- Headingley Campus
Leeds
LS6 3U
UK - 0113 8123515
- Leeds Beckett University, Carnegie, Faculty Memberadd
- Sociology, Cultural Studies, Globalization, Race and Ethnicity, Immigration, South Asian Studies, and 19 moreSociology of Sport, Research Methods and Methodology, Racism, Ethnicity, Whiteness Studies, Qualitative Methodology (Sociology), Identity theory, Migration, Multiculturalism, Acculturation, Diasporas, Children in State Care, Youth Justice, Gender and Violence, Leisure, Sports Fans, White Privilege, Sport, Physical Education, Exercise Science, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Celebrity Culture, Cricket, and Iconsedit
- Thomas Fletcher is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. He is co-Chair of the University's Race equality an... moreThomas Fletcher is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. He is co-Chair of the University's Race equality and Diversity Forum. He is also Chair of the Leisure Studies Association.
<a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4618-5480" target="orcid.widget" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="vertical-align:top;"><img src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" style="width:1em;margin-right:.5em;" alt="ORCID iD icon">orcid.org/0000-0002-4618-5480</a>edit
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This chapter focuses on league cricket in Yorkshire and the varying interplays of local and social identity therein. The purpose of this chapter is to establish the extent to which existing stereotypes of Yorkshire persons are ‘real’ or... more
This chapter focuses on league cricket in Yorkshire and the varying interplays of local and social identity therein. The purpose of this chapter is to establish the extent to which existing stereotypes of Yorkshire persons are ‘real’ or ‘imagined’; discover if the stereotypes presented have any contemporary relevance; whilst locating the role of Yorkshire’s cricket leagues and Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s (YCCC) legendary birthright policy in the historical exclusion of Yorkshire’s South Asian communities.
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Sports are popularly believed to have positive integrative functions and are thought, therefore, to be able to galvanise different, and sometimes divided communities through a shared sporting interest. UK government and policy rhetoric... more
Sports are popularly believed to have positive integrative functions and are thought, therefore, to be able to galvanise different, and sometimes divided communities through a shared sporting interest. UK government and policy rhetoric over the last two decades has consistently emphasised the positive role sport can play in building more cohesive, empowered and active communities. These positive impacts are particularly important for communities with high numbers of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the challenges associated with co-producing a participatory community sport initiative with 28 young people, the aim of which was to work towards greater social cohesion in an ethnically segregated borough in north-west England. Although a great deal was learned from working towards this, the initiative was ultimately unsuccessful because, for a variety of reasons, the young people removed themselves from the process. A major contri...
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This article explores the relationship between British Asians’ sense of nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity and some of their manifestations in relation to sports fandom: specifically in terms of how cricket is used as a means of... more
This article explores the relationship between British Asians’ sense of nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity and some of their manifestations in relation to sports fandom: specifically in terms of how cricket is used as a means of articulating diasporic British Asian identities. Norman Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’ is at the forefront of this article to tease out the complexities of being British Asian in terms of supporting the English national cricket team. The first part of the article locates Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’ within the wider discourse of multiculturalism. The analysis then moves to focus on the discourse of sports fandom and the concept of ‘home team advantage’ arguing that sports venues represent significant sites for nationalist and cultural expression due to their connection with national history. The article highlights how supporting ‘Anyone but England’, thereby rejecting ethnically exclusive notions of ‘Englishness’ and ‘Britishness’, continues to be a definer of British A...
