Assessing the sociology of sport: On action sport and the politics of identity

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, Belinda Wheaton, a key figure in understanding emerging, high-risk, and lifestyle sports and their cultures, assesses developments in the sociology of sport that concern the politics of identity and action sport. In reflecting on the trajectory of inquiry, Wheaton notes the struggles of scholars to determine what constitutes sport and reflects on the ways in which action sport both challenges and reproduces dominant relations and meanings. Because many forms of action and informal sport continue to grow rapidly and outpace the expansion of many traditional sports in many Western nations, they represent an important lens for understanding sport in contemporary settings because they are characterized by boundary-crossing activities that traverse sport and art, play and games. Key challenges for the field include understanding the paradoxes that come with commercialization and professionalization as well as understanding how emergent sport subcultures may evolve in non-Western settings. Key on the agenda for the future will be a need for scholars to continue to expose the political formations and to link identity politics in emergent sport to broader structural forces to better understand power and inequality.