace ethnographic frameworks underpinned by critical and postmodern theories. As such, the value of these research designs has not been fully realized. The benefit for sport management researchers in applying critical and postmodern thought to ethnographic approaches is that it sharpens their critical consciousness. This article therefore develops an argument for applying critical and postmodern thought to ethnographic approaches to sport management research. In doing this we (a) provide a brief historical sketch of social science research paradigms; (b) outline the benefits of applying critical and postmodern thought to sport management ethnographic research; (c) present examples of current sport and sport management ethnographic research that applies critical and postmodern frameworks; and (d) provide insight into the concerns that sport management scholars should consider when applying ethnographic research designs that embrace the tenets of postmodernism. Through this discussion we conclude that, although ethnographic approaches inspired by critical and postmodern thought are not the panacea to solve all research problems, if applied correctly they can only further enhance out knowledge of the research issue under investigation.

Front line insight: an autoethnography of the Vancouver 2010 volunteer experience

“…Alternate forms of qualitative inquiry like ethnography and autoethnography are increasingly being utilized in such disciplines as sport sociology and leisure studies (Amis & Silk, 2005); however, the value in these methods has generally not been realized in sport management (Edwards & Skinner, 2009;Rinehart, 2005;Skinner & Edwards, 2005). In particular, there are no known published autoethnographies of sport event volunteerism that might provide rich and new insight.…”

Sport Without Management

“…Zeigler (1994Zeigler ( , 1995, Alvesson and Deetz (2000), Amis andSilk (2005), Frisby (2005), Smith and Stewart (2010), and others have similarly suggested that we need to engender more critical and innovative approaches to the study of sport management. I concur, and follow Singer (2005), Nauright (2004), Shaw and Frisby (2006), Roth and Basow (2004), Anderson (2009), Skinner andEdwards (2005), and many others in encouraging sport management scholars to consider how their research and teaching values-indeed their very ontological bases-reproduce, or in many cases hold the potential to confront, the systematization of sport created by colonialism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, racism, and economic exploitation. I believe some of the critical work being done in the areas of Sport for Development and Capacity Building through Sport are two such starting points from which to move in new directions.…”

New problems, new challenges: embracing innovative approaches to sport research

“…Sport research to a large extent grew out of the view that researchers should use research methods that were similar to those which had seemed to lead to the discovery of objective laws and regularities in the natural sciences (Skinner and Edwards 2005). The appropriate way of going about knowledge production is thought to be by means of the hypothetic-deductive method in which the sport researcher begins with a clearly articulated theory, deduces hypotheses which are logically consistent with the theory, and then tests the hypotheses under experimental conditions.…”