“Water Gun Fun, Aces High,” by Benny Mazur.  Image has been blurred and converted to black and white color.  Image was downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

Though it is difficult to locate the exact origins of agricultural fairs in the history of the United States, it is reasonably safe to assume that fairs have existed in various parts of the country since at least the 1700s, when settler colonists undoubtedly such British and European agricultural traditions with them.  Today, counties across the U.S. organize county fairs during the summer months.  For millions of Americas, fairs have come to signify family-friendly community entertainment, complete with an assortment of fried and comfort foods, carnival rides, tractor pulls, 4-H and agricultural demonstrations, and other symbols (real and mythical) of rural life.  Indeed, sport and the active body is often a key component of fair entertainment, arriving in the form of rodeos, racing competitions involving farming equipment and lawnmowers, guns, even the presence of military booths testing participants on their physical strength.  County fairs offer a unique look at not only the workings and values within American culture, but the role of sport within those contexts.

Continue reading →

Foveran Links dune system in Scotland, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.  The nearby dunes at Menie Links became the site of the Trump Organization’s planning application to build a golf course, hotel and houses.  Photo attribution: Martyn Gorman.

In the year 2012, Donald Trump was still a real estate magnate based in New York.  The real estate portfolio for the Trump Organization, at the time, consisted of commercial, residential, hotel and entertainment resort properties.  The Trump Organization also built and owned “luxury” golf course properties across the United States and around the world, including courses in Dubai and Indonesia.  In July of 2012, the Trump Organization opened a course, Trump International Golf Links, just north of Aberdeen on the northeast coast of Scotland.  To this day, Trump continues to declare it “perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world.”

Continue reading →

Dr. Joshua Newman, Professor of Sport Management, Florida State University.  Photo taken from faculty page.

In 2014, sport scholar Joshua Newman published an article in the Journal of Sport Management, in which he examined the “contextual, epistemological, and ontological underpinnings” (p. 603) of sport management as an academic discipline.  The article explored arguments concerning whether the commercialization of sport is a “natural development” of the “free marketization” (p. 604) of the industry, or whether sport scholars can critically reflect on the commercialization of sport as being shaped by the emergence of neoliberalism as an economic theory and sociohistorical formation.  One of Dr. Newman’s main contentions in the article centered on rethinking sport management in terms of its “dialectical relationship” with the sports industry: the discipline is not merely a result of the sports market, but rather helps to make the “sport industry (and the study of that industry) just as it makes our pedagogical and intellectual work” (p. 604).  In short, Dr. Newman is arguing that it is possible for sport management scholars to more critically reimagine sport and the sport management as a discipline, away from assumptions of market-based inevitabilities, and towards more equitable, social forms of jouissance.

Continue reading →

Photo by Ev on Unsplash

For many people, running is not just an ordinary, seemingly healthy exercise activity, but an essential component of their everyday lives.  Whether part of their efforts and desire to attain optimal health or a rigorous, deeply embodied activity that they enjoy, running is now a ubiquitous, culturally-meaning practice within modern capitalist societies.  The omnipresence of running images, symbols and representations within sporting and social media is a testament to its power and ubiquity of running within, at the very least, North American popular culture.

Continue reading →

Photo Credit: Maxence Peniguet

The scale of Russian international influence has expanded greatly since the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Since that year, we’ve seen the invasion of Ukrainian territory in the Crimean Peninsula in 2014-15, increased border activity with Georgia enacted in the name of Olympic security, and later the Russian cyber interference in elections throughout Europe and North America. Each are important examples of Russian intervention close to home and abroad, with Putin’s Russia leading a campaign to expand the influence of the federation. Continue reading →

“Nighttime” in the sightseer car of an Amtrak passenger train.  Photo taken by Sam Clevenger.

Sam: Oliver and I are really excited about this episode in terms of what it signifies for the development of our Somatic Podcast project.  It’s not that we think this particular episode is some kind of important or insightful piece of audio production, but rather that it marks our foray into experimenting with the podcast episode form and what it offers in terms of rethinking digital storytelling, the relation between music, sound, and experience, and the role of audio storytelling within critical research about all things “somatic” and “active”.  On its own terms, this episode was incredibly personal, and fun to create.  It is also, to date, our first attempt to create a “Somatic Art” episode. Continue reading →

Prof. Brett Hutchins, Monash University, Melbourne Australia.  Prof. Hutchins produces the MediaSport Podcast Series.  Photo taken from the series website.

In recent years, numerous podcasts have emerged related to the critical study of sport and physical culture.  Professors, scholars, and researchers increasingly engage with the podcast as a useful form for expanding the digital reach of their research projects, engaging with different audiences and publics, and illuminating the politics and power relations of the sports world through a more interactive, digital medium.  The feminist sport podcast Burn It All Down, hosted by a group of activists, journalists, and professors, now has a total of thirty-two episodes, as they “bring an intersectional feminist view to the biggest stories in sports.”  For some time, academic Shawn Klein has produced the podcast Examined Sport on his website, using the digital audio form to, among other things, “extend the reach of the philosophy of sport literature.”  These are just a couple notable examples of sport scholars and researchers producing informative and insightful podcasts today.

Continue reading →

(Photo Credit: Photo of Letchworth Garden City “Agricultural Belt”.  Photo taken by Sam Clevenger.)

This episode deviates slightly from previous Somatic episodes in that it combines a personal journey of contemplation with an exploration of an interesting historical topic to create almost an artistic and audial rendering of a somatic experience.  In this episode, I talk about my PhD research on the history of the international garden city movement, specifically two prominent planned communities that emerged as a result of the movement: Letchworth Garden City in the United Kingdom, and Greenbelt, Maryland in the United States.  Playing recorded soundscapes from my visit to these communities, I reflect on my experience visiting and staying in these communities, talk about the history, and ponder the significance of such planned communities in terms of how they help us rethink the meaning of our bodies in relation to our built environments.  As a result, the episode involves a mixture of approaches in that I both talk about the history of garden city ideals, and ponder my own somatic experience in the communities.  It’s kind of like a personal journey and soundscape that I’m hoping is in some way informative and interesting to you, the listener.

Continue reading →