Lifestyles, Sports and Communities

Lifestyles, Sports and Communities (LSC) emerges from a long-standing qualitative methodological research tradition within the Chelsea School of Sport, examining various sports and leisure cultures.  The pioneering work of Professor Alan Tomlinson over the past 3 decades (e.g. Consumption, identity and style: Marketing, meanings and the packaging of pleasure, Routledge 1990; ‘Sport, Leisure and Style’ in British Cultural Studies, Morley & Robbins eds.,(2001) has underpinned this critical cultural analysis, and subsequent appropriation across a wide range of leisure and sporting contexts in different local/national/ transnational  and mediated communities.  Methodologically, work in this cluster continues to engage with a range of qualitative methods, particularly historical, discursive and ethnographic approaches. Our research on communities also engages with various community groups, practitioners, policy makers. The thematic focus of this cluster and current research projects is detailed below.

1.  Lifestyle Sport

Lifestyle sport is a long-standing research and teaching interest within the Chelsea School of Sport and the University of Brighton has developed a profile as a leading, internationally-recognised centre of excellence in research in this field.   Over recent years it has gained considerable momentum, particularly in fostering a number of international and national research and scholarship partnerships, and is being developed as a central thread in this cluster. Lifestyle Sport also has a presence in the curriculum across sport sociology, sport journalism, sport and leisure management and PE, and has been a popular area for undergraduate, masters and postgraduate research.

• A range of publications have been influential in defining the field (e.g. Understanding Lifestyle Sport (Wheaton, 2004); Special Issue of Sport and Society (Wheaton, 2010) guest editor.
• Lifestyle Sport has been the focus of collaborative research projects including: Lifestyle Sport and National Sport Policy: An agenda for Research. Report to Sport England. 2004; (Ravenscroft, Tomlinson, Wheaton & Gilchrist); The Social Benefits of Parkour in East Sussex, funded by CUPP (Wheaton, Gilchrist & Binney); A Transnational Parkour Network development, funded by the British Academy 2010-2011 (Wheaton & Gilchrist).
  • Prestigious research awards including Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship (awarded to Dr Holly Thorpe from the University of Waikato, NZ) and 2  Economic and Social Research Council PhD studentships (Georgina Roy studying surfing femininities & formerly Belinda Wheaton )

2. Understanding exclusion in sport and leisure communities

The relationship between sport, community, belonging and exclusion is the focus of several projects, particularly Dr. Burdsey’s work on ‘race,’ racism and community in British sport, and Dr. Caudwell’s on issues surrounding gender and sexuality. Dr Burdsey has conducted projects focused on amateur and professional footballers and cricketers, (the latter funded by the British Academy); football supporters from British Asian communities (funded by the FA Premier League); football, community and multiculturalism in the Netherlands; and sustainability in community sport spaces (funded by the Football Foundation).  Dr. Caudwell has published widely on women’s football culture in the UK as well as women’s involvement in boxing, rowing and the Olympics. Her work also examines- and is involved with promoting-  the Brighton-based anti-homophobia in football campaign, The Justin Campaign, which is also the focus for a sports documentary  produced by SLC Principle lecturer Ian McDonald. Dr. McDonald. Has also produced the Brighton Bandit (2007), a documentary about a gay mens’ football team,  that has been screened at numerous national and international festivals.

• Influential publications in this theme include:  Burdsey, D. (ed.) (2011) Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues Abingdon: Routledge;  Carter, T.  (2011) In Foreign Fields: The Politics and Experiences of Transnational Sport Migration. London: Pluto Press;  Caudwell, J. and Browne, K. (2011) Special Issue Editors & Editorial. Sexy Spaces: Leisure and Geography Intersectionalities. Leisure Studies, 30(2): 117-122; Caudwell, J. (2011) Special Issue Editor & Editorial. Reviewing UK Football Cultures: Continuing with Gender Analyses. Soccer and Society, 12(3): 323-329. [add Tomlinson special issue]

 Current projects in the LSC cluster include:

• Race, identity, community and the English seaside (Burdsey)
• The relationship between race and coastal lifestyle sports (Burdsey & Wheaton)
  • The implications of the new Brighton and Hove Albion FC stadium for local communities (Burdsey & Ravenscroft)
  • Community conceptualizations of the coast and how the coast shapes notions of community in different (trans)national context (Carter & Gilchrist)
  • Space, spectacle and  the politics of place (Carter)
  • The Mountaineer: British Culture and the Heroic Masculinities of Climbing (Gilchrist)
  • Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth attitudes to homophobia, football and well being (funded by Springboard grant from the University of Brighton Alumni) (Caudwell).
  • The cultural politics of lifestyle sport, focusing on ‘race’ and age via case studies of Black surfers, and ageing surfers (Wheaton).
  • The history of sport in modern Europe (Tomlinson).
  • The transnational communities of Parkour (Gilchrist & Wheaton)

Sport policy and alternative sport (Gilchrist, Wheaton, Binney).