Paul Widdop

Omnivorousness in sport: The importance of social capital and networks

There has been for some time a significant and growing body of research around the relationship between sport and social capital. Similarly, within sociology there has been a corpus of work that has acknowledged the emergence of the omnivore–univore relationship. Surprisingly, relatively few studies examining sport and social capital have taken the omnivore–univore framework as a basis for understanding the relationship between sport and social capital. This gap in the sociology of sport literature and knowledge is rectified by this study that takes not Putnam, Coleman or Bourdieu, but Lin’s social network approach to social capital. The implications of this article are that researchers investigating sport and social capital need to understand more about how social networks and places for sport work to create social capital and, in particular, influence participating in sporting activities. The results indicate that social networks both facilitate and constrain sports participation; whilst family and friendship networks are central in active lifestyles, those who are less active have limited networks.

Reimagining omnivorousness in the context of place

Place is a key driver in the formation and maintenance of cultural lifestyles. Yet, place remains largely ignored in scholarly studies of cultural omnivorousness. After establishing whether there are different modes of omnivorousness as well as distinguishing between other cultural lifestyles, this article then takes a first step in readdressing this anomaly by examining whether clustering exists at the regional level in England. Using a methodologically innovative approach to simultaneously capture latent class typologies and between-group heterogeneity at the area scale, our findings illustrate how place is vital to consumption habits, particularly to voracious omnivores. We argue that the underlying mechanism behind these cultural patterns at the area level is contextual in nature, and in the case of voracious omnivores, primarily due to the supply of cultural items and the importance of likeminded individuals in active networks.

Austerity, policy and sport participation in England

ABSTRACT This study seeks to understand participation levels in sport across socio-demographic groups, specifically for the period 2008–14, in the context of austerity measures taken by central government resulting in local authority income and expenditure reductions. Participation levels over time were analysed using data from the Active People Survey (APS), which was the preferred method for measuring participation by Sport England until its replacement in 2015. Budgetary constraints in local authorities have subsequently resulted in an expenditure decrease for non-discretionary services including ‘sport development and community recreation’. This area of expenditure forms one component of sport-related services and primarily focuses on raising participation in ‘hard-to-reach’ groups. The study found that policy goals associated with raising and widening participation were not met to any significant degree between 2008 and 2014 as participation levels have changed little for lower income ‘hard-to-reach’ groups. It is claimed that this outcome is in part due to austerity measures impacting on local authority expenditure. This study has implications for policymakers and practitioners as it illustrates both the challenges faced in setting and delivering policy aimed at raising participation levels in ‘hard-to-reach’ groups, particularly in the context of austerity, and the difficulties associated with measuring participation.

Sport policy and English primary physical education: the role of professional football clubs in outsourcing

Abstract Sports policy in England has led to considerable recent investment in Primary Physical Education (PE) via the ‘PE and Sport Premium’. An outcome of this has been growth in the outsourcing – handing over control of services to external agencies – of PE, including sport coaches from professional football clubs’ community programmes. Despite the growing research on healthy stadia, we know very little about the work performed by community arms of professional clubs in relation to delivering Primary PE. This article discusses the challenges of outsourcing PE to coaches who work for professional football clubs, while offering some evidence related to the employment and development of sports coaches. Given that the evidence of sport coaches’ involvement in Primary PE is limited and that funding and outsourcing it likely to continue England until (at least) 2020, it is important and timely to discuss critically the role of professional football clubs within the current sport policy.

Musical preferences and technologies: Contemporary material and symbolic distinctions criticized

Music as a mechanism for social distinction is well established. Yet, perhaps more than any other form of cultural expression, it is music which has been systematically transformed by emerging technologies. From the gramophone, radio, cassette and CD, through to portable devices and shared through social media, music is in constant flux. To separate taste for music from its various acquisitional forms is to undermine its role in society. In this article, our aim is to integrate within taste and cultural consumption analysis a salient dimension, such as technologies to acquire music, conceptualized as modes of musical exchange and formats used to listen to music. We argue that these are components of musical consumption practices which enhance our understanding on how symbolic boundaries are shaped today. Using multiple factor analysis, this study provides a simultaneous analysis of musical tastes and technological engagement in Chile. We find that uses of technologies share a unique relationship to musical taste. Musical taste remains a relevant process of distinction, but modes of exchange prove to be an emerging property. They, however, do not create new symbolic boundaries; rather, they are important in reinforcing those that exist.

Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Clustering: Segmentation to Optimize Active Lifestyles

BACKGROUND Increasingly the health impacts of physical inactivity are being distinguished from those of sedentary behavior. Nevertheless, deleterious health prognoses occur when these behaviors combine, making it a Public Health priority to establish the numbers and salient identifying factors of people who live with this injurious combination. METHODS Using an observational between-subjects design, a nonprobability sample of 22,836 participants provided data on total daily activity. A 2-step hierarchical cluster analysis identified the optimal number of clusters and the subset of distinguishing variables. Univariate analyses assessed significant cluster differences. RESULTS High levels of sitting clustered with low physical activity. The Ambulatory & Active cluster (n = 6254) sat for 2.5 to 5 h·d(-1) and were highly active. They were significantly younger, included a greater proportion of males and reported low Indices of Multiple Deprivation compared with other clusters. Conversely, the Sedentary & Low Active cluster (n = 6286) achieved ≤60 MET·min·wk(-1) of physical activity and sat for ≥8 h·d(-1). They were the oldest cluster, housed the largest proportion of females and reported moderate Indices of Multiple Deprivation. CONCLUSIONS Public Health systems may benefit from developing policy and interventions that do more to limit sedentary behavior and encourage light intensity activity in its place.

A ‘Different Class’? Homophily and Heterophily in the Social Class Networks of Britpop

Social network analysis is increasingly recognised as a useful way to explore music scenes. In this article we examine the individuals who were the cultural workforce that comprised the ‘Britpop’ music scene of the 1990s. The focus of our analysis is homophily and heterophily to determine whether the clusters of friendships and working relationships of those who were ‘best connected’ in the scene were patterned by original social class position. We find that Britpop’s ‘whole network’ is heterophilic but that its ‘sub-networks’ are more likely to be social class homophilic. The sub-networks that remain heterophilic are likely to be united by other common experiences that brought individuals in the network to the same social spaces. We suggest that our findings on Britpop might be generalised to the composition of other music scenes, cultural workforces and aggregations of young people. Our study differs from research on, first, British ‘indie music’ and social class which focuses upon the construction, representation and performance of social location rather than the relationships it might shape and second, the pioneering social network analyses of music scenes which currently lack explicit emphasis on social class.

Physical activity assessment for public health: efficacious use of the single-item measure

OBJECTIVES The accurate mass assessment of physical activity is essential for effective Public Health policy and practice. Combined with a desire to minimize participant burden, the self-reported single-item physical activity screening measure has become increasingly attractive and widespread. To help reduce any potential misclassification, refining this instrumentation in line with any changes in prescribed activity levels is essential to optimize accuracy. STUDY DESIGN This study compares the levels of agreement, sensitivity and specificity for the single-item measure versus International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) using current physical activity recommendations. METHODS Agreement was assessed in a non-probability sample of 7650 adults. The κ statistic, sensitivity and specificity were used to assess agreement between the tools for classifying participants as sufficiently active for health (≥150 min of physical activity per week) or not, and being classified as inactive (<30 of minutes of physical activity per week) or not. RESULTS The single-item measure showed weak agreement with the IPAQ for identifying participants who met the current physical activity guidelines (κ = 0.13, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.14), sensitivity was 18.7% and specificity was 97.2%. For the classification of inactive participants it showed a moderate agreement with IPAQ (κ = 0.45, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.47), sensitivity was 74.2% and specificity was 79.7%. CONCLUSIONS The single-item measure had a low diagnostic capacity compared to IPAQ. Further research is needed if it is to be used in large scale surveys and interventions where screening for sufficiently active or inactive individuals is the goal.

The Global Omnivore: Identifying Musical Taste Groups in Austria, England, Israel and Serbia

This research offers a unique opportunity to revisit the omnivore hypothesis under a unified method of cross-national analysis. To accomplish this, we interpret omnivourism as a special case of cultural eclecticism (Ollivier, 2008; Ollivier, Gauthier and Truong, 2009). Our methodological approach incorporates the simultaneous analysis of locally produced and globally known musical genres. Its objective is to verify whether cultural omnivourism is a widespread phenomenon, and to determine to what extent any conclusions can be generalised across countries with different social structures and different levels of cultural openness. To truly understand the scope of the omnivourism hypothesis, we argue that it is essential to perform a cross-national comparison to test the hypothesis within a range of social, political and cultural contexts, and a reflection of different historical and cultural repertoires (Lamont, 1992).

Sport policy and politics in an era of austerity

This book assesses the impact of austerity measures introduced by UK and EU governments for public and third sector organisations providing sport-related services and for service users.