CFP: SSJ Special Issue

Sociology of Sport Journal

Special Issue: Evidence, Knowledge and Research Practice

Editors: Michael Giardina (Florida State University) and Jason Laurendeau (University of

Lethbridge)

Call for Papers

Recent articles detail how social scientists, including social scientists of sport and

physical activity, are institutionally pressured to pursue more evidenced-based and

knowledge-translatable forms of empirical research (Bairner, 2009; Denzin, Lincoln and

Giardina, 2006; Murray, Holmes, Perron and Rail, 2008; Thorpe, 2006; Rojek, 2000;

Silk, Bush and Andrews, 2010). This discussion has brought issues of methodology to the

forefront of contemporary debates in the social sciences. Within the sociology of sport,

where qualitative research and realist modes of representation tend to dominate, there is

relatively little problematization of the different methodologies or the current diversity of

available methods (e.g., interviews, textual analyses, ethnography). Therefore, it seems

timely to reflect on what has been achieved and what the future holds. For example, what

issues have these ways of obtaining knowledge brought forward? Why have some forms

of research (e.g., narrative inquiry) remained marginal? What new, innovative research

methods can be introduced to field? What could new forms of research offer the field?

How could they answer the pressures to provide evidence that matters? How could they

provide (or reconceptualize what constitutes) knowledge that creates (social) change?

How will current graduate students in the sociology of sport make methodological

choices within the evidence-based institutional climates that currently appear to favor

research directed towards 'health' outcomes? This special issue is designed, then, to mark

out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our

understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture.

We solicit papers on, but not limited to, the following themes:

Philosophical reflection of the politics of research

Theoretical examinations of issues regarding methodology: ontological and

epistemological grounding of different methods, connection and coherence of

theoretical assumptions and method(s)

Methodological innovations in qualitative inquiry that explore/test/redefine the

boundaries of qualitative research and knowledge production in the sociology of

sport and physical culture

Methodological innovations in quantitative research that explore/test/redefine the

boundaries of quantitative research and knowledge production in the sociology of

sport and physical culture

Innovative solutions to problems facing researchers in the sociology of sport and

physical culture (e.g., ethical considerations, mixed methods approaches, judging

the quality of qualitative research)

Issues of representation, knowledge translation and exchange.

Authors should follow the “Instructions of Contributors” found at

http//www.HumanKinetics.com/SSJ/JournalSubmissions.cfm and in every issue of the

Sociology of Sport Journal. The paper should be roughly 8,000 words including endnotes

and reference list. Please, submit online to http//mc.manuscritpcentral.com/hk_ssj.

Please address questions to Dr. Michael Giardina (mgiardina@fsu.edu) or Dr. Jason

Laurendeau (jason.laurendeau@uleth.ca).

Due date for Papers: March 31, 2012