Tag: April Henning

What is left to do in anti-doping research? This was the question April Henning and Jörg Krieger, as the directors of the International Network of Doping Research, asked themselves and their colleagues two years ago at the 2022 conference, where international experts discuss research on the political, cultural, and social dimensions of doping in an independent setting. At this year’s INDR conference they will have much to discuss given the recent doping scandal in China.

Doping, as both practice and phenomenon, has largely been approached as a question of socio-cultural context and structures. April Henning’s and Jesper Andreasson’s edited volume Doping in Sport and Fitness (Emerald) argues that rigid differentiations between doping contexts – such as sport/fitness or elite/recreational – are less clear than it might seem. Andrew Bloodworth found the book an informative and interesting read, and he highly recommends it to those with an interest in this wide and complex field.

One way of analysing power is through the concept of hegemony. Hegemony and Sport: Power Through Culture in Theory and Practice by April Henning & Jesper Andreasson (Common Ground) focuses on how hegemony works, particularly in sport. Hallgeir Gammelsæter has read the slim volume and found that a mere 93 pages can sometimes take an unexpected amount of time to penetrate. In all fairness, you learn what you expect to learn, but in the end you’ve had to read a lot more than you expected.

In the edited collection Restart: Sport After the Covid-19 Time Out by Jörg Krieger, April Henning & Lindsay Parks Pieper (Common Ground), practitioners and international scholars explore the “restart» of sport and fitness following the initial period of lockdowns during spring 2020. Sport sociologist Jan Ove Tangen is appreciative of the individual chapters, but not at all happy with the way they interact within the collection. A more instructive Introduction would have helped, as would a concluding summing-up chapter.

The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society, edited by Lawrence A, Wenner (Oxford UP), features leading international scholars’ assessments of scholarly inquiry about sport and society. Divided into six sections, chapters consider dominant issues within key areas, approaches featured in inquiry, and debates needing resolution. Our reviewer is Richards Giulianotti, who edited the Sage four volume set The Sociology of Sport in 2012, and he finds that this new collection, some unnecessary omissions notwithstanding, is a welcome addition to the existing list of handbooks in the field.

Drawing on case studies from the early twentieth century to the present day, April Henning and Paul Dimeo, authors of Doping: A Sporting History (Reaktion Books), explore why the current anti-doping system looks as it does, charting its origins to the founding of the modern Olympic Games. Andrew Bloodworth is no stranger to the thorny issues associated with doping and anti-doping, and his reading of this book turns up important historical roots as well as many useful suggestions for reforming the WADA policy and its implementation.

C&S is a cutting-edge peer-reviewed quarterly that publishes research to foster international scholarly understanding of the nexus of communication and sport that engages a broad intellectual community. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Recontextualizing Barstool Sports and Misogyny in Online US Sports Media by Christopher J. Garcia and Jennifer M. Proffitt.

Academics in various disciplines are writing about sport. Sport in Society is a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary forum for academics to discuss the growing relationship of sport to significant areas of modern life. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: What’s at play? Power, transnational coaches and the global hegemony of performance within Danish elite swimming by Jørgen Bagger Kjær & Sine Agergaard.

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy is an international peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research contributions to scientific knowledge. It publishes high quality articles from a wide variety of philosophical traditions. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Koshti/Wrestling: A Victory Key for Heroes in Shahnameh by Hamid Reza Safari Jafarlou, Azim Jabareh Naserou & Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani.

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.