Researching Disability Sport: Theory, Method, Practice

Marking a new direction for disability sport scholarship, this book explores cutting-edge issues and engages creatively with contemporary approaches to research in this important emerging discipline.

Featuring contributions from leading and up-and-coming scholars around the world, the book’s wide-ranging chapters offer novel perspectives on the relationship between theory, method, and empiricism in disability sport research and highlight how researchers can be both innovative and informed when entering the field. It also explores methodological considerations when conducting disability sport research, including social, cultural, and political reflections of the research process from disabled and non-disabled academics. This much-needed resource supports disability sport scholars in developing a conceptual grounding in the subject and establishes a space for intersectional accounts of sport and physical activity which challenge homogenous understandings of disability.

This book is essential reading for any student or researcher working in disability sport, adapted physical activity, or adapted physical education, and a valuable reference for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, disability studies, cultural studies, the body, or research methodology.

Ben Powis is a Course Leader in the Faculty of Sport, Health and Social Sciences at Solent University, UK. His current research interests lie in the sociology of disability sport, the embodied experiences of visually impaired people in sport and physical activity, and investigating the significance of sensuous sporting experiences.

James Brighton is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport and Exercise at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. His theoretical and empirical research interests lie in disability studies, the sociology of the body and the social and cultural analyses of sport and fitness. Methodologically, he is interested in interpretive forms of qualitative inquiry including ethnography, life history, and narrative analyses.

P. David Howe is a social anthropologist and holds the Dr. Frank J. Hayden Endowed Chair in Sport and Social Impact in the School of Kinesiology at Western University, Canada. His ethnographic research focuses on unpacking the embodied sociocultural milieu surrounding inclusive physical activity and disability sport. He is also editor of the Routledge book series Disability, Sport and Physical Activity Cultures.