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Attending and consuming events are integral to many peoples’ leisure lives. However, as the literature attests, events represent significant sites of contestation over who does and does not belong. This paper explores such contestation in... more
Attending and consuming events are integral to many peoples’ leisure lives. However, as the literature attests, events represent significant sites of contestation over who does and does not belong. This paper explores such contestation in the notoriously elitist and traditionally exclusionary sport of cricket, and specifically The Hundred; the most recent attempt to democratise the sport by appealing to a more demographically diverse spectator base. It uniquely blends extensive semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (n = 33), and a synthesised theoretical framework of mediatisation, media events and digital leisure studies, to argue that the apparent success of The Hundred in attracting and including new audiences has been enabled by incorporating elements of media spectacle. We therefore, use The Hundred to further delineate the processes described in the extant literature, and extend analysis of the ‘digital turn’, by drawing attention to the tensions between the speed and trajectory of these developments and the constraints imposed by cricket’s history. We illustrate how digital and analogue leisure remain highly interdependent, and argue that the ongoing contestation of game forms championed by different cricket stakeholders makes it improbable that The Hundred can achieve its twin goals of being economically viable, while increasing the popularity and, ultimately survival, of other cricket formats.
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This report is submitted to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on behalf of the Leisure Studies Association (LSA). The LSA aims to foster research in Leisure Studies; to promote interest in Leisure Studies and advance education in this... more
This report is submitted to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on behalf of the Leisure Studies Association (LSA). The LSA aims to foster research in Leisure Studies; to promote interest in Leisure Studies and advance education in this field; to encourage debate through publications, and an international journal Leisure Studies; to stimulate the exchange of ideas on contemporary leisure issues; to disseminate knowledge of Leisure Studies to create the conditions for better-informed decisions by policy makers. The LSA is a member society of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Research Interests: Sociology, Sociology of Sport, Tourism Studies, Event Management, Recreation & Leisure Studies, and 15 morePublic Relations, Pedagogy, Leisure Studies, Leisure, Leisure (Social Sciences), Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, History of leisure, Tourism, Sociology of Leisure, Sport Studies, Physical Education and Sport, Leisure time, Dissemination, and Sociology of Sport and Leisure
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The Leisure Studies Association completed in 2015 40 years since its creation and its history intertwines with the history of leisure research and its development. The focus of this article is on the past, present and future of the... more
The Leisure Studies Association completed in 2015 40 years since its creation and its history intertwines with the history of leisure research and its development. The focus of this article is on the past, present and future of the association. The article starts analysing the 40 years of the organisation and its contributions to the field explaining the developments and its current structure and objectives. In 40 years the Leisure Studies Association offered an immense contribution to the field with its journal Leisure Studies, the publication of over 120 books and the organisation of its annual conference and multiple workshops and seminars. The final part of this paper looks to the future of the association and the leisure studies as well as to the obstacles to be overcome considering the current situation and characteristics of higher education.
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Research Interests: Sociology of Sport, Philosophy, Political Science, Race and Ethnicity, Nationalism, and 15 morePerformativity, National Identity, Judith Butler, Ethnicity, Multidisciplinary, Britishness, Englishness, British Identity, English national identity, Sport and Nationalism, Media analysis, Ethnicity and National Identity, English Identity, Performativity Judith Butler, and Greg Rusedski
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People in sport tend to possess rather jaded perceptions of its colour-blindness and thus, they are reluctant to confront the fact that, quite often racism is endemic. Yorkshire cricket in particular, has faced frequent accusations from... more
People in sport tend to possess rather jaded perceptions of its colour-blindness and thus, they are reluctant to confront the fact that, quite often racism is endemic. Yorkshire cricket in particular, has faced frequent accusations from minority ethnic communities of inveterate and institutionalised racism and territorial defensiveness. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews conducted with amateur white and British Asian cricketers, this paper examines the construction of regional identities in Yorkshire at a time when traditional myths and invented traditions of Yorkshire and ‘Yorkshireness’ are being deconstructed. This is conceptualised through a reading of John Clarke's ‘magical recovery of community’. Although cricket has been multiracial for decades, I argue that some people's position as insiders is more straightforward than others. I present evidence to suggest that, regardless of being committed to Yorkshire and their ‘Yorkshireness’, white Yorkshire people may nev...
