Earl Smith v. Fabio on the Sociology of Sport
Yes, Maybe Sociology is a Wee Bit More Woke Than Before
A few weeks ago, I commented on a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Jukka Savolainen who complained about the increase in “woke” topics in the sociology of sports. Professor Earl Smith wrote the following in the comments:
As an esteemed sociologist of sport, who has been teaching and researching the subject for decades, not someone who simply picked up the subject to fill some gen ed seats, I could not disagree more with your characterization. Your critique seems as lacking in empirical evidence as the claims you are making about the textbook you utilized.
Was I being rash and hasty? Perhaps, a blog post is not a well researched journal article. Still, I think it’s important to actually look for evidence, beyond what Savolainen wrote in his op-ed. Is it actually true that the sociology of sport is “peppered” with woke content?
I went to some journals in the sociology of sport to see what they are publishing. I wouldn’t say there’s been a “woke takeover,” but these sorts of topics seem to be more and more prominent. Examples:
The very first article in the December 2023 issue of the International Review of the Sociology of Sport is called: “The spectators ask, is it a boy or a girl? What is it?”: Cultural cisgenderism and trans men's sporting experiences in Iran.
Other recent issues include articles on environmental justice and auto racing; gender and homosexuality in football; and sexual harassment in women’s basketball; Gendering strategic action fields in sports governance; using intersectionality to study sports in prison.
An entire special issue dedicated to using post-colonial theory to study “superdiversity.”
Score: Savolainen 1, Smith 0.
Maybe that was not representative of the field. So I checked out another journal, the Sociology of Sport. Here is what I found on the front page:
From recent issues: indigenous identity in hockey; racial controversy in cross fit gyms; racial capitalism in the NFL; queer cooptation of sport; and an article on “White Fratriarchy.”
I emphasize that I do not pass judgment on the content of any article. These may indeed be excellent articles. You might even argue that we need more articles in this vein. When I edited a journal, I often published articles on these very same topics.
At the same time, you can’t say that Savolainen was wrong and lacking in evidence. Just a casual glance indicates that he as a point about the popularity of research topics focusing on inequality. Score: Savolainen 2, Smith 0.
Finally, I note that this is consistent with the general trend in the sociological profession to focus more and more on inequality as noted by Philip Cohen in his analysis of ASA section membership data. Do I need to tell you the score? Yup, Savolainen 3, Smith 0.
Bottom line: In the sociology of sport, woke is now definitely a part of the play book.
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