By: Egil Trasti Rogstad, Frida Austmo Wågan, Stian Røsten, Anne Tjønndal, Sigbjørn Børreson Skirbekk and Kristian Kjølstad Sigvartsen
The questions and discussions of ‘sport’ seem to never go away, neither do the challenges involved in how sport sociologists can claim to correctly understand, explain, or criticise sporting activities. In A Critical Realist Theory of Sport, author Graham Scambler (2023), enters this potential minefield aiming ‘to advance an alternative sociological understanding of sport rooted in the philosophies and theories of critical realism and critical theory’ (p. I). As a philosophy of science, critical realism builds on both positivism and constructivism. It acknowledges that the world is real, and that knowledge production is theory-dependent and fallible (positivism), while also recognising the importance of meaning and discourse (constructivism). It is often associated with realist ontology and a mind-independent reality. The Iceberg model associated with critical realism exemplifies this, with its three levels (empirical level, actual level, and real level), of which only the empirical level is visible (experiences and observed events). The actual level (events that occur whether observed or not) and the real revel (causal mechanisms within structures that cause events at the empirical level to occur) operate as invisible.
Being an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College London, Scambler comes well-equipped with intellectual reasoning and a notable record list. Although Scambler considered himself a sociologist who writes mostly about health (and as a ‘non-specialist’ in the field of sociology of sport), his erudition seems crucial and needed. Scambler’s ambition is nothing short of conceiving the reader for the need to re-consider conventional accounts of ‘sport, everyday amateur sporting activity and its elite branch, in a rapidly changing and fractured society’ (p. 13).
Doing justice to a book of this ambition and complexity is not an easy task. Therefore, we will give a short description of the content before we delve into what we perceive to be the strengths and weakness of the book, based on our reading. Central to this book is the concept of a fractured society (i.e. new societal issues that arise from internal contradictions of a widespread capitalist system). This forms the basis to apply a critical realist framing to how macro-social changes (e.g. inequality, environmental threats, global migration) impact amateur and elite sporting activities. To this end, this book relies on four sports, i.e. athletics, cricket, football and rugby, that help contextualise the fractures of class, gender, ethnicity/race and (dis)ability in society.
In the first chapter Scambler illustrates a handful of themes to theorise on the sociology of sport using the works of numerous influentials such as Habermas, Bourdieu, Weber, Guttman and Ritzer. The second chapter commends Baskhar’s (2010) dialectical critical realism as social theory to study the sociology of sport. Chapter three introduces the concept of a fractured society in light of the themes and theories from chapter one and two, while also describing several cases that help explain the societal fracturing and its impact on sport. Chapter four and five provide more ground and illustrative cases for a critical realist theory of sport. The final and sixth chapter ties the previous chapters together to present a critical realist theory of sport as an elaboration on extant sociologies of sport. Overall, Scambler makes a critical, intellectual challenging and sometimes lengthy, yet compelling argument of the potential for a framing of the sociology of sport through a critical realist lens in future theory and research.
From our reading, Scambler puts forth an insightful introduction to critical realist theory, and how this may be a valuable contribution to further expand the understanding of sociology of sport. In particular, the book provides important insights into the need for sociology of sport to engage with critical realism – a somewhat neglected theoretical approach within sociology of sport that is yet to be fully explored. Scambler argues that some of the strengths of applying critical realism to sociology of sport lies in Bhaskar’s encouragement of interdisciplinary perspectives. This is valuable for sociological studies of sport, as athletic performances cannot fully be understood through sociology alone. As Scambler puts it ‘there are clearly mechanisms from other ‘root strata’ that come causally and significantly into play’ (p. 51). A simple example of this (from the book) is how the anticipation of competing at an Olympic Games contributes to the transformation of an athlete’s psychological and biological states alike, necessitating the study of these psychological and biological changes in order to fully understand athletic performance.
As an apparent strongpoint of the book, Scambler brings the reader on a journey through several dominant theoretical contributions within the field of sport sociology in the last decades, from the likes of Guttman, Ritzer and Bauman to name a few. This proves particularly useful by mapping the landscape of sociology of sport in a simplistic yet adept way. Furthermore, the author erases rigid lines and engages in reflections regarding important connections and nuances between the perspectives being discussed. This approach enriches the book, as Scambler’s engagement with a range of theoretical frameworks deepens the content’s complexity. Through these perspectives, the reader is equipped to delve into the intricate relationship between sociology and the culture of elite sports, thereby gaining a comprehensive understanding of the prevailing issues.
The book excels in providing detailed introductions to the topics raised, as exampled by the depiction of the historical development of the featured sports in the introduction chapter. This is particularly valuable to the novel reader that may not be familiar with the historical contexts of the featured sports. By bringing forth important developmental traits within the sporting contexts, such as the institutionalisation of the game of football, it provides the reader with a backdrop to be brought forward and understood in connection with the theories presented at later stages of the book. This way of detailed depictions reappears throughout the book, whereby Scambler particularly succeeds at consistently providing detailed and nuanced introductions that clearly contextualise the phenomena discussed and why it is particularly important to understand it within that context.
Our main critique of the book considers its lack of coherence and meta-communication throughout the chapters. The multitude of theories, concepts and empirical anecdotes presented, builds a storyline that is often hard to follow. It is especially confusing when many of the theoretical concepts are not integrated in the further discussion of the empirical examples from football, rugby, cricket, and athletics. This makes the theoretical conceptualisations at times appear as excessive and opposed to a concise presentation utilising fewer key concepts in-depth.
Closely related to this is our second critique; that we miss a more explicit engagement with critical realism throughout the chapters of the book. In our opinion, the critical realism which we thought would be the main focus of the book only gets a minor focus in most chapters (except chapter 2), whereas sociological theory and the historical development of the four sports in the UK are awarded thick descriptions. For readers like us, who only have a novel understanding of critical realism, this makes it hard to grasp how and why a ‘revised sociology of sport’ would benefit from a critical realist perspective. When we set out to read this book, we thought we were in for an introduction to the use of critical realism in sociology of sport. The book did not fulfil this expectation, and we probably would have understood more of Scambler’s arguments if we had a deeper understanding of critical realism before reading this book.
Our final critique considers the lack of engagement with current research within the field of sociology of sport. The author’s competencies within the field of sociological theory are impeccable, where he summarises important sociological theory and makes this relevant to sports in a clever way – yet we miss a deeper engagement with current research and debates in the sociology of sport. It does not seem updated on central topics and themes within sociology of sport internationally. Like the empirical examples (choice of sports), the sociology of sport research referenced in the book is quite UK-centred.
Overall, A Critical Realist Theory of Sport provides an introduction to key concepts within critical realism. However, we recommend that readers familiarise themselves with critical realism before diving into Scambler’s book. This preliminary understanding is likely to enhance the insights gained from the text.
Reference:
Rogstad, E. T., Wågan, F. A., Røsten, S., Tjønndal, A., Skirbekk, S. B., Fouquaert, T., & Sigvartsen, K. K. (2024). A Critical Realist Theory of Sport by Graham Scambler: Routledge, 2023, 35.99£, ISBN: 9780367743185. European Journal for Sport and Society, 1–3. https://doi-org.ezproxy.nord.no/10.1080/16138171.2024.2358579