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Due to historical relationships with the military, royalty, landed gentry and upper-class society, equestrian sport faces regular accusations of being elitist and exclusionary. Through qualitative textual analysis of British press... more
Due to historical relationships with the military, royalty, landed gentry and upper-class society, equestrian sport faces regular accusations of being elitist and exclusionary. Through qualitative textual analysis of British press reporting of dressage events at the London 2012 Olympic Games we argue that despite British dominance of the sport, these historical associations with the upper classes, privilege and elitism were foregrounded in many media reports; trivialising and at times mocking dressage. We identify three key themes related to the ways in which media reports framed dressage and its participants in heavily class-laden terms. Faced with their ignorance of the sport, the majority of articles analysed resorted to class-based stereotypes that trivialised, satirised and devalued this seemingly elitist and incomprehensible sport. The success of Team GB in dressage meant that media reports were never wholly critical and elements of the hysteria and pride surrounding the Games...
Research Interests: Sociology, Sociology of Sport, Sex and Gender, Class, Sport Media, and 6 moreMedia, Social Class, Ambivalence, Race, Elitism, and Gentry
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Like the other home nation sports councils, Sport Wales has a responsibility to increase participation, improve sporting performance and raise standards in sport and physical recreation. For some time the sports councils in the UK have... more
Like the other home nation sports councils, Sport Wales has a responsibility to increase participation, improve sporting performance and raise standards in sport and physical recreation. For some time the sports councils in the UK have been concerned that people from Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups may not be getting as much from sport as they might (e.g. the Sports Equity Index (Sport England, 2001)). The concern with increasing participation is multidimensional: it might serve to recruit new talent; allows sectors of society to enjoy what are thought to be the benefits of sport; and in so doing help to unite the nation. However, as recognised by the Equality Impact Assessment that was conducted by Sport Wales, there has been a shortage of research around sport participation by Black and minority ethnic communities. Thus, the current research is closely aligned with the aim of increasing participation and understanding non-participation. The research also addresses the ident...
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Traditionally, the terms extended family and extended kin have been used to refer to family members outside of the strictly-defined ‘nuclear family’ or more usefully, two generations of parents and children. The extent to which extended... more
Traditionally, the terms extended family and extended kin have been used to refer to family members outside of the strictly-defined ‘nuclear family’ or more usefully, two generations of parents and children. The extent to which extended family members are embedded into nuclear family practices varies tremendously in and between cultures. Some cultural groups, such as South Asians, are known to place more value on extended family members, most notably grandparents (Ballard, 1994; Becher, 2009). Ballard (1994) notes how such families were close in terms of both physical and emotional proximity. As a result, many of these families were living in what Smalley (2002) described as ‘nuclear family households, extended family lives’ (cited in Becher, 2009: 150). However, in our contemporary globalised and highly mobile society, how useful is it to think of extended families in terms of proximity? Families are increasingly fragmented and geographically separated, meaning that family members ...
This article investigates German football fans' attitudes towards homosexuality. Drawing on an anonymous online survey with 212 Germans football fans, this article is the first to empirically investigate attitudes towards homosexuality in... more
This article investigates German football fans' attitudes towards homosexuality. Drawing on an anonymous online survey with 212 Germans football fans, this article is the first to empirically investigate attitudes towards homosexuality in German football. Contrary to ongoing claims that German football remains hostile to sexual minorities, 95% of respondents were supportive of same-sex social and legal rights, while 81% espoused support for an 'out' gay male professional player. Despite this, however, 90% also believed that homophobia was still a major problem in German football, as evidenced by its hypermasculine environment, lack of out players and the prominence of homosexually themed language at events. While the presence of this language has previously been argued as evidence of pure, undiluted homophobia this research highlights the complexity of this language, and supports calls to recognise intent, context, and effect in the utility of homosexually themed language. This research develops existing work on equality, diversity and inclusion in the context of leisure and fandom. It provides further evidence that narratives regarding sport's intolerance of homosexuality are outdated. Findings are more progressive than other research on German sport and confirm that German football has become more acceptant of the idea of inclusive masculinities.
