Tag: Alexis Sossa Rojas
Self-representation and the quest for external validation in fitspiration culture
On September 20, 2024, Aurélien Daudi presented and successfully defended his dissertation Conspicuous Fitness: Social Media, Fitspiration, and the Rise of the Exhibitionistic Self (Malmö University Press) at the Department of Sport Sciences, Malmö University. In his review of the dissertation for idrottsforum.org, Alexis Sossa offers an insightful presentation of Daudi’s thought-provoking and pioneering study, noting the nuanced analyses as well as the absence of sociological and anthropological dimensions of fitspiration.
A useful contribution to the study of doping, albeit at times a tad too technical
Doping is one of sports major problems. Not everybody agrees to this allegation, some argue that sports are unfair by nature due to talent, genetic and financial differences between athletes. Kjetil Haugen is a game theorist, less interested in ethical considerations, and according to our reviewer of his book Crime and NO punishment, Alexis Sossa, a game theoretical approach has much to offer in the study of the use and abuse of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum, Volume 13, 2022
SSSF, a multidisciplinary social sciences sport studies journal, welcomes articles that deal with sport and social change and social stability in a wide sense, articles about the profound and comprehensive processes affecting sport. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Reflections from CrossFitters on the themes of body and community by Arild Boge, Ove Olsen Sæle & Hilde Stokvold Gundersen (open access).
Recalibrating experiences, perceptions and values of doped bodies
Building on empirical data from mixed methods studies, Jesper Andreasson’s and April Henning’s Performance Cultures and Doped Bodies: Challenging categories, gender norms, and policy responses (Common Ground) develops, in a sociologically informed analysis, new terminology to understand trajectories to and from doping. Alexis Sossa Rojas, with a keen ineterest in the fitness phenomenon, finds much in their book to commend, enjoy and be stimulated by.
‘I’m a woman who can kick ass!’ Practices, meanings, and corporeality in female gym-goers
In this peer reviewed article for Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum, Alexis Sossa Rojas studies how frequent female gym-goers work out in different gyms in Amsterdam, how they understand and live their bodies, and what working on their bodies means to them. They are not necessarily victims of social pressures, nor are they in search of the perfect body, since their adherence to training can also re-enact a space of agency and empowerment.