Geographies of Gender, Sexuality and Race: Reframing the Focus on Space in Sport Sociology

In: International review for the sociology of sport: irss ; a quarterly edited on behalf of the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA), Band 38, Heft 2, S. 201-216

Abstract

This article returns to an earlier discussion on `sport and space' that began in a 1993 special issue of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. In this article I initiate a discussion and debate that aims to move spatial inquiry beyond a focus on `place' in order to more clearly link the relation between identity and the spaces through which identity is produced and expressed. Reframing the focus to include a broader cultural analysis enables sport sociologists to more closely examine the geography of social relations. In particular, this article considers how relations of gender, sexuality and race are produced, negotiated and contested in social space. This discussion is largely situated in the work of French theorist Henri Lefebvre and contextualized in the recent `spatial turn' in sport sociology.