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"Sam, Michael P"
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Sport in the city : cultural connections
Examining sport within context of urban regeneration, this book looks at the place of sport within planning agendas for 'cities of culture'. It also examines sport stadiums in city 're-imaging' in relation to matters such as public funding, environmental impact and urban infrastructure.
Book
The Contested Terrain of Sport: Sociological, Political and Policy Perspectives
Sport, by its very nature, is a “contest” involving physical competition within rules-based structures and organisations [...]
Journal Article
Sport policy in small states
For small nations like Grenada, New Zealand and Norway, medal counts relative to population are increasingly touted as the most meaningful comparisons with sporting superpowers China, the United States and Germany. In acknowledging that 60% of the world's states have populations of less than 10 million and 48% of these have less than 5 million inhabitants, this book explores how the 'minnows' can build or sustain their sport programmes.
Book
Athlete Maltreatment as a Wicked Problem and Contested Terrain
Athlete maltreatment in organized sport has attracted considerable attention from governing bodies, stakeholders and the general public. Despite numerous studies and policy proposals from various countries, the problem remains unresolved due to its inherent complexity. Drawing upon the concept of ‘a wicked problem’ widely utilized in policy analysis, this study first identifies the wicked features of maltreatment, focusing on: (1) the difficulty of establishing a definition of maltreatment; (2) the challenges of identifying its causes; and (3) the impediments to identifying solutions in a context of embedded stakeholders and unintended consequences. To provide further analysis, we compare athlete maltreatment with other issues in sport such as doping and match-fixing, to suggest that lessons can be drawn from other wicked problems in the same contested terrain. Overall, given the complex interplay between maltreatment and the maintenance/legitimization of sport systems, this paper calls for continuing attention and evaluation of existing research/policies and advocates for a more multidimensional view that acknowledges maltreatment as a wicked problem.
Journal Article
The Contested Terrain of Sport and Well-Being: Health and Wellness or Wellbeing Washing?
Wellbeing has firmly established itself within contemporary practice, politics and policy. Indeed, the cultural, commercial, and terrestrial landscape of the concept is staggering and manifests within popular discourse and across global organisations and institutions, national governments, workplaces, and consumer lifestyle products and services. Notably, the field of sport, exercise, and physical activity has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations, and the OECD as a key sector with the potential to contribute to people’s wellbeing. This should not be surprising given that there is a large body of literature espousing the benefits of regular physical activity (in myriad forms) as part of a healthy lifestyle. However, there are increasing concerns that wellbeing’s global ubiquity may be leading to a range of unintended consequences and/or unscrupulous practices within both international organisations and nation-states. This largely conceptual essay focuses on the concept and process of wellbeing washing by (1) tracing the historical roots and evolution of wellbeing; (2) exploring its reconceptualization within the framework of neoliberalism; (3) offering a preliminary outline of the concept of wellbeing washing; and (4) briefly describing how wellbeing washing is manifesting within the context of sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Overall, this analysis explores wellbeing as a contested terrain of interests marked by a range of complexities and contradictions.
Journal Article
Too much at stake to uphold sport integrity? High-performance athletes’ involvement in match-fixing
Non-betting-related match-fixing constitutes an important integrity issue in contemporary sports. With varied forms ranging from passive tanking to the purposeful, coercive, calculated bribing of others to gain advantages, non-betting-related match-fixing can be a form of corruption that deters sport development. This paper examines high-performance athletes’ involvement in non-betting-related match-fixing in South Korea. Drawing from survey data (n = 731), this paper describes and analyses the prevalence of match-fixing, its locales (i.e., levels of competition) and origins (i.e., who made the offer/approach). Results show that: (1) 74 athletes (10.12%) were approached to take part in match-fixing, while 33 of those athletes (4.51%) actually participated; and (2) the match-fixing offers were usually made ‘by coaches’, ‘at high school-level nationwide competitions’, ‘for the purpose of entering universities’. Finally, this paper concludes by suggesting that the excessive incentives (e.g., university admission) linked with elite sport development structures may account for the strong motive behind non-betting-related match-fixing, and its endangering of sport integrity.
Journal Article
The problems and causes of match-fixing: are legal sports betting regimes to blame?
PurposeSport match-fixing has emerged as a complex global problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it critically reviews how match-fixing is typified as a policy problem. Second, it advances an analysis of the legal framework and regulatory system for sports betting as a causal source for “routinized” match-fixing.Design/methodology/approachThis study extracts and synthesises (cross-national) materials from policies, media releases and scholarly works on the subject of match-fixing and sports betting. The analysis is framed by the contrasts between rational choice and sociological institutionalist approaches.FindingsMatch-fixing is typically attributed to: criminal organisations and illegal sports betting; vulnerable individuals; and failure of governance on the part of sports organisations. Each cause holds assumptions of utility-maximising actors and it is argued that due consideration be given to the fundamental risks inherent in legal sports betting regimes.Research limitations/implicationsMatch-fixing in sport is a recurrent social problem, transcending national boundaries and involving a wide range of actors and, sporting disciplines and levels of competition. Within such an environment, it may matter little how strong the incentive structures and education programmes are, when betting on human beings is both normatively and cognitively advanced as a value and institutionally permitted as a practice.Originality/valueThis paper argues that legal betting regimes paradoxically contribute to routinised match-fixing because: for betting customers there is no qualitative, ethical difference between legal and illegal operators; and legalisation serves to normalise and legitimate the view of athletes as objects for betting (like cards or dice).
Journal Article
Content analyses of alcohol-related images during television broadcasts of major sports events in New Zealand
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, frequency, and duration of alcohol-related promotions and crowd alcohol consumption during major sports events broadcasted on the SKY Sport network between September 2011 and February 2012.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analyses for various categories of alcohol-related images were conducted, including a novel inclusion of analysing crowd alcohol consumption.
Findings
The results provide empirical evidence that sponsorship and activation-related activities of alcohol brands subvert national regulations that ban alcohol advertising during daytime television programming.
Originality/value
The results serve to sensitise researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to the prevalence of incidental alcohol promotional material within the overall televised alcohol advertising mix and the broader societal exposure to such images. This research also informs readers that alcohol companies and media outlets produce alcohol-related marketing that may not be in-line with the meaning and/or intent of laws.
Journal Article
Standardization of ELISA protocols for serosurveys of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic using clinical and at-home blood sampling
The extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection throughout the United States population is currently unknown. High quality serology is key to avoiding medically costly diagnostic errors, as well as to assuring properly informed public health decisions. Here, we present an optimized ELISA-based serology protocol, from antigen production to data analyses, that helps define thresholds for IgG and IgM seropositivity with high specificities. Validation of this protocol is performed using traditionally collected serum as well as dried blood on mail-in blood sampling kits. Archival (pre-2019) samples are used as negative controls, and convalescent, PCR-diagnosed COVID-19 patient samples serve as positive controls. Using this protocol, minimal cross-reactivity is observed for the spike proteins of MERS, SARS1, OC43 and HKU1 viruses, and no cross reactivity is observed with anti-influenza A H1N1 HAI. Our protocol may thus help provide standardized, population-based data on the extent of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity, immunity and infection.
Understanding the infection parameters and host responses against SARS-CoV-2 require data from large cohorts using standardized methods. Here, the authors optimize a serum ELISA protocol that has minimal cross-reactivity and flexible sample collection workflow in an attempt to standardize data generation and help inform on COVID-19 pandemic and immunity.
Journal Article