NETWORK: Proposal for an International Network for the Marxist Study of Sport

Proposal for an International Network for the Marxist Study of Sport

At the 2004 North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference in
Tucson, Arizona, a panel on "Critiquing Sport: What is the relevance of
Marxism" was a very well attended session with a lively discussion. The
audience consisted of different generations of sport scholars, from those
that were part of the discussions about Marxism in sport in the late 1970s
and 1980s, to current post graduate students keen to know more about
Marxism. This suggests that there is an increase in interest in what
Marxism has to say about the relationship between sport, politics, culture,
identity and society.

Given the increasing interest in Marxism within the academy, and the
emergence of a wider anti-capitalist movement, we believe that there is
scope to increase the influence and understanding of Marxism within the
sport sociology community and beyond. It is timely then to set up a network
of Marxists working on issues related to sport from different disciplinary
backgrounds, in order to raise the level of scholarship, understanding and
profile of Marxism and sport in the academy.

A small group of us have come together to create an informal network, with
the aim of bringing together individuals from around the world who are
similarly interested in developing Marxist approaches to the study of sport.
The following areas are proposed as points of development and focus.

1. To locate the place of sport in debates about the nature of global
capitalism.

2. To develop Marxist approaches to the critical/radical theories of sport,
especially in response to the rise of postmodernism, post Marxism, Cultural
Studies, and identitarian theories within the academy.

3. To develop a Marxist research agenda and facilitate collaborative
projects, for example on the political economy of sport, on class and
identity, on policy and politics (including the issue of praxis), and on
pedagogy (so, to what extent and how are Marxist approaches to sport
delivered on the curriculum).

4. To encourage the development of Marxist scholarship, and to raise the
understanding and profile of Marxism in the academy (both amongst peers and
students).

If you are interested in being part of this informal network, and have ideas
on how it could work and develop, please get in touch.

Rob Beamish (beamishr@post.queensu.ca), Alan Bairner (A.E.S.Bairner@lboro.ac.uk), Hart Cantelon (hart.cantelon@uleth.ca) & Ian McDonald (i.mcdonald@bton.ac.uk).
November 2004.


Signatories (as of March 2005).

Alan Bairner, University of Loughborough, England
A.E.S.Bairner@lboro.ac.uk

Rob Beamish Queen's University, Canada.
beamishr@post.queensu.ca

Hart Cantelon, University of Lethbridge, Canada.
hart.cantelon@uleth.ca

Ross Dawson,.. Liverpool John Moores University, England
R.A.Dawson@livjm.ac.uk

Henning Eichberg, University of Southern Denmark
heichberg@health.sdu.dk

John Horne, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
John.Horne@ed.ac.uk

David Howe, University of Brighton, England
P.D.Howe@bton.ac.uk

Aruga Ikutoshi. College of Social Sciences at Ritsumeikan University, Japan

Alan Ingham, Miami University, Ohio, USA
inghamag@muohio.edu

Grant Jarvie, University of Stirling, Scotland
grant.jarvie@stir.ac.uk

Bruce Kidd, University of Toronto, Canada
bruce.kidd@utoronto.ca

Mike Marqusee
mikemarqusee@blueyonder.co.uk

Ian McDonald, University of Brighton, England
i.mcdonald@bton.ac.uk

Andrew Parker, University of Warwick, England
Andrew.Parker@warwick.ac.uk

Tomas Peterson
Malmo University, weden
Tomas.Peterson@lut.mah.se

Irene Reid,University of Stirling, Scotland
i.a.reid@stir.ac.uk

Jim Riordan, Retired, Surrey, England
jim@riordanj.freeserve.co.uk

Morikawa Sadao, Nippon Sports Science University, Japan.
sada.m@jcom.home.ne.jp

Peter Shirlow, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
P.Shirlow@ulster.ac.uk

Tobias Stark, Vaxjo University, Sweden
Tobias.Stark@hum.vxu.se

John Sugden, University of Brighton, England
j.sugden@bton.ac.uk

Yamashita Takayuki, College of Social Sciences at Ritsumeikan University,
Japan
yama@ss.ritsumei.ac.jp

Alan Tomlinson, University of Brighton, England
a.tomlinson@bton.ac.uk

Gerd von der Lippe, Telemark University College, Norway
Gerd.v.d.Lippe@hit.no