Assessing the sociology of sport

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, Agnes Elling, one of the most productive and influential scholars on understanding gender inequalities in sport, considers the need to reintegrate quantitative methods in inquiry about gender and sport. In assessing a quantitative content analysis of IRSS articles concerning women’s sport and gender issues, Elling reflects on how gender research in sport became both mainstream and increasingly qualitative, critical and contextual. A key challenge for research on gender and sport will be to embrace more diversity in theoretical frameworks and methodologies and to integrate better quantitative and mixed methods studies on gendered sport participation and governance. In the future, Elling argues that for the sociology of sport to continue to develop as an important field in helping to remedy gender inequalities it will need to overcome some of its normative (constructivist, qualitative) and repetitive tendencies; reintegrating inquiry with quantitative methods and linking action research to policy change will advance these goals.