Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Dealing with Douglas' perspective on doping: Sharp lines and borderlands
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Movement, Culture and Society.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1230-3415
Högskolan i Gävle.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8942-3058
2022 (English)In: Book of abstracts: 2022 EASS & ISSAWORLD CONGRESS OF SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT: Why does sociology matter? The role of sport sociology in interdisciplinary research., 2022, p. 204-Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This presentation critically explores elite athletes’ accounts on the anti-doping system and how ideas of purity and danger shape their experiences and practices within it. Theoretically, we draw from Mary Douglas’ influential ideas on purity and danger. These ideas encompass the idea that separating dirtiness from cleanliness provides a way to systematically create and maintain symbolic, societal and cultural order. Data from 13 qualitative interviews with elite athletes in three different sports dispersed over five geographical continents was analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis shows a strict conviction of the importance to distinguish the pure from the impure, in our study played out as practices and experiences of assurance, intimidation and shaming. The danger of breaching the sharp line between purity and danger had to be handled by the individual athletes through taking precise measures to avoid pollution. The elite athletes’ bodies become the places where boundaries can be built, and sharp limits arise. A conclusion is that the athletes have much to gain from becoming ‘guardians of purity’. We caution, however, that such positioning implicates symbolic values on cleanliness that may simultaneously infer others’ dirtiness.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. p. 204-
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-7095OAI: oai:DiVA.org:gih-7095DiVA, id: diva2:1679032
Conference
2022 EASS & ISSA World Congress of Sociology of Sport, 7-10 June 2022, Tübingen, Germany
Available from: 2022-06-30 Created: 2022-06-30 Last updated: 2022-11-29Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Book of abstracts

Authority records

Bäckström, Åsa

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bäckström, ÅsaQvarfordt, Anna
By organisation
Department of Movement, Culture and Society
Sociology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 541 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf