Brand Environments and the Emergence and Change of Awareness for New Sports Teams: A Two-Wave Examination

Using the Republic of North Macedonia as a case study, this article analyzes the processes through which national sports teams’ losing performance acquires a broad social and political significance. I explore claims to sporting victory as a direct product of political forces in countries located at the bottom of the global hierarchy that participate in a wider system of coercive rule, frequently referred to as empire. I also analyze how public celebrations of claimed sporting victories are intertwined with nation-building efforts, especially toward the global legitimization of a particular version of national history and heritage. The North Macedonia case provides a fruitful lens through which we can better understand unfolding sociopolitical developments, whereby imaginings of the global interlock with local interests and needs, in the Balkans and beyond.

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Sports, Transgender Rights and the Bodily Politics of Cisgender Supremacy

Laws ◽

10.3390/laws10030063 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Elizabeth A. Sharrow

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Political Institutions ◽

State Legislatures ◽

The United States ◽

The Political ◽

Sports Teams ◽

Political Interests ◽

Legislative Proposals ◽

Gendered Bodies ◽

Political Right

Between 2020 and 2021, one hundred and ten bills in state legislatures across the United States suggested banning the participation of transgender athletes on sports teams for girls and women. As of July 2021, ten such bills have become state law. This paper tracks the political shift towards targeting transgender athletes. Conservative political interests now seek laws that suture biological determinist arguments to civil rights of bodies. Although narrow binary definitions of sex have long operated in the background as a means for policy implementation under Title IX, Republican lawmakers now aim to reframe sex non-discrimination policies as means of gendered exclusion. The content of proposals reveal the centrality of ideas about bodily immutability, and body politics more generally, in shaping the future of American gender politics. My analysis of bills from 2021 argues that legislative proposals advance a logic of “cisgender supremacy” inhering in political claims about normatively gendered bodies. Political institutions are another site for advancing, enshrining, and normalizing cis-supremacist gender orders, explicitly joining cause with medical authorities as arbiters of gender normativity. Characteristics of bodies and their alleged role in evidencing sex itself have fueled the tactics of anti-transgender activists on the political Right. However, the target of their aims is not mere policy change but a state-sanctioned return to a narrowly cis- and heteropatriarchal gender order.

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Functional ratings in sports

Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports ◽

10.1515/jqas-2020-0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 183-191

Author(s):

Brad Lowery ◽

Abigail Slater ◽

Kaison Thies

Keyword(s):

Least Squares ◽

Method Of Least Squares ◽

Sports Teams ◽

New Model ◽

College Basketball ◽

Division 1

AbstractIn this paper, we present a new model for ranking sports teams. Our model uses all scoring data from all games to produce a functional rating by the method of least squares. The functional rating can be interpreted as a team average point differential adjusted for strength of schedule. Using two team’s functional ratings we can predict the expected point differential at any time in the game. We looked at three variations of our model accounting for home-court advantage in different ways. We use the 2018–2019 NCAA Division 1 men’s college basketball season to test the models and determined that home-court advantage is statistically important but does not differ between teams.

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Personal Data and Power Asymmetries in U.S. Collegiate Sports Teams

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction ◽

10.1145/3375185 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (GROUP) ◽

pp. 1-27

Author(s):

Samantha Kolovson ◽

Calvin Liang ◽

Sean A. Munson ◽

Kate Starbird

Keyword(s):

Personal Data ◽

Collegiate Sports ◽

Sports Teams ◽

Power Asymmetries

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Problematizing Olympic Nationality

AJIL Unbound ◽

10.1017/aju.2020.73 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 114 ◽

pp. 374-379

Author(s):

Peter J. Spiro

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

National Identity ◽

Focal Point ◽

Professional Sports ◽

Sports Teams ◽

Olympic Athletes ◽

Nation States ◽

International Solidarity

One can hope that the convening of the Tokyo Olympics will be a cause for global celebration. Tokyo could prove a focal point for international solidarity, a moment of relief and release after all of humanity faced down an insidious, invisible, and largely indiscriminate attacker. Unified as we otherwise may be, athletes will still come to the Games as representatives of nation-states. That may be an unavoidable organizing principle. Less justifiable will be the requirement that athletes be nationals of the states they play for. Under the Olympic Charter and the rules of particular sporting federations, athletes are subject to a non-state nationality regime that restricts the capacity of individuals to compete for countries for whose delegations they would otherwise qualify. This regime looks to maintain the putative integrity of Olympic competition by maintaining the unity of sporting and sociological national identity. But that legacy of the twentieth century no longer works in the twenty first. Nationality and associated criteria for participant eligibility undermine the autonomy of athletes and the quality of participation. The rules can no longer guarantee any affective tie between athlete and nation, instead arbitrarily enabling some, but not all, to compete on the basis of citizenship decoupled from identity. We don't require that athletes playing for our professional sports teams hale from the cities they represent. There's no reason why we need to require more of our Olympic athletes.

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Racial Politics and the Presidency: Analyzing White House Visits by Professional Sports Teams

Social Science Quarterly ◽

10.1111/ssqu.12944 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 (2) ◽

pp. 897-919

Author(s):

Kendall L. Bailey ◽

Austin Trantham

Keyword(s):

Racial Politics ◽

Professional Sports ◽

Sports Teams ◽

White House

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A Case Study of Excellence in Elite Sport: Motivational Climate in a World Champion Team

The Sport Psychologist ◽

10.1123/tsp.2013-0037 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 60-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Ken Hodge ◽

Graham Henry ◽

Wayne Smith

Keyword(s):

Motivational Climate ◽

Head Coach ◽

World Cup ◽

Sports Teams ◽

Dual Management ◽

Assistant Coach ◽

World Champion ◽

Emotionally Intelligent ◽

Depth Interviews

This case study focused on the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team during the period from 2004 to 2011, when Graham Henry (head coach) and Wayne Smith (assistant coach) coached and managed the team. More specifically, this case study examined the motivational climate created by this coaching group that culminated in winning the Rugby World Cup in 2011. In-depth interviews were completed with Henry and Smith in March 2012. A collaborative thematic content analysis revealed eight themes, regarding motivational issues and the motivational climate for the 2004–2011 All Blacks team: (i) critical turning point, (ii) flexible and evolving, (iii) dual-management model, (iv) “Better People Make Better All Blacks,” (v) responsibility, (vi) leadership, (vii) expectation of excellence, and (viii) team cohesion. These findings are discussed in light of autonomy-supportive coaching, emotionally intelligent coaching, and transformational leadership. Finally, practical recommendations are offered for coaches of elite sports teams.

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