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The Sociology of Sport Journal (SSJ) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a special issue that focuses on liberation, futurity, intersectionality, and interdisciplinarity. The guest editors discuss the significance of these themes in studying sport, physical culture, and the physically active body. They emphasize the importance of critical scholarship that highlights the experiences of marginalized groups and challenges systems of oppression. The editors hope that SSJ and the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) can provide spaces for emerging scholars and contribute to the future of the field. [Extracted from the article]

Hockey and figure skating are iconic Canadian sports, although it would be hard to know this from the dearth of opportunities available for adults to take up these sports or improve their skills. To learn about the factors that shape adult programming in these two sports, semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 experienced Canadian hockey and figure skating coaches who work with adults. The interviews provided insight into some of the structural barriers that adult learners and their coaches face in hockey and figure skating. Participants suggest that while adult learners are an untapped market, a sport system that privileges high-performance and youth development means that few coaches can make working with adults a priority. Coaches receive little training to work with adults, and because adults are at the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of ice allocation, it is often difficult to design programs that meet their needs. The authors call for more explicit attention to adult programming in hockey and figure skating to meet demand and improve experiences for adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's professional hockey was hindered when the Canadian Women's Hockey League announced its abrupt closure in March 2019. The action disrupted the opportunity for hundreds of elite women's hockey players to continue pursuing competitive hockey after university. This study outlines the time period surrounding the Canadian Women's Hockey League's closure and the formation of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association. The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association announced that its members would not play in any professional Canadian or American league until its players receive a living wage, proper training resources, and employee benefits, such as health care. Through semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis of media narratives, the authors situate the #ForTheGame movement within second-wave feminist tactics to create social change through collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens to our sporting goods when we are done with them? Even though Sustainable Development Goal 12 focuses on responsible consumption and production, very few in the sports industry (and academy) have asked this question. With environmental degradation now a daily concern around the world, we can no longer produce and consume sporting goods without considering the end-of-use stage for these products. This study focuses on the bike and its role in global waste accumulation through various forms of planned obsolescence. Through interviews with experts in and around the bike industry and waste management, we provide insight into the environmental barriers that are structural and specific to the bike industry. We then advocate for extended producer responsibility and the circular economy as an imperfect but radical alternative future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 15 years, sport scholars have expressed an increased interest in public sociology, while the rapid acceleration of digital media has led to significant shifts in the sport media landscape. In this paper, we analyze our experiences at the confluence of these two trends as scholarly bloggers about hockey. We present self-reflexive personal vignettes—centred around themes of engaging publics, marginality, and negative outcomes—and use intersectional analysis to critique how our privileges and social locations enabled or constrained our public engagement. In doing so, we raise theoretical and practical questions about the possibilities and challenges associated with sport scholars' digital public engagement and provide fresh contributions to ongoing debates about public sociology of sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably, two aspects of national identity that Canadians are most recognized for are hockey and multiculturalism; yet, few scholars have examined the implications of Canada's mythological and nostalgic hockey culture for immigrants from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. This analysis uses Twitter to gain uncensored insight into how Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi (HNIC Punjabi) is received by the general Canadian public. It is argued that when people of color become visible in traditionally white arenas (such as hockey) some Canadians are flummoxed by the sight of multiculturalism, while not necessarily being opposed to the idea of it. Laughter was also observed as a common reaction to HNIC Punjabi; consequently, despite the promise of a multicultural society, Punjabi Sikh Canadians are situated as paradoxical to hockey in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product (RED) was launched in 2006 as an initiative to activate the corporate sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. In 2009, Nike joined Product (RED)'s list of corporate partners with its "Lace Up, Save Lives" campaign. Nike (RED) directs 100% of its profits toward HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and grassroots soccer programs in Africa. This case study questions the symbolism projected by Nike (RED) and its implications by applying Jean Baudrillard's theories on consumption and hyperreality. The manner in which Nike (RED) represents Africa, HIV/ AIDS, soccer, and sport for development and peace are all discussed as mediated simulations that position Nike as the producer of knowledge. Data analysis observes that Nike (RED) laces produce a hyperreality, whereby the origin of truth becomes, according to Baudrillard, indecipherable and soccer becomes more important than HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 24, 2012, the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League announced a plan to move from their current stadium in Nassau County to the recently opened Barclays Center in the borough of Brooklyn, marking the end of a decades-long political saga about whether and where to build a new home arena for the club. During this time, the Islanders franchise strove to mobilize support for the ostensible benefits of the stadium development and the importance of the team for the local community and economy. In this article, we offer an analysis of the ways in which such processes were interpreted, supported, and/or resisted by some of its highly invested fans through the act of blog writing. Based on content analysis and interviews, the results suggest that bloggers saw little choice but to support plans that kept the team as close to Nassau County as possible. We use this data to discuss the hegemony of neoliberalism as an organizing principle of professional sport, the agency of fans that negotiate such politics when supporting their club, and the Internet as a platform for communication and potential collective action in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]