Suchergebnisse

The intention of this paper is to analyse the role that networks play in enabling the recruitment of a group of male migrant professional footballers employed by clubs based in Norway's top professional football league – the Tippeligaen. Based upon a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with migrants and recruiters, and synthesising concepts derived from the sociology of sport and the broader study of migration, the analysis identifies that the recruitment of migrant workers to Tippeligaen clubs reflects a mix of both formal and informal processes. Whilst agents operate as key actors in the mobilisation of foreign labour, the analysis shows how recruitments in this particular athletic context are also dependent on processes of human mediation facilitated by a series of informal interdependent networks of relationships.

In January, 2007 it was announced that England international David Beckham, one of the most famous footballers in the world, would join the Los Angeles Galaxy in the U.S. This announcement brought global media attention for Major League Soccer (MLS) and suggestions that Beckham's signing would be the launch pad for the further development of the professional game in the country. Some four years after Beckham's arrival, this article assesses the positioning of MLS and looks at the current standing of the league in relation to labor migration patterns and internationalization by focusing specifically on the place of English players in this league. It attempts to provide an overview of the positioning of the league within an international context and also explores the interrelationship between two nations where football means quite different things. The work contributes to research on athletic migration and the internationalization of sports labor in the U.S. by teasing out some of the key issues shaping the contemporary soccer product.

The aim of this article is to make sense of the effects of foreign player involvement in English football's elite youth academy system. Based upon a series of interviews conducted with academy directors, managers, and coaches at Premier League clubs, and senior figures in the Premier League's Youth Development department, the article argues that the involvement of foreign players should not be viewed negatively where indigenous players are increasingly forced to the margins of the professional game, or where the recruiting of foreign players results in the deskilling of donor nations. By drawing on research located within the area of highly skilled migration, the article argues that the involvement of foreign players can be seen to reflect processes of 'feet-exchange' where skills and knowledge circulate to improve overall standards of performance for indigenous and foreign players. The article concludes by arguing that the recruitment of foreign players to English football's elite youth development system does not appear to act to the detriment of host and donor nations. Rather, by recruiting foreign players to Premier League academies, and by integrating them with indigenous players, a culture is created which enhances the development potential of all players.

This article is a study of global athletic labor migration that examines the mechanisms through which some athletic migrant workers are recruited. The article adopts a critical case study which analyses the movement of Canadian workers into Britain's Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) and synthesizes concepts derived from the sociology of sport and the sociology of highly skilled migration to explain these movements. Using a theoretical framework based on a figurational or process sociological approach, the article shows that the recruitment of migrant workers to EIHL teams need not be facilitated by a formal mediator such as an agent. Instead, informal communicative "friends-of-friends" networks and "bridgehead" contacts more commonly facilitate flows of information to the potential employer and potential migrant employee. Accordingly, mutually beneficial recruitments can be seen to be occurring as the result of human mediation facilitated by a series of informal interdependent networks of social relationships.

AbstractAttitudes towards fashion brands (trainers/athletic shoes) and their symbolic meanings are explored among a sample of 30 children aged 8–12 years from poor homes in the UK, in an interpretive study using projective methods. The children form stereotypes about the owners of trainers: if the trainers are obviously branded and expensive the children believe the owner to be rich and young, if the trainer is unbranded and inexpensive looking the children believe the owner to be poor and old. If a child is wearing branded trainers they are seen as popular and able to fit in with their peers. These opinions are so strongly held that the children would prefer to talk to someone wearing branded trainers than unbranded trainers. The children also feel pressure to wear the trainers that their friends wear, partly to make friends and fit in and partly because of the teasing experienced if they are wearing unbranded clothes or are clearly from a poor home. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications.

pt. I. Setting the scene : issues of hype, hubris and humility in science communication and citizen participation -- pt. II. Science communication, ethics and framing : models and cultural reality -- pt. III. Science communication, metaphors and practical realities -- pt. IV. Science, science communication and metaphor analysis.