| 61. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
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Style in physical activity
- 2008
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In: Bonds and Communities. Young people and their social ties.. ; , s. 58-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aesthetic expressions in youth culture have been studied extensively. For the British CCCS and its followers the concept of style is regularly used to explain dress codes, hair fashion and other physical appearances. Sub culture is an often-used term, which enclose these types of expressions, in addition frequently connected to certain kinds music. Lately a growing number of studies on sub culture and sport have been presented. This implies an interest in a slightly different aspect of style – the one focusing more on style in physical activity. The leaderless boarding culture revolves primarily around style and physical bodily activity, in contrast to punk for example, which is held together by style and music. Thus it can be argued that identity through board sports is more clearly incorporated through physical performance. This presentation attempts to fill some of the gap in research around style in physical activity. It focuses bodily aesthetic expressions in skateboarding and the concept of style in relation to the moving body. Style in both senses mentioned above, communicates and creates both bonds and communities. Building on empirical studies on skateboarding in Sweden between 1978-2002, it is argued that also style in physical activity is significant for the construction of cultural and social values. Moreover style in this sense has a highly performative aspect.
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| 62. |
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| 63. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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Sweden’s gender (in)equalities : How young women skateboarders materialise femininity in public space
- 2016
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In: Crossroads in Cultural Studies.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sweden prides itself as a country where young women can enjoy gender equality. Yet many young women skateboarders experience harassment in public spaces. Drawing from a sensory ethnography, and inspired by the material turn in the social sciences, we analyse how women skateboarders experience the material environments of urban public space, while paying attention to the social and cultural context of Sweden. The urban environment with its smooth marble or rough asphalt surfaces, its alarming sounds and tingling smells, shapes the experience of skateboarding and the construction of femininity. The construction of femininity is also shaped by a social and cultural context that assumes ‘gender equality’ is secure. This paper contributes new empirical findings on what it means to skateboard in public spaces as a gendered minority, and adds to the debate on how a material feminist theory might be developed without overlooking the significance of social and cultural contexts.
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| 64. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
-
Tangible transitions in skateboarding
- 2019
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In: Pushing Boarders. - Malmö.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Drawing from two long-term ethnographic studies on skateboarding, this presentation will discuss skateboarding as a spatial and multi-sensorial practice where learning and knowing is formed along pathways of movement. I will particularly focus on bowl riding, the particular type of skateboarding practice taking place in so called pools or bowls. The ability to practice bowl riding successfully, requires technical skills which include engaging with material transitions and smooth surfaces, balancing on a moving skateboard, and constantly shifting bodily position. It requires both emplaced knowing and moving. I will address how this skillful mobility and perceptive competence is expressed in two ways: 1) through verbal explanations and 2) as informally demonstrated by bowl riding skateboarders. The research informing this chapter is located in the emerging field of movement culture studies. Theoretically, it is positioned in the intersecting space of anthropology, human geography and pedagogy inspired by recent arguments of a shift from embodiment to emplacement. Consequentially, the conceptualization of a moving body in a moving world, i.e. emplaced via its senses in a sociocultural and spatiotemporal environment, requires re-thinking regarding how bodies in context knows, teaches and, learns.
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| 65. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
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Tangible tricks and transitions in skateboarding.
- 2021. - 1
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In: Learning movements.. - London : Routledge. - 9780367356811 - 9781003142775 ; , s. 198-210
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Drawing from two long-term ethnographic studies on skateboarding, this chapter will discuss skateboarding as a spatial and multi-sensorial practice where learning and knowing is formed along pathways of movement. I will particularly focus on bowl riding, which is a certain type of skateboarding practice taking place in so called pools or bowls. The ability to practice bowl riding successfully, requires technical skills which include engaging with material transitions and smooth surfaces, balancing on a moving skateboard, and constantly shifting bodily position. It requires both emplaced knowing and moving. I will address how this skillful mobility and perceptive competence is expressed in two ways: 1) through verbal explanations and 2) as informally demonstrated by bowl riding skateboarders. The research informing this chapter is located in the emerging field of movement culture studies. Theoretically, it is positioned in the intersecting space of anthropology, human geography and pedagogy inspired by recent arguments of a shift from embodiment to emplacement. Consequentially, the conceptualization of a moving body in a moving world, i.e. emplaced via its senses in a sociocultural and spatiotemporal environment, requires re-thinking regarding how bodies in context knows, teaches and, learns.
