Cathy van Ingen

Claiming Space: Aboriginal Students within School Landscapes

Abstract There is an emerging body of theoretical, historical and design research that examines the ways in which race and cultural identity are understood to be produced and represented in the landscape. Yet, there remains a dearth of research examining both the historic and contemporary effects of race upon the development of school geographies. This paper has two broad purposes. It highlights the experiential aspects of racialized geographies within schools and, at the same time, it grapples with the processes that maintain or challenge the spatial conditions for the construction of whiteness. Drawing upon in-depth case study research this paper highlights the experiences of Aboriginal students and staff at four different schools, with a particular focus on cross-cultural schools, in Manitoba, Canada. What is needed is a concept of landscape that helps point the way to those interventions that can bring about much greater social justice. And what landscape study needs even more is a concept of landscape that will assist the development of the very idea of social justice. (Henderson, 2003, p. 196)

“It's all about acceptance”: A qualitative study exploring a model of positive body image for people with spinal cord injury

Using modified constructivist grounded theory, the purpose of the present study was to explore positive body image experiences in people with spinal cord injury. Nine participants (five women, four men) varying in age (21-63 years), type of injury (C3-T7; complete and incomplete), and years post-injury (4-36 years) were recruited. The following main categories were found: body acceptance, body appreciation and gratitude, social support, functional gains, independence, media literacy, broadly conceptualizing beauty, inner positivity influencing outer demeanour, finding others who have a positive body image, unconditional acceptance from others, religion/spirituality, listening to and taking care of the body, managing secondary complications, minimizing pain, and respect. Interestingly, there was consistency in positive body image characteristics reported in this study with those found in previous research, demonstrating universality of positive body image. However, unique characteristics (e.g., resilience, functional gains, independence) were also reported demonstrating the importance of exploring positive body image in diverse groups.

Poker face: Gender, race and representation in online poker

Abstract Poker has a historic association with men, masculinity, and male‐only spaces (Morton, 2003). Yet, what often remains absent from contemporary gambling research is a sustained and critical discussion of masculinity itself. My project here is to argue for an approach to gambling research that draws from critical race theory and masculinity scholarship. After briefly mapping out trends in gambling scholarship, I argue that masculinity studies have much to contribute to gambling research. Using Gillian Roses (2001) “critical visual methodology,” I examine the ways in which social power relations continue to legitimize hegemonic discourses about masculinity and gambling within selected poker websites. I also consider the ways in which social differences are articulated through representations of race and gender in advertisements for online poker and through avatars, the on‐screen representations of players.

Getting lost as a way of knowing: the art of boxing within Shape Your Life

AbstractThis article unfolds in and through a series of paintings completed and exhibited as part of Shape Your Life, a free, recreational boxing programme for female and trans survivors of violence in Toronto. The paintings were completed by participants on used pieces of canvas from the boxing ring floor at the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, the site of the boxing programme. In these paintings, participants illustrate the significant role that boxing and art can play in making difficult pasts comprehensible, if only in part. In an effort to articulate methodology out of practice, I rely on ‘getting lost’ as both a methodology and a mode of representation. To that end, the article grapples with experiential verses interpretive authority, and the inclusion of participants’ art and voices to reflect the implications of the ‘post’ for research within sport for development and peace (SDP) programmes. The art also addresses the systemic nature of gender-based violence and the limitations of any SDP programme ...Abstract This article unfolds in and through a series of paintings completed and exhibited as part of Shape Your Life, a free, recreational boxing programme for female and trans survivors of violence in Toronto. The paintings were completed by participants on used pieces of canvas from the boxing ring floor at the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, the site of the boxing programme. In these paintings, participants illustrate the significant role that boxing and art can play in making difficult pasts comprehensible, if only in part. In an effort to articulate methodology out of practice, I rely on ‘getting lost’ as both a methodology and a mode of representation. To that end, the article grapples with experiential verses interpretive authority, and the inclusion of participants’ art and voices to reflect the implications of the ‘post’ for research within sport for development and peace (SDP) programmes. The art also addresses the systemic nature of gender-based violence and the limitations of any SDP programme to wholly respond to individuals’ trauma.

