cfp.english.upenn.edu

1st Global Conference
Sport

Wednesday 7th November – Friday 9th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria

Call For Papers:
Sport has a chimeric value in modern life. On the one hand, millions of people choose to play sports or become supporters of sports. For these people, sport is a social good, something which brings people together for a common purpose, provides a sense of security and belonging, and enjoyment and excitement; and for participants a sense of fulfilment, well-being and physical fitness. On the other hand, there is an increasingly vocal backlash against sport: by people in communities affected by the demolishing of homes to make way for facilities for mega sports event; by sports journalists weary of the doping and the match-fixing and the behaviour of elite athletes; by fans sickened by the way their sports have become tainted with the evil of global commerce; and by scholars and others critical of the importance given to sport in modern times. This project aims to bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines – sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, history, political studies, urban studies, geography, and psychology and sport science – who are interested in exploring the Janus face of sport, to try to better understand the status of sport in our everyday lives. The project is for cheerleaders of sport, critics of sport, and all those in-between who would like to make a contribution to this inter-disciplinary approach to understanding sport.

We would be interested in research or theory papers on the following themes:

● Sport and social identity
● Ontology of sport
● Ethics and sport
● Anti-sport social movements
● Commercialization and sport
● Sport and place
● Problems in sport science
● History of modern sport
● Measuring the value of sport
● Sport and popular culture
● Sport and celebrities
● The politics of sport
● Sports fandom

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: SPORT Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year.
All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:
Karl Spracklen
Leeds Metropolitan University,
United Kingdom
Email: K.Spracklen@leedsmet.ac.uk

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
Email: sport1@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

Multiple eBooks and volumes of themed papers have been published or are in press from the previous conference meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume

For further details of the project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/sport/

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/sport/c...

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.