Two-day conference,
University of Brighton, Sport and Leisure Cultures
19th
– 20th September, 2013
Sport, Leisure and Social
Justice
(Conference
co-chairs: Drs Burdsey, Caudwell and Wheaton)
This conference
aims to explore and expand questions regarding the role of both sport and
academics in addressing issues surrounding social justice and equity.
Specifically: How have the traditions of academics & public intellectualism
shifted? What is, and should be, the relationship between academics and social
activism? How can universities continue to engage with concerns about equality,
human rights and social justice?
Within an
increasingly neoliberal, market-driven higher educational context Henry Giroux identifies that the
university in contemporary
times has come to resemble ‘a marketing machine essential to the production of
identities in which the only obligation of citizenship is to be a consumer’ (2012, p.246). He asks:
What role should the university
play at a time when politics is being emptied out of any connection to a civic
literacy, informed judgement, and critical dialogue, further deepening a
culture of illiteracy, cruelty, hypermasculinity, and disposability? (ibid, emphasis added.)
Critical
commentators, including Giroux, are thus promoting the potential role of
education-based interventions in challenging this process.
Indeed, they are emphasising not only the abilities, but also the responsibilities of academics in establishing
a “politics of advocacy and possibility”, and engaging in “acts of activism”
(cf. Denzin and Giardina, 2012). The potential contributions made by academics
and students are seen as central because the university represents ‘a vital
democratic public sphere that cultivates the knowledge, skills, and values
necessary for the production of a democratic polity’ (Giroux, 2012, p. 246).
More broadly, Les Back and Nirmal Puwar (2012, p. 14) argue that:
What we choose to be concerned with, or focus
on and listen to, involves making judgements not only about what is valuable
but also what is important. Sociology has a public responsibility to pay
attention to vulnerable and precarious lives.
Specifically
related to sport studies, sport practices and sport cultures, we engage with
four themes:
·
Socio-cultural scholars of sport and leisure
as public intellectuals
·
Sport
development and peace (SDP)
·
Sporting
communities and campaigns for change
·
Social
Justice through media, new media, film and documentaries
The conference
will be hosted by the Sport and Leisure Cultures research cluster at the
University of Brighton. Priority areas of interest and expertise include:
sport, politics and international relations; communities, exclusions and the
cultural politics of resistance in sport; traditional and new media cultures
and the sporting landscape; and ‘alternative’ lifestyle and non-mainstream
sporting cultures. We also welcome input from other relevant areas.
We envisage a
lively event prioritising debate and discussion. Potential contributors are
encouraged to submit abstracts of 150 words for one
of the following forms of presentation:
·
20-minute conference paper
·
Poster presentation
·
15-minute round table paper proposal (either
individual papers or as a group of up to 4 papers)
The conference is supported by: British Sociological
Association Leisure and Recreation Group, Political Studies Association Sport
and Politics Group and Taylor and Francis Publishers.
Please send
abstracts to d.c.burdsey@brighton.ac.uk and j.c.caudwell@brighton.ac.uk
Deadline date: Monday 1st July, 2013
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