Challenges of Engagement
Playing for Keeps?: The Politics of Sports Films in the 21st Century
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrew Miller
From little league to the major leagues, from Friday night football to the Super Bowl, from Negro League baseball to NBA hip hop, from the assimilation of immigrants to the manufacture of idealized masculinity, sporting culture has made a substantial impression upon everyday American society. Throughout the history of the cinema, this impact has been mediated by and through the production of well over a thousand sports films. Moving from the earliest silent shorts of Thomas Edison to the studio pictures of Martin Scorsese, and finally to the contemporary productions of Ryan Coogler, the American sports film genre has long been a popular site of Hollywood production. It has continually presented spectacular athletic bodies through which these films flex their ideological muscles and create the narrative foundation of the Athletic American Dream. As the 20th century came to a close, non-white and non-masculine images and influences became more visibly apparent in the sports film genre. And yet, these multiracial and multi-gendered embodiments of the Athletic American Dream were still wrapped in the uniforms of capitalism. As the sports film moves into the 21st century, however, the genre begins to reflect and represent a more politically engaged American athlete in tension with the corporate culture that oversees the media production of sporting images. This Paper explores the conflict between the powerful myth of the Athletic American Dream and the politicized reality of a divided America as played out on the contested playing fields of the sports film genre.
The Object is the Message: Sports, Violence, and Throwing Objects onto Fields
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ilan Tamir
Violence in sports, in general, is well documented in the research literature, including violence among specific audiences, and its manifestations cover diverse categories of dysfunctional behaviors worldwide. The current research offers a focused examination of the practice of throwing objects onto playing fields, with the aim of gaining an in-depth understanding of the motives of the object throwers, and as a by-product, to identify and categorize the types of objects thrown, and the circumstances and contexts in which they are thrown. Analysis of in-depth interviews with fans who reported throwing objects onto sports fields indicates that throwing objects onto the field constitutes a practice that is used to reinforce a team’s boundaries and its stress its differentiation from other teams. Fans consider this practice as a sacrifice they perform for the team, and the objects that are thrown are not randomly selected, in that they express a message that the fans wish to convey. The findings of the current study indicate that the practice throwing objects onto sports fields is driven by three main motives, each of which is associated with the use of distinct objects that are thrown onto the field. Throwing objects onto fields functions as a practice of protest (against the team players or the referee, reflecting frustration), as a practice of ownership (primarily against the rival team, in an effort to influence the game), and as a practice of superiority (again, primarily with the aim of humiliating the rival team).
Community Engagement at MLSE Launchpad: An Emerging New Framework
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Daniel Eisenkraft Klein
Within Sport for Development (SFD) research literature, and despite an increasing focus on SFD theoretical models, program implementation, and critical analyses, little attention has been paid to community engagement strategies during and ahead of programming. Community engagement strategies are particularly important to understand because they directly correlate to youth participation, provide an understanding of the way in which SFD organizations conceptualize the roles of and the relationship between sport and development, and have been a sincerely under-appreciated component of SFD to this point. My research investigates the community engagement strategies of MLSE Launchpad. The intersection of North American domestic sport-for-development initiatives and swelling corporate involvement in sports initiatives can be seen in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) Launchpad, a 42,000 square-foot facility recently built in one of downtown Toronto’s poorest neighborhoods. This research focuses on the progression of Launchpad’s community engagement practices, from their inaugural conceptualization to community implementation. The research involves extensive interviews with managers, coordinators, and grassroots recruitment staff, as well as observations at dozens of recruitment/engagement events. I will present my preliminary findings, as well as how these may translate to best-practices in community engagement by domestic Sport for Development programs and facilities focused on youth in North America. The discussion will also extend to broader understandings of community engagement strategies used by recreational and physical activity centers wishing to better engage with marginalized populations.
