Sport and Society Research Group

The Sport and Society Research Group is committed to cross-disciplinary, socially relevant scholarship exploring how sport and exercise are implicated in cultural, psychological, economic, and environmental issues. Drawing on theories and methods from across the social sciences and humanities, Group members study how diverse issues such as violence, pollution, mental health, and gender discrimination, are related to sport, health, and exercise cultures. This group is part of the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement Research Centre, and individual members collaborate across this Centre and others within and beyond the University.

Weedon, G., & Patchin, P. (2021). The Paleolithic imagination: Nature, science, and race in Anthropocene fitness cultures. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Online First.

AlHashmi, R., & Matthews, C. R. (2021). ‘He may not be qualified in it, but I think he’s still got the knowledge’: Team-doctoring in combat sports. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Online First.

Bowes A., Lomax, L., & Piasecki, J. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on elite sportswomen. Managing Sport & Leisure, Online First.

King., & S Weedon, G. (2020). Embodiment is ecological: The metabolic lives of whey protein powder. Body & Society, 26(1): 82–106.

Bowes, A., & Kitching, N. (2020). ‘Wow these girls can play’: sex integration in professional golf. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 13(2): 217-234.

Hindley, D. (2020). “More than just a run in the park”: An exploration of parkrun as a shared leisure space. Leisure Sciences, 42(1): 85-105.

Wise, N., & Kirby, S. I. (2020). A ‘home away from home’: the (London) Jaguars and the NFL’s established international presence—a semi-deterritorialization approach. Sport in Society, 23(1): 72-87.

Matthews, C.R, & Jordon, M. (2019). Drugs and supplements in amateur boxing: pugilistic amateurism and ideologies of performance. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 12(5), 631-646.

Benkwitz, A., & Healy, L. C. (2019). ‘Think Football’: Exploring a football for mental health initiative delivered in the community through the lens of personal and social recovery. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 17: 1-9.