Brian Wilson

University of British Columbia | UBC · School of Kinesiology

This paper reports findings from a study of the role played by high-profile Kenyan runners in the organization of Run-for-Peace events that took place in response to election-related violence in Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008. Acknowledging concerns expressed by some sociologists of sport about the role of celebrity athletes in the sport for dev...

Open access at: http://oapen.org/search?identifier=607431 Golf is a major global industry. The sport is played by more than 60 million people worldwide and there are more than 32,000 courses in 140 countries across the globe. This book looks at the power relationships in and around golf, examining whether the industry has demonstrated sufficient l...

Engaging and accessible, Sport & Peace: A Sociological Perspective takes a fresh, innovative look at the nuanced and controversial relationship between sport and peace. Although sport is heralded as a powerful tool for social good, drawing attention to causes such as conflict resolution, HIV prevention, environmental initiatives, and improved inter...

This article introduces/rationalizes an attempt to conceptualize “environmental sports journalism (ESJ).” ESJ refers to a set of principles for analyzing and/or reporting on media coverage of sport-related environmental issues—principles intended to support/promote dialogue and nuanced thinking about these issues and about how sports journalism mig...

Available Open Access at: https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2023-0216 This article introduces sociological conceptions of loss to literature on sport to assess the “life” and “death” of golf courses—as well as the “afterlife” of golf terrain once golf courses close. As indicated by the quotation from Rebecca Elliott’s writing (2018) in our title, a loss...

This article introduces sociological conceptions of loss to literature on sport to assess the “life” and “death” of golf courses—as well as the “afterlife” of golf terrain once golf courses close. As indicated by the quotation from Rebecca Elliott’s writing (2018) in our title, a loss framing differs from the concept of sustainability by considerin...

The purpose of our study was to examine the perspectives of Olympic coaches and national performance directors regarding factors they felt influence athlete well-being (both positively and negatively), and to explore their perceived roles in contributing to the well-being of their athletes. Coaches (n = 12) and national performance directors (n = 1...

This article contributes to literature on the politics of sport facility provision through a case study of urban public golf courses in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver is consistently rated among the least affordable cities in the world. The city’s three primely-located public golf courses – McCleery, Langara, and Fraserview – have t...

What happens to our sporting goods when we are done with them? Even though Sustainable Development Goal 12 focuses on responsible consumption and production, very few in the sports industry (and academy) have asked this question. With environmental degradation now a daily concern around the world, we can no longer produce and consume sporting goods...

The purpose of this study was to explore male ice hockey athletes’ experiences with barriers and facilitators to asking for help while competing in professional leagues (e.g. National Hockey League). Using a critical interpretivist approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 athletes (aged 24–41 years), who either held a professional...

Many people living in poverty ride bicycles and many also participate in informal work such as recycling. A small number of studies have begun to explore homeless cyclists’ experiences with and perspectives on bicycles and recycling. In the current study, we seek to contribute to this emerging area of study, focusing in this case on the social supp...

This article explores ‘bicycles for development’ (BFD)–a ‘movement’ that positions the bicycle as a tool to promote key development goals, especially those related to the achievement of gender equality. Despite the increasing growth and prominence of BFD, there remains limited empirical research that investigates the intersections among gender, dev...

Bicycling is celebrated for being sustainable, healthy, and economical, and it has become popularised among urbanites in many cities. Literature on mobility and urban development tends to reflect these values, as do policies on transportation and sustainability in cities like Vancouver – where the bicycle’s role as a sustainable leisure activity an...

The demands of Olympic-level sport create a unique array of factors that can influence athlete well-being. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of Canadian Olympians in relation to factors they believe contributed to, or impaired, their well-being over the course of their sport careers. Twelve recently retired Canadian Olympic athletes f...

In the last 15 years, there has been a flurry of sport-for-development and peace (SDP) organizations, corporate-funded interventions and scholarship. Despite burgeoning SDP research, there have been few studies that have investigated the bicycles-for-development (BFD) “movement”, whereby bicycles are perceived as key to achieving international deve...

Safe space—a physical and psychosocial space cultivated through social relations—can be vital for youth programs and community development. This paper analyzes youth participants’ experiences in a Canadian bicycle program. The authors suggest that the program can be seen as a form of “Sport for Development,” and specifically what the authors term “...

Bicycles have been hailed by The UN and NGOs for use in social and economic development (Yang & Wu, 2015). However, there is a lacuna of research exploring the value of bicycles for development outside of Europe and America (Sengers, 2016). Specifically, there is a lack of research on the structure and perspectives of bicycles for development (BFD)...

This article reports on an empirical study of ‘Bicycles for Development’ (BFD) – a nascent movement whereby used bicycles are collected (often in the global North) and distributed in development contexts (often in the global South) with the aim of achieving a range of positive social outcomes (e.g. access to education). Drawing from interviews ( n...

