Noora Ronkainen

Spirituality in Sport

What you are truly after neither has form nor is without form. It cannot be grasped or attained or obtained or conceptualized or even described (…) In other words, there is nothing to get. (Steve Hagen, Buddhism is Not What you Think) Following developments in other fields such as health sciences, nursing, psychology and management,Continue reading “Spirituality in Sport”

Meaningful Sport – Dr Michael McDougall (Pt1) | Culture | Sport Organisations | Leaders | Narrative

https://paresearcher.podbean.com/e/mcdougall/ Exploring meaning and meaningful experiences in sport or elsewhere can never be carried out without consideration of culture. In the podcast with Dr Michael McDougall, we start to explore what kind of “thing” is culture, and how cultures have been studied in organisational research in and outside of sport. Can we create a winningContinue reading “Meaningful Sport – Dr Michael McDougall (Pt1) | Culture | Sport Organisations | Leaders | Narrative”

Meaningful Sport – Prof Gunnar Breivik (Pt1) | Heidegger | Sport Philosophy | Sporting Human Being | Existentialism | Worldmaking | Exploration

https://paresearcher.podbean.com/e/breivik/ Professor Gunnar Breivik’s work has been foundational in the field of sport philosophy and especially in relation to existential philosophy in sport. For Gunnar, a human being is the homo movens and the homo ludens: a playful and active being that explores the world and its own possibilities. Often drawing on Heidegger’s philosophy andContinue reading “Meaningful Sport – Prof Gunnar Breivik (Pt1) | Heidegger | Sport Philosophy | Sporting Human Being | Existentialism | Worldmaking | Exploration”

Positive and Negative Experiences

I have been honoured to have such wonderful guests in the Meaningful Sport podcast who have asked critical but constructive questions around what kind of movement experiences might be important from the perspective of meaningfulness. Especially the episodes on physical education with ?Déirdre Ní Chróinín and Tim Fletcher and Greg Dryer have centralised these issues.Continue reading “Positive and Negative Experiences”

Sport for Meaningful Living?

Many philosophers have contended that movement culture practices hold the possibility to become existential explorations of our humanity and place in the world. However, in contemporary cultural life, movement cultures (in sport and exercise) are in danger of being reduced to two equally uninspiring ‘projects’: exercise-for-health and (elite) sport-for-winning. ‘Exercise-for-health’, informed by the rapid advancesContinue reading “Sport for Meaningful Living?”

Health, What For?

It is somewhat paradoxical that we seem to be becoming increasingly unhealthy (for example, because of our sedentary lifestyles) but at the same time obsessed with health. Many sociologists have written about “healthism” and how health issues dominate the public consciousness. Health has increasingly become a moral imperative that should guide our lifestyle choices (e.g.,Continue reading “Health, What For?”

Moving “post” sport?

For some critical sport scholars, the era of modern sport is over. Or at least it should be. But what kind of alternative physical culture are they proposing? “Post-sport” as a different form of physical culture that rejects the values of modern sport was explored by Brian Pronger in his book Body Fascism: Salvation inContinue reading “Moving “post” sport?”

Dr Mark Nesti (Pt1) | Sport Under COVID-19 | Existential Psychology | Applied Sport Psychology | Anxiety | Loneliness

https://paresearcher.podbean.com/e/nesti/ I had the honor to host Dr Mark Nesti, my formed PhD supervisor and a pioneer in applying existential psychology in sport, in the podcast. In the episode, we focus on exploring how the existential though can help us understand our situation in the world which has dramatically changed after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.Continue reading “Dr Mark Nesti (Pt1) | Sport Under COVID-19 | Existential Psychology | Applied Sport Psychology | Anxiety | Loneliness”

When the Age ‘Catches Up’

For Albert Camus, the only real philosophical problem is suicide. One might argue that for an athlete, the only real problem is age. After all, modern sport is built on the meta-narrative of progress: higher, faster and stronger. Ageing represents the end of possibilities for advancement in these three goals. And an athlete becomes awareContinue reading “When the Age ‘Catches Up’”

Threats to meaningfulness in sport

No discussion about sport as a meaningful activity would be complete without considerations of the threats to that meaningfulness. We know that many youth athletes drop out or decide to quit. Some studies, mine included, have described how professional athletes consider sport merely a job and just “play the role of the athlete” without buyingContinue reading “Threats to meaningfulness in sport”