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| 66. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
-
The ‘Bisht’ : Mediatized Values, Transnational Cultural Flows and Complexities in Football
- 2023
-
In: EASM BELFAST 2023 CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS. ; , s. 309-310
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aim and Research QuestionsIn December 2022, at the prize ceremony for FIFA World Cup in Qatar Lionel Messi wasendowed with a traditional garment – a bisht – by the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin HamadAl Thani. Consequently, the bisht was a highly visible part of the Argentinian celebration onthe podium. All was broadcasted throughout the world. Instantly, the event caused an upsurgeof discussion the lively media debate contained cultural praise as well as accusations of bothislamophobia and racism. How can this debate be understood?Social and cultural ideas are entrenched in sport; however, they are not always interpreted thesame way and the incident described above provides an excellent opportunity to study thecontemporary effects of globalization.The aim of this presentation is to describe and analyze the mediated value laden expressionsfrom a critical cultural perspective the way they were broadcasted in the coverage of the prizeceremony for the FIFA World Cup 2022 by selected sources.• Which arguments are audible and visible, who present them, where and in whatways?• How can these arguments be understood as expressions of transnational culturalflows, cultural complexity, globalization and mediatized values?Theoretical Background and Literature ReviewThree decades ago, Hannerz published the now classic book on cultural complexity and thesocial organization of meaning. He described a creolizing world characterized by diversity inorganization. In his words, ‘autonomy and boundedness of cultures must nowadays beunderstood as a matter of degree’ (Hannerz, 1992, p. 261). Moreover, he stated that thedistribution of culture is asymmetrical where internally diverse transnational culture flowsbetween centers and peripheries. Popular culture, such as sport, fits well in the center/peripherystructure and may even model it, according to Hannerz (1992, p. 240).Before the turn of the century, globalization was a key topic among social science researchersinterested in sports (e.g. Maguire, 1999). The risks of global consumer culture eradicating localcultural expressions was debated. Since then, the importance of media has expanded not leastas a mediator of values (Bolin, 2011). At present, the Qatar World Cup caused journalists andfootball fans to address moral concerns related to the placing of the megaevent, and researchersto critique the adverse effects on social and cultural aspects of sports. For instance, Fruh,Archer and Wojtowicz (2023) argue that Qatar’s interest in hosting the event is a clear case ofsportswashing, i.e., to better a dubious moral reputation through distraction from ethicalviolation, reducing or normalizing it.Research Design, Methodology and Data AnalysisTo describe and analyze the mediated value laden expressions broadcasted in the coverage ofthe prize ceremony for the FIFA World Cup 2022 three different media outlets where chosen:Al Jazeera, SVT and BBC. They were expected to have various perspectives on what happenedon screen given their various social and cultural setting. Al Jazeera was chosen as the Qatariexample, BBC as an example from a country renowned for its well-established interest infootball and SVT for convenience purposes.Sport Media and CommunicationSport Media and Communication310310A theoretically informed reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) was performedto describe and analyze the mediated value laden expressions in both text and images.Results/Findings and DiscussionPreliminary findings to be developed further show how the bisht was used to display Qataricultural values as part of a key event during the World Cup. The bisht can be understood as acultural device initiating a debate on mediated values and later commercial values. Intersectingand conflicting understandings are showcased. For instance, Al Jazeera includes a BBCcommentator questioning the bisht in their edited version of the ceremony which in turn isinterpreted as both racism and islamophobia in the comment section. Argentinian supportersare further portraited as positive both towards the bisht and Messi as their GOAT. By SVT,Qatar is described as hitting the jackpot with the bisht: ‘This image which will be historical,where he wears this Qatari bisht, I’d say, for them they hit the jackpot’ (SVT).Conclusion, Contribution, and ImplicationHannerz (1992. p. 5) stated that ‘electronic media play a part in shaping and channelingculture’. The following three decades demonstrates a vast expansion globally on mediatizationand the broadcasting of values (Bolin, 2011).To conclude, it may be argued that these values flow transnationally along center/peripheryconnections and inform all involved including football and sports per se. Whether the valuesare regarded as sportwashing and distinctively wrong because it exploits basic sporting valuesto fulfill its aims and makes all involved complicit in the misconducts (Fruh, Archer &Wojtowicz, 2023), or a battle of power in a creolized world, or simultaneously both, is arguablya question of perspective.ReferencesBolin, G. (2013). Value and the media: Cultural production and consumption in digital markets. