Anthropology in Sporting Worlds

To do anthropology in a sporting world, one must reckon with the digital. As digital technologies become more widespread and increasingly sophisticated, people develop new ways to use them when playing, watching, and learning sport. This volume adds to the growing literature in the Anthropology of Sport by framing key debates in the light of this digital context. More importantly, the authors articulate how apparently trivial contexts such as sport are crucial for exploring the ways human beings incorporate digital technologies in their everyday lives.
From taekwondo in Argentina to horse-riding in Morocco, the contributors to this volume explore a diverse range of sports across a variety of global locales. Through insightful ethnography, they show how fundamental elements of sport, including movement, competition, and values are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. Whether it is Sri Lankan cricketers analysing their practice frame-by-frame, English youth swimmers curating their Instagram feeds, or women footballers navigating urban spaces safely in Brazil, such examples indicate the diverse relationships that exist between sport and the digital. Throughout, the authors reflect on issues around knowledge, collaboration, and representation and consider their implications for undertaking anthropological work. This reveals how the fundamental relationship between anthropologist and interlocutor continues to change in the digital age.
This book will be of interest to both students and scholars in anthropology and the social sciences, including sociology, sports sciences, cultural studies, geography, and history. The nuanced yet accessible discussion of method will be useful for students preparing to undertake ethnographic work, while the contribution to theoretical debates will aid researchers exploring sport and/or the digital. The international scope of this volume, combined with the broad scope of the arguments therein, ensure a wide appeal for many readers.

List of Figures and Table
List of Acronyms
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction: The Digital Fabric of Social Interaction: Knowledge, Collaboration and Representation in Sport
Ben Hildred, Sean Heath and Henrike Neuhaus

Section I
Knowledge
Chapter 1
The Digital as a Facilitator of Epistemic Struggle: Addressing Digitally-Mediated Social Interactions in Sport for Development Organisations
Arthur Gaillard
Durham University
Chapter 2
‘Re-Reflective’ Knowledge: The Iterative Cycle of Digitally Mediated Embodiment
Ben Hildred
Durham University
Chapter 3
Temporary Cyborgs: Preparing Digital Subjectivities in Taekwondo
Henrike Neuhaus
Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich

Section II
Collaboration
Chapter 4
‘Let’s Share an Uber?’ – Cooperation, Safety and the Use of Digital Technologies in Gendered Football Spaces in Brazil
Julia Haß
Freie Universität Berlin
Chapter 5
Reflections on Collaborative Filmmaking in Morocco
Gwyneth Talley
American University in Cairo

Section III
Representation
Chapter 6
‘Doing Vulnerability’ in the Digital Age: On Researching Discrimination in Football Fandom
Jasmin Seijbel
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Chapter 7
Displaying Senegalese Wrestling: Predicaments of Representation in/of a Mass-Mediated and Secretive Sporting World
Francesco Fanoli
Direzione Regionale Musei Nazionali Campania, Italy
Chapter 8
Representing the Self: Contextualising Tracked and Quantified Swimming Bodies
Sean Heath
KU Leuven, Belgium
Afterword
Thomas F. Carter
University of Brighton

Contributors
Inde

Sean Heath is an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at KU Leuven. He has carried out extensive research amongst swimmers in the UK, Canada, and Norway, exploring the entangled relationships between water, the senses, and place.

Benjamin Hildred is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK. He has examined cricket in post-war Sri Lanka, and is exploring the broader relationship between sport and social change.

Henrike Neuhaus is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Anthropology and Art at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich. Their interests lie in researching Latin America, Taekwondo, knowledge transmission, care and audiovisual methods.

Thomas Carter is an Associate Professor in Anthropology and Sport at the University of Brighton. He is a leading figure in the sub-discipline, having previously published six books including the seminal 'The Anthropology of Sport: Bodies, Borders, Biopolitics' (U California Press).

sport anthropology, anthropological ethnography, digital ethnography, ethnographic methods, participant observation, sociology of sport, qualitative methodology, research ethics, Sport for Development and Peace, Visual anthropology, organizational ethnography, apprenticeship, film, ethnographic documentary