Sport scientists as prophets of a social problem? Werner Pitsch Saarland University Institute for Sport Science Dept. Economics and Sociology of Sport Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 1
Research driven within the social problems paradigm so far The roles of different agents have been discussed in the literature – “the media” – stakeholders – policy makers – “the public” But the question which roles are (maybe) taken by scientists hasn‘t been studied yet (to my knowledge). Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 2
Predictions From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral regulators. From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian sociology of science): Communalism, Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized skepticism Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 3
Predictions From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral Disinterestedness – Scientists regulators. are not interested in exploiting From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian the results of their work. They sociology of science): Communalism, are rewarded for acting unselfish in the production of reliable Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized knowledge. skepticism Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 4
Predictions From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral Organized skepticism – regulators. Scientists test all ideas From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian meticulously. Any statements sociology of science): Communalism, they publish as scientists have Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized before benn subject to rigorous, skepticism structured community scrutiny. Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 5
Research question Which role(s) are played by sport scientists in the emergence of the social problem „doping in recreational sport“? – Do sport scientists act according to the CUDOs norms? – Which differences from strict CUDOs-science can be found? – Are there (typical) patterns for different disciplines? Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 6
The subject under study Subject: „Doping in recreational sport“ Facts (un)known so far: What is its prevalence? – Unknown What are its individual consequences? – Known from case studies in elite sport and in bodybuilding. What are its collective consequences? – Unknown (see prevalence and individual consequences) Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 7
Method • Quantitative Content Analysis of Scientific publications on doping in recreational sport. • Analysed content: Introducing chapters, discussion and conclusion. • MAXQDA 10 (similar to nvivo with strengths in the analysis of texts and in the link to quantitative analyses). • Coding system: partly theoretically driven (top-down), partly empirically driven (bottom-up). • 3-dimensional cross-coding Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 8
Definition/Emergence: "Problem" Reasons/Motivation Medicalisation of life Performance Consequences economic/public health individuall health Legitimation: Comparison with recreational drug consumption Comparison with doping in elite sport Mobilization of Action : competences named as „necessary to deal with the problem“ competences offered proposed measures: punishment proposed measures: deterrence proposed measures: prevention persons/organizations named explicitly Formation of an Official Plan of Action Implementation of the Official Plan Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 9
Referrence to sources named source unnamed source without any source/speculation Referrence to Content recreational sport as a whole adolescents/youth/students unclear bodybuilding/fittness/gyms athletes in other named sports Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 10
Sampling Research in Databases for publications – … with an undisputable and clear scientific character, – … which explicitly (at least partly) referred to doping in recreational sport as a whole. Organizing the publications into “sets” according to the scientific discipline. Material coded so far: 36 texts with 531 codings Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 11
First results Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 12
First results Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 13
First results Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 14
First results Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 15
First results Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 16
Implications for Sport Sciences • In the field of doping in recreational sport, a substantial part of the text passages which were analysed were not totally in line with the CUDOs-norms. • Sport scientists were shown to act already in the phase of the emergence of the problem. • Sport scientists partly produce the demand for their expertise by producing the subject under study as a “social problem”. • So far, clear discipline patterns could not be identified. • Scientific community’s self-control seems to be weak in this field Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 17
terms and definitions – subject – research question – method – first results - implications Thank you for your attention Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 18
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