Sport scientists as prophets of a social problem? Werner Pitsch - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 1

Sport scientists as prophets of a social problem?

Werner Pitsch Saarland University Institute for Sport Science

• Dept. Economics and Sociology of Sport

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 2

Research driven within the social problems paradigm so far

The roles of different agents have been discussed in the literature – “the media” – stakeholders – policy makers – “the public” But the question which roles are (maybe) taken by scientists hasn‘t been studied yet (to my knowledge).

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Predictions

From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on

the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral regulators.

From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian sociology of science): Communalism,

Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized skepticism

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 4

Predictions

From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on

the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral regulators.

From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian sociology of science): Communalism,

Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized skepticism Disinterestedness – Scientists are not interested in exploiting the results of their work. They are rewarded for acting unselfish in the production of reliable knowledge.

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 5

Predictions

From constructionists moral panic theory/from social problems theory: Scientists/experts act on

the forth stage of the development of a moral crisis. Their expertise is either asked for or rejected according to if it fits to the interests of the moral regulators.

From the CUDOs-norms (from Mertonian sociology of science): Communalism,

Universalism, Disinterestedness and Organized skepticism Organized skepticism – Scientists test all ideas

• meticulously. Any statements

they publish as scientists have before benn subject to rigorous, structured community scrutiny.

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Research question

Which role(s) are played by sport scientists in the emergence of the social problem „doping in recreational sport“? – Do sport scientists act according to the CUDOs norms? – Which differences from strict CUDOs-science can be found? – Are there (typical) patterns for different disciplines?

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The subject under study

Subject: „Doping in recreational sport“ Facts (un)known so far: What is its prevalence? – Unknown What are its individual consequences? – Known from case studies in elite sport and in bodybuilding. What are its collective consequences? – Unknown (see prevalence and individual consequences)

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Method

• Quantitative Content Analysis of Scientific publications
• n doping in recreational sport.
• Analysed content: Introducing chapters, discussion

and conclusion.

• MAXQDA 10 (similar to nvivo with strengths in the

analysis of texts and in the link to quantitative analyses).

• Coding system: partly theoretically driven (top-down),

partly empirically driven (bottom-up).

• 3-dimensional cross-coding

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Definition/Emergence:

"Problem" Reasons/Motivation Medicalisation of life Performance Consequences economic/public health individuall health

Legitimation:

Comparison with recreational drug consumption Comparison with doping in elite sport

Mobilization of Action :

competences named as „necessary to deal with the problem“ competences offered proposed measures: punishment proposed measures: deterrence proposed measures: prevention persons/organizations named explicitly

Formation of an Official Plan of Action Implementation of the Official Plan

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Referrence to sources

named source unnamed source without any source/speculation

Referrence to Content

recreational sport as a whole adolescents/youth/students unclear bodybuilding/fittness/gyms athletes in other named sports

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Sampling

Research in Databases for publications – … with an undisputable and clear scientific character, – … which explicitly (at least partly) referred to doping in recreational sport as a whole. Organizing the publications into “sets” according to the scientific discipline. Material coded so far: 36 texts with 531 codings

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First results

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 13

First results

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First results

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 15

First results

Sport Scientists as prohpets of a moral crisis? 16

First results

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Implications for Sport Sciences

• In the field of doping in recreational sport, a substantial

part of the text passages which were analysed were not totally in line with the CUDOs-norms.

• Sport scientists were shown to act already in the

phase of the emergence of the problem.

• Sport scientists partly produce the demand for their

expertise by producing the subject under study as a “social problem”.

• So far, clear discipline patterns could not be identified.
• Scientific community’s self-control seems to be weak

in this field

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Thank you for your attention

terms and definitions – subject – research question – method – first results - implications