CFP: Physical Cultural Studies - Special Issue of Sociology of Sport Journal

Call for Papers
Physical Cultural Studies
Special Issue of Sociology of Sport Journal
Guest Editor: Michael L. Silk, David L. Andrews

Cultural studies has influenced the sociology of sport community for more than 3 decades. Recently, however, cultural studies of sport have reached something of an intellectual impasse. Although many sport researchers self-identify as having a cultural studies perspective, the work produced has increasingly become hampered by the adoption of moribund empirical, theoretical, and methodological orthodoxies, which is compounded by the failure of the field of cultural studies more generally to engage the complex and diverse practices and representations of active embodiment.

In recent times a specific area of critical intellectual inquiry has emerged, Physical Cultural Studies (PCS) (Andrews, 2008; Ingham, 1997), which actively seeks to reinvigorate and reconceptualize the cultural study of sport, while simultaneously compelling us to reconsider the empirical and political import of cultural physicalities. PCS advocates suggest it is mobilized as an emergent intellectual project with an interdisciplinary and multidimensional commitment toward critical and theoretically informed engagement with various expressions of the physical (including, but by no means restricted to, sport, exercise, fitness, leisure, health, dance, and movement-related active embodied practices). The aim of this call for papers is to generate a special issue that will further define the parameters of PCS.

PCS needs a provisional sense of coherence so it can offer a tangible contribution to the understanding of physical activity as a cultural project. As a result, there is a need to establish boundaries (acknowledging their permeable and fluid nature) that will define it as a relevant and impactful intellectual project. We thus call for papers that will aid in further defining the boundaries and challenges faced by a nascent PCS. We welcome papers centered on the key foundational principles of PCS that address: (1) the ontological core of the field—the radically contextual excavation of physical culture, or, in Grossberg’s (2007) terms, a conjunctural history of the (physical) present; (2) epistemological approaches to PCS—those grounded in a moral–sacred approach that is inherently political, takes sides, and purports to “make a difference” to key social concerns of our time; (3) axiological issues—how the problematics enacted within a corporatized climate of methodological fundamentalism, evidence-based research, and default scientism impact on PCS; (4) avant-garde methodologies or practices that emerge from these philosophical discussions; and (5) ways of expressing our research—newer forms of written material, other forms of (re)presentation, or yet- to-be-imagined ways of producing and presenting knowledge.

In addition, we vision that this special issue will delineate explicit ontological, epistemological,
methodological, political, and axiological assumptions that need to be dialogically engaged (and
perhaps more accurately represent the distillation and generation of knowledge within the field.
Authors should follow the “Instructions for Contributors” found at http//www.HumanKinetics.
com/SSJ/JournalSubmissions.cfm and in every issue of Sociology of Sport Journal. The paper
should be roughly 8,000 words including endnotes and reference list. Submit online to http//
mc.manuscritpcentral.com/hk_ssj.

Please address questions to Dr. Michael Silk, m.silk@bath.ac.uk or
Dr. David Andrews, dla@umd.edu
Due date for papers: March 31st, 2010