| 1. |
- Andersson, Karin, 1990-
(författare)
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Healtism and professional identity : group fitness instructors navigating health discourses
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This mixed methods dissertation employs a survey, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussionsto investigate the health consciousness of Les Mills International (LMI) group fitness instructors. UsingFoucauldian concepts such as discourse and bio-power, the study examines instructors’ construction of theirprofessional identity, and the link between professional identity and healthism, a discourse that promulgateshealth as an individual responsibility.The findings reveal that LMI instructors' professional identity is anchored in sociability, commitment, andphysical perfection.Two stereotypical LMI instructor profiles emerged. Firstly, “the sociable instructor”, whovalues interacting with participants and colleagues at the gym, as well as engaging with the global LMIcommunity online. Secondly, the “all about being fit instructor”, who teaches LMI to enhance their individualphysique. Moreover, instructors understand themselves as role models and health gatekeepers aiming tocombat inactivity by exercising vigilantly and adhering to LMI regulations. Moreover, the results show thathealthism constitutes LMI professional identity, upheld through social interactions and a collective belief inhealthism's rationality. Furthermore, instructors understand their professional identity through their bodieswhile positioning the body both as a threat and as a solution to health, which reveals how the constructionof health is framed as an individual endeavor. This perspective was fortified during the COVID-19 pandemic,where staying fit became a defense strategy against the virus.Finally, this thesis shows that healthism is inextricably linked to normative femininity and a pathogenicperspective on health. Since healthism masquerades as an apolitical concept through the body, fitnessculture can be used to reinvent suppressive structures, such as patriarchy, via healthism. Accordingly, thethesis manifests that investigating health consciousness provides a means to dismantle genderedunderstandings of health.
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| 2. |
- Bladh, Greta, 1984-
(författare)
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Moving thresholds : body narratives within the vicinity of gym and fitness culture
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates thresholds that impede bodies from moving to, and within, gym and fitness sites. Thresholds are here understood as gendered social constructs and norms, which direct bodies in certain ways, and thus circumscribing potential movements and capabilities. The study’s initial entry point was at a gym, here referred to as The Club which had in its statutes proclaimed to work in a norm critical way. This was an attempt to promote a more inclusive environment, and thus lowering certain thresholds for movement, in that members otherwise discouraged to enter other general gyms, found this particular gym open and “chill”. By conducting participatory observations, interviews, and collective memory exercises, this study is an effort to identify experiences otherwise seen as mundane and ordinary, such as working out at the gym, as conditioned under certain power relations.Aided by a theoretical framework combining poststructuralism and phenomenology, a narrative and deconstructive approach directed the analysis of the empirical material. The results showed that the specific case of the Club entailed how the work for inclusiveness, and thus lowering certain thresholds, entailed other forms of thresholding, in that in order to insure an inclusive environment, a certain amount of emotional work from the members of the Club was required. This meant that the cost of an inclusive and open environment is a balancing act on an emotional tightrope, which in turn indicated that the work to be norm critical entailed vulnerable inclusiveness. Further, even though participants were critically aware of repressive gender norms circumscribing their range of movement, the possibility of other movements were still at a threshold. This was due to their corporeal historic background of experiences of hierarchical binary gender norms, which still lingered under the skin. In this thesis, this corporeal background is referred to as body narrative, an attempt to displace a binary gendered framing of the perception of bodies. However, despite the participants’ reflexive stance towards repressive gender norms, their range of motion were still at a threshold, colored by past experiences, which in turn binds our eyes to what is perceivable, signifying how emancipation can never reach an end, but is rather a continuous process, always aiming, little by little, to displace thresholds of movement.
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| 3. |
- Daudi, Aurélien
(författare)
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Conspicuous Fitness : Social Media, Fitspiration, and the Rise of the Exhibitionistic Self
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with the emergence, attraction, and normalization of a widespread, digital exhibitionism and its implications. In this age of imagery, the compulsive sharing of personal photographs on social media has become pervasive. Unabashedly narcissistic displays are all but encouraged. A transformation of social norms has occurred, and it is particularly evident within the social media fitness culture, known as fitspiration.A portmanteau of "fitness" and "inspiration," fitspiration ostensibly promotes health through visual content on social media but is often characterized by visual displays of the body, even overt nudity, framed within a fitness context. Amid a pervasive youth mental health crisis, this study posits this novel phenomenon as more than a digital trend; rather, it reflects deeper socio-cultural shifts, ideological currents, going so far as encompassing existential dilemmas. Crucially, it also represents a manifestation of the intrinsic biases of the medium itself. As such, it affords insights into how the dominance of social media impacts human communication and societal values.Drawing on Nietzschean philosophy and core principles of media ecology, this study presents a piercing analysis of fitspiration and its facilitating medium. It argues that the self-representational practices of fitspiration exemplify a novel trend, aimed at maximizing attention and validation, that now saturate social media. Examining these aesthetic practices, their widespread appeal, and the implications of a culture increasingly oriented around such self-expressions, it argues that photo-based social media exploits unreflective, desirous, and narcissistic impulses, fostering an unhealthy cultural trajectory.Through this critical examination of fitspiration, the study illuminates the profound impact of social media, challenging conventional wisdom and offering new insights into the relationship between technology, culture, and human behavior. It also outlines crucial philosophical and ethical perspectives argued to be necessary for navigating the challenges imposed by the current age of imagery.