This is a comprehensive overview of sport and environment-related issues, developed for an introductory (sociology-focused) textbook on sport and physical culture. in it, we consider links between sport, physical culture and environmental issues. We outline, on one hand, how environmental issues impact (and may impact, in the future) sport and phys...

Few studies on sport and communication consider how environmental issues are reported on—especially in non-Western media. In this article, we report findings from a study of South Korean mainstream and alternative print media coverage of the controversial development of Mount Gariwang for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Ou...

This paper reports findings from a study of Canadian mainstream media coverage of anti-Olympic protests around the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The study included an experiment with a hybrid analytic approach, as we drew together Galtung's "peace journalism" (PJ) framework with a more critically and contextually-oriented strategy. We found that article...

In this paper we report findings from a study of what we are calling 'sports media activism' (or 'SMA'). We were interested in how, why, and for what purposes a range of sport media activists are engaging with sport-related social issues through different media. This research contributes to a limited body of literature on sport-related activism, an...

In this article, we present an analysis of recent handbooks, field guides and other educative texts on sports journalism. Authored mostly by current and former journalists turned university educators, these books signal the professionalization of sports journalism amid changes and challenges to news media industries. In offering guidance on best pr...

Across newsrooms and journalism schools, questions as to what constitutes or ‘counts’ as excellent reporting are currently inciting much debate. Among the various frameworks being put forward to describe and encourage ‘excellent’ journalism in its various forms, sport is seldom mentioned – a legacy perhaps of its perennial dismissal as trivial subj...

This paper features a critical examination of recent legislation banning cosmetic pesticide applications in the province of Ontario, Canada. It focuses in particular on the exemption of golf courses from the province’s Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act of 2009. Drawing from a wide range of materials, the authors first contextualize Ontario’s recent law t...

This article focuses on the case of Trump International Golf Links, Scotland (TIGLS), a golf course in Aberdeenshire that opened in 2012 after a lengthy and contentious application and development phase. Herein, we draw from a larger study of golf and the environment with the aim of assessing both the TIGLS case in itself and its implications for t...

This article reports findings from a study designed to examine cricket?s role as an international development tool ? with a particular focus on how decisions are made at the highest institutional levels to support cricket-related development initiatives. Data for the study are drawn from interviews with executives in the International Cricket Counc...

In this critical review we reflect on findings from a socio-historical study of golf's relationship with the environment. We focus especially on the golf industry's pursuit of modernization from the early 1900s to the present. Golf's quest to 'be' modern, we contend, has specifically constituted three particular 'turns': a first turn in the early 1...

This study examines mainstream news media framings of North Korea and the inter-Korean relationship in the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, focusing on the role that the media played in privileging particular understandings of nationalism, conflict and reconciliation. Print news articles from South Korea and English-speaking western nations were c...

PurposeTo outline strategies for balancing a critical approach to sport for development and peace (SDP) interventions with approaches that highlight the potentially positive outcomes of SDP. Two examples of attempts to balance these approaches are highlighted. One is a critical analysis of responses to sport-related environmental problems. The othe...

Although there is a tradition of research focused on the socialization experiences of student-athletes, few studies consider how non-sport-related transitions impact and overlap with the sport-related transitions experienced by these athletes – or how transition experiences are influenced by the broader, structural conditions associated with reflex...

This chapter supplements existing research on power relations and inequality in the sociology of sport by addressing various questions left unexamined within the existing literature. It discusses previous research and writing on environmental issues in the sociology of sport and considers what is already known about these questions and issues. The...

This article examines the golf industry's evolving responses to environment‐related problems since the mid‐1960s. Drawing from an analysis of golf superintendent trade publications, the article shows how golf industry members initially denied that their work could have negative impacts, but eventually acknowledged potential golf‐related environment...

It is becoming commonplace for sport organizations and sport-related corporations to develop and publicize their efforts to operate in more sustainable and environmentally friendly ways. These efforts include creating or upgrading sport venues in ways that reduce environmental impacts, running spectator events while remaining sensitive to concerns...

Purpose – To discuss the history and relevance of audience research as it pertains to sport and physical culture and to demonstrate an approach to doing audience research. Design/methodology/approach – A step-by-step overview of a study conducted by the authors is provided. The study examined ways that groups of young males in a Vancouver, Canada,...

Internet platforms are increasingly becoming strategic tools for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in international development to collaborate, share information, and gain legitimacy. Drawing on the literature on neoliberalism, sport for development, globalization and networking through communication technologies, this article examines...

This article reports findings from a qualitative case study undertaken at a Vancouver high school designed to examine the role of media and physical education (PE) in shaping how young males (n = 36) understand and practice gender. The authors were specifically concerned with developing a nuanced understanding of how interpretations of masculinity...

