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- Convenors:
-
Sean Heath
(KU Leuven)
Benjamin Hildred (Durham University)
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- Chair:
-
Sean Heath
(KU Leuven)
- Discussants:
-
Livia Savelkova
(University of Pardubice)
Sean Heath (KU Leuven)
Jasmijn Rana (Leiden University)
Benjamin Hildred (Durham University)
Thomas Carter (University of Brighton)
- Formats:
- Roundtable
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 24 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
Reimaging and truly transforming sport (Carter et al. 2018) requires the collective effort of a multiplicity of critical scholars. This roundtable offers an opportunity to think through and perhaps undo sport with anthropology, rather than sidelining sport as a frivolous endeavour in human becoming.
Long Abstract:
Despite its current marginality within the disciple, sport is one arena where anthropologists fervently discuss notions of change, scale, comparison, and transformation (Besnier et al. 2018). Sport is an increasingly charged arena where polarizing debates around ‘intersex/trans/cyborg identities’ (Hildred and Crawley 2023), colonialism and Indigenous knowledges (Forsyth et al. 2023), the politics of citizenship and religion (Rana 2022), and embodied sensory knowledges (Carter et al. 2022) play out. While many in sport studies have questioned individual tenets of sport’s definition few have deconstructed what sport is, choosing instead to examine sport’s structures and functions within society or use sport as a lens through which to consider human social interaction. Other social science disciplines have discussed dismantling sport or changing sport from within. However, none to our knowledge have proposed the radical step of redefining what sport is from the ground up. Sport has grown beyond Guttman’s definition, becoming not only part of the global zeitgeist but a social institution in its own right, closer to religion than simple physical activity and entertainment. Reimaging and truly transforming sport (Carter et al. 2018) requires the collective effort of a multiplicity of critical scholars. We believe an anthropological lens is uniquely positioned to undo the complex ideological positionalities invested in sport and provide cross-cultural and comparative insights towards re-shaping a meaning definition of sport today. This roundtable offers an opportunity to think through sport, recreation, leisure, play, and games with anthropology, rather than sidelining sport as a frivolous endeavour in human becoming.