The social construction of the sociology of sport: a professional project

This paper presents a historical sociological analysis of the sociology of sport. It draws on theoretical insights from the sociology of professions to examine ‘state of the field’ reviews written by sociologists of sport. The paper argues that in establishing why the sociology of sport emerged, how people identified its earliest manifestations, and how the subdiscipline’s boundaries were drawn, the political dynamics and consequences of the social construction of the field become apparent. This social construction is conceived of as a ‘professional project’ through which a knowledge domain, and this group’s authoritative status, was established. Sociologists of sport sought to validate their professional project through appeals to the sociological ‘mainstream’ and the correlative distancing from physical education. These reviews consistently obscure this professional project and portray a lineage which is logical, inevitable and consensual. With some predicting the sociology of sport’s ‘impending demise’ (Atkinson 2011: 136) stemming from ‘a debilitating blend of introspective and ineffectual parochialism’ (Silk and Andrews, 2011: 5), the International Sociology of Sport Association’s (ISSA) forthcoming 50 anniversary presents an opportune moment to reflect on the area with which most readers of this journal self-identify. Such stocktaking is far from unusual in the sociology of sport. Indeed a quarter of a century ago Jay Coakley (1987: 63) remarked on the ‘impressive’ number of ‘state of the field’ papers. But in recent years reviews of the area have become less frequent. In their editorial to a subsequent special issue of the Sociology of Sport Journal John Loy and George Sage lamented the academic community’s response to