Gareth Wiltshire

Analytical Pluralism in Qualitative Research: A Meta-Study

Recent interest in analytical pluralism—the application of more than one qualitative analytical method to a single data set—has demonstrated its potential to produce multiple, complex, and varied understandings of phenomena. However, tensions remain regarding the commensurability of findings produced from diverse theoretical frameworks, the practical application of multiple methods of analysis, and the capacity of pluralism to contribute to knowledge in psychology. This study addresses these issues through a critical interpretation of existing qualitative studies that utilized analytical pluralism. Using a meta-study design, we examined the use of theory, application of methods, and production of findings in studies that had adopted qualitative analytical pluralism. Following comprehensive database searches, ten articles were included in the analysis. Epistemological and ontological considerations, the influence of decisions made in the practical application of pluralism, and approaches to interpreting findings produced from multiple analyses are discussed, and implications for future research are considered.

Exploring the role of social capital in community-based physical activity: qualitative insights from parkrun

Abstract There is a need to address social inequalities related to health and physical activity. Taking a practice-led approach to intervention research, this paper uses the case of parkrun – a rapidly growing weekly running initiative – to explore the potential of free, community-based opportunities to improve physical activity in low socio-economic groups. Our approach departs from individualistic behavioural research and draws on the concept of social capital in order to add to the sociological understanding of physical (in)activity. Interviews were carried out with previously inactive parkrun participants and were analysed thematically through the lens of social capital. Our analysis illustrates how: (1) participants often draw on existing social ties (family, friends, neighbours and colleagues) to initiate their participation in parkrun, (2) participants invest in and benefit from the aggregate labour of the wider parkrun community (their network of social relations) and therefore are privy to significant practical and affective support and (3) participants utilise acquired social capital to accumulate cultural capital related to injury management, performance and health. These findings add qualitative insight into existing literature highlighting social capital as a key resource in the initiation and maintenance of physical activity. In the ongoing effort to provide viable physical activity opportunities for low socio-economic groups, we optimistically argue that volunteer-led, community-based initiatives have the capacity to mobilise resource through social networks. However, in the context of persistent socio-economic inequalities, it is likely that relying on existing social capital to promote health-enhancing behaviour will limit the impact of this approach.

‘You don’t want to stand out as the bigger one’: exploring how PE and school sport participation is influenced by pupils and their peers

ABSTRACT Background: Population health concerns related to physical inactivity and obesity appear in policy documents, government campaigns and popular media across western societies. Children and young people have been targeted for physical activity promotion and schools have been positioned as sites for intervention. In particular, Physical Education and school sport (PESS) has been framed as a key part of the solution. While some interventionist programmes in schools have reported positive outcomes, they have also been criticised for stigmatising fatness, contributing to a culture of surveillance and fuelling body image anxieties. Despite ongoing work to ameliorate these critical issues by addressing physical activity promotion discourses, curricula and teaching practices many of the same challenges persist. In seeking alternative explanations (and solutions) this paper shifts attention to exploring the role of pupils and their peers. Purpose: While the critical literature on health and physical education has been illuminating, few studies explore the role of pupils and their peers. Further research is necessary to understand how school peers contribute to pupils’ engagement with PESS. This paper, therefore, draws on Bourdieu’s notion of physical capital and seeks to understand how pupils’ physical activity is influenced by lived-body experiences in school spaces. The study: Data were produced from a 6-month bricolage-based study with pupils (N = 29, aged 13–14) across four diverse school settings in England. Multiple qualitative methods were deployed to enhance methodological rigour with what is often a challenging age group for research. Data were interpreted and theorised using the concept of physical capital. Findings: Pupils themselves play a significant part in establishing the physical body as a symbol of power and status in school settings. Participants understood the health risks of being both underweight and obese, but they regarded obesity as being more problematic because of the immediate social risks of ‘standing out as the bigger one’. Following this rationale, participants sought to accumulate physical capital through engaging in exercise as a purposeful calorie-burning activity intended to avoid the pity, abnormality and derision which is expected to be directed towards overweight pupils. Furthermore, during PESS in clear view of peers, distinctions between pupils’ physical capital could be made by recognising differences in sporting skill. In this context, physical capital mediated engagement in PESS in various ways. Conclusion: This study has revealed that peers play a significant part in constructing the lived-body experiences of young people. In order to address the criticisms raised about some school-based health promotion interventions, it is crucial to attend to pupils’ relationships with peers as well as addressing policies, curricula and teaching practices. Being sensitive to peer relationships and their understanding of health may help teachers and health promoters decide how to manage the spaces where PESS takes place.

A case for critical realism in the pursuit of interdisciplinarity and impact

Abstract In recent years, much social scientific scholarship in sport, exercise and health (SEH) has repudiated (post) positivist research and has instead persuasively argued in favour of qualitative research from constructivist–interpretivist paradigmatic approaches. While this scholarship has enriched the field in numerous ways, this paper contends that constructivist–interpretivist assumptions elicit a modus operandi which is inimical to the accomplishment of two associated contemporary research agendas: interdisciplinarity and impact. In seeking an alternative philosophy of science, the purpose of this paper is to explore how critical realism – meta-theoretical position that has been somewhat absent to date in SEH research – might offer qualitative researchers a new conceptual framework with which greater interdisciplinarity and impact can be achieved. Two main critical realist claims are introduced: (1) the epistemic fallacy can be avoided by adopting a stratified ontology and judgemental rationality, and (2) social science would benefit from seeking causal explanations underpinned by a transformational model of social activity. By de-coupling interpretive epistemologies from constructivist ontologies, it is argued that critical realism permits greater methodological plurality and hence can help transcend persistent paradigmatic boundaries. Indeed, by adopting a realist social ontology and complex, emergent conception of causality, this paper suggests that critical realism permits and encourages impact by asking researchers to focus on explaining the enduring social relations that produce real-world problems. The paper concludes by pointing out the limitations of critical realism and highlighting other ways that interdisciplinarity and impact can similarly be achieved.

Understanding the reproduction of health inequalities: physical activity, social class and Bourdieu’s habitus

ABSTRACT Health inequalities continue to exist in advanced capitalist economies and so-called lifestyle behaviours (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical (in)activity) play a role in their persistence. Interventionist responses to health inequalities are often posed in terms of either individual agency or social structure – the former being criticised for its shaming/responsibilising effects and the latter for inadequately conceptualising behavioural differences within socio-economic groups. In this paper, we attempt to reconcile these two positions by drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, arguing that health enhancing behaviours are better understood as practices constrained and enabled within social class contexts. As many interventionist health policies target young people in schools, we take the example of physical education and youth sport to illustrate how young people’s dispositions towards health practices are part of an emerging class habitus. We draw on data from a sociological study of young people’s physical activity and health in which twenty-nine participants (aged 13–14) from four socio-economically diverse school settings took part. The data presented here are selected from 60 focus group transcripts, ethnographic fieldnotes from 6 months of school visits and visual data from participants. Our data indicate that class differences exist in both the kinds of activities practiced by pupils and ways in which they are practiced. We argue that class-based differences are, at least partially, matters of embodied inclinations and dispositions that are already evident at the age of 13/14. Consequently, we demonstrate how school-focused health promotion through physical education and youth sport may contribute to health inequalities as a result of being more or less accessible and appealing to pupils with a different classed-habitus within different educational fields. This paper questions the on-going interventionist policies that position schools as sites for health promotion without adequately accounting for the influence of class cultures.