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| 4. |
- Ingrell, Joakim
(författare)
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What does it take to be successful here? A longitudinal study of achievement motivation in youth sport
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focal aim of this dissertation project centers on understanding the importance of some of the underlying factors responsible for the socialization of achievement motivation in youth sport and its affective outcomes. Furthermore, this dissertation project focuses on the specializing stage of development, more specifically, student-athletes (N = 78) attending a compulsory school with a sports profile.This dissertation project was guided by the theoretical frameworks provided by achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984, 1989), implicit theories of ability (Dweck, 2000), Ames’ (1992a, 1992b) motivational climate, Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (Marsh, 1984; Marsh & Parker, 1984) athletic burnout (Raedeke & Smith, 2001), and gender as a social institution (Lorber, 1994).In the first study, the aim was to analyze and problematize athletic ability longitudinally and with a gender perspective as it is perceived, discussed, and valued by student-athletes. A mixed method approach was used in this study consisting of quantitative analysis (multilevel modeling) of a three-year, six-wave data collection (N = 78). Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 of the student-athletes. The two main results of this study were that entity beliefs increased, and incremental beliefs decreased during the three-year period, and that gender added a further understanding of the beliefs of student-athletes regarding athletic ability.The second study aimed to examine achievement goals in youth sport longitudinally and the within-person effects of perceived motivational climates by coaches, peers, and parents on achievement goal orientations. The student-athletes (N = 78) completed a multi-section questionnaire, six times over a three-year period, assessing the study variables and the multilevel modeling analysis revealed that both the task orientation and the ego orientation decreased for this age group over the threeyear period. Furthermore, the perceived task involving peer climate was significantly and positively related to task orientation, and perceived ego-involving coaching climate was significantly and positively related to ego orientation.In the third study, the aim was to examine the developmental trajectories of student-athlete burnout perceptions and the within-person relationship between achievement goals and burnout perceptions. The participants (N = 78), time frame, and measurement points were the same in this study, as in studies I and II. The results from the multilevel growth models revealed that burnout perceptions increased for this age group over the three-year period. Furthermore, task orientation was significantly and negatively related to a reduced sense of accomplishment and sport devaluation.The findings from this dissertation project highlight some of the complexity of achievement motivation in youth sport; the relationships between this type of motivation and the context, in this case, a school with a sports profile, and organized sports, and significant others such as coaches, peers, and parents. Furthermore, the results from this dissertation project underline the advantage of considering a specific developmental stage when studying achievement motivation in youth sport longitudinally.
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| 5. |
- Lindberg, Matilda
(författare)
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Exploring ways of empowering pupils in physical education through circus : an action research project
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The empowerment of children is emphasized in a variety of contexts. For example, the Convention on the Rights of the Child mandates opportunities for children to be heard and to express their opinions, and the Swedish compulsory school curriculum advocates democratic teaching methods. Despite this, research shows that children’s influence in school remains limited and that democratic ways of working are particularly lacking in physical education. Therefore, this study proposes changes to physical education. The aim of this action research project was to explore ways of empowering pupils in physical education. The study involves ten-year-old children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, their physical education teacher, and a teacher-researcher. The study is at the intersection of three different fields in relation to physical education: influence, language, and creativity. Exploratory circus activities are used as a means to empower pupils and challenge the conventional structure of the subject. The study offers multiple contributions, such as practical suggestions for empowering pupils in physical education and the complex interplay between theory and practice. The findings show that physical education can serve as a platform for children to be creative, express themselves in a variety of ways, and exert influence. However, the findings reveal that empowering pupils can be a challenging process for a teacher because of prevailing norms in school, ingrained teaching habits, and both the teacher’s and pupils’ previous experiences and preconceptions of what education, and physical education in particular, entails. Finding ways to empower pupils means finding ways for teachers to share power equitably with pupils. Teaching and learning circus in physical education contributes significantly to critical thinking and acting upon how education is constructed and conducted.