In this paper we argue that sport media research would be enhanced by: (a) engagement with the audience research tradition, including "third generation" audience studies that emphasize relationships between viewer interpretations of media and everyday social practices; and (b) the adoption of multimethod research approaches that are sensitive to co...

This article reports findings from an interview-based study focused around the role of the Internet in the development and operations of four nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that use sport as part of their youth engagement efforts. Findings showed, on the one hand, how the emergence of certain NGOs would not have been possible if not for the I...

Our paper illustrates how males of Chinese descent in British Columbia (BC) have historically been victims of overt and subtle forms of discrimination, and describes how racism is and was integrally linked to notions of class, gender and the body. Highlighted in our historical overview are issues around race and masculinity for Chinese males as the...

By considering three main questions, this article develops an argument for rethinking existing approaches to understanding both sport-related social movements and "local" responses to globalizing forces in light of the emergence of Internet communication. They are: (a) How can extant conceptions of sport-related social movements be expanded to acco...

In this study, the authors used focus group interviews to explore how female adolescents in a Canadian high school interpreted and used tobacco imagery in films in their daily lives. Findings from interviews with 20 smokers led them to argue that smoking scenes in films might stimulate youth smoking and that cigarettes are an important symbol in yo...

In this article., the researchers report findings from a study that investigated the social construction of masculinity in programming offered by "MOJO Radio-Talk Radio for Guys," a station launched on August 6, 2002, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. These results support the notion that commercial media targeted toward certain male demograp...

Rave is one of the first distinct and significant youth subcultures to emerge since the early days of punk rockers and skinheads. A middle-class culture renowned for drug use, computer-generated "techno" music, and all-night dance parties, rave has been described as everything from a drug cult to a neo-hippie community. Brian Wilson uses his ethnog...

The integration of traditional (offline and face-to-face) and virtual ethnographic methods can aid researchers interested in developing understandings of relationships between online and offline cultural life, and examining the diffuse and sometimes global character of youth resistance. In constructing this argument, I have used insights from studi...

Over the past 10 years, sociologists have attended to the impacts of the Internet on youth subcultural coalescence, display, identity, and resistance. In this article, the authors develop a critique of this body of work, describing how existing research places undue emphasis on young people’s experiences either online or offline and how a lack of c...

This uprising, coined the "Yonge Street riots" of 1992, developed both from an organized, peaceful protest of the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the trial of the Rodney King case and a death by shooting of a black man at the hands of Metro Toronto police. Most police sources, media accounts, and sociologists of youth suggested tha...

This paper identifies and focuses on two areas of concern in the extant literature on youth culture in Canada. The first is that analyses of contemporary developments in Canadian youth culture tend not to consider the potential contributions of the recent 'post-subculture' or 'club-culture' stands of theory that have emerged out of Britain. The sec...

This paper explores issues relevant to youth, masculinity, Internet, and sport studies through a case study of the "anti-jock" (cyber)movement. The anti-jock movement is group of self-described "marginalized youth" who, through the production and consumption of anti-jock Websites, express dissatisfaction with and anger toward institutions that uncr...

This paper examines the development of a grassroots movement to revive the defunct Ottawa Rough Riders CFL franchise. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical implications of this movement for understanding social processes of collective action in sport-related contexts, the political economic forces that guide/structure these processes, and...

This article is a theoretical and empirical examination of female youth culture in recreation/drop-in centers. The authors attempt to integrate theories of female participation in leisure and sport with more mainstream perspectives on female youth subcultures. A gender-sensitive, cultural studies-based perspective emerges, underscored by a (Chicago...

For many youth, the recreation/drop-in center is a nonthreatening, relatively unstructured place to play sports and hang out in an otherwise high-risk urban area. Although numerous studies have shown a positive relationship between these recreation programs and risk reduction for youth, little work has addressed the creative ways that youth negotia...

In this article a study of sport spectatorship in Canada is presented, along with an argument for reconsidering the employment of quantitative methodology in the critical study of social inequalities in sport. Both Bourdieu's theoretical position on class distinction and sport and his methodological approach (the statistical analysis of survey data...

This paper examines the limitations of present theory concerning media and race, and provides a rationale for using Janice Radway’s concept of “interpretive communities” as a means for theorizing the “impacts” of media portrayals on audiences. Results are reported from a focus group study that used the “interpretive community” framework to assess a...

This paper analyses portrayals of African-American basketball players in the Toronto media. It was found that the media tended to stereotype African-Americans as either `good' or `bad' blacks, although there were oscillating variations on this theme. Suggestions are made for conducting similar research in other contexts.

This paper examines the impacts of athletic-apparel commercial messages on youth and youth cultures. Sneaker companies routinely use celebrity Black athletes, like Michael Jordan, to help position and market their premium brands. While concerns have been raised over the potential negative impacts of this practice, the processes through which athlet...