“My body was my temple”: a narrative revealing body image experiences following treatment of a spinal cord injury

Abstract Purpose: This narrative explores the lived experience of a young woman, Rebecca, and her transitioned body image after sustaining and being treated for a spinal cord injury. Method: Data were collected from a single semi-structured in-depth interview. Results: Rebecca disclosed her transitioned body image experiences after sustaining a spinal cord injury and being treated by medical staff immediately following her injury. Before her injury, she described a holistic body experience and named this experience her “temple”. During intensive care in the hospital, she explained her body was treated as an object. The disconnected treatment of her body led to a loss of the private self, as she described her sacred body being stripped away – her “temple” lost and in ruins. Conclusions: Body image may be an overlooked component of health following a spinal cord injury. This narrative emphasizes the importance of unveiling body image experiences after the treatment of a spinal cord injury to medical professionals. Lessons of the importance of considering the transitioned body experiences after a spinal cord injury may help prevent body-related depression and other subsequent health impacts. Recommendations for best practice are provided. Implications for Rehabilitation    Spinal Cord Injury   • A spinal cord injury may drastically change a person’s body image, thereby significantly impacting psychological health   • More effective screening for body image within the medical/rehabilitation context is needed to help practitioners recognize distress   • Practitioners should be prepared to refer clients to distress hotlines they may need once released from treatment

How do you define body image? Exploring conceptual gaps in understandings of body image at an exercise facility

The definition of body image has evolved within research; however, less is known about the laypersons understanding of the construct. This study explored how members and student trainees of an exercise facility (designed for older adults, people with physical disability, and those with cardiac complications) defined body image. Nineteen participants completed a one-on-one interview, and seven of those participants took part in six additional focus group meetings. The following main themes were found: stereotypical assumptions about body image (e.g., it is solely a persons weight or merely a womans issue), body image continua for positive and negative body image, degree of complexity of body image dimensions, broad considerations of body image (e.g., it is self-esteem), and limited knowledge about body image. These findings suggest a need for knowledge translation between researchers and the general public which informs future body image program design.

Managing the stigma: Exploring body image experiences and self-presentation among people with spinal cord injury:

Using modified constructivist grounded theory, the purpose of this study was to explore body image experiences in people with spinal cord injury. Nine participants (five women, four men) varying in age (21–63 years), type of injury (C3-T7; complete and incomplete), and years post-injury (4–36 years) took part in semi-structured in-depth interviews. The following main categories were found: appearance, weight concerns, negative functional features, impact of others, body disconnection, hygiene and incontinence, and self-presentation. Findings have implications for the health and well-being of those living with a spinal cord injury.

Neighborhood stigma and the sporting lives of young people in public housing

This paper spotlights the sporting lives of young people who live in ‘Redcrest’, a public housing community in the Niagara region of Canada. We report on data culled from neighborhood-centric documents (municipal data, planning council reports, media coverage) and ethnographic fieldwork (interviews, community mapping, go-alongs) collected over eight months with 14 young people. This paper also offers a critique of Robert Sampson’s work on neighborhood effects and draws on the theoretical insights and urban scholarship of Henri Lefebvre, Loic Wacquant, and the work of postcolonial scholar Frantz Fanon, who further understandings of racism as a spatial relation. At the center of this research are narratives that highlight that public housing projects, negative stigma notwithstanding, can be good places to live. The results highlight the various contradictions and tensions experienced by young people living in Redcrest, specifically their experiences with neighborhood stigma, racism and Islamophobia, and how this impacts their sporting lives.

Innovations in sport for development and peace research

Abstract This collection emerged from the Innovations in Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) Research Symposium held in Atlanta, GA, in 2016. The contributors explore new terrain in seeking to further an innovative agenda on SDP within development discourses and practices. The authors provide insights from plural empirical and theoretical domains, including critical, feminist, post-colonial, and cultural studies perspectives. A central goal of this collection is to anticipate, inspire, and shape the next phase of research in, on, and about SDP. A further goal is to connect SDP and development scholarship.

Book review: The Urban Geography of Boxing: Race, Class, and Gender in the Ring

non-Western academics, in non-Western locations and also in less visible geographical places and sports. Overall, this is a momentous contribution to the study of sports labour migration and sport studies in general. Carter has significantly raised the bar for those in sports labour migration research, and with that has laid down a challenge for future work to be more theorised and better analysed than at present. Also, the space is worth watching to see what responses will come from those Carter criticises: academics who for decades have been writing on global sport and sports labour migration but who also have been central to the development of sports studies as a discipline. I shall watch that ‘more dynamic articulated space’ (p.5) with great interest.