New essay on elite athletes
Posted on 22 Mar 2023.
My essay “Bourdieu’s Field Theory Revisited: A Case for ‘National Signification’” has been published by Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, the peer-reviewed journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association.
The essay is an attempt to demonstrate the continued viability of Pierre Bourdieu’s apparatus to analyse contemporary elite sports. Specifically, the essay argues that such an analysis can underpin a shift in our approach to the self-presentation of elite athletes. Drawing on studies of Ada Hegerberg, Magnus Carlsen, Henrik Kristoffersen, and Halvor Egner Granerud the article shows how the term “national signification” can serve us better than the more common “national identity” when we describe how these athletes variously reference the nation in their efforts to position themselves and their practice.
Read the article through your university library. The abstract is available for free from https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2023.2189293