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"The 'blazer boys' were getting all the chances": South Asian men's experiences of cricket coaching in England. Sport in Society. Abstract In the United Kingdom, recent research documents an over-representation of White participants,... more
"The 'blazer boys' were getting all the chances": South Asian men's experiences of cricket coaching in England. Sport in Society. Abstract In the United Kingdom, recent research documents an over-representation of White participants, coaches, and decision makers within sporting contexts. In contrast Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups are under-represented at all levels of sport: from players, coaches, and managers in sport governance. Recent research into the experiences of BAME men and women in sports coaching also shows that inclusive sporting environments, including a diverse workforce, are highly motivating for entry into, and progression through, the coaching pathway. However, significant and powerful barriers exist that prevent the progression of BAME individuals into higher level coaching qualifications and job roles. These barriers lead to the privileging of White men and are therefore described as both raced and gendered. This paper is based on a research project commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2014 to explore South Asian male players' and coaches' experiences of coaching and progression through coaching pathways. We draw on data collected from 33 semi-structured interviews carried out with a sample of male South Asian players and coaches, from two different geographical areas-London and Yorkshire-and from a sample of clubs with different levels of ethnic diversity. Our analysis showed that South Asian players participate in an environment and culture where they are unlikely to engage in coaching and, even when they do, will not feel supported in progressing to higher roles of influence and power.
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Since the global economic recession, public services in the UK have badly affected by austerity measures. However, whilst public services, including health, defence and the police faced significant cuts to their budgets, Primary Physical... more
Since the global economic recession, public services in the UK have badly affected by austerity measures. However, whilst public services, including health, defence and the police faced significant cuts to their budgets, Primary Physical Education in England has actually received additional ring-fenced funding through the Physical Education and Sport Premium since 2013. This funding is provided directly to schools, and though the Department for Education provides guidance on how the Premium might be spent, schools effectively have autonomy to spend it in ways that they believe will best meet the needs of their learners and wider stakeholders. Utilising a mixed method approach involving analysing published material on school websites and semi-structured interviews with primary school and local authority staff, the aim of this article is to critically analyse how primary schools across a borough in the North West of England are spending the Premium. Our analysis is underpinned by principles of social justice, which we interpret as a marker for concerns to do with fairness, equality, exclusion, discrimination, power differentials and privilege. We argue that, in large part due to the autonomy of implementation, the Physical Education and Sport Premium has failed to realise its inherent social justice agenda, in large part because investment in PE and school sport is unequal and too heavily dependent on the value placed upon it by individual schools. It is our contention therefore, that equal opportunities will remain unobtainable if the central tenets of the reproduction of privilege are allowed to remain uncontested.
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Events Management is a relatively new subject within universities, and is positioned as a vocational field with links to industry and practice. This paper considers the role of the academic within Events Management higher education, and... more
Events Management is a relatively new subject within universities, and is positioned as a vocational field with links to industry and practice. This paper considers the role of the academic within Events Management higher education, and how individuals within this field position themselves and make claims to legitimacy. Drawing on interviews with 16 Events Management academics in the UK, we identify three narrative strategies adopted by individuals in this field as they position themselves in relation to academic and professional identities. The three narrative strategies identified-the anti-academic, the traditional academic and the blended professional-illustrate the precarious and often unstable identities of those within vocational subjects. Individuals within Events Management experience difficulty in terms of both their professional and academic identities, and may rely on a mixture of both traditional (e.g. research and teaching) and industry metrics in their claims to status and legitimacy.