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| 6. |
- Mashreghi, Sepandarmaz
(författare)
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Decolonial re-existence and sports : stories of Afghan youth in Sweden
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the context of sports and migration, research within policy-driven themes (i.e., integration) have consistently flattened out the migrants’ experiences, meanings and understandings of sports and physical activity to make sense for and from Euro-centric perspectives and framings. Thus, muting other relevant, alternative and already existing ways of living sports and physical activity. Critical sports studies, on the other hand, have demonstrated that sports (and physical activity) remain a contested domain where various human experiences are negotiated and remade along the intersecting lines of class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, legal status and (dis)ability. The aim in this study has been to work within a decolonial framework to demonstrate how migrant youth in Sweden navigate, experience, challenge and generate knowledge in relation to physical activity and sports.Doing decolonial research in sports studies means delinking from Eurocentric thought and epistemology in order to uncover alternative forms of physical culture and practice that generate different meanings to that of the (Western) hegemonic discourse. To do this, we, the youth and I, have worked and researched together within the framework of participatory art-based action research and our shared Khorasani epistemology. This means that the coresearchers have been active participants in generating research material, analysing the material and disseminating the generated knowledge. Grounded in Indigenous, borderland, Chicana and Black feminist knowldeges as well decolonial thought, this thesis contributes both theoretically and methodologically to the field of sport and exercise in relation to young asylum seekers and migration research. The participatory analysis demonstrates that for the Afghan youth in this study sport and physical activity was not a distinct entity, rather it was intertwined with various aspects of their lives, such as their experiences of child labour, pleasures, hopes for the future, leisure, social and mental aspects, and migration experiences. Furthermore, the youth revealed that despite various forms of oppression, trauma and hardship, they constantly returned, or rather, reclaimed life and future in their acts of self-reflection, friendship, love and hope within the context of sport and life. They, thus, moved beyond the mere resistance of the precarities in their lives to bring about a re-existence. The findings of this thesis also highlight the affordances and limitations of participatory methods, art-based research and decolonising work. Although the participatory methods grounded in the epistemology of the youth (and myself), allowed us to reclaim and tell our stories in our ways, they fell short in making lasting systemic transformations. These limitations also give rise to new questions and possibilities for future research in relation to how change and transformation are defined and researched; and whether these definitions are somewhat limiting and influenced by the colonial rhetoric of salvation underlining participatory action research basic principles of empowerment and critical consciousness.
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| 7. |
- Melkersson, Mattias
(författare)
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Identities and images in football : a case study of brands and the organisational settings in the development of Scandinavian women’s club football
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Women’s football has developed significantly throughout recent years. Not only in regards to the increased amount of participants or on-field achievements, but furthermore in regards to recognition, professionalism and organisation. The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to describe and investigate contextual and organisational conditions, characterized by heterogeneity, for a contemporary football development in Scandinavian women’s football. The Scandinavian setting is particularly interesting to investigate as the Scandinavian countries have been seen as forerunners with early official recognition and development for women’s football. Furthermore, governing football associations in the Scandinavian countries have also implemented club-licensing systems for elevating and developing women’s club football further. The dissertation investigates and analyses four Scandinavian women’s football clubs (Stabæk Football, Fortuna Hjørring, Linköpings FC and LdB FC Malmö) and the contextual conditions that influence their organisations. The study adopts a multi-theoretical approach by using a general theoretical approach (Brand Management) and specific theoretical approaches (gender relations, civic pride and social capital, the creative class, and the presentation of self). This means that each club is analysed and interpreted through both Brand Management theoretical concepts and a specific theoretical approach. The methodological approach for the dissertation take a point of departure in case study research. Each investigated club forms a case that attempts to describe and analyse contextual conditions by studying its participants, stakeholders, and environment. Empirical findings have been obtained through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, document analysis and observations. The results highlight that various conditions have an impact on the investigated clubs. Gender structures within football affect clubs in a negative way by making distinctions between women and men based on traditions and stereotypical gender perceptions. This condition forces clubs to either adopt to, or challenge a male hegemonic norm. The geographical setting is also a significant condition that emphasize local association for clubs. The club cases highlight that implementing and communicating a strong local association assist clubs in gaining recognition and visibility. Here is also networking with local stakeholders seen as an important condition, which results in obtaining and nurturing sponsorships, player employments and local awareness.
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