I had an earlier post on the role of positive and negative experiences in living a meaningful sport-life. I mentioned that we might have focused too much on positive experiences when thinking of meaningfulness in sport. In this post, I will look into a couple of more studies on how the emotional tone of ourContinue reading “Positive and Negative Experiences – Part 2”
Category Archives: Blog
Is Sport Still a Project of Youth?
Developmental theories are not only descriptive, but also prescriptive: it is not only that one typically completes education, finds a job and gets married at a certain age, but that one is expected to do these things at this ‘right time’. The normative ideas about life course that circulate in our societies have massive implicationsContinue reading “Is Sport Still a Project of Youth?”
On finding or losing our (athletic) self
Different strands of psychology and philosophy have ended up with different conclusions about the importance of ‘finding’ or ‘constructing’ a coherent and strong identity, or a sense of who we are. Should we develop this strong identity, or realise that identity and self are illusions that distort our view of the nature of reality? AndContinue reading “On finding or losing our (athletic) self”
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”
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?”
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”