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Lebanese food, as a cultural tradition, and in the context of Lebanese migration, mobility and diasporic identity, is the focus of this article. We use ethnographic methods in the form of participant observation, focus groups and... more
Lebanese food, as a cultural tradition, and in the context of Lebanese migration,
mobility and diasporic identity, is the focus of this article. We use ethnographic
methods in the form of participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured
interviews with restaurant owners, workers and members of the Lebanese diaspora
to critically examine the connections between diasporic identity and Lebanese food in
London. The analysis revealed that Lebanese migrants living in London are highly
affected and influenced by their homeland and its traditions. Analysis also revealed
how the Lebanese hospitality industry has grown and adapted, becoming embedded,
hybridized and contested by members of the Lebanese diaspora. We argue that this
contestation revolves around a mobile sense of place and belonging.
mobility and diasporic identity, is the focus of this article. We use ethnographic
methods in the form of participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured
interviews with restaurant owners, workers and members of the Lebanese diaspora
to critically examine the connections between diasporic identity and Lebanese food in
London. The analysis revealed that Lebanese migrants living in London are highly
affected and influenced by their homeland and its traditions. Analysis also revealed
how the Lebanese hospitality industry has grown and adapted, becoming embedded,
hybridized and contested by members of the Lebanese diaspora. We argue that this
contestation revolves around a mobile sense of place and belonging.
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This paper examines the effectiveness of 'Premier League Kicks' – a football community outreach initiative-to produce and leverage social capital among young Black and minoritised ethnic males in England. The paper draws upon... more
This paper examines the effectiveness of 'Premier League Kicks' – a football community outreach initiative-to produce and leverage social capital among young Black and minoritised ethnic males in England. The paper draws upon semi-structured interviews with Kicks participants and community coaches to analyse the social capital created through participation in the programme, in addition to constraints faced by participants in utilising and leveraging their accumulated social capital to obtain a professional football career. Drawing upon Putnam's conceptualisation of bonding and bridging social capital and the associated concepts of linking and sporting capital, the analysis concludes that Premier League Kicks was effective for building bonding social capital, which can lead to greater individual empowerment and self-belief. However, opportunities for leveraging such capital for personal reward was limited to horizontal networks/mobility and subsequently, converting this capital into other forms, such as bridging, linking and sporting capital was highly regulated and exclusionary.
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Events and sports events are perceived as having the potential to contribute to a number of benefits for the host country and its communities. However, mega sports events in particular are also known for their darker side. These... more
Events and sports events are perceived as having the potential to contribute to a number of benefits for the host country and its communities. However, mega sports events in particular are also known for their darker side. These consequences flow from the scale and complexity of the event, and the logistics of delivering what is effectively a national mega-project. The socio-political and economic environment of the host is an important consideration for both prospective hosts and event owners when allocating hosting rights. It is therefore, unsurprising that concerns have been raised over the relatively recent relocation of events to developing countries which, by their nature, frequently lack the economic, political and social stability of the traditional industrialized host. Developing nations are less affluent and arguably less prepared to deliver large scale sports events than developed nations. Within developing contexts the cost of hosting and risk of failure is likely to be far higher than for events held in the developed world. Therefore, this paper asks, 'are governing bodies, when equipped with this knowledge, ethically obliged to withhold hosting rights from developing countries?' The paper argues that denying sovereign States the right to make their own decisions would appear to compound the disadvantaged status of countries that mega-event hosting is perceived to address. It would also reinforce the positioning of countries as subordinate and subject to a form of neo-colonial control. Indeed, despite laudable claims, the primary interest of the event owners is the delivery of an event, meaning that considerations of individual national contexts are largely irrelevant to any award. The paper contends that event hosts – particularly those in the developing world-are potentially vulnerable to exploitation by the event owner.
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This report is submitted to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on behalf of the Leisure Studies Association (LSA). The LSA aims to foster research in Leisure Studies; to promote interest in Leisure Studies and advance education in this... more
This report is submitted to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on behalf of the Leisure Studies Association (LSA). The LSA aims to foster research in Leisure Studies; to promote interest in Leisure Studies and advance education in this field; to encourage debate through publications, and an international journal Leisure Studies; to stimulate the exchange of ideas on contemporary leisure issues; to disseminate knowledge of Leisure Studies to create the conditions for better-informed decisions by policy makers. The LSA is a member society of the Academy of Social Sciences.