Tag: International Network of Sport Anthropology

Sport resists easy generalisation – social scientists now accept there can be no universal definition. Nonetheless, a set of ideas have coalesced into the institution commonly known as ‘Sport’. This modernist – now neoliberal – notion has become hegemonic worldwide, and it increasingly delimits the possibilities of social action. If in fact we study two phenomena – the diverse phenomena ‘sport’ and the particular modernist notion of ‘Sport’ – then scholars must situate their analysis within the contexts that shape these concepts

At the International Network of Sport Anthropology, we recognise the need to challenge the hegemonic force of sport. We invite researchers from all related disciplines to consider how we might place sport more appropriately in context, seek to re-place it elsewhere, or indeed replace it altogether. We challenge researchers to consider more closely what sport is, including recognising that the very idea of ‘sport’ now permeates much of social life, affecting the ways definitions are formed.