Editors:
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- Dr. Jim Cherrington (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
- Dr. Jack Black (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
In 2023 the Anthropocene Working Group concluded that human induced changes to the earth were so great that we are witnessing the end of a stable global environment. The extraction and burning of fossil fuels; the production of non-degradable plastics; and the decimation of natural habitats such as forests, seas, and rivers, point to the catastrophic and irreversible impact that human activity is having on the ‘natural’, lived, and geologic landscapes of Earth (Bonneuil and Fressoz, 2017). This has led to a social, cultural, and political, upheaval, the likes of which we have never seen before. Accordingly, the tendencies of 21st century living (i.e., consumerism, neoliberalism), the (in)adequacy of modern institutions (the nation state), and the discourses from which these derive (science, management, ecology) have come under intense scrutiny from sociologists as they have attempted make sense of this new climatic regime (Latour, 2018). It is in this context that social, political, and environmental thinkers are beginning to dispense with the realist vision of ‘Nature’ and are instead trying to (re) imagine how these spaces might be perceived, enacted, and addressed within the Anthropocene: that is, an era within which humans and ‘nature’ are no longer separated, but converge, comingle, and intra-act.
Despite the sense of urgency with which these issues have been addressed within the humanities and natural sciences, sport sociologists have been slow to respond to this emerging agenda. This is somewhat surprising given sport’s multiple intersections with the biophysical world as well as the manifold threats that such activities may pose with regard to resource depletion, pollution, land-use degradation, and habitat loss (Szto and Wilson, 2023). The existential crisis of the Anthropocene, therefore, not only helps us to problematise the sustainability of neoliberal, growth-oriented sporting models, but also underscores the need to examine the potentially ecological and non-anthropocentric dimensions of alternative and emerging forms of physical culture (Clevenger, 2023). Against this backdrop, there have been calls for less anthropocentric analyses of sporting activity in which human and nonhuman agency are taken into consideration.
Representing the first major attempt to flesh out sporting relations within the Anthropocene, this special issue of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport welcomes both empirical and/or theoretical contributions that extend our understanding of the socio-environmental and material relations of sport. Notably, we specifically encourage interdisciplinary contributions that engage with, or ‘trouble’ (Haraway, 2016), existing socio-natural associations and other sociological relations between the human/inhuman, local/global, healthy/unhealthy, personal/political, pure/impure, urban/rural in a range of sporting settings. This includes the different ways that sport impacts nature, climate, and the earth’s ecosystems.
Potential topics include:
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- Mega events and the Anthropocene
- Methodological inquiry in the Anthropocene
- Sport, health, and the Anthropocene
- Sport and climate change
- Sport, the Anthropocene, and inequality
- Sport, tourism, and eco-centric lifestyles
- Sport policy and contested nature(s)
- Rural/urban sport and the enactment of natural/cultural boundaries
- Sport in green/blue spaces
- Sport and the psychosocial effects of climate change on health and wellbeing
- Indigenous communities, sport, and the Anthropocene
- Media representations of sport in the Anthropocene
- Sport and socio-technical interactions/identities
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Manuscript Submissions
Abstracts (up to 400 words) should be submitted before 3rd June 2024 to j.cherrington@shu.ac.uk and j.black@shu.ac.uk.
Following a review of abstracts, authors will be contacted by 1st July 2024 and asked to submit full papers for peer review by 31st January 2025.
Important note: acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication of the final manuscript, as full papers still undergo a stringent double-blind peer-review process.
Full papers should be submitted here.
Expressions of interest and questions may be directed to the Special Issue Editors: Dr. Jim Cherrington (j.cherrington@shu.ac.uk) and Dr. Jack Black (j.black@shu.ac.uk).
Timeline
3rd June 2024: Abstract submission
1st July 2024: Authors of successful abstracts are contacted to request full paper submission for peer review.
31st January 2025: Full paper submissions
