Slowing the social sciences of sport: on the possibilities of physical culture.

Abstract

Within this paper, we address how the ‘knowledge market’ positions certain ways of knowing over others. We suggest that this questions the very worth and perceived value of the social sciences of sport, let alone allowing for discussion of the contemporary relevance, quality, position and potential impact of the field. To counter what we perceive as a regressive orthodoxy, we explore the dangers that can arise from narrowly conceived (yet often hegemonic) globally accepted structures, discourses and epistemes and suggest a slow counter: an approach couched in slow pedagogy and that can offer often competing approaches within the context of neoliberal educational rationalities. Through discussing how we have negotiated these conditions within our own institution, we propose what we imagine is a provocative vision of the potentialities of the field. In so doing, and while we are not suggesting this is the way ‘sport studies’ should or ought to be, we suggest that a slow sports studies can open up the critical potential of the field, promote democratic (body) knowledge and ensure the University as a space for vibrancy, innovation, critique, debate and equality.