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.Braun, V. & V. Clarke (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11:4, 589-597, DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806Fruh, K., Archer, A., & J. Wojtowicz (2023). Sportswashing: Complicity and corruption. Sport, ethics and philosophy. 17:1, 101-118. DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2022.2107697Hannerz, Ulf (1992). Cultural complexity. Studies in the social organization of meaning. Columbia University Press. Maguire, J. (1999). Global sport. Identities, societies, civilizations. Polity.
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| 67. |
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| 68. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
-
The changing room as a site for transformation
- 2018
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In: 34th<em> </em>Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference. - Uppsala. ; , s. 183-
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Whether practiced in schools or in sports clubs, the changing room provides a site for transforming yourself from the everyday you to the sporting you and then back again. This transformation involves social, cultural, material, sensorial and affective aspects. For instance, shedding the outer skin, metaphorically speaking, reveals what is beneath, i.e. the naked body with all its beauty and fleshly flaws. The commonplace mirrors support not only individual physical scrutiny, as well as social interaction on what is displayed, but visibility per se. This is a place for regulating looks, but also for regulating observational practices. Although perhaps foregrounding the visual, changing rooms are nevertheless highly multisensorial. The echoing glazed tiles in the showers bounce the sound of cascading waters. Bodily odours like sweat mix with smells from shampoo, various skin products and deodorants. Although this space and the transformations occurring here are fascinating and may provide new knowledge on the way we handle our material bodies in relation to sports, it is an ethically challenging space for doing ethnography. How can this space and the transformations occurring here be studied ethnographically without transgressing integrity?
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| 69. |
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| 70. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(author)
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Understanding the fleshiness of knowing : Sensory ethnography as a way of examining teaching and knowing in physical education
- 2012
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper discusses research about how knowing and teaching is formed as part of the physical activity of skateboarding. Through a four-year project in educations sciences focusing on the cross-roads of mind, body, place and learning, the sensory ethnography approach (Pink 2009) made it possible to explore how knowing was expressed by skateboard coaches in their teaching. The semi-structured character of skateboarding contributed with a setting were the moving body is central, but without the formalized educational framework. To begin with, this methodological approach foregrounded how perception and the senses were involved but also showed the need to go beyond the five-sense sensorium, particularly in relation to understanding the process of teaching and knowing balance and explosiveness, which are both crucial for skateboarding proficiency. Moreover, this research revealed the implications of reflective auto-ethnographic elements in the process of field-work. As a researcher it became apparent how this sensory embeddedness not only informed the research participants’ teaching and knowing, but also my own way of understanding the fleshiness of knowing. In this paper I will explore more deeply the question of the researcher’s route to knowing. To develop this discussion I will build on two existing approaches to defining kinesthetic empathy (Sklar 1998; Parviainen 2003) to suggest how this concept might inform our understandings of how learning is sensory and emplaced (Fors, et al, forthcoming), as well as socio-affective (Tomkins, 1962). In doing so I address related epistemological issues regarding the moving, learning and un/knowing body (e.g. Moyal Sharrock, 2004).
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